7 Transformational Habits, Part II - Scripture

Good morning, good morning kids.

Why don't y'all stand to your feet and head out to kids' men, let's give it up for our kids this morning.

There you go.

It's a good day to be in church.

I don't know if you've been encouraged.

This morning I was encouraged as we were singing.

I was looking around the room and watching some of our kids singing with everything that they have, that Jesus changes everything.

Come on, that is incredible.

We're going to be in 2 Timothy, chapter 3.

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

Today we're in a series called Seven Transformational Habits.

We're talking about spiritual disciplines or spiritual formation, cultivating healthy habits that lead us to a life with Christ.

Don Whitney is an author, a pastor, theologian, who wrote a book on spiritual disciplines in the Christian journey.

He began his book with an incredible phrase.

He said that discipline without direction is drudgery.

Discipline without direction is drudgery.

What does Whitney mean?

What he's saying is if you just decide to be disciplined and give up ice cream and you don't know why you're giving up ice cream, you'll be disciplined, but there's no direction behind it.

That is not fun.

Have you ever met somebody who just gives up ice cream?

Because Right, like, why are you giving up ice cream?

Just because no?

Of course not, because discipline without direction is drudgery.

Right now, people give up ice cream for lots of good reasons.

This is not a sermon about ice cream, but it's a great, helpful metaphor for us today.

Some people are lactose intolerant and have to give up ice cream, and apparently there's ice cream for that.

I didn't know that, but you can get some.

I accidentally bought some.

It's not the same, but you know, whatever and like.

So some people it's the milk deal, some people it's like I'm you know, I'm fasting, I'm in this like health journey.

So like, if there's some direction for the discipline, then it's not drudgery, then it becomes delight.

The discipline becomes a means to an end.

It's helping me in this journey and the journey is what I'm after.

Like, the goal at the end of the journey makes the discipline the hard work worth it, and that is the heart of this seven transformational habits series.

We're talking about spiritual disciplines prayer and, today, scripture.

We're going to talk about Sabbath and fasting and a few more over the course of this journey.

But the point is not to say these are things that you have to do.

The point is to say these are things that you get to do by the grace of God, and these are not to restrict you, to hinder your life.

These are things to set you free and enhance your life so that you can live the life that God has called you to live.

It's not drudgery, it's delight, it's discipline with direction that leads us to a flourishing life in the presence of God.

So, with that in mind, we're going to jump in today to 2 Timothy, chapter 3.

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

This is the apostle Paul.

He's writing a letter to his mentee, his protege, timothy.

Timothy is a young pastor at a church in a place called Ephesus.

It's in that day and time.

It's the equivalent of what we would call a mega church today.

It's exploding in growth.

People are coming from all walks of life to Timothy's church and, as you can imagine, timothy's feeling the external pressure of leading this cultural melting pot of people towards Jesus.

He's feeling the internal weight of his calling.

And so Paul, knowing that his time on earth is short, wants to encourage his protege stay the course, keep the faith, build your life on something that is sustainable and lasting, because the pressure is real and the weight is heavy.

You need something that can withstand everything that you're going to face.

And this is what Paul says to Timothy, and it's for us today as well.

Paul says, timothy, understand this that in the last days there will come times of difficulty and anybody who's breathing oxygen in 2024 says amen, it's time.

Life is hard.

There'll be moments of difficulty.

And then Paul says let me explain to you why.

There'll be moments of difficulty, for people Will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable.

They can never get enough, they can never be as slanderous without self control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

Having the appearance of godliness but denying its power avoids such people, for among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women.

Burden with sins and let astray by various passions, they are never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

Just as Janus and Yombrus opposed Moses, so these men also opposed the truth.

Janus and Yombrus were two Egyptian magicians that Pharaoh summoned in the Exodus narrative to perform signs and wonders that would parallel what Moses was doing as God was leading the people out of Egypt.

Paul is saying people have always deposed the truth of God.

Men corrupted in mind, disqualified regarding the faith, they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, which persecutions I endured.

