SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't want you to stop being a blessing after we finish this sermon series.
SPEAKER_00: I I hope that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: Because we are a blessing and we live a life that blesses other people.
SPEAKER_00: We also are focused on this month's on uh this Eyes That See uh campaign with uh uh uh some of the our fellow uh ICOC churches.
SPEAKER_00: ICOC stands for the International Churches of Christ, a family of churches that we're part of.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's a worldwide fellowship of about 800, close to 800 churches, uh uh, which at this point most of them are actually outside of the United States.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and there's some amazing good news.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't know if you watched any of those uh good news things on the app.
SPEAKER_00: Uh some of them is just so encouraging to to see people following Jesus with the same heart, the same convictions that you and I have uh across you know, somewhere uh in you know in New Zealand, or are uh there was uh there was one uh uh in uh in Taiwan.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, just some of the some of the cultures and the even the accents are are really really encouraging.
SPEAKER_00: So amen.
SPEAKER_00: Today uh I'm gonna talk about my favorite topic, and that is the Bible.
unknown: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So one of the ways where we can be a blessing to people, and this is one of my favorite ways to be a blessing to people, is teaching them the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when we think about teaching the Bible, this is what we think about.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is a professor of uh uh and theologian, Anthe Wright, for example, and he's he's he he speaks and reads Greek and Hebrew, and he's is this excellent scholar, and he's got about this big of a stack of books that he wrote.
SPEAKER_00: That's not our goal in teaching the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe for a handful of people, like him, uh, but for most of us, we want to be able to teach the Bible at a level where we are at, and maybe get a little better at it every day or every week or every year.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: So I don't want to overwhelm you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's not I want you to put that out first before you switch over your your your mind and like, okay, this this sermon is not for me.
SPEAKER_00: No, this sermon is for you and me.
SPEAKER_00: This this is for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: I've got three points.
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about the crisis of Bible illiteracy.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I'm not sure if you're aware of that crisis, but there is a crisis.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I want to talk about how God's word is a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Because if we don't feel that God's word is a blessing to us, we would be very reluctant to teach God's word the Bible to someone else.
SPEAKER_00: You get that?
SPEAKER_00: And then uh number three is actually a challenge to all of us from the Bible to become better Bible teachers.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and you know, everybody can become better.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be the professor, you just have to be a little better than you were maybe last year.
SPEAKER_00: So let's start with the crisis of Bible illiteracy.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I love this image.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it was in the uh the you know, there was an article that used this image, somebody blowing dust off of the Bible because it is being unused and not opened.
SPEAKER_00: Although most people today don't use a physical Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Although I'm gonna share some statistics why actually using a physical Bible will help you be a better Bible student.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so let me read you a quote that I actually read this week from a book.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the quote: the Bible is a book we uh I think I missed uh a we.
SPEAKER_00: Bible is a book we only swear by in court and preach from on the Lord's day, and to be disregarded as a rule of faith and practice at any time, its teaching may interfere with the things of a man or even the nation may want to do.
SPEAKER_00: And uh this is uh this is written by this uh African American African American preacher a hundred years ago.
unknown: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: You thought this was written today, right?
SPEAKER_00: It could have been.
SPEAKER_00: But even a hundred years ago, the Bible was being relegated to this uh occasional role of being sworn at courts on and and and preached on the Lord's day, and then people weren't using the Bible anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And that was that was what he's referring to.
SPEAKER_00: And and even nations that that said that they believe in some of these things they weren't really following, only when it was convenient.
SPEAKER_00: And isn't that true for us individually as well?
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to follow the Bible in ways that are convenient to us, uh and and we gotta, you know, we we we can change that.
SPEAKER_00: And as a church that believes in the Bible, is devoted to following the Bible, we want to change that.
SPEAKER_00: And that change starts with us.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a more recent quote.
SPEAKER_00: Uh this is an article uh uh written with the that that title of The Crisis of Bible Illiteracy by David Newhouse.
SPEAKER_00: For well over 20 years now, Christian leaders have been lamenting the loss of general biblical literacy in America.
