Is the Bible REALLY That Important?

Okay.

Everybody meet at least one person?

How are you guys doing?

Wow.

How are you guys doing?

Okay.

Hey, my name is Tobin.

I'm the teaching pastor here.

If this is your first time at Watermark, or it was your second time, or it's interesting,

we believe that God has you here for a reason, that you're not here by a mistake.

Some of you might feel like you're here by a mistake after this is over with, but you

are not here by a mistake.

God has you here for a reason, and we believe the biggest reason that he has you here for

is that he wants to meet you, and he wants you to meet him.

When we started this church a while back, one of the first things we did was we said, we

pulled out a book like this, and on the very first page of this book, we wrote down this.

It says, attempt something so great for God that it's destined to fail unless God is in

it.

And that's why we've started this church to trust that God's name would be made great

and he'd be glorified.

What we need from you, because people have asked me, this is a very strange church.

The last four weeks I've had people come and go, this is very strange.

You're family-oriented, your community, the kids are involved, you do communion together,

you're on a mission, you're serving, you're reaching out.

It's very unusual, and I usually say that's great because that's what we want to be like.

But what we need from you if you come in here and sit here is we need you to do a couple

things, because we don't want you just to come in and sit down, listen and sing, and then

get up and walk away.

Because if you do that, we feel like you've missed God.

If you do that, we feel like we've failed as a church, we feel like we've failed as a

staff, we feel like we've failed as a pastor.

What we need for you to do as you go on this journey with God is we need you to do four things.

We need you to pray.

We need you to pray that God's name would be made great.

We need you to pray that people would come to know him.

You know, some of the things we pray as a staff, we pray for this venue, because we

don't know where we're going to meet next week.

We're hoping that we're meeting in Cyreport, and I think we are going to meet on the third

floor for the next couple months, but we're not sure.

We lost our storage facility last week, so we don't have a place to store our stuff here.

So today, a whole bunch of us are going to get together, and we're going to take it down

to the garage, and we're going to store it in the garage.

And so we pray for things like that, because we don't know what's going to happen next week.

We're kind of on the edge, kind of raw, or you'd probably say kind of raw.

We pray for you.

Before the service starts, we go through these chairs, and we pray for everybody who's going

to sit in these chairs.

We pray that you would meet God.

We pray for the burdens that you have on your heart today.

We pray for the heaviness that you feel.

We pray for the things that might block out the message and the music and the worship

and the community, and we pray that those things wouldn't happen.

We pray for those people in those buildings right there.

You know, if statistics are right, 95% of those people have never heard about Christ, and

that when they die, they will go to a place where God is not, if Christ is not in their life.

And so we pray for the people in those buildings, that they would have a chance to hear the gospel

message that we as a church could reach out to them and spend time with them.

The next thing we need you to do is we need you to serve.

We believe that if you don't use your gifts, your talents, if you're not coming in here

and being a part of this church, if you just come in and you sit down, you watch, you listen,

and you walk away and you sneak out really quick, you grab some coffee, that you've missed

out what it means to be on a journey with Christ.

That everybody in here has gifts and talents, and we need you to serve and to use those

to make the body of Christ better.

The third thing we need you to do is we just need you to give.

We need to give of your time.

We need to give of your money.

All these things that allow these things to happen.

We don't, a couple weeks ago someone came up to me and said, you know, if you pass the

bucket in front of everybody and you put the money bucket in front of them, your offering

would increase by 20%.

Because statistically, that's just what happens.

And I said, you know, that's probably true.

But that's not what we want to be about as a church.

Because we believe that your offering financially and everything else back to God is the greatest

indicator of where your heart is.

And so we have these little blue envelopes that are everywhere, and we talk about it all

the time.

But we don't want to guilt you into giving, because that's how you worship the Lord.

It's the greatest indicator of how you worship the Lord.

And so the tithe that you give today or throughout this time, we want you to do that because you

love God.

Not because someone passes a bucket in front of you and guilts you into giving.

And we promise as a church that we'll use all of those things to create opportunities for

people to hear of Christ.

People who've never had the chance, we promise that we'll use these things to give them that

chance, because that's why we're here as a church.

So we need you to pray, we need you to serve, we need you to give, and finally we need you

to invest.

We need you, if you're here and you're on a journey with Christ, you're a Christ follower,

we need you to act like that in your workplace.

I was talking to somebody two weeks ago, and they came, I said, why did you come here?

And he says, well, I was watching someone in my office, and I realized that they interacted

and they reacted differently when everybody was getting fired.

They actually prayed for those people who were getting fired with all these layoffs.

And so I went up to them, I said, why do you do that?

