The Point #156 - Know Your Stuff

Jesus taught with authority. People were astonished at His confidence; this came from His knowledge of God and the Word of God. We, too, can have that confidence! Know your stuff! Today’s encouragement is just that -- Does everything you do in your Christian life have a root in a specific Scripture? Could you show that verse to anyone who asks? Let’s be students of the Word, with a life that backs it up!

Transcript

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There is an infinite amount of things to learn from the life of Christ in the four gospels. Today I'd like to focus on Matthew 7, verse 29. The longest message recorded in the Bible, the longest sermon, is the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus spent the entirety of Matthew 5, 6, and 7 teaching his disciples and many others so many truths. He ended in Matthew 7, and the last verse of that chapter says that the people were astonished at his teachings because he taught with authority, not as the scribes. I love that so much. Now, as his followers, we should be able to be described in that way. Do we know why we believe what we believe? And can we prove it from the Bible? Friends, we need to be study, studying the Bible. We need to be researchers, we need to be looking up verses, knowing why we believe what we believe. Sometimes our pastor will just ask us without warning in church, someone give me the reference of why we believe Jesus is God. Or why should a person be baptized after they're saved? Or about the Trinity, or about anything? Could you give a reference to anything that you believe? Thankfully, hopefully, we know the Romans Road or verses in Romans that talk about salvation and how to be saved. That's so important. But do you know any verses about why you do everything you do in the Christian life? We need to be able to give an answer for our beliefs. That is what separates Christianity from false religion, is that we are not living out man-made rules passed down through generations. In some religions that claim to believe the Bible, their heritage is just that one man stands in front of a congregation and he's the only one with a Bible, and he tells them what the Bible says. But scripture tells us that we all should be looking in the Bible to know what the Bible says and to be able to discern truth from a lie. If we don't have the word of God and we're not using it, we can easily be deceived by people we hear online, on podcasts, by spiritual people that write books, that people that even use the word of God. But if we don't know all of the word of God, then we are going to be easy prey for people that cherry pick a verse here and a verse here and kind of blend it together and give their own philosophies. The Holy Spirit of God has to give us the wisdom to know truth from a lie. And there are so many people out there that are giving half truths and using scripture to back it up. But we won't know that and we won't know the truth. Jesus said that He is the truth. So we must know Jesus. We won't know the truth, but the truth is what makes us free. And there are many false teachers out there. I'm they may have good intentions, but what they're saying about the Bible is not what the word of God says. We have to teach and with mastery, just like Jesus did in the Bible. He taught with authority, not as the scribes. He taught as a man that knew exactly what he was talking about. And when we know truth, truth is so powerful. Truth changes lives, and the Bible is the truth. So we can't hope to change people's lives unless we know the Bible and we have it hidden in our hearts. Let me ask you, ladies, if an unsaved neighbor comes to you or someone that you're speaking to out witnessing for the Lord, and they ask you questions, can you answer them from the Bible? Can you tell them why you believe what you believe? It is not influential to the younger generation if we can't express from the Bible why we dress how we dress, why we go to church and how often we go to church, why we abstain from some things and do other things. Those are great um godly examples to push us to the word of God. But at the end of the day, especially, especially by the time we have our own children, it shouldn't be because the church does this, or maybe a college you went to said to do this, or a Sunday school teacher, or your own parents told you to do something. By the time you have your own kids, you need to be able to raise them, pointing them back to Bible doctrine. So it's never too late, though. No matter where we are in life, we can always learn the scriptures to be able to live with authority of God's word in our life. This is what I would love to encourage you to do. Start making studies in the Word of God. Look at your life, how you live, why you live, why do you speak the way you do? Why do you refrain from using certain language? Where is that found in the Bible? Why do you give tithes and offerings? How much do you give? All of this is directed in the Bible with specific chapters and verses. The Bible is our foundation. It is why we stand on everything we stand on. And if we have the authority of the word of God, then we can stand through difficult times. We can stand for the Lord even if there's a law against it someday. We can keep our own beliefs because God told us to do this. And we know where He said that in the Bible. Perilous times are coming. We know that. We see that all around us. And we aren't probably always going to have freedoms that we have now. Sometimes where you live, you have less freedom than other people in different places in the country, even, depending on your location. But how we live should always be directed by the Word of God, and we should be able to give an accounting of it by taking others to certain scriptures. Do your children know why they believe what they believe? Do your students know why they believe what they believe? Teach them these doctrines, help them to know how to defend their faith. And we have to know that first before we can teach that to them. So as we live and share the gospel with others, let it be from the place of truth, from the actual scripture. Let's separate anything in our lives that was just tradition, hearsay, things passed down from our heritage. Let that be separated from every single reason we live has a Bible verse, has a Bible doctrine, has a Bible philosophy. I encourage that of you, I encourage that of myself. Be a student. Know your Bible. It gives you great confidence and authority and freedom for how you live your life. It gives you great authority for others who may say that you're nothing but a hypocrite if you can't tell them exactly why you do what you do. Why are you different? Why are your standards different? Why is your attitude different? How can you stay happy in difficult times? Be able to show people where that comes from in the Bible. That's just an encouragement I'd like to give to all of us today from the life of Christ. Have a wonderful week, friends. Loving God through loving others.