SPEAKER_00: Some among us may be tempted to seek odd solace in the recognition that our culture is increasingly post-Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Much to our embarrassment, however, it has become increasingly clear that the situation is really no better among confessing Christians, even those who claim to hold the Bible in high regard.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so we are reading the Bible less and less.
SPEAKER_00: People are less and less familiar with the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: They they they their Bible knowledge and Bible understanding is decreasing, and and that's been true for the last uh 30, 40 years, actually, by now.
SPEAKER_00: This was uh uh an earlier quote.
SPEAKER_00: Uh there's an American Bible Society that produces a study, uh a research done on the state of the Bible every single year.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you can actually download the study, some of it you have to pay for, but some of it is free.
SPEAKER_00: There's a summary that's free.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to share some of their findings.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm not, you know, maybe maybe you're interested, maybe not, but here's here's the one of one of one of the cool findings: frequency of Bible use.
SPEAKER_00: And these are, you know, the asterisk is these are the options that were offered in the survey.
SPEAKER_00: So 42% of people surveyed never use the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: 13% use this less than once a year.
SPEAKER_00: That's what is it?
unknown: Maybe less than once a year.
SPEAKER_00: Less than once a year.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, uh, I used it five years ago once, right?
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's that means you don't use the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and that's 62% of people that are not Bible users, as you can tell.
SPEAKER_00: So the uh uh in including once or twice a year, 7%.
SPEAKER_00: Uh now there's a there's there's occasional Bible users, 13%, three or four times a year, once a month, once uh, and then and then you get to people that are considered active Bible users, although I'm not sure once a week is that active yet.
SPEAKER_00: But uh but that's 25% of the population uh uses once a week, several times a week, uh, four or more times a week.
SPEAKER_00: And and there are people, 9% of the population that's committed to using the Bible every day.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that we are included in that percentage.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Uh because we need the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: There's another interesting uh research that they do uh to answer this question.
SPEAKER_00: How much of the Bible have you read?
SPEAKER_00: 7% of the people are not even sure.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: 10% knows that they've that none of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: 35% read a little of the Bible, and that adds up 52% of the population had read none, very little, or I don't even know how much I've read of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, there is a Bible illiteracy crisis.
SPEAKER_00: And then uh the the 40 the rest of the 48% of Americans, this is uh this is a US research, uh 14% said about half of the Bible, 17 most, and only 17% said all of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have read all of the Bible, you know, at least once here in your life, you're you're ahead of 83% of other Americans.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I understand the Bible is not an easy read.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's written thousands of years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the language, some of the sentence structure is old, although there are now translations that are a little easier to understand.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, if you need to be need need me to recommend you some translations that are not challenging to read, uh I'll be I'll be glad to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a here's another interesting uh statistics.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, these I'm I'm I'm a curious person.
SPEAKER_00: Linda Linda and I were just discussing this at the beginning of the service.
SPEAKER_00: Uh she came in with her bag, and I saw uh something in her bag and I asked about it.
SPEAKER_00: And I I was, you know, I was a I try not to pry, but I might have.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody's zipping up their bag during.
SPEAKER_00: And we we we we actually we actually agreed that we both have this curious nature, and she called it nosy.
SPEAKER_00: And but I said curious is so much more of a positive spin on the whole idea, right?
SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm curious about some of this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: How do people look at the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: How do they do?
SPEAKER_00: Here's another study: Bible methods by scripture engagement.
SPEAKER_00: So, how do people engage the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: And and there's there's two uh there they uh part of the studies is categorizes people into three groups.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and that previous study that the previous slide that I showed you, scripturally engaged are people that study that read the Bible at least once a week.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the middle, movable middle is people that that read the Bible from time to time, and it doesn't even include people that don't read the Bible at all.
SPEAKER_00: So uh most people, this is their Bible engagement.
SPEAKER_00: I read a few verses at a time.
SPEAKER_00: And that's it might be the Bible app showing your verse of the day thing or something.
SPEAKER_00: I follow a reading guide, schedule, plan, or program that most people that read the Bible and engage spiritually, 50% uses that method, right?
SPEAKER_00: Or 50% of the the people that gave an answer.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and and having a plan, you see, it it actually makes you more engaged.
