Pillar 1: Proclaiming the authority of God's Word without apology - 2 Timothy 3:14-17
Isaiah 55:10-11 - "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
- SALVATION: God's Word leads to HIM (2 Timothy 3:15)
- John 5:24 - Truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
- John 5:39 - You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me...
- Romans 10:17 - So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
- TEACHING: God's Word lays a foundation of TRUTH (2 Timothy 3:16a)
- REPROOF: God's Word exposes our ERRORS (2 Timothy 3:16b)
- CORRECTION: God's Word changes our COURSE (2 Timothy 3:16c)
- TRAINING IN RIGHTEOUSNESS: God's Word prepares us for WORK (2 Timothy 3:16d-17)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
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We are only a week too, but I thought it'd be good if I confess something to you.
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I've opened myself up a little bit. We do believe in a culture of transparency.
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I love commercials, but not like all commercials. Let me clarify this because I only love certain types of commercials.
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like insurance commercials, I really don't care for any of that.
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But the commercials that I like are for those things that I didn't know that I needed.
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You know those commercials?
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Things that I didn't know that I needed.
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And here's what I like about those commercials, and some of you are totally going to get this.
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Like, "Oh, I know exactly what he's talking about. The black and white scenes in those commercials." You know what I'm talking about?
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Where you hear the guy going, "Oh, no!" And here's, like, for example, one of my favorites.
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You all know what this is, right?
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The Snuggie!
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Oh, come on, some of you are like, what is it?
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I've never, the Snuggie!
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Come on, you've seen the Snuggie, right?
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What I love about that is you have a commercial where the person is trying to have a blanket on and read the newspaper.
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Oh, no!
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Whoa!
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You know, call NASA, we have a problem.
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And, well, the Snuggie is basically, well, it's called the blanket that has sleeves, but it's basically a backwards robe.
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But I like this one because it comes with the book light that they have on the commercial that you see the person actually sitting and reading with their Snuggie on, with their book light in a completely lit room.
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And that always just cracked me up.
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This was something, when I saw that, I didn't even know that I needed this.
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And now, I don't think I can live without one.
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But I'm gonna live without this one here.
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Here, you can have that.
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Now, if you were gifted, don't tell me.
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So, we have the Snuggie, well, it didn't stop there.
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Because we also have the Snuggie for dogs.
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Not only did I not know that I needed one, I didn't know that my dog needed one.
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This is a Snuggie for dogs.
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Did you know they made these things?
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Okay, some of you did.
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All right.
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Anybody here have a medium-sized dog?
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All right, here.
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This would never fit my dog.
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You're welcome.
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I know that was not gonna be regifted.
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Okay, so another thing.
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I just have one more.
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These things, I, um, what's the mall on 28th, the big deal where they put it?
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They have the As Seen on TV store.
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Pittsburgh Mills.
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Pittsburgh Mills, thank you, thank you.
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They have a whole store dedicated to As Seen on TV.
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And when my wife and I first went there, I just walked in and I was just like, oh, it's hard to believe heaven's gonna be better than this.
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I know it is.
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Wow, they had everything there.
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Well, here's another thing.
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How about the pocket chair?
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Did you see the pocket chair?
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This is the amazing chair that fits in your pocket.
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Hence the name, I suppose.
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But it's the pocket chair, it's ultra strong.
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Holds up to 250 pounds.
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So I didn't take it out and try it.
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That's why you're playing.
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Who wants a pocket chair?
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All right, let me know how this works, okay?
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Now those things only have little commercials, but you have the big infomercials that are like a half hour long because they need more time to explain those things.
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The Snuggie, you don't really need a half hour infomercial for the Snuggie, though I would watch it.
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But, I love the intromertials. This is more of a guilty pleasure. I don't watch them anymore. I don't even know what the new ones are.
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But going back quite a few years, there were things like the Magic Bullet. Have you ever seen the Magic Bullet?
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And, oh, they can just do anything with the Magic Bullet. And Laura told me it's no good, right? Magic Bullet thumbs down.
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You can't make hummus with the Magic Bullet. So, alright, it's junk.