Yet from them all, the Lord rescued me.

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

But as for you, we say that together this morning.

As for you, do me a favor, tell the person next to you this morning.

As for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how.

From childhood, you've been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

All scripture is breathed out by God and, just as a context note and full intellectual honesty, this morning, when Paul says all scripture, he is specifically referring to the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament.

But because all of God's word is breathed out by God, we can extrapolate that forward and say this also includes the New Testament for us today.

All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and training in righteousness.

That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Father, we thank you this morning for your word and, god, we pray now that by your spirit, you would illuminate the truth of your word in our hearts, father, that we would have an encounter today with you.

Through your word, by your spirit, god, that changes us.

Have your will, have your way in this place this morning.

God, show us your glory, is our prayer today in Jesus' name.

Amen, amen.

Anybody watch the Super Bowl last Sunday, just out of curiosity.

Okay, a few more, I see a few more y'all at the 10.30 and that's nine o'clock.

I said that nine o'clock and they're like Super Bowl, don't care, and I was like well, that blows the illustration completely this morning, but thank you for watching the Super Bowl.

There were some headlines right Coming after the Super Bowl.

If you watched any ESPN or any listen to any sports talk radio this past week, you heard some headlines, some recap from the Super Bowl.

Maybe you heard something like Brock Purdy on the biggest stage prove that he could play at that level.

The last pick in the draft to one of the youngest starting quarterbacks in the Super Bowl ever.

Maybe you heard about Steve Spagnola and the Chiefs defense, right, the way they rise to the occasion time after time after time again.

Maybe it was the 49ers and their decision to take the ball at the opening of overtime, like, did Shanahan make the right call or should he have been fired yesterday?

Or maybe it was just something else.

I think one of the greatest recaps that I saw was this Taylor Swift's boyfriend played at the Usher concert.

I saw that headline and I was like I mean that's yeah, it's what happened.

Right, that's what happened.

Taylor Swift's boyfriend did play at the Usher concert.

But that also is an exercise in missing the point.

Is it not Like that's not at all what the big story was of the Super Bowl?

The Super Bowl is not ultimately about Taylor Swift or Usher or even who particularly was on the field.

It's about teams and competition and the trophy at the end.

Right, like there's a bigger story than just Taylor Swift's boyfriend played at the Usher concert.

And so I say all of that to ask this question today, when we think about our world and the way our world sees the scriptures.

What are the headlines that our world applies to the Bible?

If you just went up and down the street or went around your office or just randomly pulled some people in life and you said, hey, give me a headline about the scriptures, I'm willing to bet that you're gonna hear a multiplicity of answers, are you not?

You're gonna hear things like well, the Bible, it's a relic of times past.

It was written in a different day and time for a different people and place and it's really not that applicable for us today.

Are you gonna hear that the Bible is anti-women or proslavery?

Or if you really believe what the Bible says, well, that means that you're hateful and bigoted.

Or the Bible is actually anti-science and it's just been disproven by so much stuff in our world.

We just know more today than they did back then.

And you're gonna hear all sorts of headlines applied to the Bible.

And I say that this morning to say that what's happening in a lot of those cases is people are taking one verse and misinterpreting it, pulling it out of context, and they're making it their whole view of the scriptures.

And what we have to understand is that people pulling verses out of context can make the Bible say whatever they want it to say, and we can do the same thing, can we not?

We can use the Bible to justify just about any type of behavior we want to justify.

And in doing that, when we treat the scriptures like that, we are like the people who looked at the Super Bowl and said Taylor Swift's boyfriend played at the Usher concert.

Like I see how you got there, but that's not the point, that's not the story.

And so for us, as people who believe this to be the word of God, who believe this to be foundational for our life and our practice and the way we interpret the world around us as our source for ethics and morals and values, what do we do with the Bible in a world where we're not, in a world where there have been so many other headlines attached to God's word?

This is why our conversation today matters.

Now.