And he goes, well, I'm a follower of Christ.

And I pray that God would use this opportunity to open up other opportunities in those people's

lives.

And the person said, well, what church do you go to?

Because I want to go there too.

We need you to invest.

We need you to walk like you're supposed to walk as a follower of Christ.

This month, 40 years ago, a family saw this little 10-year-old boy wandering the streets

of his neighborhood.

They saw his family that was having issues and difficulties, and they invited him to church.

They invested in my life.

And I saw the husband and wife love God and love each other.

Because they invested in my life, I believe I'm here right now.

And so we need you as a family of God on this journey together in community to pray,

to serve, to give, and to invest, so that God's name would be made great, his kingdom would

be glorified, and eternity would be different.

Amen?

Let me pray for us.

Father, we thank you for this day.

I thank you for my brothers and sisters here.

We thank you for all the gifts that you give us, all the talents, all the resources.

We know that all these things, even these kids that are sitting around and making our

lives uncomfortable sometimes because they're crazy, all these things are gifts from you.

And so, Lord, we worship you, we praise you, and we thank you for these amazing, amazing

gifts.

We realize one day that we'll come before you, and you're going to ask us how we use these

gifts.

Did we use these gifts to make your name great?

Did we use these gifts to give people an opportunity to hear about your son?

And, Lord, as a church, we want to be able to say, yes, we did.

We probably failed more than we succeeded, but we failed a lot because we wanted to attempt

something so great for you that unless you were in it, it would fail.

So, Lord, I thank you for my brothers and sisters in here today as we go on this journey together.

I pray that you would touch our hearts.

I pray that we would be different, that we would be different, that we'd be different as

we look at your son and see how different and beautiful he is.

We pray for the youth as they're about to go to their Sunday school classes, that you'd

watch over them, that you'd open their eyes, that they would see your son, Jesus, at 10

years old, like a little boy did 40 years ago, and he fell in love with you.

Lord, we pray the same.

We pray for mercy on their teachers, mercy for their parents.

We pray, most of all, that your son would be made great in their lives.

So, Lord, we come before you and we deeply need you.

Lord, we deeply need you.

Be with us.

We pray these things in your son, Jesus' holy name.

Amen.

Watermark kids, you are dismissed, parents.

The kids will be brought back up for you at the end of the service.

So, kids out the back and youth are in the service today because Eric is preaching.

This morning, Eric Scott will be teaching us as we continue our guerrilla letter series.

This week, we take a closer look at some of the letters you sent in regarding questions

you had about the Bible.

Here are just a few.

Dear Pastor, I find it difficult to read the Bible.

Well, some of the stories just seem too impossible to believe in or understand.

Are we to believe that they are all true?

Or are they just symbols of what the truth should look like?

I was always told we should read the Old Testament as fiction and the New Testament as non-fiction.

How am I supposed to handle the Bible?

I mean, what kind of role should I allow it to play in my life?

It seems to me that either I can abide by it all,

or I can go half and half and leave out the things that do not seem relevant to my life.

Or I can just use it as a good word to encourage me when I am down.

How do you determine which way to use it?

What would you recommend as a good amount of time to read the Bible every week?

I am pretty busy these days and find it hard to read it at all.

Help!

Help!

There are so many different translations of the Bible out there.

What am I to make of all these?

And how am I to navigate my way through the differences?

Pastor, my friends mock me because I tell them that I believe the Bible is literally true.

Am I being foolish?

How should I respond to them on this?

They tell me that the Bible was written for primitive people during primitive times,

not for us modern men.

2 Timothy 3 says,

All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for a teaching,

for reproof,

for correction,

and for training in righteousness,

that the man of God may be complete,

equipped for every good work.

And in 2 Peter 1 we find this,

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths

when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,

but we were eyeing witnesses of His majesty.

For when He received honor and glory from God the Father,

and the voice was born to Him by the majestic glory,

This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.

We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven,

for we were with Him on the holy mountain.

And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed,

to which you will do well to pay attention

as a lamp shining in a dark place,

until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Knowing this, first of all,

that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man,

but men spoke from God,

as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

This is today's reading.

Good morning.

My name is Eric Scott.

I'm the youth guy here at Watermark, if you don't recognize me.

And like they just said, we'll be talking about the Bible today.

Surprise, surprise, it's church.

We're talking about the Bible.

And as you can tell also from the questions,

these questions about the Bible cover a large range of topics about the Bible,

and there's no way that we can in-depth answer every single one of these questions

without this just becoming really dry and academic,

which is not what anyone wants to sit through this morning.

So I'm going to try to touch on all of these,

but some we will cover more in-depth than others.