SPEAKER_00: 21% uh to 50%.
SPEAKER_00: The other the others are kind of side by side.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I read one or more chapters or complete story, that's less people, but that also helps.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I do it, I do it at about the same time of the day.
SPEAKER_00: That that that regularity, including in your daily routine, has major.
SPEAKER_00: You see that 43% of regular Bible readers do it, you know, they they it's part of their daily routine.
SPEAKER_00: Only 17% of those that are kind of on and off readers have that in their life.
SPEAKER_00: I participate in the Bible study group.
SPEAKER_00: You know, doing it together with others makes a big difference.
SPEAKER_00: You're not alone, there's some accountability.
SPEAKER_00: You know, hey, have you guys read what we were supposed to read?
SPEAKER_00: And uh if you didn't, hopefully there's a conversation, the loving and gentle.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I select Bible passages depending on my mood at the time.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that does not even have any impact.
SPEAKER_00: 34% of the people uh both groups answer that.
SPEAKER_00: And I journal, which actually is one of the one of the better that that that doubles your chances to being an engaged Bible reader.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but very little people, very few people journal.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Virak shared about Savannah.
SPEAKER_00: She didn't just take notes uh at uh at the Bible studies, she took notes in here on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: She took she took notes at even at the Bible discussion, even we were talking and she was sharing some stuff, but she had her notebook out, and and as the others were working, she was scribbling down notes.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I want to encourage you guys to take notes.
SPEAKER_00: It makes a difference.
SPEAKER_00: This year I decided that I'm gonna part of my Bible studies, I'm gonna I I journaled on enough, I'm gonna journal every day.
SPEAKER_00: And it's helped deepen and uh and and really meditate more on what I've been reading.
SPEAKER_00: So but uh why do people not read the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: Uh in uh about fifty years ago, there were two authors that painted very dystopian pictures of what the future would look like.
SPEAKER_00: One of the most called uh uh uh what's his first name, Orwell.
SPEAKER_00: Uh George Orwell, and then Huxley was the other guy.
SPEAKER_00: Uh what's his first name?
SPEAKER_00: Aldus Huxley.
SPEAKER_00: Ellis?
SPEAKER_00: Albus.
SPEAKER_00: Elbus.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Aldus.
SPEAKER_00: Aldus.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Aldus, that's right.
SPEAKER_00: I actually read both of their books back in the day uh as a teenager.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but then uh uh actually a journalist kind of summarized why these people wrote these things, and here's here's a quote from him that I thought was very, very appropriate.
SPEAKER_00: He says, and this is by Neil Postman, what Orwell feared were those who would ban books.
SPEAKER_00: What Hoxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.
SPEAKER_00: Orwell feared that those who would deprive us of information, Hoxley feared that those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.
SPEAKER_00: Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us.
SPEAKER_00: Hoxley feared that the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.
SPEAKER_00: Orwell feared we would become a captive culture.
SPEAKER_00: Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.
SPEAKER_00: There's some words for you.
SPEAKER_00: This was written in 1985, 40 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't this become a reality today?
unknown: Totally.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is not banned in this country.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it a Bible is not banned in most countries in the world.
SPEAKER_00: There's there's a there are a few, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But that's not our biggest issue.
SPEAKER_00: Our biggest issue is there's so many other things floating out there that require our attention.
SPEAKER_00: So, what do we have?
SPEAKER_00: We have a Bible illiteracy crisis.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, that's we need to be students of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to know what God wants us to know, we gotta go back to the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, the people that that when God brought his people out of Egypt, God worked on those people, man.
SPEAKER_00: He taught them, he trained them, he walked with them, he taught, he and then he reminded them things.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he was with them in a pillar of fire at night and a pillar of cloud in the day, uh, and lead and led them, and that and they saw God do miracles.
SPEAKER_00: They saw God bring them out, you know, the Red Sea standing on both sides, walking through the Red Sea with dry feet.
SPEAKER_00: But then, a few generations later, in Judges chapter 1, we read, in verse 7, we read, the people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him, and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Then we skip down to verse 10 and we read, After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you ever read the book of Judges, it's a it's a disturbing book.