We're not gonna get into today like where the Bible necessarily came from in terms of how we got from the Hebrew and the Greek to what we have here.

We're not gonna talk necessarily about multiple interpretive practices and how we interpret Genesis versus the Psalms versus Acts and Romans and Ephesians, like there's some source classes for that, there's some small groups for that.

We can get to that conversation at some point in time.

Today, I simply want us to understand what happens when we read the Bible, because when we understand what happens when you read the Bible, we understand why we've got to read the Bible.

Not because it's duty, not because it's drudgery, but because, ultimately, it leads us to life, leads us to life.

So, the question what happens when you read the Bible?

Well, number one when you read the Bible, you encounter God.

When you open this word and you read this book, you encounter Almighty God.

It's not like any other book on the shelf.

It's not like anything else that's been written throughout history.

Paul says in 2 Timothy, chapter three, verse 16, he starts.

He says all scripture is breathed out by God.

Now, if you were living in Paul's day and you traveled to ancient Greece and you journeyed through the marketplace, the Agora, or you made your way up to the Areopagus, where you were hearing all of these debates about new philosophies and new writings and new ideas, there's one phrase that you're not going to hear applied to these new writings and new ideas, and it's this phrase breathed out by God.

Paul says all scripture is breathed out by God.

In the Greek it's phaopneustos.

Can you say that this morning?

Phaopneustos, everybody, 100% of you, phaopneustos, what did you learn at church today?

Phaopneustos, you're not gonna be walking around the Agora in ancient Greece and say, hey, somebody's gonna walk up to you and be like, hey, so and so, just wrote this down.

He's the greatest philosopher of our present time.

When you read this writing, it's amazing.

It's so phaopneustos.

You're not gonna hear that.

I didn't speak English.

But you're also not gonna hear phaopneustos.

You're not gonna hear in the Areopagus one of the philosophers presenting their new idea and say I just need you to know that this idea is completely phaopneustos.

You're like well, why are you not gonna hear that phrase?

Because Paul made it up.

This is the only place in the scripture that phaopneustos appears and there's no record of anybody using this phrase phaopneustos anywhere else until after Paul wrote 2 Timothy, chapter three, verse 16.

And the reason why is because Paul creates an adjective.

Now, can he do that?

Well, he's the apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

I think he can.

And this is what phaopneustos means.

It's a combination of two words phaos, meaning God, numah, meaning spirit.

Paul turns it into an adjective form and says phaopneustos.

And so what he says is that the scripture, this word, is breathed out by God, breathed out by God, phaopneustos.

Your translation of scripture may say God breathed One word in the Greek phaopneustos.

And his point?

What he's saying is this this book is unlike anything else that has ever been written.

It is unique.

It is without equal.

It is without any other comp In the real estate market.

If you're gonna sell your house, somebody comes to your realtor, comes to you and says, hey, we need to pull some comps right.

And what they mean is we need to look at other pieces of property nearby, around you that are similar to yours and that will help us to value your property accurately so you can make sure that you sell your home at the right price and the appraisal is gonna come back right.

And we need to pull some comps.

Paul says all scriptures stay up, neustos.

What he is saying is there is no comp to the word of God, there's nothing like it, because it is God breathed, it is inspired by Almighty God.

So, paul, when Paul wrote down 2 Timothy, what happened was this the Holy Spirit, the Numa of God, got involved and the Holy Spirit working through Paul, through Paul's unique personality and unique experiences and his deep love for Timothy, the Holy Spirit inspired the very words that Paul wrote down, so that what we have as 2 Timothy today is exactly what God intended for us to have.

We don't just have Paul's ideas, we have God's ideas.

We don't just have Paul's words and Paul's opinions and Paul's interpretation of the world.

We have the word of God, the mind of God, the thought process of God, not just for Paul's world, but for all the world.

It's beautiful, right Like we have the inspired word of God.

And so when you open this book and you read these words, you don't just read the words of a human author.

You encounter the living word of God.

Hebrews 412 says this word is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it can divide soul and spirit, joint and marrow.