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And I like the ones you see the one with the knives or you have the little Italian chef and he was just cutting everything he's cutting the tomatoes and I was cutting cans and quarters and and I Love those things. I just love those commercials Okay, you have joy pleasures too, but that was always one of mine But some of the claims that they make on some of these were pretty outrageous outrageous.
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That's why you see on several news programs, they would have a segment called, you know, know what it is?
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"Does it really work?" You ever see those news segments?
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And those to me were even more interesting than the infomercials because you just have like Joe or Jane Average, like, "I bought one of these, I'm taking it out of the box, and I'm going to see if it actually works." "Does it really work?" Or, you know, this magic bullet thing claims it's going to do all this, and the Pocoyo Pocket Fisherman, and what about the Shake Weights?
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You know, that guy shaking the Shake Weight looks like Hercules.
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I'm like, "Wow, you might actually grab this thing and I'll look like that guy?" Well, like, Jim Hansen, a lot of oil and stuff, I guess.
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But does it really work?
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And I was actually looking some of these things up online, and sadly what they found out in a lot of these things is what Laura had told me.
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Huge claims are made about these products. A lot of them do not work.
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And that's why I was not surprised when I went to the Dollar Tree yesterday and saw a lot of these things actually on the shelf at the Dollar Tree.
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and they cost a dollar as seen on TV.
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And I'm thinking, I'm totally going to get ripped off if I buy something for a dollar here.
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So all I have to say is, look on your outline if you have it in the back of your bulletin.
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These things make tremendous claims that many of them don't follow through.
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I want you to listen to a claim that God makes.
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Okay? Listen to this claim.
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Isaiah 55, verses 10 and 11.
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"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.
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It shall not return to me empty, listen to this, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
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Do you see what this claim is that God is making?
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God is saying that when my word goes forth, It always accomplishes the purpose for which I'm sending it.
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That's a claim.
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The Bible works for some people, but not for others.
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That's not what God said.
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Well, you know, I went to church today and I heard the Bible, but I'm not sure it did me any good.
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That's not what God said.
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He says when His Word goes out...
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What's he batting at?
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What's his batting at?
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Before the playoffs, right?
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He's batting a thousand.
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God says, "My word always accomplishes the purpose for which I send it out." Every time it's not in question.
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God's word goes out?
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Like, "God, you work it?" The answer is yes.
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Stupid me sometimes, I pray.
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"God, I just pray that your word would be worked powerfully." And I don't think it's like an evil prayer, but God's already told me that it is.
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God's like, "My work, when it goes forth, is going to accomplish the thing that I purpose." So we're going to look today at our first pillar of our Bible chapter.
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Our first pillar, as our pastor Jamie said in the video, is proclaiming the authority of God's work without apology.
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Why is that? Number one, well, God's word accomplishes God's purposes. I want to hear you say that.
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God's Word accomplishes God's purposes.
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Let me hear you.
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God's Word accomplishes God's purposes.
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Okay, we're going to take another run at that.
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And I want you to say it like God would say it.
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God's Word accomplishes God's purposes.
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Alright, some of you are too busy.
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Well, let's go.
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We preach from the Bible because God says that's what He uses.
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That's why when you come here on a Sunday, or you go to any of these 77 Harvest Bible Chapels, somebody's going to stand up and say, "This is what the Bible says. Why do we do that?" Because God says, "This is what I'm using." You're like, "Don't all churches kind of do that? I mean, this isn't like a radical concept.
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Don't all churches, aren't they all like really fired up about the Bible like you and God seem to be?" Listen to this poll. I read this in Time Magazine a few years ago and I was completely floored.
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They took a poll of Protestant clergymen, this is sociologist Jeffrey Hayden.
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He surveyed about 10,000 clergymen and 7,441 replied.
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Okay, so it wasn't like we went up and down the street and asked a couple.
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They talked to 7,441...
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Understand this. Pastors.
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This isn't like Joe on the street, or I was sitting in the mall just bragging to people as they walked by.
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They asked pastors several questions concerning the Virgin, birth, the resurrection, etc.
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I want to focus on here.
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When they were asked if they believed that the scriptures were the inspired and inerrant word of God, that was the question.
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Do you believe this is God's book, that God wrote this?
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87% of Methodist pastors said no.
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87% of Methodist pastors said no.
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Episcopalians, of those who hold-- now, we're not throwing these denominations under the bus.