And as I listened to the questions and read through the questions this week,

it really seemed to me like there were two major questions

that were running throughout all of these other questions.

So I want to start by looking at question number one,

is the Bible true?

And then we'll transition to how much or how relevant should the Bible be to my life?

And if there's a question that was asked and you feel like at the end of the day,

like, ah, Eric didn't answer my question adequately.

I really want more depth and insight into this.

Remember that this morning, this talk is not the be-all end-all on Watermark's teaching on the Bible,

but it's part of an ongoing conversation that will be carried on throughout the life of the church.

So, you know, keep coming back, keep listening,

keep talking with people within the church in your community groups,

and I guarantee you every single one of these questions has an answer.

So question number one, is the Bible true?

Well, yes.

Yes.

And, again, my tendency is to just go into academic reasoning of,

here's argument A, B, C, D, E, F, G of why the Bible is true.

But we don't have time for that today.

So I'm going to say three quick things about the truth of the Bible,

and then we're going to move on.

Thing number one, there's a lot of evidence out there to point to the truth of the Bible.

Archaeology is constantly making finds that back up stories from the Bible.

There are a lot of stories out there.

People think, oh, this story seems too unbelievable.

The city of Jericho couldn't have had their walls just fall in on them

or fall down just from people walking around it.

And then even if that did happen, the Israelites, when they came in to take over the city,

they wouldn't have just burned everything.

They would have taken all this stuff for themselves.

And then archaeology goes out and finds the city where all of these supplies

that would have been so useful to someone conquering it have just been burned inside it.

And again, this doesn't conclusively prove that absolutely, yes, the Bible is true.

But archaeology consistently points towards the truth of the Bible.

Also, throughout history, there are historical records of things happening

that were prophesied in the Bible hundreds of years before

that couldn't have come in the Bible beforehand

without the Bible being true and coming from God.

So, for example, there was a rich port city called Tyre.

And in the Bible, it was predicted that this city would be destroyed

and it was predicted how it would be destroyed.

And hundreds of years later, it was destroyed in the exact way

that the Bible predicted that it would be destroyed.

Also, the Bible is very internally consistent.

It consists of 66 smaller books written by dozens of authors over thousands of years.

And this internal consistency is hard to explain apart from it being consistent

because it's true and it coming from a divine source.

And like I said, these can't conclusively prove that, yes, the Bible is absolutely 100% true.

But there's strong evidence to point towards it.

And if this is a topic that you're more interested in,

there are a lot of great resources out there that you can look at for further personal study.

Some that I would recommend are a book called The Reason for God by a guy named Tim Keller,

a book called But Is It Real by a girl named Amy Orr Ewing,

and Evidence That Demands a Verdict by a guy named Josh McDowell.

So that's the first thing about the truth of the Bible.

The second thing, that Jesus believed that the Old Testament was true.

If you look at the teachings of Jesus, he consistently says, it is written.

And when he uses this phrase, he's pointing back towards the Old Testament.

He's using teachings from the Old Testament and saying that these are true

and carrying them forward to the people of his day.

Not only this, but also he believed that not only the teachings,

but also the stories of the Old Testament are true.

So if you look at Matthew chapter 12, Jesus talks about the story of Jonah.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

If you don't know the story of Jonah, there's this guy, he disobeyed God,

tried to run away, got thrown overboard from a boat, swallowed by a big fish,

stayed in there for three days and three nights, and then got spat out onto the land

and decided this time maybe I should obey God.

And Jesus is talking about his coming death and his coming resurrection.

And he points back to the story of Jonah and he says,

just like Jonah was swallowed by this fish and stayed three nights and three days

in the belly of this fish and then came back.

I'm going to die.

I'm going to spend three days and three nights in the ground and then I'll be back.

And he doesn't look back on this story and say like,

you know, there's this old myth, this old legend that these gullible people in olden times believed

that this guy was actually swallowed by a fish.

He says, hey, this happened.

And if we are Christians and we believe that Jesus was actually God in the flesh,

the God who made the world, who became a person,

and he believes that the Old Testament stories are actually true,

then I believe that that should be sufficient evidence for us as Christians to believe

that the Old Testament teachings and stories are true.

And I know not everyone in here is Christians,

but if we are, then I think that Jesus believing these stories should be sufficient for us to believe them.

The third thing I want to say about the truth of the Bible is that

the internal claims of the Bible about itself

mean that it either has to be entirely true or it loses all of its validity.

It either has to be entirely true or it loses all of its validity.

And here's why I say this.

Because in 2 Timothy 3.16, like the readers just read,

it says that all scripture, all of the Bible is breathed out by God.

It comes directly from him.

It has a divine source.

