WEBVTT 00:00:05.466 --> 00:00:08.166 Good morning Valley View. 00:00:08.166 --> 00:00:09.166 It's great to be together. 00:00:09.166 --> 00:00:11.699 We're kicking off a new series this week. 00:00:11.699 --> 00:00:13.632 We wrapped up the Book of Jonah last week. 00:00:13.632 --> 00:00:18.199 We had been in it to start out the year and now we're doing something different. 00:00:18.199 --> 00:00:25.300 Normally we work through a book of the Bible at a time, slowly work through it, get a sense for an entire book of the Bible. 00:00:25.300 --> 00:00:39.899 We're going to take a break from that and do a series around the idea of the connection between knowing God, knowing him, knowing his attributes, knowing his character, his person knowing him, and the connection between that and loving him. 00:00:39.966 --> 00:00:44.765 As we grow in knowledge of him, our love for him should grow. 00:00:44.765 --> 00:00:49.100 I remember a friend of mine sharing with me he was working in ministry with a guy. 00:00:49.100 --> 00:01:00.033 He was kind of serving as a ministry assistant to this guy, and I was about to move into that role, and he said to me, this is the first guy in my life that as I got to know him better, my respect for him went up. 00:01:01.432 --> 00:01:09.533 He said before that every guy, every man that I got to know who was in any kind of position of authority, if I got to know him a little better, I saw, oh, oh, they got a lot of problems. 00:01:09.533 --> 00:01:12.033 Their respect for him went down. 00:01:12.033 --> 00:01:15.299 But this guy, he said, my respect for him has has gone up. 00:01:15.299 --> 00:01:18.665 My knowledge of him increased my appreciation for him. 00:01:18.665 --> 00:01:21.066 It ultimately increased my love for him. 00:01:21.066 --> 00:01:28.299 And when we think about God, we as we grow in understanding of who he is, our love for him should grow. 00:01:28.299 --> 00:01:30.533 In fact, this verse it's listed in your notes 00:01:30.533 --> 00:01:32.233 30 - 31. 00:01:32.233 --> 00:01:37.132 It's the greatest first and greatest commandment, first greatest commandment, second greatest commandment. 00:01:37.132 --> 00:01:46.900 Jesus identifies them this way love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. 00:01:46.900 --> 00:01:48.332 And we see there the connection. 00:01:48.332 --> 00:01:59.865 The more we know about God, the more we understand who he truly is, the more our love for him will grow, should grow, and as a result, the more our love for others should grow. 00:01:59.865 --> 00:02:10.932 So we're going to take the next couple of months and work through a number of topics about who God is his character, his person, his being, his work, his attributes, what that means for us. 00:02:10.932 --> 00:02:21.366 We're going to look at these over the course of a number of weeks, so that we can grow in our knowledge of who God is as a result, growing our love for him as a result, growing our love for others. 00:02:21.366 --> 00:02:23.932 There's a direct connection between all of these. 00:02:25.265 --> 00:02:31.265 Now, the fancy word for all of this you may have heard used in churches the word theology. 00:02:33.432 --> 00:02:37.265 And that word just in its bare root essence of meaning. 00:02:37.265 --> 00:02:38.532 And it's in your notes here. 00:02:38.532 --> 00:02:41.532 I've broken it into two parts Theos and Logos. 00:02:41.532 --> 00:02:44.165 Theos is the Greek word for God. 00:02:44.165 --> 00:02:47.165 You hear it in the name Theodore. 00:02:47.165 --> 00:02:51.699 God's gift is what that name means at its essence, God and gift. 00:02:51.699 --> 00:02:53.066 Theodore. 00:02:53.066 --> 00:02:59.500 The word logos is the word or you hear it in our English word logic, right? 00:02:59.500 --> 00:03:03.332 Something to study, something to understand. Reason. 00:03:03.332 --> 00:03:05.165 We use these words. 00:03:05.165 --> 00:03:10.099 When you put them together, you get this idea of theology being just ideas about God. 00:03:10.099 --> 00:03:13.099 Thoughts about God, the study of God. 00:03:13.566 --> 00:03:14.733 We use it. 00:03:14.733 --> 00:03:18.332 You run across it all the time in phrases like, words like biology. 00:03:18.332 --> 00:03:19.133 It's the study. 00:03:19.133 --> 00:03:20.165 Bio is life. 00:03:20.165 --> 00:03:23.765 It's the study of living things, geology, the study of the earth. 00:03:23.765 --> 00:03:29.566 So these are words that when you put them together, you understand it's not something just highfalutin and fancy. 00:03:29.566 --> 00:03:34.332 Some people hear the word theology and they go, oh, wait a second, I don't I don't have any fancy degrees. 