SPEAKER_00: This morning we are picking back up in uh in a series that we started a couple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh and it's a series of questions that we're asking that will hopefully help us uh build a better, a deeper understanding of how we grow in our faith.
SPEAKER_00: What is it that actually helps us uh to grow day in and day out?
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so this morning we're asking the question uh how can I hear from God?
SPEAKER_00: How can I hear from God?
SPEAKER_00: Uh now the most basic answer to this question is uh to read the word, to read, uh, to read the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: But that would be a short sermon, so we're gonna um we're we're gonna we're gonna talk about uh we're gonna we're gonna talk about it uh for uh for a little bit to understand uh you know what uh what does it mean that the Bible is God's word, and what does it mean that the Bible is God's words to us, so that we can hear from Him.
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking there's um there's this significant moment in uh in the the Protestant Reformation.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh you know, the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, where um where Martin Luther and others uh began to see the some of the things that the church was doing uh and to see what the Bible said and to see what the church was saying and doing and to realize you know these things don't match up.
SPEAKER_00: And so they uh uh they began to uh teach something different and began to help people understand uh what uh what the Bible actually said and what God really wanted for us.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the one of the main tenets of the Protestant Reformation uh was scripture alone.
SPEAKER_00: This idea that uh that we have the Bible and that the Bible is uh is enough for us to know God and to know uh and and to know about uh about Him.
SPEAKER_00: And so Martin Luther He was teaching and he was uh preaching on uh on sort of these different things, and the church called him to kind of a trial of religious judges, and they said, Will you uh will you recant these things?
SPEAKER_00: Will you uh change your mind on the things that you've been saying and stop uh and stop teaching these things?
SPEAKER_00: And there's kind of this well-known speech that he uh that he gives, and this is part of what he says to those judges.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Unless I'm convinced by the testimony of the scriptures, or by clear reason, for I do not trust either in the Pope or in counsels alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves, I'm bound by the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: I've quoted I've quoted, and my conscience is captive to the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot and will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.
SPEAKER_00: May God help me.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And so, even as he was facing prison, even as he was facing more than that, the thing that he had to cling to was the word of God, was to say, this is what I have heard God saying to me in his word.
SPEAKER_00: And how can I do anything else?
SPEAKER_00: How can I uh how can I teach anything else?
SPEAKER_00: How can I live any other way?
SPEAKER_00: How can I trust anything else except God's word?
SPEAKER_00: And so all this to say, you know, it I've thought as I've as I've studied kind of church history and that sort of thing before, what about the word of God?
SPEAKER_00: Why would the word of God be such an important thing to Martin Luther and to other reformers that they would be willing to go to prison for it, that they would be willing uh to die for it, which which some of them did.
SPEAKER_00: Uh to be able to have the word of God, to be able to uh read the word of God and for people to have it in their hands.
SPEAKER_00: What is it about it that would that would make them so committed to um uh uh uh to the word of God?
SPEAKER_00: Uh they lived in a time where uh where the church had had the Bible, and uh and most people did not have a Bible they couldn't read, they didn't have a Bible they could read in their uh in their language.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and so the church was basically saying, we'll tell you uh what God says.
SPEAKER_00: Um we'll let you we'll let you know what you need to know about the Bible and about and about what God uh says to you.
SPEAKER_00: But the reformers believed that the Bible was God's word to all of us, that it's his gift to us so we can know him.
SPEAKER_00: And they fought for the Bible, for it to be translated into common languages, and for people to be able to have and read it for themselves, so they could hear from God for themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Not today, I mean, Bibles are everywhere, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh even if you, you know, even if you're not a Christian, the odds are you probably have a Bible laying around your house, you know, uh uh somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: Um if you are a Christian, you may have many Bibles, uh, in uh, you know, um big ones, little ones, kind of, you know, um floating all around uh all around your house.
SPEAKER_00: And and we take for granted that that wasn't always uh always the case.