And then if we look at the book of Hebrews,

it says that Hebrews 6.18 says that it is impossible for God to lie.

So we have a claim that the Bible comes from God

and a claim that it is impossible for God to lie.

Which means that if there is something in the Bible that is not true,

say, you know, the Bible says that Jesus died and then rose again from the dead.

If that is not true, if Jesus did not rise from the dead after he died,

then that means that the Bible has a lie in it.

Which means either God can't lie, but the Bible came from somewhere else

and the Bible loses its divine source.

Or the Bible actually came from God, but God can tell lies.

And so we can't really trust that this source that it comes from is reliable.

And so the Bible claims that either it has to be entirely true

or it loses all of its validity

because either the source or the character of the source is thrown into question.

And so in terms of the question of, you know, what should I do?

Should I choose parts of it that I think are true and leave the rest off as stories?

If we decide to do that, that puts us in a very dangerous position.

Because all of a sudden when we do this, when we say,

I'm not so sure that this story is true, maybe I'll just ignore that.

That puts us at a point where we are either saying,

the Bible didn't come from God or God is not trustworthy.

And either way, we're saying, I am wiser than God.

I know better than God.

I'm going to make a decision for myself about whether what God actually says is true.

So there's lots of evidence out there to point to the truth of the Bible.

Jesus believed that the entire Bible, including the Old Testament, was true.

And the Bible either has to be entirely true or it loses all of its validity.

But okay, the Bible is true.

What difference does it make in my life?

There's a lot of stuff out there that's true that makes absolutely no difference in my life.

Take the user guide for a NASA space shuttle.

I'm sure that the contents of that are absolutely true.

But it makes absolutely no difference in my life.

I've never read the user guide for a NASA space shuttle.

And even if I did, I've never been on one.

I never planned to be on one.

So the stuff that I could learn from that wouldn't make an impact on my day-to-day life.

If I was an astronaut, great.

But I'm not.

And so the fact that this true information is out here doesn't mean a thing to me.

It's cool that other people can go into space,

but that's not going to save my life if stuff starts breaking down on the space shuttle.

And so, you know, I think the fact that it's true in and of itself

doesn't make it impactful on our lives.

And there are a number of things that could keep it from being impactful.

So I think of the security guards at my building.

The security guards at my building don't speak English.

One of them speaks enough English that when I walk in, he goes,

Hi, Eric, how are you?

And I say, I'm good, Mr. Wong, how are you?

He says, I am fine.

And that is the extent of his English.

Try and talk about anything else, and he just gives up.

I even, like, try and type it out on my phone in English

and hit the translate button so he can read it in Chinese.

Still doesn't work.

He's just lost.

But he actually speaks significantly more English

than the other security guard that's regularly at my building.

This woman speaks not a word of English, except for,

Hello!

In that tone of voice.

But this doesn't stop her from trying to communicate with me on a regular basis.

Sometimes it's pretty easy.

I walk inside on a cold day in shorts and a t-shirt,

and she's like, Oh, brrr.

I'm like, Yes, I am cold.

Or I walk inside at mealtime, and she's like,

Oh, six for me, ah.

I'm like, Hi, hi.

That means, Have you eaten yet?

And I say, Yes.

But other times, she tries to talk to me,

and I just have no clue at all what she's saying.

And so it turns into this game of charades

where she tries to act out something and communicate to me,

and I'm just like,

I have no idea what's going on.

And usually, it's not that big of a deal.

I just hop in the elevator, say bye-bye,

and go up to my apartment.

But sometimes I can tell from her tone of voice

that what she's trying to communicate with me

is very urgent and important.

And in these moments, I have to pull out my phone,

call up Jeremy, my roommate who speaks Canto,

say, Hey, listen to what this lady is saying,

and then tell me what it means.

Hand her the phone.

Let her explain it.

Take back the phone.

Have him relay the message.

And then depending on the message,

I either turn to the lady and say,

Okay, okay, I'm good.

Or I say something to him,

hand the phone back,

have him pass the message on for me again,

and we just do this phone relay game.

And a lot of the times,

the messages aren't that important,

but sometimes they are.

One time, I walk downstairs,

and the lady's like,

you can tell from the way that she's talking

that it's very important.

And all I hear is like,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Dixai, Dixai, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I'm like, there's water dripping.

It's not raining outside.

Do I need an umbrella when I go out?

What's going on?

And she's just like,

blah, blah, blah, Dixai, Dixai.

I'm like, what's going on?

So I bust out my phone.

I call Jeremy,

and I'm like,

I can't understand what's going on here.

So I hand the phone to the lady.