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a point, you can look this up yourself, I'm just telling you, here's where we're at.
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Episcopalians, 95% said no.
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82% of Presbyterians said no.
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67% of American Baptists said no.
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77% of American Lutherans said no.
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And 24% of the Missouri Synod Lutherans said no.
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These are pastors saying, "I don't believe this is God's will." We're going to hear a different story here, because we do believe that God wrote a book, and we're blessed to have it.
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I'd like to talk to some of these pastors, just sit down, and say, "Okay, so you don't believe the Bible is the Word of God, so what did you come up with? What did you do at your church?
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You found something better than the Bible, right? You found something better than the Bible." You know, here we have a book that was claimed to be written by the God of the universe, and always accomplishes His purpose.
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We're not going to find anything better than this.
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But it is a radical thing to consider that.
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I mean, think about it. The concept.
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We believe that God, who created the heavens and the earth in 6 24-hour days, also wrote a book.
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through about 40 people over a period of about 1,500 years.
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God spoke through these people and said, this is the book that I wrote.
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In fact, when you read this book, there are around 4,000 claims that the writers are making that this is the word of God.
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But you know the first question that we see in the Bible is still dangling out there today.
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You know what the first question is in the Bible?
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It's when the serpent, the Satan, appeared before Eve.
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He said, "Did God really say...
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Did God really say..." That's still the question the Satan's using.
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He's using that point because it's effective.
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And that's what's happening with pastors.
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That's what's happening with Christians.
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All over the churches, people are saying, "Did God really say that?" And the Bible says this.
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"Did God really say that?" And it becomes a head issue.
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And I'm not really sure that one's inspired.
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I think maybe parts of it are.
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I'm not really sure about that.
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It becomes a head issue.
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But let's be honest, sometimes, Christians, doesn't it also become a heart issue?
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When there's something that you know the Word of God has hidden you on it, you're like, "No, just...
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Is that really what it says?" Well, turn in your Bibles with me to 2 Timothy chapter 3.
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2 Timothy chapter 3.
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God's Word accomplishes God's purposes.
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We're going to look at just a few verses here.
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2 Timothy chapter 3. First of all, look at verse 16.
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It says, "All scripture is breathed out by God." So circle that word "all" in your Bible.
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Sort of like last week we talked about Jesus saying he had authority.
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What kind of authority did Jesus say he had?
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All authority in heaven and on earth.
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Here we see another "all" claim.
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This is what the Bible claims about itself.
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It says that all scripture is breathed out by God.
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Some translations say "inspired".
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All scripture is inspired.
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If you're taking notes, I want you to drop these things down.
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This is what inspired does not mean.
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When we talk about inspired, it does not mean this.
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First of all, it doesn't mean it's a high level of human achievement.
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It doesn't mean it's a high level of human achievement as if, "Wow, those guys that wrote that, they were having some good days." You can tell they were just in the zone.
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They were, "Wow, great job guys.
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Great job. Fantastic.
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You guys really did a great job." That's not what inspired means.
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Secondly, inspired does not mean the concepts were inspired.
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The words were inspired. That's what some people teach.
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Well, the Bible's concepts are true, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the words are true.
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I don't agree with that.
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You can't have concepts without words.
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And we believe in a God who is so powerful, He can create things by speaking them into existence, but He's not powerful enough to give us a book that says exactly what He wants us to say.
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Really?
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That's the best we came up with?
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Well, it's just the concept.
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Like, for example, Genesis.
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We don't really know how the earth and God appeared, and it probably wasn't six 24-hour days.
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So, He was just giving us the concept that made me go, "That's not what your Bible says.
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The Bible says God created them to the earth in 6 24 hour days.
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Literally, that's what the Bible says.
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It's not a God sentence.
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God says, "Yeah, I did it. Here's exactly how I did it." It's not a God sentence.
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So let's lose that.
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Third thing, inspired is not mean it's just hard work.
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Oh, so inspirational.
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Especially that 1 Corinthians 13 stuff.
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So it's a mission.
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That's not what inspired me.
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And yes, there are times the Bible gives us that.
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I love that verse.
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I put that on my wall.
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That verse, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." You know, on my marker wire poster.
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But that verse has nothing to do with baseball.
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But that's another subject.