SPEAKER_00: We take for granted that that's not even the case in uh places in the world today where people risk their lives to have a Bible and to be able to read, uh to read a Bible for uh for themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Think about 2 Peter chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: He says, His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this is at the heart of what of what the reformers were talking about and what they why they were so passionate about the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's God's good and precious promises to us.
SPEAKER_00: It's for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: And and we get to actually hear the God of the universe speak to us through that word, through his promises.
SPEAKER_00: We get to uh we get to know him.
SPEAKER_00: Uh his word is where we find everything we need for life and godliness.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is the thing that we need most, and we find him in uh in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: We find him in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, when we think about even church history, when we think about some of these things, then it's not just uh, you know, sort of a philosophical conversation, or it's not even just a pursuit of more knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: But it's understanding what God's word is and why it's so valuable to us, because it's how we know God.
SPEAKER_00: It's how we get to know the God of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: And nothing can be more important for the believer than the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Um here's another uh quote from Martin Luther.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Let us then consider it certain and firmly established that the soul needs only one thing: the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: When this is missing, the soul lacks the one item that is essential.
SPEAKER_00: Having the word of God makes the soul rich, for what else could it possibly need?
SPEAKER_00: The word of God brings life, truth, light, peace, righteousness, salvation, joy, liberty, wisdom, power, grace, glory, and every other blessing imaginable.
SPEAKER_00: This is why in Psalm 119 and in many other places in the Bible, there's a yearning and sighing for the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Luther saw in the word of God Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He saw the thing that his soul needed most.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and and what did he sell?
SPEAKER_00: I say, I can uh I can I can do no other, I can trust no other.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about uh think he mentioned Psalm 119, right?
SPEAKER_00: Think just a little even just one uh or a couple of the verses in Psalm 119.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes.
SPEAKER_00: With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth, in the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches.
SPEAKER_00: I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.
SPEAKER_00: I will delight in your statutes, I will not forget your word.
SPEAKER_00: All through Psalm 119, uh David says, uh, you know, the the word of God is is like honey on my lips.
SPEAKER_00: It's like it's like the best meal I've ever had, it's like the best uh treasure I've ever found.
SPEAKER_00: He says, This is what the word of God is uh for me.
SPEAKER_00: He knew he was hearing from God through uh through through the word.
SPEAKER_00: And we have the same opportunity to delight in God's words to us as we listen to him and as we study his word.
SPEAKER_00: It's how we build a relationship with him.
SPEAKER_00: And so, our question this morning: how can we hear from God?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we hear from him in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna look at two short passages that uh that kind of help us understand the Bible better and help us better understand how we can hear from God.
SPEAKER_00: So, if you are willing and able, and you can stand for just a minute, we'll read these two passages here.
SPEAKER_00: One from 2 Timothy, and then one from the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_00: The first is from 2 Timothy chapter 3, starting in verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: It says, But 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 acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: 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 complete, equipped for every good work.
SPEAKER_00: And then in the Gospel of John, chapter 20, right near the end of his gospel account of the life of Jesus, he says, uh now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for us.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for your word, thank you for the gift that it is to us, and thank you that um you love us enough to uh to put it in our hands and to put it in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And so we pray that you would do that this morning, that we um would find great joy and great delight in your word because it's your words to us.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can be seated.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna look at a couple of different things in these short chapters about what happens when we hear from God and uh and how we hear from him and his word.
SPEAKER_00: And so, first we're gonna look at uh the fact that we hear from God personally.
SPEAKER_00: In in 2 Timothy 3, 16 that we read, it said, all scripture is breathed out by God.
SPEAKER_00: All scripture is God breathed.
SPEAKER_00: What an incredible thing that we are even asking this question, right?
SPEAKER_00: How can I hear from God?
SPEAKER_00: The fact that we can even ask, how do I hear from the God of the universe?
SPEAKER_00: How do I hear from the God that is way bigger than I can ever imagine?
SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, like Bob prayed earlier.
SPEAKER_00: That I could even ask, how can I hear from him and hear from him better?
SPEAKER_00: The fact that he desires a relationship with us so much that he would provide a way for us uh to hear from him and to and to know him.
SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's an incredible gift and an incredible thing.
