Thoughts Of Some Guy In Ohio
Thoughts Of Some Guy In Ohio
Embracing the Bible's Teachings for Personal Growth
Could an ancient text hold the key to transforming your spiritual journey amidst the chaos of modern distractions? Join us as we unravel the profound impact of the Bible in nurturing a deeper relationship with God, bridging the gap between recognizing its significance and truly engaging with it in our daily lives. Inspired by rapper KB's powerful message at Winter Jam in Columbus, we share personal stories and insights that challenge us to prioritize Scripture over the allure of streaming services and social media. Discover how both the Old and New Testaments weave together to reveal the fullness of God's plan through Jesus, as emphasized in 2 Timothy 3:10-17.
In this episode, we confront common misconceptions about the Gospels and highlight the importance of firsthand understanding of the Bible. Our discussion underscores the Bible's role as a transformative guide, urging believers to embrace its teachings beyond just Sunday sermons. Hear how personal engagement with Scripture can satisfy our spiritual hunger, providing wisdom for everyday challenges like loving our neighbors and resolving conflicts. Tune in as we explore the divine inspiration of the Bible and invite you to experience its transformative power, aiming to inspire a deeper connection with God's Word and a renewed understanding of His will and our identity.
So you know this last couple weeks, we've been talking about the importance of the Word of God by a show of hands. Right, I'm going to ask you guys to participate, so crowd participation. How many of you would agree that the Bible is the most important thing we have when it comes to building our relationship with God? Everyone, almost everyone. Okay, by the same show of hands. How many of you would say that you read it every day? Okay, how many of you would say that you read it once a week, once a month? You know, it's interesting because when I ask that question, it's almost 50-50 split every time. We believe that the Word of God is given to us for the sole purpose of helping us to understand who God is, but when you look at the numbers, statistically, reading the Bible is oftentimes the last thing people do, either during their day or, statistically speaking, from a percentage standpoint, within a month, it's the least amount of time they spend when it comes to reading the Word of God. And we have so many reasons why we don't.
Speaker 1:I was thinking about this the other day and Netflix is like the streaming services, right, have like changed, like everything. I read something the other day and it said, hey, how would you like to watch a 10-hour movie? And everyone's like, no, we wouldn't do that. Cool, how many of you would like to watch 10-hour episodes in one sitting? Oh, okay, I can tell you.
Speaker 1:When I was in my 20s, I used to binge watch and I probably still do sometimes TV shows. You know so much so that, if you pay attention, streaming services now are like hey, are you still watching? Do you want us to continue to play this, or should we turn this off? And every time I'm like stop asking me. I'm clearly watching the TV show, right, but we find ourselves so consumed with so many things throughout the day, with so many things throughout the day. Tiktok recently disappeared for about 12 hours. I think the battery percentage on my phone only shifted 2% down because I wasn't on my phone scrolling and everyone's like oh, it came back. And I was like, oh, it came back.
Speaker 1:But the thing is is like we spend so much time in a 24-hour day let's take away eight hours, sixteen hours we spend so much time doing things that I would consider useless or not really moving us forward in life, but when we come to spending time in the Word of God, we always say I don't have time today, I'll get to it tomorrow. Oh, I believe it's important, but, and so part of this series we've been looking at two things, or a couple things. But two things we've looked at is that Jesus embodies the Word of God. We see this in the beginning of John, that he is the Word made flesh. We get to see what it looks like to live out Scripture through the life of the perfect Son of God.
Speaker 1:Not only that the next week we talked about the importance of the Old Testament and the New Testament, that when you actually understand the Old Testament in light of Jesus, it shifts things for us. And I talked about this. I once met a man who I preached out of the Old Testament and his response to my sermon was well, we're a New Testament church and I was like, yes, we are, but the Old Testament still exists. It didn't disappear somehow. And when you understand the Old Testament, it tells the story, it sets the stage for the grand finale that we find in the New Testament. They have to be read in unison, but it all has to go through the understanding that Jesus gave us while he was here on earth. And we talk about how important the Bible is.
Speaker 1:We have more access to Scripture now than we've ever had before. If you have a phone in your pocket, the Bible exists in your pocket. If you have a flip phone, probably not. Call me, I'll get you an updated one because I love you, right so? But what I'm saying is like we have more access to Scripture than we ever have before and yet we spend less time reading it than we ever have before. We rely on our preacher this hell is what it says. We rely on TikTok videos. We rely on podcasts. We rely on our preacher to tell us what it says. We rely on tiktok videos. We rely on podcasts. We relied on rely on youtube channels. We have all these outside sources, but rarely ever do we go to the bible itself in church. Let me tell you that I do not believe that you can truly live up to what christ has called you to do if you don't put His Word at the center of your life.