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But that's just inspiring.
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Sometimes the Bible does warm our hearts, but that's not what Paul is talking about here.
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And fourthly, number four, inspiring is not being hypocritical.
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And I've talked to some pastors that believe that.
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Like, yeah, some of the Bible is true, but there's some other parts that aren't.
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There's like filler. Like God's like, "Okay, here's my part. Now would you round it out?
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Okay, can you just come up with some stuff and just kind of round it out?
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It's not hitting this because what does your Bible say all scripture is breathed out by God what percent is that?
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No, no, no percent is all 100% it's all Breathed out by God the God through these people using their personalities in their context he Have them write down his word.
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And he's preserved his word to this day.
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It's awesome.
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That's why if you look down at 2 Timothy 4, 2, Paul tells Timothy, "Preach the word." He says, "Timothy, preach the word." He doesn't say, "I charge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus to entertain people." He doesn't say that.
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But to get people churched.
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He says, "Preach the Word." Timothy, get God's Word out.
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I love what Ken Shaw said in that video.
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You know, God's Word is like a lion.
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We don't need to defend it.
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We just need to open the cage and let it out, and it will take care of itself.
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That's why he says, "Preach the Word." Why?
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Because God's Word accomplishes God's purposes.
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So how does God use the Bible?
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I want to share with you this morning.
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We preach the word, but why?
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Well, God's word encompasses God's purposes.
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Your next question is, well, what are God's purposes?
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Well, here they are.
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He just laid them all out for us.
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Jump up to verse 14.
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We'll read it and then we'll go back to it and kind of break it down a little bit.
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"Father, as for you," He's talking to Timothy, he's the son of the gospel.
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"As for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been equated with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be confident and equipped for every good work." So why do we preach the Bible?
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Number one, how is the Bible used?
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Well, first of all, for salvation.
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God's Word leads us where?
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It leads us to Him.
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God's Word leads us to Him.
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This is quite a claim to say, you know, this book is what God uses to alter eternity.
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People's souls are saved through what is written in this book.
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That's quite a claim.
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Well, he told Timothy, these scriptures make you wise for salvation.
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John 5, 24.
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Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me, That's eternal life.
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John 5.39 Jesus said, "Use your scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and in this day that you are witness about me." Romans 10.17 "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." Now this letter and paper isn't the thing that saves you.
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It's the Word of God pointing the way to Jesus Christ.
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He is the One who saves.
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But we can't know God, and we can't know the work of Jesus Christ, and we can't know the work of the Holy Spirit apart from what?
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Apart from His blood.
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And I can personally testify that's how I came to the Lord.
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It wasn't a slick evangelist, it wasn't some crusade, it wasn't persuasive words of wisdom.
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And it was somebody sitting down saying, "Read this. What does it say? What does it mean? How should you respond?" God's Word cut me to the heart.
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And it was the Word of God that led me to salvation.
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Which should not surprise me, because God says His Word accomplishes His purposes, right?
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So, this is important that we start it, because everything else that we're going to talk about...
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He says this is for the man of God, verse 17.
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The man of God being the covenant.
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Everything else we're going to see builds off of this.
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Let me pause here for a second.
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The first thing that God's word has to do in your life is bring you to salvation.
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Churching unchurched people does not do anyone any good.
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See, our goal is to not try to make people in church.
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That's not our goal we talked about last week.
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We want to make disciples.
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We want, as the Holy Spirit is at work, followers of Jesus Christ, born again, as from death to life, as from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.
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That's what we're going after.
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We're not trying to moralize immoral people.
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The first thing the scriptures have to do is bring you to the place of salvation.
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Are you there?
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Are you there?
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Are you checking out this church because there's a cool guy on the radio and we're kind of tied in with him?
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So this sounds like a cool place to hang out.
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Are you saved?
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That's step number one.
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We're not starting a club.
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We want to reach out with the gospel.
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And that's where it has to start.
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It has to start there.
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are you saved?
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What does it mean to believe?
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Jesus said about believing in him, what does it mean to believe?
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Quickly, there's three levels of belief.
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The first level of belief is, you could say, is understanding the facts.
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Like when somebody gets up and says something, they're promoting some truth, hopefully.
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The first level of belief is do I understand what he's saying?
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Do I understand that?