SPEAKER_00: God has made a way for each of us to hear from him.
SPEAKER_00: See, God's a he's a relational God.
SPEAKER_00: He's a personal God who wants a personal relationship with each one of us.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's spoken to us uh through his word in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things we read in the Bible is that our tendency is to be self-consumed and to go our own way.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Now, we probably have seen that in our own lives, right?
SPEAKER_00: We can probably uh relate to that.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Bible tells us on our own we would never seek after God.
SPEAKER_00: We would never go looking for him.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does God do?
SPEAKER_00: He comes looking for us, he pursues us.
SPEAKER_00: He knows we will never look for him, let alone find him.
SPEAKER_00: And so he gives us a roadmap to find our way to him.
SPEAKER_00: He gives us his word.
SPEAKER_00: And as we hear from him in his word, we have everything that we need for life, for godliness, for knowing him, for knowing how to be uh in a relationship with him and knowing how to live for him and with him.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't leave us to figure things out on our own.
SPEAKER_00: He gave us the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Now, because Scripture is God's word, all the power and authority of God come with it.
SPEAKER_00: If it's from him, then it's uh then it has his power and his authority connected to it.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible gives us uh glimpses of the power of God and his word.
SPEAKER_00: Think about uh think about creation, right?
SPEAKER_00: The very beginning of the Bible, uh, it says that God created everything.
SPEAKER_00: And how did he create it?
SPEAKER_00: Uh just by speaking, right?
SPEAKER_00: He spoke things and uh and they came into being.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's the power of God's uh word.
SPEAKER_00: Think about uh think about when Jesus was on the boat with his disciples out on the uh out on the lake, and the storm comes, right?
SPEAKER_00: They're terrified, uh, they think they're gonna die.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and Jesus, he wakes up from his nap in the middle of the storm, and uh, and and he and he calms the storm.
SPEAKER_00: But how does he calm it?
SPEAKER_00: He just speaks to it, right?
SPEAKER_00: His words, he says, be still.
SPEAKER_00: And his words have the power to calm uh lightning and thunder and uh and the waves.
SPEAKER_00: This is the power of uh of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And that power comes through his word uh of in the Bible as well.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same God, it's the same word, it's the same power.
SPEAKER_00: And the scriptures give us the opportunity uh to experience uh that same power in our lives as well.
SPEAKER_00: If God's spoken personally, then his words have his power and authority behind them.
SPEAKER_00: And if they have power and authority behind them, then it means that they have power and authority over us.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe another way to think about it is if the God of the universe has spoken, we we get to hear from him, we get to hear what he has to say to us, but we also need to listen to what he has to say to us, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh because uh because of who he is and because of the authority that comes uh through his word.
SPEAKER_00: He's got the wisdom and authority to tell us what's true and good.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us about us, he tells us about himself, he tells us about how we can be in a relationship with him, and he tells us about how life works best.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us what it looks like to live uh with him.
SPEAKER_00: And this is actually free.
SPEAKER_00: Because we live in a world where everyone has an opinion, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh everyone has a claim uh to authority and wants you to believe that uh that what they're saying is uh is the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Lots of people and ideas uh are begging for our allegiance, right, for us to uh uh to sort of hitch our wagon to uh uh to them.
SPEAKER_00: So, how do we know what to do?
SPEAKER_00: How do we know who to trust?
SPEAKER_00: How do we know what to listen to?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we listen to God first.
SPEAKER_00: We let him speak, and we trust his authority over all others.
SPEAKER_00: And when we understand who he is, when we understand what he is like, he begins to help us understand uh everything else.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what Martin Luther said that day at his trial.
SPEAKER_00: I'm bound by the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: My conscience is captive to the word of God, I can do no other.
SPEAKER_00: This is the response, this is the right response to hearing from the God of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: It's to say that my life, my thoughts, uh, my actions, everything about me is bound to the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm bound to him because uh he made me and because he loves me.
SPEAKER_00: So when we hear from God, uh we hear from him personally.
SPEAKER_00: Uh another thing uh we hear from God with clarity.