She explains it, hands it back,

and he's like,

Oh, someone in our side of the building

has a dripping air conditioner,

so she wants us to just check

and make sure it's not us.

You know, it's really simple,

really easy message to pass on,

but because of the fact

that we don't speak the same language,

I couldn't get that message.

I think a lot of people have this idea

that the Bible is like this,

that it is difficult to understand,

that it's reliant upon

somewhat sketchy at best interpretation

on our part,

like the game of charades

that I play with my security guard

where I think she's talking about,

you know, it's raining,

you need an umbrella,

and she's actually saying

your air conditioner is dripping,

or they think that it absolutely requires

highly skilled interpreters

for us to be able to actually understand

what it is saying.

But I have good news.

The Bible is not like that.

The Bible is clearly communicated to us by God

in human language

that we can easily understand,

and it has been translated, thankfully,

into many, many languages

so that even if we don't speak English,

we can still get a translation in our language.

And even better,

the Bible says that God sent Jesus

to the earth,

that Jesus is the word of God made flesh,

so that God did not simply tell us

what he wants from us,

but he sent Jesus to show us

what he wants from us as well.

And so I want to look today

at two major ways

the Bible is relevant to our lives,

and I get these from the passage

that we read in 2 Timothy this morning.

Two big things that the Bible does,

two incredibly relevant ways

that it impacts our lives.

The first one,

in 2 Timothy 3, verse 15,

2 Timothy 3:15

it says that you have been acquainted

with the sacred writings

which are able to make you wise

for salvation

through faith in Jesus Christ.

The Bible makes us wise for salvation.

The Bible tells us about Jesus,

the Savior.

There are a lot of different ways

that people approach reading the Bible.

Some people look through the Bible

and they think,

oh, there's lots of rules in here.

I need to get a notebook and pen

and make a list of all the rules

so that I can keep all the rules perfectly.

And they get their list

and they keep their rules

and they look around at everyone else

who hasn't kept the rules

and says,

look at them.

Can't believe how messed up they are.

Or they get their list,

they write out the rules,

they realize they can't keep the rules,

and then they just feel

so disappointed with themselves

because I should be better than this.

And while the Bible does have lots of rules,

the Bible is not primarily a book about rules.

The primary goal of the Bible

is not just to get us to follow a list of rules.

Some people read the Bible

as an inspiration guide for life.

They have the little Bible app on their iPhone

so that throughout the day when things go bad,

they can just bust it out

and play Bible roulette,

spin through the books and tap,

and here's my verse for this moment.

And you know,

sometimes I'm sure they get a great one,

like, I can do all things through Christ

who strengthens me.

And then, you know,

some days it turns up and it's like,

depart from me, men of bloodshed.

Oh, how I hate the wicked.

Like, what's that supposed to say

about my situation right now?

And they,

or maybe,

maybe just randomly in the morning,

flip open,

read the first chapter that comes up.

Oh, how lonely sits the city

that was full of people.

Like a widow she has become,

she who was great among the nations.

That's a depressing way to start your morning.

And they,

they look to the Bible for inspiration.

Just read until they find something

that maybe speaks to their lives.

And while I believe that the Bible

is very inspirational,

it is not first and foremost

a self-help motivational book.

Another way people read the Bible

is as a book of heroes.

They look through

and they see these great heroes

and say,

I need to be just like them.

David went and fought Goliath.

He faced the giants in his life.

And now I need to face my giants.

So they identify the giants in their lives

and they go out

and they face those giants.

Here's the problem with this.

All of the heroes in the Bible,

except for Jesus,

failed.

Many of them in huge giant ways,

often on purpose.

So if we're following David,

trying to be just like him,

facing our giants,

what do we do about the fact

that David slept with his neighbor's wife

and had the neighbor murdered

to cover it up?

Are we supposed to go

follow him in that one too?

No.

If you don't get the sarcasm,

no.

The answer is no.

And while the Bible does have,

you know,

examples of faith

that we are supposed to look at

and follow,

it even says,

the Bible is not primarily

a book of heroes

that we are supposed to be,

try to be like.

So what is the Bible,

first and foremost?

It's a story.

There's a children's Bible

called the Jesus Storybook Bible,

and I feel like

the Jesus Storybook Bible

explains this best.

So I'm just going to read

a little passage

from the Jesus Storybook Bible

to us.

If you have kids

and you're looking for

a children's Bible for them,

this is an excellent one.

If you don't have kids,

but you still want

an excellent book to read,

just pick it up

and read through

the Storybook Bible

by yourself.

It also has cool pictures,

so it's even more fun to read.

But it says,

no,

the Bible isn't

a book of rules

or a book of heroes.

The Bible is most of all

a story.