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That's the first level of belief.
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The second one is, do I agree with him?
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So you see, we get up and we say this is what the Bible says.
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You say, well, okay, I see what he's saying.
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The second is, do I agree with him?
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That's the second level of belief.
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And the third level of belief is when you put your light on it.
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To say, "I'm acting upon this." For the illustration I like to use, you know, "Where's the pocket chair at? Let's get that thing out." If I... It says that it holds a 250 pound person, it's stating a fact.
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I'd be like, "Okay, I understand what that's saying." The second question is, "Do I agree with that?" Well, the third level of believing, you'd have to do what?
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You'd have to take that chair out and actually sit on it.
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That's what faith is.
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Meaning, I'm trusting that this is true and I'm basing my life on it.
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That's what faith is.
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And that's what we do with the Word of God.
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This is what God said, that my life is going to be centered around a faith that believes God in His Word.
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If God is not who He says He is, if His Word does not do what He says it's going to do, I'm going to fall flat on my face.
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That's faith.
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So salvation, first of all, God's worth leads to Him right there.
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Secondly, teaching God's worth lays the foundation of truth.
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Going back to verse 16, again, all scriptures breathed out by God.
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"Improfitable for teaching." What's the Bible good for?
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For the same person, the first thing is teaching.
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Literally, that's doctrine.
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These are things we wouldn't know about God if we weren't as upset.
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The Bible is truth as God sees it.
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Who He is. Who we are.
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Sin. Eternity.
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What is Heaven? What is Hell?
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What's our purpose in this life?
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This is truth as God sees it.
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And again, that's why salvation has to be first, because you can't really teach doctrine to a non-believer.
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The Bible says these things must be spiritually discerned. You can't do it apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, can you?
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The Bible is good for teaching, laying a foundation of truth.
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Remember last week we said that Jesus' last command was my first priority.
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Jesus said, "To teach them to observe all that I have commanded you." How are we going to teach people to do that?
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He's given it to us where? In His Word.
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People can't do what they don't know.
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God's Spirit in you always works with His Word.
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So the question I have for you is, have you allowed God's Word to lay that foundation of truth in your life?
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You know, Christians, have you come to that place where you've received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, but have you allowed God's Word to be the foundation of truth?
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I was on a panel discussion with a lot of area clergy people last year.
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And it was a panel discussion up at a high school, and the kids actually asked questions that we ought to answer from our own point of view, presenting our religious viewpoints, whatever.
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And one of the questions was, do you believe that God created in 6 24 hour days?
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Do you believe that when the Bible says there were 6 24 hour days, that's actually literally 24 hour days.
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So I actually have this Bible with me.
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And I'm like, "Oh, I'm so glad you asked that," and I took some notes.
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That's resurrection.
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Anyway, I have some notes in here, one of these blank pages that you always wonder what you're supposed to do with.
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Here we go.
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I'm not quite Genesis, imagine that.
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They said, "Well, do you believe that there are actually 24-hour days?" And I said, "Well, here's something I found out.
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The word 'day' in Hebrew is 'yom,' and it's used with a number or a numerical qualifier.
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In the Old Testament, the yom with a numerical qualifier, 359 times it's used.
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It always refers to a literal 24-hour day.
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When a word "yom" is used with the phrase "evening" or "morning," which is 23 times in the Old Testament, that's always a 24-hour day.
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The phrase "evening" and "morning" is used in the Old Testament without the word "yom," day 38 times, all 61 times, it refers to a 24-hour day.
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Exodus 20, verse 11, talking about the Sabbath, God, my God, here's the creation week.
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Israel here's your week just like five weeks six point twelve days So I shared that and I was just kind of like close the Bible and the discussion And then like the next pastor down like you believe that they're like no I really believe Genesis is just sort of like it just tells us a little story about how we got here But I don't think it's literally true. I'm like, where were you like a minute ago?
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I just covered this and then the next pastor now "Well, I'm kind of like this guy where I don't really think that there are 24 hour days that might be taking up billions of years." Who are we to not take God at His word?
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But you see, my point is, if the word of God is to lay a foundation of truth, that's where it has to start. It has to start there.
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It starts with, I don't want to offend scientists, so I'm going to try to kind of get their beliefs to incorrect.