Speaker 1:2 Timothy 3, 10-17 says this Paul is writing this to young Timothy. Timothy is one of the disciples that he's made. Timothy is actually now overseeing some churches, so he's a minister of the gospel, and Paul is writing to encourage him to continue in his ministry. And so 2 Timothy 3, starting in verse 10, paul says you, talking to Timothy, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, his persecutions, his sufferings. What kind of things happened to me in Antioch, iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. And Paul says listen, timothy, you've seen me live out my life. You've heard my stories. I've done everything I can to be a good example for you. I've done everything I can as an apostle to show you Jesus.
Speaker 1:And he continues on in verse 12. He says, in fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Man, there's a whole sermon series there. We'll come back to that one. He said, continuing verse 13, while evildoers and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you've learned it 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 1:And then Paul says all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Now notice, paul doesn't say, hey, some of the Scripture is necessary. He doesn't say the Scriptures that you like to read and make you feel good about yourselves. Those are the ones he doesn't say, the ones that talk about how bad your neighbor is and how they're sinful and they're probably going to go to hell if they don't live up to the those ones. It's not just about that. He says all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God notice what he says. Not the minister, not the preacher, not just those people in leadership, but he says the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. The Bible has been hand-delivered to us through men who receive revelation from God and God inspired them and has been given to us so that you and I may have an instruction manual for how to live this life. And we know that, we teach that, we preach that, we believe it, and yet it still sits on our shelf and collects dust. We believe that the Bible is necessary to fulfill our calling as a servant of God and we don't even teach our kids to pick it up.
Speaker 1:At one time, when I was very early on in preaching the very first sermon that I did, I was scared out of my mind. The next 30, I was probably scared out of my mind. Every time I get in the pulpit I'm nervous because the Word of God it's a lot and it's something that we have to handle correctly. But I remember the first sermon I ever preached. I got done and I think it was less than 15 minutes. When I practiced it it was like 30. When I preached it it was 15. I think I talked so fast that no one caught anything I said. And so I remember I was going through a sermon and I shared it. You know I was still in school when I shared it with with one of my professors.
Speaker 1:And we're talking about it and he says to me he's like you know what? I think that was nice. And I was like don't say nice. I think that makes me feel self-conscious. He's like but you know what happened? He's like I really like what you had to say. He's like but where's the scripture? And I was like what do you mean? I was like it's in my layout, like I wrote my notes out. He's like, yeah, but you didn't, you didn't quote any scripture, you said nothing about the Bible. He's like all you did was you got up and you gave this really cool motivational speech and I was like ugh and he gave me a, b and I was like thanks, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:But he said and it stuck with me because he said listen, he's like the reason we preach, the reason we teach, is not because we're hoping we say something that changes someone's life. We're hoping we teach them to engage with Scripture and the Word of God transforms them. He's like so if all you did was get up and read the Bible, he's like you're already more successful than you realize, because it's the Word of God that transforms us. It's not Jason's opinion, it's not Jason's ability to deliver it and make people feel well and make people laugh and tell funny stories. All those things are good to have, he's like.
Speaker 1:But if you're not teaching people to dive into the Bible, the word of God, themselves, he's like you're a motivational speaker and you're useless. And so I've spent the rest of my life I've been trying to find that balance. It is how do I give Scripture? Because at the end of the day. It's the Word of God that's going to transform your life, not the person standing in the pulpit. You might like me, you might not, you might think I'm a great preacher, you might think I need some work, but the Word of God, if I give it to you and I give it to you correctly should be the thing that you latch on to. That's what changes us, that's the thing that we invest our life in.
Speaker 1:And so let's go back to the Old Testament and we talked about this last week, the importance of it. Let's go back to the Ten Commandments. Let's lay some groundwork for what the Bible tells us of how we should live our lives. By the way, they're not in order, so don't get all weird about that. It says honor your father and mother, don't make idols, don't take the Lord's name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Don't bear false witness, don't steal, don't commit adultery, don't kill, don't murder, don't covet. We would all argue. Those are good things, and the Bible lays it out for us in the Old Testament and we see when it comes down, it's the law, and these are given to the people to help them understand and to live their life. These are all things that we should do as Christians, as believers, as followers of Jesus, and almost everyone, even a non-believer, would agree. These things are not bad, and yet we live in a world, in a culture that is trying to remove them from everywhere they can. There's nothing wrong in them. There's nothing bad in them. It literally tells us how to live our life. It's the Bible. God is giving us what we need, and the culture around us wants nothing to do with it.