It is alive.

It's unlike anything else you're ever going to read.

Isn't that beautiful?

And y'all everything else that we believe about the Bible begins with the idea of inspiration that this is the word of God, from God, for the people of Almighty God.

So when you open this word, you encounter God.

You need to encounter God tomorrow.

What should you do, god?

Where are you?

Run outside?

Looking under rocks.

You know, looking out like God where.

Go to his word.

When you open his word, you encounter his spirit on every page.

And the good news for us today the spirit that raised Christ from the dead now works through the word, and the same spirit that resurrected Jesus still has the power to resurrect people to life.

Today you can go from death to life.

How do you go from death to life?

You go from death to life by the power of the spirit.

Where do you encounter the spirit?

In the word.

So if you're sitting here today and you're like there are areas in my life and there's a lot of dead going on in this area in my life, there's a lot of dead going on in this area in my life, go to God's word.

It is breathed out by God.

It's breathed out by God.

Not only do you encounter God, you also gain wisdom.

Anybody need some wisdom today, in 2024?

I do right, listen y'all.

When I was growing up, I used to look at adults and be like, oh my goodness, they got it all figured out and my dad just knows stuff.

My mom just has answers Like something breaks in the house, like they got tools and they can fix it.

They just know how to do things and they know solutions to problems that just show up and they know how to talk to people, and like I can't wait to be an adult, so then I'll know stuff too.

Now I'm 31, with a seven-year-old and a four-year-old, I have a job and a wife and like bills to pay, and I'm like when did the moment come where I was supposed to know stuff, like stuff breaks in my house and I'm like I gotta call Ethan Scott because I don't know how to fix this.

You know, like I don't know where the line was, that when I crossed the line I should have gained the knowledge that comes with being an adult.

And then here's what I realized like you all are adults and you might know more than me, but you don't know everything.

Right, we're all on this journey called life and we're all just trying to figure it out as best we can as we go, are we not?

And Paul says hey, here's the good news.

This God inspired word is useful and beneficial for teaching, for instruction in wise living, so that as you're navigating this world, trying to figure out what to do and what to say and how to solve the problems you face, you have a guide.

You may not have all the answers, but you do have the word of God and it is helpful and beneficial as you're looking for wisdom in life.

And there was an old Jewish saying from the round the time of Christ, and it went like this it's may you be covered in the dust of your rabbi.

And in Jewish culture the idea was that at a certain age, if you were high, achieving enough in Jewish society, you would become an apprentice to a rabbi.

You would learn from them, travel with them, learn what they knew so that then you could teach it to others.

And people would say may you be covered in the dust of your rabbi.

In other words, may you be as close to the source of knowledge as possible, so that the very dust that they kick up as they're traveling down these dusty roads would actually cover you.

May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi.

Well, we have a teacher, we have an instructor.

His name is Jesus.

May we be people who are so close to Jesus that were covered in the dust of our teacher?

How does that happen?

It comes by getting under the instruction of God's word.

When you read the Bible, you gain wisdom.

Number three when you read the Bible, you find your danger zones.

You find your danger zones.

Paul goes on.

He says not only is it profitable for teaching, but it's also profitable for reproof, for rebuke, in other words, for confronting the areas of brokenness within us.

If there's a phrase that I don't like and I'm willing to bet you don't like either it's this I was wrong.

Anybody just enjoy saying that.

Anybody just look forward to being able to look at somebody else and be like you know what.

You were right, I was wrong.

No, nobody likes being rebuked and corrected and reproofed.

But here's the reality.

We all need it.

Ladies, do not look at your husband right now.

He knows, I promise you, he knows.

He may not know a lot, but he does know that you know, we all know like there are moments in life where it's like I just don't get it Right and then sometimes, if we're honest, sometimes we think we're crushing it, but we're actually not and we just need to be confronted with an area of brokenness in us.

And Paul says that is what the scripture does.

We read the word and it points out within us the brokenness that exists in all of us.