00:03:34.332 --> 00:03:35.932 I don't have any letters behind my name. 00:03:35.932 --> 00:03:38.165 I don't I don't know that I can go there. 00:03:38.165 --> 00:03:41.866 Don't, you know, don't intimidate me with your fancy words. 00:03:41.866 --> 00:03:43.800 Well, now look, theology and. Well. 00:03:43.800 --> 00:03:47.133 And then the other reaction for some is I don't I don't want to get bogged down. 00:03:47.133 --> 00:03:50.300 And I remember one guy saying this to me, I don't care about doctrine and theology. 00:03:50.300 --> 00:03:51.432 I don't care about all that. Don't. 00:03:51.432 --> 00:03:53.366 To get bogged down in that. 00:03:53.366 --> 00:03:54.432 I just want to know Jesus. 00:03:54.432 --> 00:03:55.532 I just want to love Jesus. 00:03:56.765 --> 00:03:58.832 And by the way, I appreciate that sentiment, right? 00:03:58.832 --> 00:04:05.066 Because there are a lot of people who get bogged down in unnecessary arguments and things that don't matter. 00:04:05.066 --> 00:04:14.633 I know that's kind of what he meant by that, but when you say, I just want to love Jesus, you're already talking about theology, because who is Jesus? 00:04:14.633 --> 00:04:16.432 How do you know who he is? 00:04:16.432 --> 00:04:18.266 Where do you find that information? 00:04:18.266 --> 00:04:22.665 And there are a lot of arguments in the history of the church about a lot of those things. 00:04:22.665 --> 00:04:27.565 And those are important things to wrestle with to help guide us in this series. 00:04:27.565 --> 00:04:30.000 There's a book we've offered out in the lobby. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:31.865 It'll be available after the service as well. 00:04:31.865 --> 00:04:37.899 It's called You Are a Theologian, and I love that title and the book. 00:04:37.899 --> 00:04:39.065 It's not mandatory. 00:04:39.065 --> 00:04:42.800 You don't have to buy it, but it's going to help supplement your study along the way. 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:47.199 And we're following basically the chapter titles as we unpack each topic. 00:04:47.199 --> 00:04:48.199 I love that title, though. 00:04:48.199 --> 00:04:52.132 You are a theologian and here's why we can say that case. 00:04:52.132 --> 00:05:00.733 We can say every one of us is a theologian because every one of us has thoughts about God. 00:05:00.733 --> 00:05:03.365 Even if you think he doesn't exist, that's a thought about God. 00:05:03.365 --> 00:05:04.932 You have a view of God. 00:05:04.932 --> 00:05:09.665 You have beliefs about God, whether it's fancy or sophisticated or not. 00:05:09.665 --> 00:05:12.766 You you are a theologian at some level. 00:05:12.766 --> 00:05:13.565 We looked at Jonah. 00:05:13.565 --> 00:05:16.333 Jonah had thoughts about God. 00:05:16.333 --> 00:05:19.233 I mean, Jonah thought that God should behave in a certain way. 00:05:19.233 --> 00:05:24.899 And when God didn't act the way, according to Jonah's image of God, Jonah got angry. 00:05:24.899 --> 00:05:26.600 And I think we've all wrestled with that at times. 00:05:26.600 --> 00:05:28.632 This is the God I've shaped up in my mind. 00:05:28.632 --> 00:05:30.800 This is how I think he should act. 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:37.000 And when he doesn't act that way, we've got to go back to Scripture and say, I did my did I misunderstand who he is? 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:39.065 Where did I build that image of him from? 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:46.100 So this week we're going to look at eight ideas, eight ways to think about God. 00:05:46.100 --> 00:05:50.199 In fact, we're going to use this phrase theology shapes us. 00:05:50.466 --> 00:05:51.533 That'll be an acronym. 00:05:51.533 --> 00:05:53.065 We'll unpack each of those letters. 00:05:53.065 --> 00:05:54.932 Theology shapes us. 00:05:54.932 --> 00:05:57.466 How we think about God shapes us. 00:05:57.466 --> 00:06:01.165 It's probably the most important thing you think is what you think about God. 00:06:01.165 --> 00:06:04.165 It shapes every aspect of your life. 00:06:04.365 --> 00:06:20.100 I'm going to share eight ideas, eight ways that as I've studied the Bible over the years, these are ideas about the Bible, about God that have helped me in terms of understanding how it fits together, how it all works together, how I should view God, how I can understand who he is. 00:06:20.100 --> 00:06:22.733 As I look at Scripture. 00:06:22.733 --> 00:06:25.533 And so eight ways we're going to start with the letter s. 00:06:25.533 --> 00:06:29.865 So in your notes that first letter s is the word structure. 00:06:29.865 --> 00:06:30.165 Okay. 00:06:30.165 --> 00:06:32.966 How do we understand theology. 