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That's the foundation of truth.
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So God's Word brings us to salvation.
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It leads us to Him teaching.
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Thirdly, God's Word exposes our errors.
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God's Word exposes our errors.
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You see, the next thing is the problem of teaching.
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And here it is, for reproof.
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For reproof, literally, in the Greek, that's rebuke.
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That's confronting someone when they're misbehaving, so to speak.
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When you want to show them what you're doing is wrong.
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Well, God's Word exposes our errors.
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You see, it builds a foundation of truth, but it also tears down error.
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First of all, it rebukes false teaching.
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I had somebody tell me one time, when we were talking about different religions and beliefs and things like that, this lady said, "You know, you can't ever tell anybody that they're wrong. You can't do that." I said, "Yeah, you can. It's easy.
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When somebody makes a claim, contrary to the Word of God, you say, "That's incorrect, because the Bible says this." See, that wasn't hard.
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"Oh no, no, you can't tell people that!" Well, God says that's what He's in the business of doing, because this Word is profitable for reproof.
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God's Word exposes our errors.
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So not only false teaching, but also false conduct.
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"I'm angry and bitter." And God's Word points that out.
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I'm lusting or I have an idol in my life. Something has taken priority in my life.
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But God's Word points those things out.
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It says, "Jeff, you're out of line here. You're out of line. This is wrong." That attitude was wrong.
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The way you talked to that person was wrong.
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That's the reproof.
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You see, people that do actually want to hold on to their sin, they don't want to stick around a church like this very long.
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If you're trying to have, "I want to hold on to my sin, but God's going to just keep telling me what God says in His Word," you're not going to stick around.
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Because it cuts.
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What's the Hebrew writer say? It's sharper than any what? Two-edged sword.
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That's what he's talking about. It cuts you.
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It cuts.
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Hebrews 12 actually tells us that God has included us as sons.
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And the redeemed are going to want to accept the loving Father's review.
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Okay, it's like Dad coming home and saying, "Son, you're wrong.
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You're wrong." So God's Word exposes our errors.
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Let's have a closing song.
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No, not yet.
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Hang on because there's good news.
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God just doesn't come along and say, "You're wrong.
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Have a nice day." But look at the next thing.
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So important.
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For correction.
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For correction.
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God's Word changes our course.
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You see, this is the positive to the previous.
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It corrects our error.
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It corrects our conduct.
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The Greek word is, this is actually the only place in the New Testament that it's used.
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But it literally means to straighten up.
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Did your mom ever tell you that?
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Hey, straighten up.
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Anybody have a mom tell them that?
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"No, not me Pastor Jeff, I was a perfect kid." Liar! Straighten up!
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My mom always told me that. Straighten up. Hey, straighten up.
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You're going to grandma's house, straighten up.
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That's what this word means.
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That God doesn't just come along and tear you down.
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God says, "This is wrong, but here, this is right." straighten up and the tearing down is meant to bring you to that place.
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And you see, that's good news.
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That's good news because you can get back on track.
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Being in pastoral ministry for 14 years, I've met a lot of people, especially in prison ministry, I've met a lot of people that just feel like I've messed things up too bad.
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I would share the word with them and they would be like, "Great, I'm way beyond all that. I can't get back on track. That's wrong." God says, "Today is the day of salvation." And if you need to repent and come to the Lord, the Lord goes good for that.
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If you have backslidden or you haven't been growing or maybe as a Christian you've been caught up in sin Gosh, maybe God has like a second class level of Christianity for me for the rest of my life.
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That's wrong.
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You can get back on track.
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I believed wrongly. God says, "Okay, here's the right way of thinking. Change your mind. Let's move forward." I've done the wrong thing.
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Repent. Make restitution when you need to. And let's move on. It's correction.
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The off track, the poor, the straight, and the young.
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And finally, number five, it's just right there in the text.
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Training and Righteousness.
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Training and Righteousness, God's Word prepares us for work.
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The word training is actually an interesting word in the Greek.
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It comes from the same root where we get the word child in the Greek.
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And literally this training in righteousness is the same concept as training a child.
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It's about nurturing and raising and growing and bringing to maturity.
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That's what this word means.
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Just like a child.
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And there's good news in that because parents, you don't raise a child every day, do you?
