The Bible is the Ultimate Reality Check

Episode Overview:

In this episode of The Charlie Mitchell Teachings Podcast, Pastor Charlie Mitchell unpacks how the Bible is more than just a book—it’s the true story of the world. Many of us live by the narratives we’ve been told by culture, society, and our upbringing, but Scripture confronts and corrects these false realities. Through John 5:38-40, we’ll explore why knowledge alone doesn’t equal belief, why we must align ourselves with God’s truth, and how Jesus is the key to understanding Scripture.

Key Takeaways:

1. Everyone Lives by a Story—But Is It True?

• We all shape our lives based on a narrative that helps us answer big questions: Who are we? Where do we come from? What is our purpose?

• The American Dream, street culture, capitalism, politics, and religion all tell different stories.

• The Bible presents a superior, alternative story—the true story of the world.

2. Knowledge Alone Doesn’t Equal Belief (John 5:38-40)

• Jesus rebuked the religious leaders who had extensive knowledge of Scripture but failed to recognize Him as the Messiah.

• Memorizing verses, attending church, and even theological study don’t guarantee transformation.

• We often treat Jesus like a “roommate” rather than the Lord of our lives:

• “Jesus, you can stay here, but don’t mess with my money, my relationships, my lifestyle.”

• True belief means surrendering our way of seeing the world to Him.

3. The Bible is Not a Self-Help Manual—It’s About Jesus

• “You pore over the scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about me.” (John 5:39)

• Many approach the Bible looking for answers to personal problems—career success, relationships, finances—without actually seeking Jesus.

• The Bible is not a “how-to” book for life; it’s the story of Jesus and His kingdom.

• If we read the Bible for personal gain rather than transformation, we miss its purpose.

4. Why People Reject the Truth of the Bible

• Many resist Scripture because it challenges their worldview.

• John 3:19 – “The light has come into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.”

• People often claim to seek truth, but when confronted with reality, they reject it.

• The Bible exposes our flaws, sins, and brokenness, which can be uncomfortable.

5. The Danger of Trusting Your Own Vision (Proverbs 14:12)

• Pilots in low visibility can lose their sense of direction, trusting their instincts rather than their instruments.

• The Bible is our instrument panel—it shows us reality even when we feel otherwise.

• “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.” (Proverbs 14:12)

• We must trust God’s Word over our feelings, instincts, and cultural influences.

Practical Steps to Align with God’s Reality:

1. Read the Bible for Truth, Not Just Inspiration – Approach Scripture to discover who God is, not just for quick solutions.

2. Submit to Jesus as Lord – Don’t just let Him “stay in your house”; let Him renovate it.

3. Examine Your Beliefs – Are they shaped by Scripture or by culture?

4. Surround Yourself with Biblical Community – Who influences your understanding of reality?

5. Pray for Clarity – Ask God to help you see the world as He sees it.

Final Thoughts:

We read the Bible not just for knowledge or personal gain, but to see reality as God sees it. If we ignore