00:06:32.966 --> 00:06:39.033 The first idea is that theology is just structure. 00:06:39.033 --> 00:06:48.233 It's just an organizing principle around the all the information that's in the Bible theology helps us to take. 00:06:48.233 --> 00:06:58.565 I mean, when you first get a copy of the Bible and someone puts it in your hand the first time you've ever seen it, you go, many people just ask me, where do I start? 00:06:58.565 --> 00:06:59.833 Do I start a page one? 00:06:59.833 --> 00:07:01.833 Should I start somewhere else? What? 00:07:01.833 --> 00:07:02.766 What's it about? 00:07:02.766 --> 00:07:03.766 How do I make sense? 00:07:03.766 --> 00:07:05.000 What's the most important parts? 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:06.165 I want to make sure I get it right. 00:07:06.165 --> 00:07:08.632 There's so much here. 00:07:08.632 --> 00:07:13.500 But theology helps us to organize the information in the Bible so that it's accessible. 00:07:13.500 --> 00:07:16.600 So that way we can get to it so we can understand it and apply it to our lives. 00:07:18.932 --> 00:07:22.432 I've mentioned this a few times to people and every time I've done it, so I'm taking a risk here. 00:07:22.432 --> 00:07:23.199 Every time I've done it. 00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:25.600 The result was laughter. 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:28.000 By the way, not the kind of laughter you want. 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:32.100 Okay, each time I've shared this. 00:07:32.100 --> 00:07:32.800 And so here it goes. 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:33.733 I'll share it again with you. 00:07:33.733 --> 00:07:35.165 I'll take a risk. 00:07:35.165 --> 00:07:37.165 Last year I read a book. 00:07:37.165 --> 00:07:38.165 I read it on purpose. 00:07:38.165 --> 00:07:39.733 I chose to read it. 00:07:39.733 --> 00:07:41.266 I read the entire thing. 00:07:41.266 --> 00:07:42.833 I found it utterly fascinating. 00:07:42.833 --> 00:07:48.733 It was a book about the history of the development and use of the file cabinet. 00:07:49.132 --> 00:07:51.600 Read the whole thing. 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:53.500 And it was fascinating. 00:07:53.500 --> 00:07:55.865 And here's what this has to do with theology. 00:07:55.865 --> 00:08:15.399 By the way, the author made the case that the file cabinet, more than anything else that had been developed up until that time, had the greatest effect on modern industrialization, on the development of the modern economy, because prior to that, probably the biggest hindrance in the growth of a business is how quickly information can flow. 00:08:16.766 --> 00:08:36.399 So if I am a business owner and I want to find a letter I wrote someone or a contract I had developed with someone or a drawing or whatever, any piece of information, I'd have to go to the one person who was in charge of all of that for for the for the business, and hoped that they could remember where they laid it down. 00:08:36.399 --> 00:08:41.700 In fact, I've got to bring up that first image of kind of the old version of a desk. 00:08:41.700 --> 00:08:49.033 You know, it was just cubbyholes papers, papers folded over, stuck on spears and piled up. 00:08:49.033 --> 00:08:50.466 I mean, this is what else did you do? 00:08:50.466 --> 00:08:55.765 You you hoped the guy could locate it, and if not, then you waited till they could. 00:08:57.066 --> 00:09:02.265 But with the file cabinet, anyone could go find any piece of information. 00:09:02.265 --> 00:09:03.399 Any time they wanted. 00:09:03.399 --> 00:09:04.700 They could find it quickly. 00:09:04.700 --> 00:09:09.299 The only thing that slowed him down was just the pace of walking to it and walking back. 00:09:09.299 --> 00:09:12.399 Here's a picture of a file cabinet farm. 00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:15.633 It kind of, as I looked at it, kind of remind me of like our modern data centers. 00:09:15.633 --> 00:09:20.466 It even has kind of a precursor to that idea of information being in small packets. 00:09:20.466 --> 00:09:25.365 This is actually taken from the Belknap Building in downtown Louisville. 00:09:25.365 --> 00:09:34.732 Showed up in this book as an as an example of some of the file cabinet farms that would have been in a lot of these big businesses, because we got to be able to get our information quickly. 00:09:34.732 --> 00:09:35.932 And you experience this now. 00:09:35.932 --> 00:09:45.966 I mean, if you grew up before Google, if you wanted to find information, you had to go hunt down an encyclopedia, find it in there, maybe now you just find it on your phone. 00:09:45.966 --> 00:09:46.832 It's quick access. 