The word of God, it's like a spotlight that pinpoints with incredible accuracy and precision the areas in us that are not in line with the word of God.

Why do we need to be aligned with the word of God, the truth of God?

Because we all have a tendency to live out of alignment.

Have you ever hit a pothole, train tracks too fast, knocked your car out of alignment?

Some of you, you do that and you're like okay, I gotta go straight to the dealer, gotta go straight to the mechanic shop, get this thing realigned, put back in line.

Others of us, we're like you know, I know it's gonna wear my tires weirdly and I should fix it.

But if I just like take my hand from 12 to like 1145, it goes pretty straight.

And you know, and I'm pretty shocked, I can let go of it and like it doesn't like veer, off course that bad.

It's like you know, just 12 to 1145, it's all it takes.

I think I'm in alignment, little shift.

But then you start driving and what happens?

Your car's like you know, you're like rattling.

You're trying to talk on the phone.

You sound like you're like in an earthquake zone or something is like hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

What's wrong with you.

My car is out of alignment.

But then the next time you get in the car you're like, okay, 1145, and know that that's how I can keep this thing straight and on the road.

And next time you get in the car you're like I don't, you know, just do it without thinking.

And now you've been out of alignment for so long you don't even notice the rumble, you don't even notice that.

You know that the ride is not as smooth as it's supposed to be.

And so somebody else comes and gets in your car and like what is wrong with your car?

And you're like nothing's wrong in my car, my car is fine.

Like why are you turning the wheel sideways?

So you go straight, like I don't know, it's just how you have to drive this thing.

Well, what happens is you get out of alignment and you get used to it, and now you're just going out of alignment.

You don't even know you're out of alignment because you've been doing it for so long.

What you need is for somebody to be like look at your tires, bro, look at what you're doing to your car.

Like you're not even at 1145, you're like at 10 o'clock Now to make this thing go straight.

You can't even turn this thing because your wheels are messed up.

You need to get this thing fixed.

You need somebody to confront you.

And Paul says that is what the word does.

When you don't know that you're out of alignment, the word reproves you.

The word reproves you.

The word pinpoints the areas of your life that you've gotten used to, that you think are normal, but that are actually counter to the will and plan of God for your life.

Why do we need this?

Well, james 1.14 says this.

It's because we live in this body of flesh and we all have this tendency toward sin.

And what flesh does?

It tempts us.

We were tempted when we were lured and enticed by our own desire desire when it's conceived, you birth the sin, and sin, when it's fully grown, brings forth death.

Why do we need correction from the word, rebuke from the word?

Because of this pattern that exists in every single one of us Spending a lot of time on this point this morning because this is such a big deal in our world today.

We don't like to be confronted, we don't like to be rebuked, we don't like to be reproved, but we all desperately need to be reproved.

We need it to break this pattern, unfortunately for us.

The fourth idea for us today is when you read the word of God, not only do you find your danger zones, but you also learn the ancient path.

And that idea, that phrase, comes from Jeremiah 6.16, where Jeremiah the prophet says to the people of Israel go, stand by the way, by the road, learn the ancient path, the ancient way, so that you can walk in God's plan for your life.

We need to learn the ancient way.

The word corrects or reproves us, but the word also corrects us Reprove for correction.

It's like when you're driving with Apple Maps, you take a wrong turn.

Can you imagine if that moment of Siri just started yelling at you?

I can't believe it.

Where are you going?

You're never gonna get to your destination.

Now, you weren't listening.

You should have paid attention better.

I told you where to turn and you blew right past it.

Right, imagine if Siri started doing that to you.

Like, throw that iPhone out the window right Now.

What does Siri do?

Siri says, hey, recalculating, and all of a sudden you're supposed to turn left at Third Street.

But now Siri says, well, hey, you can actually turn left at Fourth Street and it's gonna get you back to the right path.

That's what the word does for me and for you.

When we wander away, when we walk our own way over God's way, the word recalculates and recalibrates our lives so we don't continue on our self-destructive trajectory that we're on.