Transcript

0:02

Welcome to the Charlie Mitchell teaching and audio experience. if you would please turn in your Bible to John chapter five, John chapter five, John is a biographer of Jesus and we are going to continue going on in our series on why. Bible. Um, it's a simple phrase to read, but over the last several weeks I've been unpacking why we need to read the Bible. Why should we engage with this? library of ancient books and how does that stuff apply to us? And what I didn't want to do was jump straight into tactics and strategies on, you know, how to read it, what to do, how to study it. We're going to talk about some of those skills you need to develop in the coming weeks. We're going to spend about three or four weeks just going through, how do I do this? Well, but man, I wanted to lay a bit of a foundation. and give some vision as to why we read this thing. And I, and we've said over the last several weeks, we read the Bible because we're followers of Jesus. Like that's important. Like we're not reading this because the Bible says to read it. We're reading this because we're followers. We trust Jesus. We love Jesus. We are in relationship with Jesus. And so we, we want to read the Bible because man, that's, he was a Bible teacher. Sure. And then I said last week, um, that we read the Bible, not just for information's sake, but these are relational documents, their relationship, like we, we get to see what it's like to be in relationship with God and all of those different things. And so if you haven't heard those, check those out. The third thing we've been asking over the course of this new year is to join us, if you've never done it before, to join us in reading the Bible together. Right now, this is Sunday morning, we're looking at Exodus 24, I believe. And so man, if you haven't started, it's all good. Jump in. We're on the YouVersion Bible app. We're going through the Bible project year of the Bible, actual reading plan. And so listen, join in if you're not there with us. And today we're going to continue on in our journey of why do we read? The Bible. I'm reminded of just two, two and a half, three weeks ago. How much has happened in just this month? this, this week we, inaugurated a new president. at the, at the time of this recording, he hasn't been inaugurated yet, but he is being inaugurated today. but a couple of weeks ago, one of the most infamous days in American history has been recorded. On January 6th, many, Americans Stormed and breached the Capitol building to stop the Electoral College from voting. this was a crazy thing to happen because it's something that just seems unimaginable that these people, uh, American citizens would breach the Capitol, break down the doors, bust out the windows, storm the Capitol, and it ended in the lives of several people dying. As a result of these actions. And, the question has been, why would these people do such a thing? Why would they storm the Capitol? How in the world could they get that far? That close? How could they do these things and what we've begun to see as more and more and more reports come out is that these people believed a story. They believed a story. A story. They believed that the election was stolen. They believe that the entire government has conspired against their president, Donald Trump, and that everyone worked in concert to, to steal democracy, to steal the vote. And so what they saw themselves as, is as participants in a story. It's crazy. But for many of us, just like those people, we live in a story. You live in a story. You live in a set of facts. How you interpret the world, you are living through that lens. How do I know? Because many of us have student loan debt. What was the story? We believed that you go to school, you get good grades. Some of us had 3. 5, 3. 2. Some of us had 8. We barely made it out of there, but some of us were told the story that if you got good grades and then you go to college, you get a degree and that you will be promised a job in society. Good paying job. So take the loan and therefore you can live a productive life in these United States. And what has happened? Things ain't quite turn out like that. And what are we doing? We're disillusioned by the story we were told. So we all believe stories. We believe stories about how to make sense of the world, but there's the stories we believe, and then there's reality. What is reality? Reality is the world or state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or idea about how things actually exist. And so I'm saying, here's the case I'm going to make today. That we read the scriptures to deal in reality, not in a story. So the Bible is a story, but it is the true story. And a lot of times we, brothers and sisters, Epiphany Church, Our friends, our family, we are living in stories that we have bought into. We've been told by our family, by our culture, by our community, that we've experienced ourselves. And then what we try to do is make the Bible fit into our story. When God through Jesus is trying to help us to see reality for what it is so that we may live in that and not our interpretation of things. The reality is the facts. The reality is the way things are. And I mean, I know many of us are going, man, but pastor, I live in reality. I know who I am. I know where I come from. I know the meaning and purpose of my life, but nine times out of 10, We are believing a story, and I need you to get this. There are stories all over the place, especially today. There's all kinds of stories, and another way to say this, um, you'll hear a lot of biblical scholars say