SPEAKER_00: And I think 2 Timothy helps us to see this.
SPEAKER_00: Uh in verses 14 and 15, what does it say?
SPEAKER_00: Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, how from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how Timothy's been acquainted with the scriptures even since childhood.
SPEAKER_00: He's had some understanding of God and his word.
SPEAKER_00: From early on, he's understood at least something about salvation in Christ and about how it transforms his life.
SPEAKER_00: That ability to understand even from childhood is because the word of God is clear to those who read it by faith.
SPEAKER_00: It can be understood, and God gives us the ability to understand it.
SPEAKER_00: Another reformer, um, a contemporary of Luther's, uh his last name was Zwingli, uh, he said this.
SPEAKER_00: He said, The word of God is certain and can never fail.
SPEAKER_00: It is clear and will never leave us in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: It teaches its own truth, it arises and irritates the soul of man with full salvation and grace.
SPEAKER_00: It gives the soul sure comfort in God.
SPEAKER_00: It humbles it so that it loot, it loses and indeed condemns itself and lays hold of God.
SPEAKER_00: Reading God's word has the power to bring us out of darkness and into uh and into light.
SPEAKER_00: It humbles us by showing us how great God is and and how much we fall short.
SPEAKER_00: What does it say?
SPEAKER_00: What did he say?
SPEAKER_00: It loses and indeed condemns uh itself, the soul.
SPEAKER_00: It humbles the soul so that we can hold on uh to uh to God instead.
SPEAKER_00: The word shows us the reality of our broken world and the promise that God's making to renew it.
SPEAKER_00: It shows us our own sin and brokenness, and uh and it shows us Jesus' salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And so the word of God is clear.
SPEAKER_00: It has clarity for us to be able to understand it.
SPEAKER_00: But probably it's easy for you to think of times where you've read the Bible and you said, I don't understand it, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh you you uh you know, you you read a passage and you think, what is he, what is he talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Or you you close, you know, you read and you close the Bible and you think, I don't know that I'm ever gonna understand this or be able to put all these things uh together.
SPEAKER_00: So what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: What do we do when we struggle to understand uh the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: If he tells us that it's clear, if he tells us that we can understand it, what do we do when we can't and when we feel like we can't?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the first thing we do is we pray and we ask God to give us understanding and to help us.
SPEAKER_00: It's his spirit that opens our eyes and opens our hearts, opens our minds to be able to understand what he's saying to us in uh in his word.
SPEAKER_00: And so the first thing we have to do is we have to humble ourselves enough to say, God, I need help.
SPEAKER_00: I need your help to understand what it is you're saying to me in uh in your word.
SPEAKER_00: And there's something about humbling ourselves that's really hard, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we we have trouble asking for help, and yet there's something in asking for help that actually gives us a better understanding of uh of his word.
SPEAKER_00: To be able to trust him, to be able to uh uh to um to realize I cannot figure this out in my own strength, but uh in my own wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: But God loves me enough that he can help me understand it and uh and make it clear to me.
SPEAKER_00: And so we pray.
SPEAKER_00: You know, this is this is a prayer he he loves to answer with a yes uh right away.
SPEAKER_00: To say, God, every time we open the scriptures, every time we come to worship on Sunday morning, um, you know, to say, God, help me to understand what it is you have to say to me.
SPEAKER_00: Help me to hear you clearly.
SPEAKER_00: Another thing I think when we have trouble understanding is to stick with it.
SPEAKER_00: There's plenty of places where the Bible is hard to understand and it takes work.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, I think we are losing our muscle memory for thinking deeply a lot of times.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we can we can find information so easily uh right now that um that it makes it hard for us to do, uh to put real effort and deep work into understanding things.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Nicholas Carr uh he wrote a book called The Shallows, What the Internet is doing to our brains.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and in it he says uh he says this He says, What the Internet seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.
SPEAKER_00: Whether I'm online or not, my mind now expects to take in information the way the internet distributes it, in a swiftly moving stream of particles.