It's an adventure story

about a young hero

who comes from

a far country

to win back

his lost treasure.

It's a love story

about a brave prince

who leaves his palace,

his throne,

everything,

to rescue

the ones he loves.

It's like the most

wonderful of fairy tales

that has come true

in real life.

You see,

the best thing

about this story

is it's true.

There are lots of stories

in the Bible,

but all the stories

are telling one big story,

the story of how God

loves his children

and comes to rescue them.

It takes the whole Bible

to tell this story,

and at the center

of the story,

there is a baby.

Every story in the Bible

whispers his name.

He's like the missing piece

in the puzzle,

the piece that makes

all the other pieces

fit together,

and suddenly,

you can see

a beautiful picture.

The Bible is,

first and foremost,

a story about a God

who loves

and rescues his people.

And that is how

it makes us wise

for salvation.

It points us

to this hero,

the one Jesus.

Every part of the Bible

whispers his name.

The Old Testament rules,

they're there

not just so that

we can have a list

and feel good

about our ability

to keep them

or bad about

our inability

to keep them.

They're there

because when we

look at them

and realize

how impossible

it is for us

to keep all of them,

it shows us

how far short

we fall

of being good enough

for God

and how much

we need

a Savior

in Jesus.

The heroes

are there

as pictures

of Christ.

We're not supposed

to go out

and be David

and face our giants.

We have a David

who's already come

and conquered the giant.

We have Jesus

who came

and conquered

sin and death

for us.

And where are we

in the story?

We're the Israelites

sitting back

too scared,

hiding,

trying to avoid

having to see

this giant.

But then we have

a hero who comes in

and conquers the giant

for us.

And we who were

living in fear

and in defeat

now are all of a sudden

enabled to go out

and live in victory

because someone else

has won the battle

for us.

And when David fails,

when David goes out

and sleeps with his

neighbor's wife

and has the neighbor

murdered so that

he can cover it up,

it gives us a longing

for the hero

who won't fail,

for the one who

will perfectly obey

at all times.

In every way,

this story points us

back to Jesus.

And, you know,

the whole Bible

is a part of this story,

even parts that at times

we may be like,

genealogies,

why are they in the Bible?

Why is it significant

in our lives

that the tabernacle

has to be this long

by this wide

and made out of this material?

It doesn't make sense.

Why do I care

how many people

were counted in the census

of Israel

thousands of years ago?

But the thing is

that every single one

of these aspects

is a part of the story.

Every single one

of these aspects

points us to the way

that God is working

in and among his people

to rescue and save them.

so that every single

part of the Bible,

the stories,

the teachings,

the historical records,

is relevant directly

to our lives

because it is a part

of this story.

The Bible,

in its entirety,

makes us wise

for salvation

by introducing us

to this story

and to Jesus,

the Savior,

at the center

of the story.

So the second thing

that the Bible does,

it says in verse 17

of 2 Timothy 3,

it says that it may,

that the man of God

may be competent,

equipped for every good work.

The Bible equips us

for every good work.

And here's how the Bible

doesn't equip us

for every good work.

There's not a book

in the Bible

that is called

The Letter to Eric

that says,

chapter 1,

verse 1,

You shall move

to Hong Kong

in the year 2010

and work at a church there

after graduating

from your undergraduate degree

in Dallas.

No verse like that

in the Bible.

There's no list of

here's where you should live,

here's what you should do,

here's what you should study

in school

and where you should study it.

Here's who you should marry,

here's how you should

name your kids

as they are born.

None of that's in there.

But the Bible equips us

for every good work

by introducing us

to God

and calling us

to love Him.

See, if there were verses

in the Bible

that said,

here's where you need to live,

here's what you need to do,

here's what you need to study,

that just becomes

the law.

And as the Bible

repeatedly tells us,

the law kills.

In Romans chapter 7,

Romans 7 · chapter mention

Paul talks about this.

He says,

you know,

before,

I thought that I was alive,

I thought that I had

things going on,

had it all together,

and then I read

the commandments

in God's law.

And I realized

that I was messed up.

I realized

that coveting,

that wanting

what someone else has

so desperately

is wrong.

And when I realized this,

it didn't make me want

to obey it,

it made me want

to covet even more.

I was alive,

the law came,

it killed me.

And it couldn't

bring me back to life.

And what the Bible

consistently,

repeatedly tells us

is that it is grace

that brings us life.

It is not a list

of commands

that tells us

what to do

that transforms

our hearts

and equips us

for every good work,

but it is God's work

in us

that transforms

our hearts

and equips us

for every good work.

You know,

the movie just came out,

so I think that

probably a bunch of us

have seen it,

and if not,

probably some of us

have read the book

or seen the musical.