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It's steady, it's consistency, it's overtime.
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And we'll talk about that in a second.
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But it's nurturing.
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You might be sitting here this morning saying, "Well, why don't I feel like I've grown?" I've really, you know, since I've come through Christ, I've just gone through this period where I don't feel like I've grown.
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1 Peter 2 says, "Does newborn baby desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby?" A baby wanting milk is a sign of life.
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It's a sign of life, isn't it?
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When that baby wants to eat, it's a sign of life.
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Well, as a baby Christian, wanting God's Word is a sign of life.
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You see, this is where it gets tough for me because I was thinking this week, "Okay, what can I say to make them want to read the Bible more?" The truth is, there really isn't anything.
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I can tell you what the Bible does.
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Awesome, eternal things. It will change you from the inside out, and you will not ever regret doing what God has called you to do.
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But there's nothing that I can tell you that's going to make you want to read the Bible.
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That has to come from God's Spirit working with you.
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You have to be like that baby.
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We have two kids 15 months apart. When they were babies, we didn't have to convince them it was time to eat.
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"Come on Owen, it's well tried. Go like it, it'll make you grow." He was like, "I'm hungry, give me food, I'm eating." That was it.
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And as a baby Christian, you have that appetite in you.
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Living things get hungry, are you hungry?
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Well, maybe you're saying, "Well, where do I get started?" Well, again, good news.
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See back in verse 15, Paul tells Timothy, "You've been acquainted with the secret ratings for how long?" He says, "From childhood." There's a little word of encouragement in there for me because sometimes I read God's Word and I don't have everything figured out.
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That's okay.
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Timothy didn't have everything figured out either.
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But what brought him to the place of maturity where he was, was he'd been at it for a while.
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He'd been growing at this.
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And no matter where you are right now in your walk, no matter where you are right now in knowledge of God's Word, you can grow from the place where you are right now.
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Do you know that?
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You can grow from where you are.
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Like, well, I'm not John MacArthur. None of us are.
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But we can grow from where we are right now.
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Alright? So where do I get started? Well, don't be intimidated.
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It takes time.
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Next month we're going to be starting a series in the book of Colossians.
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You know a great place to get started? Read Colossians.
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It will probably take you 10 or 15 minutes to sit down and read the whole thing through.
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I encourage you, just even if you do it a couple times a day over the next week, just sit down and read Colossians through a couple times.
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And then maybe as we get closer to the series, maybe instead of reading the whole thing through, Maybe you're just going to focus on a passage at a time.
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You're going to slow down and read it and understand it.
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How much do you think you'll grow and go on forward with that series if you start right now?
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And we want to help you.
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Maybe you say, well, I don't really have a Bible.
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I can read.
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I don't understand this, but out on the tables, out on the lawn, there's Bibles.
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They're yours taken.
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There's Bible reading reference sheets.
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you're gonna correct what you're reading.
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Take 'em.
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If we run out, we'll get more.
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But get God's word in your head, get God's word in your head, and get it in your heart.
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You've gotta get started.
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Here's what I did with my Bible.
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This is one that I actually, for my personal study, real complicated system I had, but when I read through, the first thing I'll do is underline I was talking about a person.
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I'll just underline that, 'cause when I get through the text, I'm like, "Are we talking about, oh, okay.
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this guy, and I'll start underlining some things.
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Here's what he's doing.
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Or this is what the Bible says.
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You know, here's the subject.
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What does it say about that subject?
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Just start there.
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What does it say?
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What does it say about that subject?
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And how should my life look differently?
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If I do what God seems to be communicating is the right thing to do in this passage.
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Start there.
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We want to help you.
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We're going to be starting small groups also in November.
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That's the perfect place to get started.
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Bill, I'm sorry, your email didn't get corrected.
42:13-42:18
It's DLIPPIN, D-L-I-P-P-N, department of physical nurse.org.
42:19-42:21
Bill gets a shout out to me because it didn't get fixed.
42:23-42:26
We're going to be starting small groups next month.
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That's the perfect place for you to grow your knowledge of God, or to sit down with other people like yourself and say, "Hey, let's look at God's word together.
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I want you to understand, how does this apply in your life?
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Well, here's how it's applied in mine.
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How do you see yourself in your life this week?