00:09:46.832 --> 00:09:48.133 Things move faster. Now. 00:09:49.865 --> 00:09:59.066 Okay, so the file cabinet basically provided a structure, provided a system for you to be able to go find the information, quickly access it, use it, utilize it. 00:09:59.066 --> 00:10:01.932 This is why structure is important. 00:10:01.932 --> 00:10:11.299 This is how structure allows for access, allows us to access information to understand how the Bible fits together. 00:10:12.100 --> 00:10:19.432 Now we can apply this idea to Scripture because this is how God acted from the very beginning. 00:10:20.533 --> 00:10:25.899 In your notes, I've listed Genesis chapter one from the very beginning. 00:10:25.899 --> 00:10:28.566 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 00:10:28.566 --> 00:10:30.666 The earth was without form and void. 00:10:30.666 --> 00:10:32.500 Darkness was over the face of the deep. 00:10:32.500 --> 00:10:36.299 The Spirit of God was hovering over the depths of the waters. 00:10:36.299 --> 00:10:47.399 Many people believe that the view of the waters in the ancient times was that it represented chaos disorder, and it even says the world was without form and void. 00:10:47.399 --> 00:10:52.432 So God entered into a situation where there was no form, there was void, there was chaos. 00:10:52.432 --> 00:10:55.166 And he brought order to it. 00:10:55.166 --> 00:11:01.299 He took even clay and shaped it into a human form. 00:11:01.299 --> 00:11:03.832 So God is a God of order. 00:11:03.832 --> 00:11:06.666 God brings order to chaos. 00:11:06.666 --> 00:11:12.533 And if you've lived a life of chaos and he brought order to your life, you know what I'm talking about. 00:11:12.533 --> 00:11:25.966 God brings order to chaos, and he calls us to do the same thing he said to Adam and Eve, go to the garden, tend it, care for it, subdue it, take the madness of just things growing wild and bring order to it. 00:11:26.066 --> 00:11:31.166 He said to Adam, go name the animals, give some order, give some structure to the animals. 00:11:31.166 --> 00:11:32.066 And I wasn't there. 00:11:32.066 --> 00:11:36.432 I don't have pictorial evidence, but I'm pretty sure he used a file cabinet to accomplish that. 00:11:37.966 --> 00:11:40.966 Keep everything in order. 00:11:41.166 --> 00:11:42.399 God is a God of order. 00:11:42.399 --> 00:11:46.932 First Corinthians 14 says not I'm a God of order, not a God of confusion. 00:11:47.832 --> 00:11:53.432 So he calls us to order things, to structure things, to seek to put things. 00:11:53.432 --> 00:11:55.566 And you do this even in a very simple way. 00:11:55.566 --> 00:12:02.966 When you are wondering, I wonder what the Bible says about love, and you flip to the concordance in the back, or you search on Google. 00:12:02.966 --> 00:12:04.066 What does the Bible say about love? 00:12:04.066 --> 00:12:05.166 And you get a list of verses. 00:12:05.166 --> 00:12:09.666 That's just a first step towards trying to get an idea for what does the whole Bible say about it? 00:12:09.666 --> 00:12:13.399 Not just this one verse, but I don't want to know how what the whole Bible says about it. 00:12:13.399 --> 00:12:17.666 What does the whole Bible say about boats or birds or whatever you're looking for? 00:12:17.666 --> 00:12:18.533 What does it say? 00:12:18.533 --> 00:12:20.066 How does it fit together? 00:12:21.265 --> 00:12:24.432 This is the idea of approaching the Bible theologically. 00:12:24.432 --> 00:12:25.232 How does it fit together? 00:12:25.232 --> 00:12:27.000 What does the whole Bible say about it? 00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:28.533 How can I understand it better? 00:12:28.533 --> 00:12:29.966 That's the letter S. 00:12:29.966 --> 00:12:30.299 All right. 00:12:30.299 --> 00:12:33.299 Now the the Bible shaped this letter H. 00:12:34.299 --> 00:12:35.033 Here's the second way. 00:12:35.033 --> 00:12:36.966 It's shapes us. 00:12:36.966 --> 00:12:41.466 Theology shapes us is the word history. 00:12:41.466 --> 00:12:44.765 You can come to the Bible knowing it is history. 00:12:44.765 --> 00:12:46.100 It is true. 00:12:46.100 --> 00:12:46.899 It did happen. 00:12:46.899 --> 00:12:49.666 But also I'm going to emphasize the story part of that word. 00:12:49.666 --> 00:12:51.399 It's history and it's story. 00:12:51.399 --> 00:12:54.732 So any story has a structure to it. 00:12:54.932 --> 00:13:02.500 Any story has ideas in it that build and develop, that have different scenes, different eras. 00:13:02.500 --> 00:13:09.066 And so when we come to Scripture, we come to it as a story, but also we come knowing that things develop over time. 00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:22.700 In fact, the word that's often used is there are epics or epochs, however you, however you pronounce it, describing different eras in the history of Scripture, especially in the era of the history of redemption. 