SPEAKER_00: And I love this next image.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Once I was a scuba diver in a sea of words, and now I zip along the surface like a guy on a jet ski.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when we're scrolling and when we're doing all these things, you know, we just zip, we just zip along the surface.
SPEAKER_00: But what God calls us to do is to dig deep like a scuba diver into his word so that we can really know him and plumb the depths of the riches of his wisdom and of his knowledge and of his word for us.
SPEAKER_00: Think of how often the Bible talks about meditating on the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Meditate on his word in the morning, at night before you go to bed, every other minute in between those.
SPEAKER_00: He says, meditate on his word all of the time.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just a quick, all right, let me, you know, let me read the verse on my coffee mug and then put it in the sink and move on with my day.
SPEAKER_00: But to but to really dig deep into his word, to know what he's saying to us, and to really hear from him.
SPEAKER_00: Thomas Watson was a Puritan and he said, uh, without meditation, the truth of God will not stay with us.
SPEAKER_00: The heart is hard and the memory slippery, and without meditation, all is lost.
SPEAKER_00: Meditation imprints and fastens a truth in the mind.
SPEAKER_00: As a hammer drives a nail to the head, so meditation drives a truth to the heart.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we need.
SPEAKER_00: We need God's truth driven deep into our souls, deep into our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And to really spend time in his word, to really spend time thinking about his word and asking him to help us understand it, that's what really, uh what really begins to change us.
SPEAKER_00: And so it there are times where it's really hard to study God's word, but it doesn't mean we can't hear from him.
SPEAKER_00: It may just take prayer, it may take focus to be able to get there.
SPEAKER_00: And it also doesn't mean that you can't ask for for help.
SPEAKER_00: God gives us so many resources and so many things to help us understand his word and to help us hear from him what he has to say to us.
SPEAKER_00: We can study the scriptures together, um, uh, you know, in Bible studies and uh in small groups and things like that.
SPEAKER_00: We can use commentaries, there's so many podcasts, there's uh there's so many websites that you can go to uh to uh to help you uh study and understand God's word.
SPEAKER_00: This is actually one of the things that technology is really great for now.
SPEAKER_00: That we what a gift we have, that there are so many things at our fingertips, on our phone or our iPad, to um to help us understand God's word better.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that shouldn't be the only thing that we use, but man, is it a tool?
SPEAKER_00: Man, is it a gift that God has given us to be able to use and be able to understand him better?
SPEAKER_00: And so and so we have each other.
SPEAKER_00: We have the um the different tools that uh all to our advantage um that we can use to help us understand him.
SPEAKER_00: Understanding the clarity of scripture is to understand the love of God for you in the gift of his word.
SPEAKER_00: See, he loves you, he wants you to know him.
SPEAKER_00: He's made himself known in his word in a way that you can actually uh actually know him, actually understand, begin to understand him.
SPEAKER_00: And this should be a real encouragement for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Like I said before, he has not left us on our own, he has not left us to ourselves, but he has pursued us because he loves us and he's given us his word so that we can understand him.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to Proverbs chapter three.
SPEAKER_00: God tells us, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
SPEAKER_00: In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
SPEAKER_00: Be not wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
SPEAKER_00: It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.
SPEAKER_00: You hear that?
SPEAKER_00: Healing and refreshment.
SPEAKER_00: Where does it come from for us?
SPEAKER_00: It comes from the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: It comes as we listen and hear from God.
SPEAKER_00: All right, uh, so um we hear from God with clarity, but we also hear from God practically.
SPEAKER_00: Paul tells us what we hear from God is useful for what we need.
SPEAKER_00: What does he say in verse 16 and 17?
SPEAKER_00: All scriptures breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
SPEAKER_00: What we hear from God is useful, it's practical for us because he knows us and he knows uh what's best for us.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a couple of different ways you can break up these different uh these different words he has here.
SPEAKER_00: It's useful for doctrine, right?
SPEAKER_00: Teaching and reproof is uh is him saying God's word is enough for us to uh to understand uh doctrine, things about uh things about him, what we believe about God and ourselves positively, and uh, and also it helps us to reprove or to recognize when things aren't true about what's being taught about him.