But Les Mis,

there is a character

named John Valjean.

And John Valjean,

before the story

even starts,

he breaks into a bakery

and steals a loaf of bread.

And he is sent to prison

to be reformed

by the law.

But rather than reforming him,

the law hardens him.

So that rather than

changing his ways,

he tries to escape

and gets sentenced

to longer and longer

stays in the prison.

So that what

originally started out

as a short sentence

for stealing a loaf of bread

turns into 19 years

of his life in prison.

He suffers

the wrath

of the law.

And when he gets out

of the prison,

instead of being reformed,

he is even more

hardened than ever.

And so the first thing

he does after being

set free from prison

is go and steal

a bunch of silver

from the bishop

and try to escape

with it

so he can start

a new life.

And the thing

in John Valjean's life

that ultimately

changes him,

that transforms him,

is not him

getting arrested again

and getting sent

back to prison,

but it's the fact

that when he gets caught,

when he gets brought

back to the bishop

and the people say,

look, bishop,

we caught this guy

with your silver.

Rather than saying,

lock him up

and take him away,

the bishop says,

of course he would

have my silver.

It was a gift.

I gave it to him.

And he sets him free.

And at this moment,

to paraphrase the book,

John Valjean realizes

that either he had

to become as righteous

as an angel

or he would be

as terrible

as the devil of hell

because the grace

that had been shown

to him had to have

an impact on his life.

The law had hardened him

and it was only grace

that allowed him

to go out,

to start a new life,

to be charitable

to others,

to show love to others

and to be a completely

new man.

And it's the same way

with the Bible.

The Bible doesn't just

give us these list of rules

so that we can keep them

and be different,

but it shows us grace.

It shows us the Savior

so that we can love him.

And naturally,

the Bible says

that we don't love God

on our own.

And so another way

that the Bible

transforms us

and equips us

for every good work

is by changing

what we love.

Changing it

from us wanting

to be the God

of our lives,

to do what we want

and serve ourselves

to loving the God

of the universe

and wanting

what he wants.

You know,

in my life,

when I was younger,

I used to run

cross-country

at my school.

But it sort of

destroyed my knees,

so I stopped

after a few years.

And for years,

I didn't run.

Now,

I used my knees

as an excuse

for not running,

but seriously,

even if my knees

were okay,

who enjoys running?

Who wants to go

for runs?

Right?

Yes?

Are you with me there?

And when I went

home this past summer,

my dad started

talking to me

about these new

running shoes

that he had gotten

that cut down

on the impact

on his knees

so he could run

without hurting

his knees.

I thought,

oh,

this sounds so wonderful.

I got a pair

of these shoes

and I was like,

when I come back

to Hong Kong,

I will start running.

I will be fit.

I got these shoes,

I brought them

back to Hong Kong

and these shoes

sat on my shelf

for five straight months

untouched.

because I realized

that as much

as I loved

the idea of running,

I did not love running.

I loved the comfort

of my bed

early in the morning

and did not want

to leave that comfort

to go do

something like

sweat

and have to breathe

deeply

early in the morning

and then be all gross

and,

ugh,

why would I do that?

I did not love

running.

But then something

happened.

Around November,

I started dating

this girl

who loves running.

And in our discussions,

someone recommended,

hey,

how about sometime

we go for a run

together?

And I,

being the caring guy

that I am,

said,

oh,

that would definitely

be a great way

for us to have

common activities

to do together.

And then thought

to myself,

crap.

So I busted out

the shoes.

I went for a couple

runs to get in shape

so that once we

started running together,

I wouldn't be just

like miles and miles

behind her.

I broke in these

new shoes.

We started going for

runs together

occasionally.

And I realized

that I developed

an enjoyment for running,

not because I enjoy

running in and of itself,

but because I enjoyed

the person that I was

running with.

And having that

person around

transformed my desire

to run to the extent

that now I even go

for runs on my own

midweek when I'm not

with her so that,

because I've just

learned to enjoy

running.

And so it's the same

way with the Bible.

The Bible doesn't,

doesn't just take us

and give us these rules

and say,

do this so that

you'll be different.

It says,

enter into this

relationship,

fall in love with

God,

get to know him.

And in that process,

you will be

transformed.

You know,

my love,

I don't know if I would

call it a love for

running yet,

my enjoyment of running

did not come because

some expert came

and said,

Eric,

if you don't start

exercising more,

you will die of a

heart attack at a

very early age.

It also didn't come

because my girlfriend

came up to me and

said,

hey,

the only way that I

would ever consider

dating you is if you

actually were willing

to go on a run with me.

It simply came out

of a relationship.