00:13:22.700 --> 00:13:25.566 How did God redeem us in different eras? 00:13:25.566 --> 00:13:45.732 I'll give you just one example of this how this helps when you understand this, when you come to Scripture, if you turn to Leviticus chapter four, I think that's on page 78 in the Church Bible, if you have a church Bible, Leviticus, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus is third book in the Bible, so you can find it pretty easily a few pages into the Bible, Leviticus chapter four. 00:13:45.732 --> 00:13:51.732 This would have been in the priestly sacrificial system, right in after the law was given. 00:13:53.332 --> 00:13:55.932 And here we have a situation, Leviticus chapter four. 00:13:55.932 --> 00:13:57.732 I'm going to read these couple of verses to you. 00:13:57.732 --> 00:14:02.765 We understand that they operate differently in our day and age than they did then. 00:14:02.765 --> 00:14:37.633 1, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the people of Israel, saying, if anyone sins unintentionally in any of the Lord's commandments about things not to be done, and they do any of them, if it is the appointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then he shall offer for the sin that he committed a bull from the herd without blemish to the Lord for a sin offering, he shall bring the bull to the entrance of the tent of meeting. 00:14:37.633 --> 00:14:41.299 Before the Lord lay his hand on the head of the bull, and kill the bull before the Lord. 00:14:43.232 --> 00:14:49.832 Now let's say in theory, that at some point during this past week, I sinned. 00:14:49.832 --> 00:14:51.133 I was just talking theoretically. 00:14:51.133 --> 00:14:52.200 Julie's not here today. 00:14:52.200 --> 00:14:57.566 She's not feeling good, so she might have a few things to say about that. It does happen. 00:14:57.566 --> 00:14:59.265 Let's say we had a heated one of us. 00:14:59.265 --> 00:15:04.133 We had a heated conversation, I got upset, I got angry, I called you some names that weren't very nice. 00:15:04.133 --> 00:15:07.932 I called you dummy or imbecile or something like that. 00:15:07.932 --> 00:15:09.399 Okay. Said some things. 00:15:09.399 --> 00:15:13.633 And now if you come to church today, you have some expectations. 00:15:13.633 --> 00:15:22.466 You're expecting that I will come and find you and apologize, that we will reconcile with one another, that we'll try to make things right. 00:15:22.732 --> 00:15:30.832 What you don't expect is to come to the front door and that I will be there sacrificing a bull before you come in. 00:15:32.899 --> 00:15:37.166 Because we know this is an era that is different now. 00:15:37.432 --> 00:15:44.000 Sacrifices were a key part of the worship, a key part of what God established for how we relate to him. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:46.200 But that all went away when Jesus died. 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:49.133 He's the ultimate sacrifice. 00:15:49.133 --> 00:15:50.966 He died. In fact, he didn't just die. 00:15:50.966 --> 00:15:52.799 That's why he's not still on our cross. 00:15:52.799 --> 00:15:55.500 Our cross is empty because he died and he rose again. 00:15:55.500 --> 00:15:58.500 He's alive right? 00:15:59.265 --> 00:16:04.200 So I don't have to drag a bull around with me everywhere I go, just in case I sin. 00:16:04.200 --> 00:16:06.633 Which does happen. 00:16:06.633 --> 00:16:08.133 His sacrifice on our behalf. 00:16:08.133 --> 00:16:13.899 We're in a different era of his story, and that's important to understand about Scripture. 00:16:13.899 --> 00:16:17.166 It helps us understand when we approach it well, what's going on here? 00:16:17.166 --> 00:16:18.232 What do I do with it? 00:16:18.232 --> 00:16:23.899 It can still be complex to try to figure out what that means, but it helps us to know how to be guided by Scripture. 00:16:25.466 --> 00:16:30.466 It also helps us when we read the Bible to know that this is a story. 00:16:30.666 --> 00:16:35.533 This relates to how the gospel works. 00:16:35.732 --> 00:16:39.133 You know, if the gospel was just do this, don't do that. 00:16:39.133 --> 00:16:46.133 If that's what Christianity was, which is what your average non-Christian probably thinks, do this, don't do that. 00:16:46.133 --> 00:16:47.732 That's behave. 00:16:47.732 --> 00:16:51.732 But but the gospel is believe, not behave. 00:16:51.732 --> 00:16:54.832 Behavior flows from belief flows from love. 00:16:54.832 --> 00:16:58.700 But I don't gain favor with God because of how good I am. 00:16:59.466 --> 00:17:02.232 No, no, no, the gospel is believe. 