this, is this is your worldview. Do you have a worldview and so here at Epiphany, it's my job, it's my goal to get you to have a biblical worldview that you understand the world rightly based on the scriptures and not from the way that America or our country tells us things are. You maybe heard of the American dream. It work hard, do good, uh, then you can experience house and prosperity and you can grow and you can pursue happiness. That's a story. If you've grown up here in Baltimore, many of the Baltimorean born and raised folks believe a certain story. What is it that, who are we? We're Baltimoreans. Where do we come from? Many of us come from the streets. We come from the gutter. We come from the real life. What is the meaning and purpose of life? We have to survive by any means necessary. And if you can escape, escape. And so that's a story that people are living out in their day to day life. And if you come in with a different story, it seems wrong and weird. So there's all kinds of stories out there, but I want you to understand that the Bible is the superior story. It ain't just one of the other stories. It's the superior story. It is the true story. It is the alternative stories. One philosopher was asked, about his country the reporter asked him and said, listen, you've seen a lot of turmoil and change and war and division. what is the best way to change a society? Is it violence and revolution or is it gradual incremental change? The philosopher responded by saying this, it's neither. If you want to change a society, you must tell an alternative story. You must tell an alternative story. This past week, last Monday we celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King, his life and his legacy. My timeline was filled with quotes and statements and sermons and, all these things about Dr. King and documentaries were watched. The books were read But what makes Dr. King so interesting is that he was able to galvanize a people into a movement, an effective movement, powerless people, people who have been subjected to oppression and pain and heartache. How was he able to do that? How was he able to mobilize these black people that had no voice into the most powerful changing voice of that century? What did he do? Dr. King looked into the scriptures. He looked at his people and what he began to do was tell an alternative story. He reminded Our ancestors, he reminded black and brown and poor people that no, even though you've been told that you were a nobody, even though you've been told you are powerless, even though you've been told you can do nothing to change the status quo. I'm telling you that the Bible calls us somebody that you were Made in the image and likeness of God, that you are absolutely God's children and God is on your side so that even when you face evil and hostility, you can know that you have the capacity to do something about it. And then while they would march, and while they would pray, and when they would go to church, they would sing a song called, We Shall Overcome. And when they sang, We Shall Overcome, what were they doing? They were telling themselves, A different story. What is that story? That we won't just end like this, but that one day we will overcome the tyranny of racism in our day. So the Bible is an alternative story. The Bible is an alternative story. Tells us something different. But everywhere you look in life and you've already adopted a story. So when you look around at Baltimore, when you look at the streets, when you look at capitalism, when you look at hip hop, when you look at politics, you look at Islam, you look at sexuality, you look at anything in the world. The Bible is exposing the weak points in that story and pointing you to the true story. So the Bible, here's what I want you to see. The Bible reveals reality, it exposes us to the truth. It's not primarily a theological textbook. It's not just a body of laws and rules that we should follow, or it's not just a nice collection of moral stories. God is telling us a story, is presenting things as they really are, is presenting humanity as we really are, is presenting God as he truly is, is presenting this world as it is. And so let me be clear, when I'm talking about a story, I'm not talking about fiction. I'm talking about how you think about the world, how you put things together, how you see and view yourself. In the world. I'm not talking about your imagination. I'm talking about truth. You are believing a set of facts that you've seen based on your experience in your living life based on what you believe. In the scriptures, Jesus is revealing the truth about the world, the truth about us. And we get invited into it, but what's so sad is many of us will reject it in the end because the truth is often hard to deal with. Let's look at the text real quick. Let's look at the text. John chapter five, verse 38 and following Jesus is talking to a group of, uh, uh, leaders in Jerusalem. He's been talking. He's been doing his ministry. And listen, if you read chapter three, four, five, up to this point in John, he's been, he's been showing off. He's been doing his thing. He's been healing folk. He's been helping folk. He's been providing. Prophetically speaking, he's been doing his ministry. He's doing what he's called to do, proving that he is who he says he is. And up to this point now, he's about to point out something that I think we need to learn from. Look at verse 38. Here's what it says. You don't have his word residing in you because you don't believe the one he has created. First thing I want you to see in this