SPEAKER_00: It has stuff in it that you go, like, how do people get to that place?
SPEAKER_00: You know how they get to that place?
SPEAKER_00: They forget the Lord, forget his instructions.
SPEAKER_00: Later, uh during the time of the prophets, God laments about this tendency of his people forgetting him.
SPEAKER_00: In Hosea chapter 4, verse 6, the prophet actually is communicating God's words.
SPEAKER_00: He says, My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests.
SPEAKER_00: Because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.
SPEAKER_00: You know, this ignoring God's word, ignoring the knowledge that God communicates is nothing new.
SPEAKER_00: Generations again and again fall into this.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus confronts a group of religious leaders in uh in his day, the the Sadducees.
SPEAKER_00: He tells them in Mark 12, verse 24, Jesus replied, Are you not in error because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God?
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you don't know the scriptures, you will be in error.
SPEAKER_00: I almost can guarantee.
SPEAKER_00: Because somebody will lead you astray.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Satan has a field day with people who have a superficial knowledge of religion and Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: There is a crisis of biblical illiteracy today.
SPEAKER_00: And we're here to change that.
SPEAKER_00: We're on a mission from God.
SPEAKER_00: Um not like the Blues brothers.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We're on a mission from death.
SPEAKER_00: But it starts with seeing God's word as a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: As I uh a couple times shared, that I'm reading uh every even year, I read through the entire Bible, and this is not something you have to do, uh, but this is what I've done for the last probably 12 years now.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I read another different translation, and sometimes even a different plan.
SPEAKER_00: Like this year, I'm reading through the the New Living Translation in uh in uh a chronological sequence, so it's not just by the books of the Bible, but you you know you kind of put different parts together.
SPEAKER_00: Um somebody try to have a chronological outline of the Bible, which is nice, it's a good change.
SPEAKER_00: I'm uh Alan Day 130 something.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I'm I've been reading the life of David.
SPEAKER_00: He just died uh in 2 Samuel.
SPEAKER_00: Uh at the end of the book of 2, by the way, there's there are no two books of Samuel.
SPEAKER_00: It's one book, but it was written on two scrolls.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's differentiated.
SPEAKER_00: It's just the book of Samuel or the Book of Kings or the Book of Chronicles.
SPEAKER_00: But there are two letters to the Corinthian church.
SPEAKER_00: But that's that's just some tidbit of knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: But one then uh in the Chronological Bible, it includes all the Psalms that David wrote at the end of his life story.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them actually have an occasion, so it was those those psalms were included at the occasion.
SPEAKER_00: When I read the story and I read the Psalm he wrote, it actually connects things.
SPEAKER_00: But one of the Psalms that David wrote is just amazing, and I read it a couple days ago, uh, Psalm 19.
SPEAKER_00: And we can just read verse 7 through 11.
SPEAKER_00: And here's David's view of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
SPEAKER_00: The statues of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
SPEAKER_00: The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.
SPEAKER_00: The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
SPEAKER_00: The fear of the Lord Is pure enduring forever.
SPEAKER_00: The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous.
SPEAKER_00: They are more precious than gold, and much pure gold.
SPEAKER_00: They are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.
SPEAKER_00: By them is your servant warned.
SPEAKER_00: In keeping them, there is great rewards.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That's a Psalm of David.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have that view of God's word?
SPEAKER_00: Do you find it sweeter than honey?
SPEAKER_00: Do you find that it gives light to your eyes?
SPEAKER_00: It revives your soul.
SPEAKER_00: It brings you joy in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Is this your experience with God's word?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that by keeping them there is great reward?
SPEAKER_00: That's how David saw.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what he had?
SPEAKER_00: He had probably the five books of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the book of Joshua.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe the book of Ruth.
SPEAKER_00: That was his great-grandmother.
SPEAKER_00: So if it wasn't a book, it was an oral history.
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, not much more.
SPEAKER_00: The book of Job, most likely.
SPEAKER_00: But he found them still life-giving.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there is an entire psalm in the Bible, Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, entire Bible, that is all about the benefits of God's word, God's revealed message.