00:17:02.232 --> 00:17:06.165 So the Bible isn't just a long list of do this, don't do that, do this. 00:17:06.165 --> 00:17:10.066 It's stories and it's crazy stories. 00:17:10.066 --> 00:17:10.599 It's stuff. 00:17:10.599 --> 00:17:13.032 You go, I can't believe that's in the Bible. 00:17:13.032 --> 00:17:15.299 There's wars, there's lying. 00:17:15.299 --> 00:17:17.532 There's people doing all kinds of bad things. 00:17:17.532 --> 00:17:19.500 There's good examples, there's bad examples. 00:17:19.500 --> 00:17:22.566 Even his followers look like complete idiots all throughout. 00:17:22.566 --> 00:17:24.365 They even wrote that about themselves. 00:17:25.732 --> 00:17:32.000 And you go, thank you, God, for putting flesh on my faith, giving me examples. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:33.766 Give me stories, not just do this. 00:17:33.766 --> 00:17:34.865 Don't do that. 00:17:34.865 --> 00:17:39.865 So we come to the Bible knowing it's a story and that's so powerful and helpful. 00:17:39.865 --> 00:17:42.133 That's letter S, all right. 00:17:42.133 --> 00:17:49.099 Letter A how the Bible shapes us, how theology shapes us. 00:17:50.400 --> 00:17:53.400 This one is the word accurate. 00:17:53.766 --> 00:17:59.766 When I come to the Bible, when I come to theology, when I think about God, I want to try to be accurate. 00:17:59.766 --> 00:18:04.333 Meaning, I want to try to be fair to what Scripture says. 00:18:04.333 --> 00:18:10.865 I want to try to accurately and fairly represent God the way he represents himself. 00:18:11.432 --> 00:18:19.799 This is why I said he, that he always represents himself as he with male pronouns. 00:18:19.799 --> 00:18:23.133 When he talks about himself, he doesn't say she. 00:18:24.465 --> 00:18:27.465 He came as a man when he came as Jesus. 00:18:27.566 --> 00:18:29.066 And I don't know why. 00:18:29.066 --> 00:18:36.266 I don't know why he chose to do that, I don't know, but I want to be fair to try to represent him the way he represents himself. 00:18:36.266 --> 00:18:41.732 In Exodus three, Abraham even asked him, who should I tell you sent me that wasn't Abraham. 00:18:41.732 --> 00:18:44.665 It was Moses. 00:18:44.665 --> 00:18:47.900 Moses said, who should I say when I go and tell them who should? 00:18:47.900 --> 00:18:49.566 What is your name? 00:18:49.566 --> 00:18:53.099 I am tell them I am sent you. 00:18:53.099 --> 00:18:58.799 Tell them the Lord, the God of the universe, the God who made all things, is I am. 00:18:59.032 --> 00:19:00.099 And so that's who. 00:19:00.099 --> 00:19:01.400 That's the name Abraham uses. 00:19:01.400 --> 00:19:03.932 He doesn't make up some other name. 00:19:03.932 --> 00:19:06.165 It would be rude if I came up to you. 00:19:06.165 --> 00:19:07.599 How are you doing? We haven't met before. 00:19:07.599 --> 00:19:08.232 What's your name? 00:19:08.232 --> 00:19:09.532 And you said, well, my name is Tina. 00:19:10.532 --> 00:19:12.165 And I said, no. 00:19:12.165 --> 00:19:13.566 Now you look more like Tammy to me. 00:19:13.566 --> 00:19:16.133 I'm to call you Tammy. 00:19:16.133 --> 00:19:17.532 You'd be like, who is this guy? 00:19:17.532 --> 00:19:18.465 What's his problem? 00:19:18.465 --> 00:19:20.099 No, that's not my name. 00:19:20.099 --> 00:19:26.465 Don't misrepresent me just to match your own feelings about who you think I am. 00:19:26.799 --> 00:19:28.299 Which we're all tempted to do with God. 00:19:28.299 --> 00:19:29.599 To do with God. 00:19:29.599 --> 00:19:30.932 This is my God. 00:19:30.932 --> 00:19:32.732 This is the God I've made in my mind. 00:19:32.732 --> 00:19:35.165 This is the image of the God I have in store. 00:19:35.165 --> 00:19:38.165 This is how he should act. 00:19:39.299 --> 00:19:42.865 This is why I personally have not and won't watch the movie The Shack. 00:19:42.865 --> 00:19:44.700 If you've heard of that. 00:19:44.700 --> 00:19:47.965 If you've watched it, look, I'm not here to beat you up. It's okay. 00:19:47.965 --> 00:19:49.633 There's forgiveness. God loves you. 00:19:49.633 --> 00:19:51.133 It's okay, it's okay. 00:19:52.333 --> 00:19:54.432 But I won't watch it. 00:19:54.432 --> 00:19:56.599 The books all about the book came out first. 00:19:56.599 --> 00:19:58.266 A guy basically was trying to write a story. 00:19:58.266 --> 00:20:00.432 I think this starts in a good place. 00:20:00.432 --> 00:20:02.000 Most heresies do. 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:09.400 He's trying to write a story explaining how the Trinity was represented, trying to help them be more relatable to his children. 00:20:09.400 --> 00:20:13.900 But in that he represents God the Father as an African-American woman. 