passage is knowledge does not equal belief. So if you want to deal in reality, you think that just by knowing the right information, I have belief. It is not. Jesus said, what did he say? You don't have his word residing in you because you don't believe the one he said. Jesus ain't talking to people like you and me. He ain't talking to them. He, see, cause me and you, we don't know everything, but then we'll Google it and act like we know. So Jesus ain't dealing with our kind of folk. The people that are in earshot of Jesus, these people, many of the scribes, the, the law tellers, the, the, the other rabbis and teachers of the law, these people, these people knew the Bible by memory. So these ain't no folk that ain't barely read the Bible. These are folks that have memorized and read the Bible, studied the Bible their entire life. Even the small children standing around listening would be well versed in Genesis and Exodus in the first five books of the Bible. It was how they learned how to read. It was how they learned how to pray. It was how they learned their name. It was everything in their life was geared around the Bible. So what Jesus is saying is absolutely offensive. But just because they knew the scriptures, it doesn't mean that they understand the scriptures at all. That's a scary proposition. Because how does that, how is that even possible? I know it. I study it. I read it. I know it. I done heard the sermons. Everything. But you, but Jesus said, you don't have his word residing in you. What does residing mean? It's not taking up a place of residence. The word don't live in you because you don't actually believe the claims of Jesus in the scriptures are true. You don't think what Jesus is actually saying is true because you keep going back to your story and not Jesus's story. So that word that you know, it doesn't actually take up residence and transform family. So knowledge don't equal belief. Let me, let me, let me try to do my best to make this thing plain. Cause I need, I need y'all to get this down in your spirit. Cause some of us have been acquainted with the Bible, read the Bible, done scripture memory, done a lot of stuff, all that. But we have yet to let it take root and take up residence in our heart. Have you ever had, a family member move into your house? Because that's, that's how, that's what happens with Jesus. we, we allow Jesus to be a roommate in our house. Let me, let me explain. When a family member or a friend falls on hard times or goes through something, or you're in a specific season, y'all are roomies. and, and, and what happens? They move their little bit of stuff in to your house. Right? And what, what, what is assumed in this negotiation is, is that my stuff is the way it is, and you have to adjust your stuff to fit my lifestyle and the way we live here, because you under my roof. This is my house. So you're going to have your little corner, your little nook, your little room. But when you come out here, this is the way we do things. And so when it comes to Jesus, we do the exact same thing. Can I, can I, can I be frank with you and show you how you do this? Jesus, you can stay here, but, but you know how I grew up. So that's just, That's just how it is. We, we not changing my attitude, how I live my life. That's going to stay the exact same cause you in my house, this is my heart. And so I'm not moving my stuff around. You're just a roommate. Jesus, you can stay here, but listen, that forgiveness stuff, you don't have to keep that in storage because that's not going to apply to my life. because you know where I'm from. If you, if you forgive somebody and all that you weak, you're foolish, you're an idiot. You don't know what you're talking about. So lead that forgiveness stuff. But you cool. You come on and stay here. Jesus, you can stay here, but Hey, listen, I need to have sex with whoever, whenever I want to. I just need you to know that. All right. And I need you to get comfortable with that because you in my house, Jesus, you can stay here. But, but, but it's just you and me. I don't want you to invite nobody from the church or the pastor or whoever. They can't speak. I don't want that crew and all this stuff. They can't speak into my situation. It's just you and me. And so we're going to do our thing here, but you're not allowed to bring nobody else. Jesus, you can move into my church. but I'm an Aquarius. And so you and my Zodiac sign are going to have to work together because if I like what the horoscope says, I'm going to take that. And then when I don't like what it says, I'm going to just read the Bible when I feel like it, Jesus, you can stay in my heart, but I just got you here for comfort. I don't got you here to move nothing around. So what happens is Jesus. Who is the author and finisher of the faith, the alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He God almighty, who all things were created by him and through him. And through him, nothing exists. You reduce him to just a roommate. That has his little things in the corner, but when he comes into the rooms of your heart He's not allowed to touch or move anything Belief true belief in Jesus is trusting what he says Over what I think or my own instincts But true belief in Jesus is trusting what He says over my instincts, my comforts, what I grew up with, all of that. My story that I've adopted moves to the side now that Jesus is taking up residence in my heart. Now, so we don't get to mix and match Jesus with something else. Everything gets pushed to the side. That's what it means. But when we say Jesus is Lord, it means