SPEAKER_00: It is, I don't have time to read the entire Psalm.
SPEAKER_00: It's so long.
SPEAKER_00: But if you want to do a follow-up quiet time on this sermon this coming week, take Psalm 119 and read it.
SPEAKER_00: Here are the few quotes from it.
SPEAKER_00: I run in the path of your commandments, for you will enlarge my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Your words are sweeter than honey to my mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Your word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine in the world living in a world with no electricity?
SPEAKER_00: You are my hiding place and my shield.
SPEAKER_00: I hope in your word.
SPEAKER_00: You know, God's word is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: It is absolutely life-giving.
SPEAKER_00: It is such a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: And I only looked at Old Testament scriptures at this point.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament just extends that whole revelation and completes it and brings it to, you know, there's all these things in the Old Testament that these prophets were like, I'm sure this is something for some other time or some I don't I don't completely get what God is getting, and I don't see it's fulfilling, but I'm sure God is doing something.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus came, it all made sense.
SPEAKER_00: And in the New Testament, Paul writes to Timothy, he says, but as for you, this is 2 Timothy chapter 3, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it.
SPEAKER_00: And how from infancy you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there are blessings that come to us through the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: This a few that just just this passage mentions, he says, it makes you wise for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't know or you haven't studied the Bible about salvation, I encourage you to get together with somebody from our congregation and let's do the some Bible studies like that.
SPEAKER_00: Our sister Savannah, who was just baptized on Friday.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, she went to a uh a campus retreat a little over a month ago, and and and she that that just wet her appetite when it comes to, oh, I want to know more.
SPEAKER_00: So Javier gave her Vidag's number and she texted Vidag, and we're like, Who is this?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: That's how it started.
SPEAKER_00: She had the desire to want to be wise for salvation, and and she did.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: We we need to use the Bible to bless each other.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you need some of these things?
SPEAKER_00: Now we don't like the rebuking part, but sometimes we even need that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh hopefully not too often.
SPEAKER_00: But do we need training in righteousness?
SPEAKER_00: We we need to learn to read the Bible and then practice what it says.
SPEAKER_00: That's training.
SPEAKER_00: And it is able to thoroughly equip us for every good work.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: So when you approach somebody and ask them, hey, you want to get together to read the Bible or get together to have a little Bible study?
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to do a maybe a Bible plan on the U version aftergether for a week or two?
SPEAKER_00: You know, you are bringing a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Is this what you think?
SPEAKER_00: Is this how you feel?
SPEAKER_00: Or you're like, oh, I'm I don't want to inconvenience somebody.
SPEAKER_00: They need, we need more Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And because when we have more Bible, not just the knowledge, but the practice as well, then we have more blessings in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: So here's a challenge for all of us: become a better Bible teacher.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we need the Bible for ourselves, but we're not just to have or receive all these blessings.
SPEAKER_00: Reading the Bible and following the Bible is a blessing for my life.
SPEAKER_00: But I know God didn't just give me those blessings to keep it for myself.
SPEAKER_00: God gave me those blessings so I could actually bless others.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just so grateful that for people that that that back in the day studied the Bible with me as an atheist.
SPEAKER_00: I did not look like somebody who was really eager to learn the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: This brother that actually asked me if I wanted to study the Bible, uh, he before that he asked me, I started I started smoking a cigarette.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't following the Bible, and I could not, I tried to stop smoking, but I could not.
SPEAKER_00: I was addicted.
SPEAKER_00: So I lit a cigarette, he's asked me to stop smoking because it bothered, smoke bothered him.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Who are you?
SPEAKER_00: I don't care.
SPEAKER_00: I was very arrogant.
SPEAKER_00: Five minutes later, he said, Hey, do you want to get to next get together next week to study the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: He was excited.
SPEAKER_00: He was just excited to share the ways that he was blessed by studying the Bible with me.
SPEAKER_00: And and for some reason, he was I was I was I was I was arrogant, I I wanted to have nothing to do with this, I still said yes.
SPEAKER_00: And we got together to study the Bible, and the rest is history.