00:20:15.965 --> 00:20:16.833 And I get why. 00:20:16.833 --> 00:20:26.766 Look, I get I understand artistic expression, I understand that, I get that, yes, maybe this will feel more relatable to my children. 00:20:27.066 --> 00:20:36.500 And I know that God, when he speaks of himself, there are times when he talks about his attributes in a way that is more on the feminine side, like a mother caring for her child, but he still calls himself he. 00:20:37.732 --> 00:20:39.865 And we want to be accurate, to represent him well. 00:20:39.865 --> 00:20:53.799 And to me, that book that's just too close to the second commandment making a graven image when you put it in film, representing God differently, then he represents himself directly, intentionally. 00:20:53.932 --> 00:21:03.232 We need to be careful that we're not trying to shape him into our own image, but that we shape ourselves to his image. 00:21:03.432 --> 00:21:05.333 That's how theology shapes us. 00:21:05.333 --> 00:21:06.099 We want to be accurate. 00:21:06.099 --> 00:21:06.799 We want to be careful. 00:21:06.799 --> 00:21:10.732 We want to show him the same respect that we want to be shown. 00:21:10.732 --> 00:21:12.465 Don't just make up stuff about me. 00:21:12.465 --> 00:21:16.432 Try to represent me the way that I'm that I am. 00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:20.133 So that's letter A that's accurate. 00:21:20.133 --> 00:21:26.200 Now letter P plot plot. 00:21:26.200 --> 00:21:29.333 The Bible is a story and every story has a plot. 00:21:30.465 --> 00:21:35.932 It's got a central theme, has a key idea driving it forward, which means for us we can understand. 00:21:35.932 --> 00:21:36.432 We can believe. 00:21:36.432 --> 00:21:38.432 The Bible is understandable. 00:21:38.432 --> 00:21:41.432 It does fit together. 00:21:41.465 --> 00:21:45.032 You know, one liberal and but I mean liberal theologically. 00:21:45.032 --> 00:21:46.400 I'm not talking about politics. 00:21:46.400 --> 00:21:48.766 There's liberal and conservative theology. 00:21:48.766 --> 00:21:52.232 Conservative tries to follow Scripture, believe Scripture is true. 00:21:52.232 --> 00:21:55.133 Liberal would say, now I'll just take from it what you want. 00:21:55.133 --> 00:21:56.333 It's not all dependable. 00:21:56.333 --> 00:21:57.400 It's not all authoritative. 00:21:57.400 --> 00:21:59.165 It doesn't all fit together. 00:21:59.165 --> 00:22:00.665 But we would say no. The Bible does. 00:22:00.665 --> 00:22:01.766 It all fits together. 00:22:01.766 --> 00:22:02.700 It has a plot. 00:22:02.700 --> 00:22:04.066 It has a central storyline. 00:22:04.066 --> 00:22:07.900 We can trust that because we know God is the author. 00:22:08.066 --> 00:22:09.432 He's the perfect author. 00:22:09.432 --> 00:22:10.833 Second Timothy, I put in your notes here. 00:22:10.833 --> 00:22:12.232 16. 00:22:12.232 --> 00:22:20.799 All Scripture is breathed out by God is profitable for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete fit for every good work. 00:22:21.799 --> 00:22:23.432 It's all breathed out by God. 00:22:23.432 --> 00:22:30.032 He works through human means, but he is the central author that ties it all together. 00:22:30.365 --> 00:22:31.799 And here's the plot. 00:22:31.799 --> 00:22:32.232 And this. 00:22:32.232 --> 00:22:39.532 This idea has helped me probably as much as any other theological principle when it comes to understanding Scripture. 00:22:39.532 --> 00:22:41.000 This idea has helped me more than anything else. 00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:43.932 What is the plot of Scripture? 00:22:43.932 --> 00:22:45.965 It's Jesus. 00:22:45.965 --> 00:22:48.133 The whole point of scripture is Jesus. 00:22:48.133 --> 00:22:50.599 Everything in the Old Testament is pointing forward to him. 00:22:50.599 --> 00:22:56.599 Everything in the Old Testament is saying, okay, the prophets we've had, like Jonah, have fallen short. 00:22:56.599 --> 00:22:57.766 We need a better prophet. 00:22:57.766 --> 00:22:59.932 The priests we've had had sinned. 00:22:59.932 --> 00:23:00.833 They've run away from me. 00:23:00.833 --> 00:23:02.032 We need a better priests. 00:23:02.032 --> 00:23:03.732 The kings have run from you. 00:23:03.732 --> 00:23:05.165 We need a true king. 00:23:05.165 --> 00:23:07.566 Is he going to show up? Who will it be? 00:23:07.566 --> 00:23:08.566 Prophet, priest and king. 00:23:08.566 --> 00:23:09.799 And then Jesus comes. 00:23:09.799 --> 00:23:11.432 Everything's pointing forward to him. 00:23:11.432 --> 00:23:12.965 And then the whole New Testament is here. 00:23:12.965 --> 00:23:19.266 He is explaining who he is, explaining how the Old Testament pointed forward to him, and explaining how he's going to come back. 00:23:21.232 --> 00:23:25.133 The whole point of Scripture is pointing to Jesus. 