SPEAKER_00: And so and so the Bible is uh is a source for us to help us know God uh better.
SPEAKER_00: It's useful for our conduct, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's profitable for correction and training and righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: It shows us how to live in light of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It shows us how we should obey God, shows us what's possible when we've been transformed by the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And it also shows us how we fall short so that we see our need for Jesus as well.
SPEAKER_00: His word's useful for equipping, he equips us for every good work.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us what good works are, and he shows us what they are, especially when we look at the life of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We have the word of God embodied in uh in the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But often it tells us less about the specific things we're supposed to be doing in the moment and more about the type of person God is making us into, so we can be the kinds of people that live out his calling in the world.
SPEAKER_00: So we can be the kind of people who are equipped for every good work.
SPEAKER_00: The more time we spend in God's word, the more he makes us like him.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what prepares us for the good works he puts in front of us to do.
SPEAKER_00: Listening to him and his word equips us and it prepares us.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm thankful for the places where I can see God at work in my own life, where I can see his word shaping me and changing me more into the kind of person that he longs for me to be.
SPEAKER_00: Now, at the same time, I uh I have the opposite experience sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: I go through seasons where I don't spend enough time listening to God and uh and studying his word, uh, and and where I begin to just rely on uh on myself more and more.
SPEAKER_00: And I think there's a connection between those seasons and uh and you know times when I you know feel more anxiety about you know things like parenting, or feel uh more um uh of a quickness to get frustrated and and angry or see you know me wasting more uh more time, whatever it might be.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's a connection between God's word and the person that he's making us uh into.
SPEAKER_00: We have the ability to be equipped for these things.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and he says, Um, please, it's for you, it's a gift.
SPEAKER_00: Uh open it, use it, uh, take advantage of it.
SPEAKER_00: Um I uh I wrote a book called Into Thin Air, and it was the story of uh this um climb on Mount Everest that sort of turned tragic and a number of people uh died um or uh you know were really were really injured as they went up.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a it's an interesting, it's an interesting book, it's an interesting story.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but the but one of the things that stood out to me was the guides.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you you have guides that take you up and kind of have done it a lot of times before, so they help you know what to what to do.
SPEAKER_00: And the guides, when they went up on that trip, they decided uh not to take oxygen tanks for uh for themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Because they'd done it so many times, they sort of had this confidence, uh, you know, as it turns out, an overconfidence that they could that they could handle it on their own.
SPEAKER_00: And when the weather changed and when things got difficult, all of a sudden they, the guides uh were struggling uh to breathe and uh and and to do what they needed to do, let alone uh were they ready to help the people who they were supposed to be there uh to help get to uh to safety.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh and so it would have been so easy for them to bring these uh these oxygen tanks uh and uh and be prepared for whatever came.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and they chose to just leave them behind in the base camp.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, we have this we have this opportunity uh to uh to dig into God's word, to to equip ourselves and to prepare ourselves uh for life with him, uh for life in this world.
SPEAKER_00: Um and uh uh and when we take advantage of it, uh he provides uh just what uh just what we need.
SPEAKER_00: It breaks us of our self-confidence and reminds us that he's who we can trust and he's who we get to trust because of how much he cares about us.
SPEAKER_00: Think about how God's word can prepare us for the things that we face.
SPEAKER_00: Just a couple of things, right?
SPEAKER_00: We get filled with worry and anxiety, but God says to us, don't worry about tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: He knows exactly what you need, and he loves to provide it for you.
SPEAKER_00: We get afraid of the future and the unknown.
SPEAKER_00: But what does God say?
SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid, because I will be with you wherever you go.
SPEAKER_00: We feel alone.
SPEAKER_00: But God says to us, I will never leave you or forsake you.
SPEAKER_00: He says, nothing can separate you from my love.
SPEAKER_00: We feel overwhelmed by our sin and our guilt.
SPEAKER_00: But God says to us, there's no condemnation for those of you who are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Because I have forgiven you and put your sins as far as the east is from the west.