We're corrected so that we can walk the ancient path, y'all.

Here's what's amazing about this when you show up here on a Sunday, you're not going to hear James's ideas and opinions, cause I don't know what you should do, I don't know what direction your life should go.

You're gonna hear an ancient path.

We're not trying to build our lives on something new.

We're going back to the word of God and say we want to build our lives on truth that will stand the test of time.

We're not trying to figure out a new way.

We're going back to the old way, god's way, god's way, god's ideas, god's thoughts.

We need God to correct our paths and bring us back to His way forward.

You can see what happens next is you're learning the ancient path and then, ultimately, you transform.

As you're confronted on the sin in your lives, you're recalibrated back to God's way forward.

You change, you transform.

Paul says there's training in righteousness.

That happens Like literally.

What he's saying is you are practicing righteousness, and I love that picture.

Right, we're not practicing poorly, we're not practicing sin, we're not practicing failure, we're practicing righteousness.

Practicing righteousness, you're transformed.

As you internalize the word of God, you begin to transform outwardly, externally, into the image of God in the world.

Here's a practical example of maybe what this could look like.

So say, for example, that you struggle with really negative thought patterns.

You just mind just goes negative and worst case scenario all day, every day, you worry, there's a lot of built up anxiety in your mind and you can take a, you can take a good day and turn it into just a world of pain and brokenness in your mind really, really quickly.

You struggle, you want to break it.

You don't know how to break that thought pattern.

And so one day you're reading you've kind of gotten used to this pattern of negativity in your head and you come to Romans, chapter 12, and Paul says don't be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Romans 12, to confront you, rebuke you a little bit, right, you're like, okay, well, I know, I know the negativity in my mind isn't leading me in God's way for my life, but I don't know what to do about it?

I see the conviction, I feel the conviction, I see the confrontation there.

I just don't know what to do.

And so you bring it to your life group, you bring it to a friend, a mentor, somebody that knows the word and knows Jesus and loves you, and you're like okay, well, here's what I'm struggling with, here's what I read in the scriptures that reproved me and rebuked me.

What do I do with this?

And they're like okay, that's great, amazing.

I love that you're going to the word for the way forward.

Think about 2 Corinthians, chapter 10, where Paul says this.

2 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

He says we walk according in the flesh, but we're not waging war according to the flesh.

The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but I actually have divine power to demolish strongholds.

We destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

You've got this pattern of negativity in your mind.

You want your mind to be renewed so that your life can be transformed.

And your friend says to you hey, 2 Corinthians 10, 5, take every thought captive.

And because of where you're at mentally, you're like well, that's a lot of thoughts and that's a lot of pressure, and sometimes the thoughts are coming and going so fast I can't even grab them before they're gone and the new one's taking its place.

How do I take my thoughts captive?

And they're like well, okay, well, think about this.

Philippians, chapter 4.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

Paul says in Philippians 4 that if you're anxious or worried, what you should do is you should bring your concerns before God.

You should pray to God about what's troubling you, and that God may not change the circumstances around you.

But here's what God promises you that the peace of God will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

Look, okay, that's great, I'm really glad to know that.

And then, finally, paul says whatever is true, whatever's honorable, whatever's just, whatever's pure, whatever's lovely, whatever is commendable, there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

So you don't just want to think about not thinking about negative things, because then you're just constantly thinking about negative stuff and not thinking that.

Paul says replace those thoughts with things that are good and right and true.

Retrain your mind to think about what is excellent and worthy of praise.

Out with the old, in with the new.

And now you've come to the word of God with a real problem in your life Problem that you felt like you were powerless to defeat, the word of God confronted you.

The word of God corrected you and then, in the power of community, the spirit working through your friend and your life group, the word of God is transforming you from the inside out.

So now, now, now you don't just have an idea about what could happen, you've got a plan for what to do tomorrow when you wake up in the cycle of negativity begins.