that he overrules and supersedes everything else in my life. I'm going to try to make it even more plain. If you ever watch HGTV, And you've seen stuff like fixer upper in the property brothers. If you want to act if you want to see me act like i've never met jesus before Put me in front of that dog on tv when hgtv is on and they got this this dog on property brothers I am going to get so angry and be yelling and spitting at the tv. It's ridiculous Why because when you get on the show, uh fixer upper They get up there or they get the property brothers and you got this family and they, they want a house. And so they go with, Chip and Joanna. Hey, Jip and Joanna, we want this house. We tell them what they want. So they're going to ride you around the city to pick out these houses and the whole time. Oh, I don't know, Chip. Oh, I don't know, Joanna. This house is a mess. I don't think y'all can do nothing with this. Ah, da da da da da da da da da. And so, I'm yelling at the TV because you are on their show. How did you get on their show and you are, don't act, don't act, you act like you know more than them. You don't know more than them. For many of us, when it comes to Jesus, We hem and haw and doubt and fuss and fight with him as if he don't know what he's doing. If I was on that HGTV, the episode is going to be 15 minutes long. It's going to be the most uneventful show you've ever seen possible. Chip and Joanne are going to come pick me up. I'm going to tell them what kind of house I want. Listen, I want the house to look fly because I know what y'all do. Huh? But Charlie, we're going to take you to three houses you're going to pick. No, no, no, no, no. I want you to find the worst house on the block. I don't care where it's at, find the worst house on the block, and listen, Chip, Joanna, do what you do! That is true belief. Allowing Jesus to have the reign and the rule. Listen, throw my little stuff out. I don't know what I'm doing. My stuff is a mess. I might think I know what I'm doing. That stuff is a mess. Throw that in the dumpster. I want to see what you can do with the little stuff that I got. And so, I need you to understand. That's true belief. So, having some knowledge and information ain't it. A true belief is I take my story, my narrative, and I push that, that way of viewing the world to the side. And I say, God, do what you do and I'll trust you. Then I'm living in reality. Look at verse 39. He goes on to say this. You pour over the scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them. And yet they testify about me. Second thing I want you to see is that you can't make the Bible work for you. A lot of times we want to make the Bible work for us. We're so committed to our story. We so committed to the way we do things and how we like it, how we've got everything set up, our interpretation of the world that we seek to take the Bible and bend it to fit our story and not the other way around. Jesus is talking to the experts of the law, but he's exposing something that is deep within every human heart. He's, he's, he's exposing the fact that we are trying to use the Bible as a tool to our own benefit and not to see it as a way to understand God in the world and how we fit in it. We want, when we want things to go better at work, we said, man, I'll just read the Bible. When we want to find a husband, a wife, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, we, ah, I miss, I guess I better read the Bible. Uh, when we want our business idea to work. We go, ah, you know what? Maybe I should read a couple of verses in the Bible when we want our kids to do better. When we want to make some money, when we, when we want to avert a crisis, when we want something to happen in our life that we can't control, we go to the Bible as a tool to hopefully unlock God's goodness towards us. But Jesus says you pour over the scriptures because you think eternal life is Is in the book when really the eternal life that you were looking for is in me. You can't crack the code of the scriptures apart from Jesus. The whole purpose of the book is to connect you to Jesus, not the goodies that Jesus might add. And so we try to avoid Jesus to get to the good stuff, right? Realize that the whole point of you understanding how this world works, it don't work apart from Jesus. Why? Because the scriptures don't work for you. They work on behalf of Jesus, showing us what real life is. So we must be careful not to come to the Bible with our own agenda. We got to come to the Bible open with our heart open and say, God, show me what you have for me. Show me, help me to see Jesus. Is this what I'm really like without you? Do I do this? Is this what, how I act? Is this what I do? Is this how the world is? Okay, now help me to be who you've called me to be right here and right now. The third thing very quickly I want you to see from these scriptures is But you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life. So sad about what he's saying is, That many will choose to reject the teachings of Jesus because they don't really want to accept reality. What happens? What's the old movie line? I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. Jesus show me, show me, reveal to me your will and your ways and show me. I want to be all that you call me to be, but you don't want that. You want what you want. And reality is hard to swallow and many, many, many will not. So we can have knowledge and not have belief in Jesus, then we can read the Bible, but the Bible don't work for us. The Bible is to to reveal who Jesus is and who we are, and then we