SPEAKER_00: What a blessing! It allowed me to stop smoking and more.
SPEAKER_00: That is how it works.
SPEAKER_00: So we need people, and and he was about three months ahead of me.
SPEAKER_00: He just became a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: So he went back and found his notes and brought them to our Bible studies, and we went through his notes and we kind of we kind of discovered some of the scriptures again, he again for me for the first time, but that was enough.
SPEAKER_00: Today he's uh he's probably gonna be uh one of the elders in the church in Budapest.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, all three of his sons are disciples, and I'm just so grateful.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and he's become a better Bible teacher.
SPEAKER_00: In Romans chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna kind of lend in Romans as uh as we come come to a close in the sermon.
SPEAKER_00: Paul explains how this blessing of teaching the Bible works.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he's he's trying to help this deal with this situation in church in Rome that they were making a difference between Jews and Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: There was a distinction, so apparently that happened in how they help other people as well.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna only help Jews, we're not gonna help the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: That was one of the ways.
SPEAKER_00: He says, for there is no difference between Jew and Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him.
SPEAKER_00: For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't have time to do a Bible study on this, but if you study this idea of calling on the name of the Lord, you find that you do that when you get baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: How can then they call on the one who they have not believed in?
SPEAKER_00: And how can they believe in the one who they have not heard, and how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
SPEAKER_00: And how can they preach unless they are sent?
SPEAKER_00: Do you feel sent?
SPEAKER_00: As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.
SPEAKER_00: But not all the Israelites accepted the good news.
SPEAKER_00: That's a little jibe to the people that think that we only should preach to Jews in the Roman church at the time.
SPEAKER_00: You know, just because you're an Israelite, that doesn't mean that you're listening.
SPEAKER_00: For Isaiah said, Lord, who has believed our message?
SPEAKER_00: Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We need to get the word of Christ out there to people in order for them to have faith.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
SPEAKER_00: So, a challenge today is that ask somebody to study the Bible over the next week.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe a co-worker, maybe a friend, uh, maybe a family member.
SPEAKER_00: What's the worst thing that can happen?
SPEAKER_00: They'll say no.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: What's the best thing that can happen?
SPEAKER_00: They might be like me.
SPEAKER_00: Even though I would not have put a lot of money on me saying yes, I still said yes.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God for that.
SPEAKER_00: We need to get better at this thing.
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Timothy 2.15, the Bible says, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved a workman, a laborer, somebody who is skilled at their work.
SPEAKER_00: That's the idea, who does not need to be ashamed, who correctly handles the word of truth.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you ask me to build you a shed, the product that I can produce will probably put me on to shame.
SPEAKER_00: Because I am not a carpenter.
SPEAKER_00: I have no idea what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00: But if you ask Ivan to build you a shed, that thing will stand.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's that's that's his profession.
SPEAKER_00: Now, he hasn't become that way just by accident.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't born as a carpenter, although when you look at his hands, you think God already had this in mind.
SPEAKER_00: He's got these huge, strong hands.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you don't want him to shake your hands too strongly, right?
SPEAKER_00: But he learned and practiced and became a carpenter.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what we need to do as well.
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you a couple of tools to start with.
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite, this is this this I'm gonna give you three books that I recommend for everybody to read as you want to be a better student of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, how to read the Bible for all its worth by Gordon Defee and Douglas Stewart.
SPEAKER_00: It explains how the Bible, the different books of the Bible, were written in different styles, in different genres.
SPEAKER_00: You know, poetry is read differently than a narrative.
SPEAKER_00: A letter to a church is different than the book of the law.
SPEAKER_00: It's you read it, you read it, it was written differently, therefore you need to read it differently.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: A follow-up book to that is by the same authors, is how to read the Bible book by book.
SPEAKER_00: Uh what's what that what it does is actually goes through every book of the Bible, helps you understand the historic background, the the who the author was, what was the occasion of the writing, what are some specific things you need to pay attention to as you read it.
SPEAKER_00: It it just makes those Bible books come alive because you get it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, oh, that this Amos guy, he was a shepherd, and God called him and sent him to this king who was this.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you understand why those things that are written in the some of those prophetic books are written the way they are.