I'm going to pray first thing in the morning that the God of the Bible, the God who raised Jesus from the dead, would guard my heart and my mind in Christ by the power of his Holy Spirit, and I'm going to pray that he would give me the intellect and the awareness to when a negative thought hits my mind, I can take that thought captive.

I can replace that thought with something that is true and honorable and just and pure and excellent and worthy of praise, and I'm going to thank God in advance for transforming my life through the power of his word and y'all.

That's just one example.

You can do that with shame, with guilt, with relational tension.

There's an answer in the word for every circumstance of your life, and I know that's a big claim and sometimes, let's be honest, the answer of the word is the night is dark.

God is good.

Keep the faith, don't give up.

Keep your eyes on Jesus one step at a time.

The Lord is with you, he's before you, he's behind you.

He will not leave you or forsake you.

Sometimes that's the answer, and that's a little bit harder answer than you know.

Think about what is good, right, true, pure worship to it, right.

There's an answer in the word, for whatever you're walking through, you believe that today.

Number six is this You're equipped for the work that God has for you.

Second Timothy, chapter three, ends like this that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

See, the work that God wants to do in your life through his word is not just about you.

God wants to use you as a conduit for his word to the world.

Yeah, it's a cliche, and I'm not a big cliche guy, but it's a good cliche.

You may be the only Bible that some people ever read.

And so, as the word of God gets in you and you get into situations in the world that are stressful and anxiety producing, and there's an opportunity for some anger or some bitterness or some lashing out to take place, and you don't respond that way, but rather you become a wellspring of the word of God in the midst of the brokenness of the world.

You may be the only word that some people in your office, some people in your family, some people in your neighborhood ever read, and maybe because of your life, because you've been equipped by the word and through the word, maybe because you live out the word in the context of your everyday life, maybe there'll be people who meet the word, the Son of God himself, through the way that you live your life, as you're equipped to do what God has called you to do.

Why read the Bible?

Because when you read the Bible, god works and he changes you so that you can make a difference in the world around you.

I love you guys.

I'm so grateful on every Sunday that we get to stand here and open the word together, because you come ready to worship.

You come with a hunger for the word, you come with a passion for the mission.

There's just a sweet spirit about this place and I'm grateful for that.

May we always be a church that builds on the word of Almighty God, where the word is preached and sung and prayed, because as we center our lives on the word of God, we ultimately are pointed to the Son of God, and he's the one this is all about.

You know, as we close today, I just want to say I didn't tell the first service this I should have in hindsight.

But context of this whole passage this is the last written account from Paul in the New Testament.

He's writing 2 Timothy from a Roman prison.

He knows he's not going to make it out of life and he's writing to a young man that he deeply loves and that he desires to see fulfill the call of God in his life.

And his last exhortation and the last thing that he writes is stay true to the word of God.

Hear the word, believe the word, preach the word, live out the word, build on the word.

And then Paul lost his life at the hands of the Roman emperor Nero, because he would not recount what he believed about the word of God.

Because here's what Paul knew 2 Timothy, chapter 3, verse 15, the word is able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

2 Timothy 3:15

This word will not return void.

It will fulfill the purpose for which God has sent it forth into the earth.

What is the purpose of the word?

To bring us to the place of salvation in the Son of God.

This word will not return void and it will stand the test of time.

So, father, we pray this morning, god, that our lives will be built on your word.

How do we don't want to trust the shifting sands of time and culture, the latest and greatest ideas of human philosophy and ideology?

Father, we need your word, we need the light of your word that is a lamp for our feet.

God, help us to love your word, to see it as daily bread that nourishes us and, father, that sustains us.

God, transform us by your word in Jesus name.

And everybody says amen as we stand and sing.

We're gonna sing a blessing from the word of God over our lives today.

But this is a moment for you to respond.

If today you say for the first time, the word of God has opened my eyes to my need for the Son of God, I'd love to pray with you as you give your life to Jesus this morning.

If today you say I need to join the church or I just need somebody to pray with, would love the opportunity for that as well.

I'll be at the back of the room, but let's just stand and respond to God as he leads in this moment.