00:23:25.165 --> 00:23:28.566 We know that because Jesus makes that case. 00:23:28.566 --> 00:23:31.799 Jesus says that that's the case first in John five. 00:23:31.799 --> 00:23:32.465 That's in your notes. 00:23:32.465 --> 00:23:33.833 John 539 through 40. 00:23:33.833 --> 00:23:40.066 He says to the Pharisees, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have life. 00:23:40.066 --> 00:23:43.900 And yet it's the scriptures that speak of me. 00:23:43.900 --> 00:23:49.833 You got so focused and enamored on studying words on a page that you missed the point. 00:23:49.833 --> 00:24:01.900 The Pharisees didn't even see that everything they spoke to right there in front of them, Jesus was right there, the very one they had hoped for should have hope for - he’s right there. 00:24:02.732 --> 00:24:08.365 Look, to be fair to them, there's plenty of times I look right past Jesus to try to find some other solution in life. 00:24:10.266 --> 00:24:21.066 I mean, man, there's so many times I got a great idea about how to fix this, and it doesn't work and eventually come around to maybe I should ask Jesus what he's what he thinks. 00:24:21.066 --> 00:24:22.133 Maybe he'll have some ideas. 00:24:22.133 --> 00:24:25.133 I've tried all my ways. 00:24:25.400 --> 00:24:27.000 Luke 24 points this out as well. 00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:28.865 Jesus, and turn there, if you would, in your Bibles. 00:24:28.865 --> 00:24:29.732 Luke 24. 00:24:29.732 --> 00:24:34.665 It's on page 843 in a church Bible, because this is after Jesus has died. 00:24:34.665 --> 00:24:35.599 Rose again. 00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:39.232 There's a couple guys walking on the road to Emmaus, and they're talking about this. 00:24:39.232 --> 00:24:41.133 All that had just happened in Jerusalem. 00:24:41.133 --> 00:24:43.665 And Jesus comes up to him and says, hey, what are you talking about? 00:24:43.665 --> 00:24:44.299 What's going on? 00:24:44.299 --> 00:24:46.266 And they're like, where are you been? 00:24:46.266 --> 00:24:48.333 Who? Everybody is talking about this. 00:24:48.333 --> 00:24:50.732 How do you not know about this? 00:24:50.732 --> 00:24:51.266 You know that? 00:24:51.266 --> 00:24:53.266 How have you not heard about the Twin Towers? 00:24:53.266 --> 00:24:54.500 Imagine now some want to go on. 00:24:54.500 --> 00:24:55.200 What are you talking about? 00:24:55.200 --> 00:24:57.599 How are those who Jesus is saying? 00:24:57.599 --> 00:24:58.732 What he asked him? What? 00:24:58.732 --> 00:24:59.633 What are you talking about? 00:24:59.633 --> 00:25:00.665 How do you not know? 00:25:00.665 --> 00:25:02.599 And so they catch him up on everything. 00:25:02.599 --> 00:25:03.633 Of course he knows about it. 00:25:03.633 --> 00:25:06.200 They catch him up on all the information. 00:25:06.200 --> 00:25:17.099 But then he says this to them, look, in verse 24 of 25, he said to them, O foolish ones, slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken. 00:25:17.099 --> 00:25:23.165 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? 00:25:23.165 --> 00:25:24.365 They think it's a tragedy. 00:25:24.365 --> 00:25:25.900 They think it's the end of the world. 00:25:25.900 --> 00:25:32.900 They're upset and he rebukes them for not understanding this had to happen. 00:25:32.900 --> 00:25:34.532 This is a good thing. 00:25:34.532 --> 00:25:37.333 And then this next verse really ties it all together for me. 00:25:37.333 --> 00:25:54.500 And beginning with Moses, which that's shorthand for the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. 00:25:54.500 --> 00:25:57.732 So even Jesus says, the whole Bible's about me. 00:25:57.732 --> 00:25:58.799 How did you not see it? 00:25:58.799 --> 00:25:59.732 You should have seen it. 00:25:59.732 --> 00:26:04.900 If you were looking for it, you would see that I'm the promised one. 00:26:04.900 --> 00:26:07.665 I'm the one you're looking for. 00:26:07.665 --> 00:26:11.599 And so when you study scripture, keep that in mind. 00:26:11.599 --> 00:26:18.700 It's all pointing toward him or showing us how he's going to return or explaining him. 00:26:18.700 --> 00:26:25.266 That doesn't mean that Jesus literally shows up in every passage, but every passage relates to him in some way. 00:26:25.266 --> 00:26:29.900 Every passages tells us something about him in some way. 00:26:32.532 --> 00:26:36.665 And that really helps shape our understanding of Scripture. 00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:37.833 So that's letter P. 00:26:37.833 --> 00:26:39.133