And the way that

the Bible equips us

for every good work

is by introducing us

to a relationship

with the God

of the universe.

So as we look at

these two things

that the Bible does,

equipping us for

salvation and

equipping us for

every good work,

we realize that

how we handle the

Bible is ultimately

a matter of

life and death

for us.

how we handle the

Bible is a matter

of life and

death for us.

Because the Bible

is where we learn

of God's salvation

and the Bible is

how God equips us

for every good work

in our lives.

And absolutely,

there are ways that

we can learn the

contents of the Bible

without actually

reading it.

In the book of

Colossians,

Paul commands the

Christians to teach

one another using

songs and hymns

that you can learn

the contents of

the Bible through

songs.

Or nowadays,

we have cool

technology like

audiobooks so you

can listen to the

contents of the

Bible.

Or if you're like

me and you enjoy

actual books,

there are dozens

of translations of

the Bible that are

relative or different

levels of readability

so that you can have

the level of

readability that is

best for you.

And here's the

thing.

The primary thing is

not how these truths

get into your life.

It's that they get

into your life.

Because it is

through these truths

that God makes us

wise for salvation

and equips us

for every good

work.

Think of it this

way.

The Bible is a

matter of life and

death for us.

Another thing that

is a matter of life

and death for us

is food.

When you get home

after a long day

of work, it's been

hard and grueling

at the office,

you don't think,

oh, do I really

have to eat dinner

tonight?

At least most

people I know

don't do that.

With me, I get

home, I'm like,

all right, what's

to eat?

I am starving.

And I know that

I want this food

because this food

gives me life and

I crave life.

It's the same way

with the Bible.

The Bible gives

us life.

Do we crave this

life?

Or would we

rather just set

it aside, forget

about it, go on

living life the

way that we have

been?

We have the

words that can

equip us for

salvation and for

every good work.

What are we going

to do with them?

Let's pray.

Father, we thank

you for your

word.

We thank you for

speaking your

word.

We thank you

that it comes

directly from you

and that you are

a reliable source,

that you are good,

that you do not

tell lies, and that

you have made your

whole Bible

sufficient to make

us wise for

salvation and to

equip us for every

good work.

Please create in us

a desire for the

life that your

word gives.

Please create in

us a love for your

son Jesus and for

the work that he

has done for us.

please transform us

and help us to

grow as a community

through your word.

And in Jesus' name,

amen.

Amen.

Hey, if you're like

me, like I was 40

years ago, someone

just gave me a Bible

and just said, hey,

Matthew, Mark, Luke,

and John, they're

right in the center of

your Bible.

Open up to one of

those books, start at

the beginning, and

read for about 10

minutes.

And just talk to the

Lord as you're reading.

If you don't have a

Bible, come by the

Church Community

Center this week.

We'll give you one

for free.

We'll have them next

week when we're

downstairs.

We'll be downstairs

next week on the

third floor.

We'll have a lot of

Bibles there.

Now, you can't take

them and resell them,

okay?

But if they're for

your use, you can

take them and we'll

have them there.

So take one, Matthew,

Mark, Luke, or John,

read 10 minutes a day

and it will change you.

Thanks so much, Eric,

for bringing us to

God's Word.

And we want to

encourage you to hang

out afterwards, get

some food, coffee.

Check out your

bulletin.

There's a lot of

great things happening.

There's a very

interesting women's

study coming up in

November.

The Israel trip is

still on for May,

so there's still a

couple of slots

available for that.

So check that out.

We'd love for you to

come.

That will change

your life.

February.

Yeah.

Oh, the women's

thing.

February, right,

okay.

Yeah, that's why

the women are

leading, not the men.

So let me pray for

us.

Father, we just

thank you for this

day.

We thank you that

we can come

together and know

that your Word is

true and that you

are good and that

we can trust you.

And so we come and

we lay all of our

life before you as

we look at your

Son, the perfect

hero, who came to

save us from all

especially sin, that

he gathers us and

prevents us from

coming to you.

So, Lord, we come

this morning and we

just give our lives to

you and we worship

you.

We thank you for

what you're doing in

the church and in

the community groups

and with the

outreaches.

Lord, we know that

if all those things,

if you're not there,

if you're not at the

center of it, if you're

not the center of our

story, then it's useless

and meaningless.

And so, Lord, we pray

that we would always

focus on you and that

you would be the hero

of our lives.

So we lift up this

time and this

fellowship in your

Word.

We pray that they

would change us to

make us more like our

hero, Jesus.

Lord, we love you.

We pray these things in

your Son Jesus' name.

Amen.

God bless you.

Remember, next week we're

on the third floor, so

we'll see you there.