SPEAKER_00: We grieve, and God says to us, cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm close to you when you're brokenhearted, and I save you when you're crushed in spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We face things that feel too big for us, and God says to us, My strength is made perfect in your weakness.
SPEAKER_00: My grace is sufficient for you.
SPEAKER_00: Draw near to me, and I will give you mercy and grace to help you in your time of need.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it means to listen to God, to hear his word digging deep into our souls, preparing us and uh and changing us.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks to us practically in his word so that we can hear from him, and we can hear that he loves us.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we hear from God uh relationally.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he says uh in the 2nd Timothy passage, he says uh that Timothy heard from his grandma, and he heard from his mom, and he heard from Paul, and there were all these people in his life that had helped him to understand the scriptures and to understand God better.
SPEAKER_00: So we talked about that a couple weeks ago, the importance of uh of community.
SPEAKER_00: And so we won't talk about it much uh this uh this morning, but just to say what a gift that we have so many people uh in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: God puts these people in our lives to help us understand his word, to help us hear from him uh better.
SPEAKER_00: Um and uh uh and and we uh and we can be grateful that he does that.
SPEAKER_00: All right, uh, we hear from God ultimately because what we hear from God connects us to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to uh to John 20 again.
SPEAKER_00: He says, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are now written in this book, but they these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and then by believing you may have life in his name.
SPEAKER_00: Studying the scriptures isn't just about sort of a transfer of information to make us smarter.
SPEAKER_00: We need the word of God because it's what helps us continue to stay connected to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We hear his voice and we encounter his presence through this word that he's given us.
SPEAKER_00: I heard somebody say, a wife doesn't want new information on her anniversary.
SPEAKER_00: She wants her husband to reassure her of his continuing love.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're not just digging into it for information, we're digging into it because it's a continual reminder of God's love for us.
SPEAKER_00: It's a continual reminder of his great and precious promises to uh to us.
SPEAKER_00: The message of the Bible is clear.
SPEAKER_00: John's clear about why he's writing.
SPEAKER_00: It's all about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's no mistake, scripture is all about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible is exactly what we he knew we needed, so we could know him and believe in him and walk with him.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting, the phrase the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: It refers to the Bible, and we call, you know, we call the Bible the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: But in the very beginning of the Gospel of John, in chapter one, John calls Jesus the Word.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Word of God can mean this book that we have, but it also refers to Jesus Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, he's the embodiment of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: He's God's word in uh in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: God wants us to hear from him and be in relationship with him so much that he gave us this book so that we can know about him, but he also gave us a person.
SPEAKER_00: He gave us Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus loved us, he embodied the truth and goodness and beauty of God as he walked among us, and he gave himself for us so that by faith we can be in relationship with him.
SPEAKER_00: So ultimately, how can we hear from God?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's kind of a cycle.
SPEAKER_00: We start by realizing all that Jesus has done for us and putting our trust in him.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first step to uh to hearing from him and to understanding what he has to say to us.
SPEAKER_00: And as we understand more of what he's done for us, it makes us want to be closer to him.
SPEAKER_00: And when we want to be closer to him, we love his word.
SPEAKER_00: And we love it more and more because that's how we hear from him.
SPEAKER_00: And then what happens?
SPEAKER_00: As we listen to him, as we study his word, as we as we dig into it deeper and see how much he loves us, and we see more of all that he's done for us, then it makes us trust him more.
SPEAKER_00: And the cycle uh repeats itself.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came so we can be in relationship with God, and so that we can hear from him.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'll give you uh one last quote from uh from Martin Luther here.
SPEAKER_00: Um and uh and this is what he said, talking about sort of summing up what was happening in the in the Reformation as he looked back over it.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force.
SPEAKER_00: I simply taught, preached, and wrote God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, I did nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with Philip and Amsdorf, his friends, the word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it.
SPEAKER_00: I did nothing.
SPEAKER_00: The word did everything.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God has the power to change the world.
SPEAKER_00: It did, and it continues to.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God has the power to change us, and it will, as we listen to Him.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for us.