SPEAKER_00: Uh really, really helpful when you, especially when you read a book, you know, you for your time with God, you read a book of the Bible, read it alongside.
SPEAKER_00: We'd read read the beginning of this, and then read alongside what do you need to notice throughout those things?
SPEAKER_00: The third one is uh is the drama of scripture, finding our place in the biblical story.
SPEAKER_00: The one of the things that people have an issue with when they read the Bible is it the Bible becomes fragmented.
SPEAKER_00: You read a verse here, a verse there, and a verse over there, and a verse over there, and and and you read them all the same because it's from the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible has 66 different books, very each of them have a different place in God's big story, they're all interconnected.
SPEAKER_00: These are actually references that different Bible books, you know, on the on the on the gray columns on the bottom are the chapters of the Bible and their length, and Psalm 119 is the middle, the longest column.
SPEAKER_00: And then these are when when books quote or reference to some other parts of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's incredibly interconnected, but they also tell a big, gigantic story of God and his redemption.
SPEAKER_00: And you need to find the places of the different books of the Bible in that story, and you need to find your and my space.
SPEAKER_00: Where are we at in that story?
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, how do we read the different parts of the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: A few questions and thoughts for discussion.
SPEAKER_00: Have I come across evidence for the crises of Bible illiteracy?
SPEAKER_00: When I think about teaching the Bible, offering someone to do some Bible studies together, what feelings and thoughts arise in me?
SPEAKER_00: Uh are they connected to blessing or shame?
SPEAKER_00: How much effort do I put into becoming a apparently I was uh not doing a good job typing this?
SPEAKER_00: Uh I uh I do have a you know uh like a grammar checker, but that doesn't correct my mistyping uh all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I put in b how much effort do I put in into becoming a better student and then teacher of the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: Am I making progress?
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to become a professor tomorrow or ever.
SPEAKER_00: But are you a better student and teacher of the do you understand the Bible better this year than last year?
SPEAKER_00: Did you gain some understanding?
SPEAKER_00: And are you becoming more capable of teaching the Bible to somebody else accurately?
SPEAKER_00: Can you build a shed without being ashamed?
SPEAKER_00: And do I feel entrusted or sent by Jesus to teach God's word?
SPEAKER_00: To finish, we're gonna focus on Jesus and take communion.
SPEAKER_00: But the message of Jesus that we celebrate in the time of communion is a message that we are entrusted with to bring God to other people.
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Timothy chapter 1, Paul writes to Timothy about the same idea of not being ashamed, but be but proudly teach others about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He writes in verse 8, so do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me, his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God who has saved us and called us to a holy life.
SPEAKER_00: Not because of anything we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace.
SPEAKER_00: This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And this gospel, and of this gospel, I was appointed an herald and an apostle and a teacher.
SPEAKER_00: That is why I am suffering as I am.
SPEAKER_00: Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
SPEAKER_00: What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching with faith and love in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you.
SPEAKER_00: Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
SPEAKER_00: You know, through the cross, Jesus' death and resurrection, he didn't just provide salvation for all of us and the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: He started the message of salvation and forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: And we are entrusted with that.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray for the communion.
SPEAKER_00: Dear God, our Heavenly Father, we do want to become better Bible students and Bible teachers.
SPEAKER_00: Help us not to get distracted, not to get overwhelmed and not to think that the Bible ever is outdated or not relevant or not useful.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to have the same heart that David had when he wrote those Psalms, God.
SPEAKER_00: And help us to see that Jesus Christ entrusted to us this pattern of sound teaching and keeping the faith.
SPEAKER_00: And what a blessing that is.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we celebrate as we take the communion, eat the bread, and drink the fruit of the wine, because we remember Jesus and we celebrate our communion and community with Him.
SPEAKER_00: And God, we want to feel entrusted, sent to bring this message of salvation to others as well.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to become better Bible students and Bible teachers in that process.
SPEAKER_00: We love you.
SPEAKER_00: We're grateful to you.
SPEAKER_00: We appreciate you, and in your Son Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.