Speaker 1:I was slightly embarrassed. Yesterday we were at Winter Jam up in Columbus and there's these people outside who are like preaching the Gospel, and so this guy walks up to me, so we're talking about our church, and he's like what's the Ten Commandments in order? And I'm like oh, I was like wait, I know this. I was like I promise I know this. And then Ari stepped in, ari's back there on the computer. Ari's like I can do all the Old Testament books in order and just rattled them off. And I was like she did it. Go, ari, yay. And the guy came back and we got to go, man, like I got to get you know. But the thing is is like that's where we're supposed, like it's supposed to be ingrained in us. If you've ever spent any time with Cody Shingle, so Cody leads our worship. He can quote scripture like no one that I've met in my life thus far. Sometimes it's annoying. I love him, I love him, I love your brother, but sometimes, like I'll say something, he'll correct me and I'm like I'll get there, cody, like I'm going to learn right, but he's so ingrained, he studied it so much and it guides his life and that's what you and I are supposed to do, are supposed to do.
Speaker 1:All Scripture, including the Old Testament, is breathed out by God. It's divinely inspired. There's an analogical similarity between the nature of Christ and the nature of Scripture. Jesus is both fully God and fully man. Scripture is fully inspired by the Spirit of God, but it still upholds and utilizes the full humanity of its authors. The writers of Scripture wrote out their full humanity and their personal human experience, while being profoundly moved and guided by the supernatural power of the Spirit. It is written by man, yes, but it's inspired by God.
Speaker 1:I've had this conversation before and people are like well, the four Gospels are completely different stories. I'm like, first off, they're not completely different stories, they're different perspectives of the same story, and they're like well, that doesn't make sense. And then we go and we talk about the importance of if you and I and three other people see an accident, that happens and you sit down with all of us, we're all going to tell you a couple things. One there was an accident. We can probably tell you the cars that were involved, but all the other details could be different because we're looking at it from a different perspective. The person on the other side of the car might see that the tire blew off. So if you ask me if one of the tires fell off, I mean no, no, tires fell off Right. So we understand this with witness accountability. So when we look at the gospel, the story is the same, but the perspective of the authors is different. Their focus is different. It doesn't make anyone less valuable, if anything, it tells the whole story right, and so we have to understand that.
Speaker 1:God has given us Scripture so that you and I catch this can be transformed by the words that he gives us. The Scriptures are not supposed to be used as a weapon against somebody else. The Scriptures are not supposed to be used to justify sinful behavior. The Scripture is not supposed to be used to make us feel good about ourselves to justify our apathy. The Scripture, when we truly engage in the Word of God, is calling for transformation, even if we don't agree with it.
Speaker 1:The way we live our life as believers, as followers of God, hinges on the belief that the Bible is our guide. If we're not using Scripture to guide us, we have no other reliable sources. Men, the world, the culture will fail us. Great preachers will teach the wrong things. Celebrities who train, who claim to speak for god, don't always speak for god. Just because someone has a lot of tiktok followers or a big youtube channel doesn't mean that they understand what they're teaching. This is why it's even me even me.
Speaker 1:I do everything I can every single sunday to make sure that I wrestle with the text so that I'm presenting as clearly and plainly as possible. But read it yourself. Let God reveal to you what he can only reveal to you. You and I have the Spirit in us as believers, and it reveals Scripture to us. Like I said, we would agree that the Bible is the most important thing we have to understanding who God is and being transformed by His Word, and yet it's the one thing we spend the least amount of time with. So what does the Bible teach us? Mark 12.31 says love your neighbor as yourself. It says love your neighbor as yourself.
Speaker 1:Matthew 18, 15 through 17 teaches how to handle conflict. If your brother or sister sins against you, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church. And if they refuse to listen, even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan and a tax collector. Listen. That's a hard part, right there? Right, because we have to understand that some people, the reason they're in the church, is to cause problems. We have to be able to deal with that and the Bible gives us instruction.
Speaker 1:It tells us how to worship God. John 4, 24 says God is spirit and his worshipers must worship him in spirit and in truth. It tells us why sharing the gospel matters at the end of Matthew 28 when it says to go into all the world, teaching them everything that I have taught you, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, how God sees us. He gives us a purpose. Before I knew you in your mother's womb, I knew who you were, I knew what you were capable of. And he's talking to the prophet Jeremiah, but it speaks to us that God knows us since the beginning, even before God gave us a purpose. Imagine if every time someone told us we weren't worth it, we remembered that before we were in the womb God made us for a purpose. Imagine if every time we fell down or battered about ourselves, we reminded ourselves. God made me the way. He made me on purpose. We were at the concert last night and we were listening to Micah Tyler sing and he was talking about his purpose in life. And Danny leans over to me. He's like that'd be a really cool shirt idea, made on purpose. And I'm like that would be a really cool shirt idea Because imagine if we stopped listening to what social media tells us about ourselves. Maybe we stopped listening to what our family tells us about who we are. Maybe we stopped listening to those around us and we go to the Word of God and say God, what do you think of me? And God says before you were in your mother's womb. I knew you and I had a purpose for you.