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Let's get on it.
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You can actually look through my Bible.
42:46-42:48
There's places in the margins where I just wrote a question mark.
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You know what that means?
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I mean, I just read something and I have no idea what's going on in there.
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I'll just be honest with you.
42:53-43:00
I'll read stuff, I'll be like, okay, not a clue, question mark, and that means I'll go back later and take some time to study that.
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It's training.
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It's training.
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But not just training.
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It's training in righteousness.
43:08-43:12
You see, doctrine, we talked about earlier, that's the head stuff.
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Training in righteousness, that's doing.
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That's heart stuff.
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So why is God training us?
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Verse 17.
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What are we being trained for?
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That the man of God may be competent and quick to do whatever he wills.
43:32-43:33
This word "living" is a word that is used in the Hebrew language.
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literally mean confident, it means perfect.
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I guess in our vernacular we think of it confident as meaning good enough.
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That's confident.
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Can you, yeah, slightly.
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That's not what it means in the Greek, it means perfect.
43:52-43:55
We lack nothing for the job that God has for us.
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That's good news for me, it's good news for you.
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To know that whatever God has you facing, He's already totally equipped you.
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Parents?
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Parents, you sometimes feel like, this parent thing, how did I get signed up for this?
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I don't know if I can do this in a way God wants me to disciple in.
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God wants me to disciple in, 'cause how can I do that?
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Here's your answer.
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God says, "I've equipped you.
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"I've got everything you need to disciple your children "right here, get in it.
44:33-44:34
There's nothing lacking.
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It's not the Bible plus, you know, that Spock guy or whatever.
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Mario used to think it was like the guy from Star Trek or a book about raising children.
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It's a different Spock.
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But it's not the Bible plus Spock.
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It's the Bible plus what?
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Tell me.
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Nothing.
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This completes you.
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The training you've got to have for it.
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Students.
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You know, it's hard.
44:58-45:02
More and more, we're getting away from-- I talk to young people all the time.
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It's just so hard to be a Christian in school now.
45:04-45:06
So my friends make fun of me.
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They say really nasty things, and they do nasty things.
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It's hard.
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How can I face this trial that God has before me?
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God says, this will equip you for everything that I had before you.
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Employee.
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Pastor Jeff, it's really rough for our work.
45:30-45:34
I'm not always sure how to handle the godlessness where I work.
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God says, I got something right here that will put me where I work.
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That's where I work.
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About church member, being part of a church plant, plenty of opportunity to get involved, whether it's through worship or through small groups.
45:50-45:52
I don't know the first thing about running a small group.
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How am I going to know how to run a small group?
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Where are we going to get a cook for that?
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ago, God says, I've got something that will equip you for the work that I've called you to do.
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So did you see the flow of the text?
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The Bible leads you to Christ. It lays a foundation of truth.
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It shows us where we're wrong and corrects us, and then it trains us to live on a foundation of truth, complete for every work that God calls us to do.
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God's work accomplishes God's purposes.
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That's why in Romans 5 chapter 3, number 1, what's this church about?
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We're about proclaiming the authority of God's word without apology.
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We're not sorry for anything that God said.
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God promised He will accomplish His work with His Word.
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If God's Word is good, then great things.
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Father in heaven, as we close out this time, we just want to thank you for your work.
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I suppose we could take a shot in the dark or guess as to who we think you might be if we didn't have your work.
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But we'd probably come up with all kinds of crazy things, which I guess is what happens to the people who are rejecting you.
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We thank you that you've given us very clearly this is who you are, this is what you're about, and this is what you call us to.
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We thank you for your word. Father, forgive us when we don't take your word as seriously as you do.
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Father, I thank you that your word corrects us.
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And even for those of us today who maybe got a little bit off track, you're calling us back to yourself.
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We thank you for that.
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I pray, Father, for the children right now that are being discipled in children's ministry, as your word is being instilled into them.
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But even more so, Father, I pray for their parents, as they seek to disciple their children.
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So, Father, I pray, I pray that we're just, this is week two for us, but I pray for as would be to proclaim the authority of your word without apology as we make disciples.
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Because we know well that that's not your word.
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We love you.
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We praise you. In the mighty name of Jesus, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 2 Timothy 3:14-17
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.