gonna, Jesus gonna reveal who we are and who he is, and then we gonna reject it. Go back to John 19, John 3 19. I mean, you, all you got to do is turn one page, uh, one and a half little pages. It's going to show you John 3 19 for this is the judgment. The light has come into the world. The people love darkness rather than the light because their deeds are light. We're evil. You want the truth, but you can't handle the truth because I'm going to expose you to the truth and you're going to try to hide from it. We are so committed to our stories. The people at the Capitol were so committed to how they saw the world, the information that they had read, the research that they had done, that they were willing to storm and breach the Capitol building, put their lives on the line. For something that they believe so deeply and we are the same ways we will abandon the truth for a lot nine times out of 10. It takes the Holy Spirit to pull us back in for us to hold on to the truth. We are so committed to our stories and our interpretation of the world. Even if it means harming ourselves and others. If you've been reading through the Bible reading plan, through Genesis, now we're in Exodus, we've read about Pharaoh. Pharaoh was committed to doing what he wanted to do, come hell or high water. And both came. When we go back to Abraham, Abraham was always fearful. He was a messy dude, an absentee father, kicked out his child, the whole nine. Abraham, Isaac, his son was a schemer, all kind of stuff. Jacob did all kind of, listen, we messed, that's us. And a lot of times we want to be the hero, but that's what is showing us all of us. The Bible is a mirror. And if it were not for God, God intervening and stepping in, we would make a mess out of everything. Noah was saved from the flood. First thing he did is get drunk and tipsy and curse his own children. That's us, but most will not see that as the reality and will settle for what we believe life is. And it has devastating consequences. Let me leave you with January 26, 2020. We woke up, many of us heard, saw the most devastating, heart wrenching news we had heard in a very long time. We heard and saw the news that Kobe Bryant and his daughter were killed in a helicopter crash. Very sad. And it was the beginning of what would turn out to be a very rough year. Many of us wondered how in the world could this have happened? How is it that Colby flies almost every single day? He would die in a helicopter crash. Since then there've been reports and hypotheses expressed by many Pilots that have seen this tragedy unfold, not just as one's time, but many times over many of these pilots are saying that Colby Bryant was killed. The pilot was suffering from spatial disorientation. Spatial disorientation is a common reference. An investigation reports of fatal air crashes. Almost, and it occurs, his house occurs. It occurs when a pilot is flying low and low visibility due to clouds, fog, or darkness and they cannot see a horizon and their senses conflict with the reality of their position. I need you to catch that right there. These pilots crash because their senses are telling them one thing when the reality is something very different. And the stories we believe are like the fog that you cannot see through. Our senses telling us we are going someplace. But in reality, we are headed for a devastating crash. One pilot is quoted as saying, when you are flying and you cannot see, you don't know where you are. There are no visual cues, so you are relying on your inner ear. You don't know if you are up or down. or where you are. For many of us, we are relying on our instincts and what we were told, how we grew up and what we've read and perceived. And we don't know if we're up, down, upside down, going right, wait, left, wherever. Here's what one, uh, pilot said about this crash of Kobe Bryant while having 19 years of The flying experience, his, his pilot and that final minute, he was probably not focusing on his instruments. He was not relying on the instruments. He was relying on his inner ear and looking out the window. So for many of us, we're looking out the window of life going, uh, I think I can kind of get this. I think I can navigate how to do this. I think I can navigate how to handle relationships, how to handle my life, how to handle spirituality in Jesus. I think I can navigate this work situation. I think I can navigate my own heart and tell myself how to get out of this and how to deal with that. We're looking at the window and not looking at the. instrument. He is not relying on the instruments. However said that when a pilot loses orientation, he or she must completely trust their instruments, which takes a lot of instrument time. Some of you have not had instrument time. You've not spent enough time in the scriptures to actually know how to trust the dog on instrument. Your body is not meant to handle this. Pressure the strain, this cultural situation by yourself. You are meant to trust someone outside of you and that someone outside of you is. Jesus. Here's what the Bible says in Proverbs 14, 12. There is a way that seems right to a person, but in the end, that way leads to sorrow. Epiphany. I'm asking you, don't trust your vision and intuition. Place your trust in the everlasting, unfailing words of Jesus. We read for reality. We read so that we may walk true in the world. We read so that we may rightly perceive how I in the world function and who God is. The Bible is the instrument that tells us how things really are in life. So trust the scriptures, read the scriptures, follow Jesus in reality.