Speaker 1:Matthew 5, 43 through 48 tells us how to love our enemies. Anyone have any enemies in here? No, Just me. He said. You have heard that it was said love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing this? If you greet only your own people, what are you doing? More than others? Don't even pagans do that. Be perfect, therefore, as your Father in heaven is perfect how we spend our time, our finances.
Speaker 1:2 Corinthians 9, 6, 9. Now, when Paul is writing this, he says remember this whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever sows generously will reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver and God is able to bless you abundantly so that, in all things, at all times, having all that you need. You will abound in every good work. How to trust in God Proverbs 3, 5 through 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, submit to Him and he will make your path straight.
Speaker 1:How we raise our kids 22, verse 6. Start children off on the way they should go and even when they are old they will not turn from it. Proverbs, old Testament. He's talking about teaching them to understand the Word of God, to raise their kids in a godly manner. Parents, you are challenged as a believer, as someone who believes in Christ, to raise your kids in the way of God. That is your first discipleship opportunity. That is your first discipleship opportunity. Parents or children, you guys ready for this? You guys aren't in here, some of you know. Tell your kids ephesians 6, 1 through 4 children obey your parents in the lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment and a promise, so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy life on the earth. But then he jumps over. He says fathers, don't exasperate your children. Instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord how you love your spouse. Ephesians 5, 21-33.
Speaker 1:Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ, wives. Submit to yourselves as your husbands, as you do to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands and everything. Now, husbands, there is more. I know a lot of guys stop right there. It says husbands, love your wives, just as Christ has loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, through the Word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Speaker 1:By the way, the verses here and what Paul is saying to the husbands is a whole lot more extensive than he's saying to the wives. It said in the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body. But they feed and care for their body just as Christ does the church, for we are members of his body. For this reason, a man will leave his father and his mother to be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you must also love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband how we treat each other. Ephesians 4, 1-6.
Speaker 1:As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body, one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all how we speak in general, therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
Speaker 1:In your anger, do not sin. This is Ephesians 4, 25-32. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. Do not give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as christ uh, just as in christ, god forgave you.
Speaker 1:The the biggest thing I hope you take away from this and because I I I get this question a lot, especially for younger believers they're like what do I do now? And my answer is always go to Scripture. God will give you what you need. When we get together in our community groups, we go through Scripture together, we study it. In our community groups, we go through Scripture together, we study it, we ask questions, we wrestle with it. God has given us everything we need to live the life that he's called us to, but most of us have resolved to let it sit on our shelves until we absolutely need it. Most of us, when we read the Bible, bible and we come across something difficult, we try to justify it away instead of sitting with it. The scriptures that god has given us are important, dare I say necessary, for our transformation.
Speaker 1:I do not believe that you can truly fulfill what Christ is calling you to do, that you can truly live out the Christian life and not engage with Scripture. It'll never happen, and I know, I know it's hard sometimes. I know it can be difficult. I know it can be difficult. I know there's a lot to wrestle with. I was talking to Cody this morning and I was like I don't know how I'm going to preach all this, because I could go on and on and on about how important the Word of God is, because it's that life-changing. God has given us everything we need, but here's the thing we have to feed ourselves. You're not going to learn the Scripture as it sits on your bookshelf. You might learn some things from a preacher, from watching a couple of videos, but really you're called to engage with it. It's the bread of life. It feeds us day in and day out, but in order to get fed you've got to eat. You have to pick it up and eat, and if anyone comes with opinions or ideas or teachings that don't come out of scripture. I wouldn't give it much thought.
Speaker 1:That first sermon that I preached was a wonderful motivational speech. Did I inspire some people? Probably. Did I get a passing grade? I did. Was I okay with it? No, because what really transforms people is the word of God, not the words that come out of my mouth. I am nothing more than a vessel. I say this and I'll be done.
Speaker 1:At the concert last night, kb was there. He's a really good artist, he's a rapper and one of the things he said last night that stuck with me and he was sharing the gospel. He says listen, he's like I'm just the guide here, I'm just the tour guide pointing you in the right direction. Every time I stand up here on a Sunday morning, my hope is to guide you to the Bible. My hope is to give you just enough that you go home and you're like oh man, I'm hungry, I want to know more, because the Bible, it'll change your life. That's what transforms us. God has given it to us specifically for the purpose of transformation. But you've got to eat. Sunday mornings is not enough. I'll just be honest If the only time you engage with the Word of God is for a half an hour on Sunday morning. You're starving to death. Alright, let's pray.