The Word of God

It is a remarkable book that we're going to be studying this year.

And I want to start by just inviting you to consider.

It's called The Word of God.

Now, it may not be called that to you, but that's what it's been known through history.

The Word of God.

What I find fascinating is in other faiths, they don't call the book, their book, the Word of God.

They may call it their scripture, but it's not called the Word of God.

Muslims don't call the Quran the Word of God.

Buddhists don't call the Tipicaka the Word of God.

Hindus don't call the Vegas the Word of God.

But this has been known by believers and often by non-believers as that book, actually 66 books, is referred to around the planet as the Word of God.

Kind of amazing.

Now, if someone comes along to you, or you may have had this thought yourself, as I did when I was young, it's just an old book on history.

Well, yeah, we could say that's true.

It's a book on history.

You can read about Persians and Romans and Egyptians and all sorts of cultures, sure.

But it's far more than a history book, isn't it?

And others have certainly called it a book of science, or that science has disproven everything in the Bible.

That is utter nonsense.

And the only one who can suggest that is one who's never read it.

And speaking as one who was trained as a scientist and engineer, there's science throughout this.

But that whole absurdity in our culture of science versus religion or science versus the Bible, that's nonsense.

It isn't just a science book.

It's so much more.

We could say it's a book for education.

You can learn a lot about right and wrong, about how to treat other people, how to see yourself.

Yeah, it's been used for education a lot.

Let me read to you something that was put in writing a long time ago here in the states, before we even became a nation.

The year was 1636, the first university on our land, Harvard University.

Founded in 1636 with the intention of establishing a school to train Christian ministers.

In accordance with that vision, they established a formal rule and precepts in the year 1646.

These were their two principles.

Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life.

John 17 3.

And therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.

And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdom, let every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of him.

Proverbs 2 3.

The second principle.

Seeing the entrance of the word giveth light, it giveth understanding to the simple.

They have a basis in the Christian faith.

They have a basis in the Word of God.

We can certainly celebrate the start of Sunday school as a phenomenon that was been birthed by people who believed children needed to learn this.

But the first movement to plant tax-funded school for all children was started as a movement to teach children the Word of God.

Isn't that interesting?

Yes, a book for education.

But it's far more than that.

We could say, well, yeah, it's it's it's a book of rules, of laws.

And in fact, yes, the very foundation of Western Christendom is based on the Ten Commandments and the rules and laws that are contained here.

It absolutely is.

In fact, up until 1840, if you were in a courtroom, a prosecutor would use this to defend what you did wrong.

And your defense attorney would use this to defend you.

Because this was the only document that was quoted up until the 1840s when our culture decided to embrace a theory called Darwinism.

This was the book for law.

After that, what was decided they would quote our previous decisions in courts.

Interesting.

But it's not written just to be a law book.

Some might say it's really just to help governments to be formed.

Yes, there's a lot of governments, there's a lot of leadership training in here, there's a lot of ways that human systems get to be governed because of what's contained in this book.

I don't know if you've ever been taught in school.

I was not taught in school until I got serious about this book and learned in my training that, you know, the forefathers gathered to try to figure out how to form a government that doesn't have a king.

And they found their answer in the prophet Isaiah.

Anyone know that?

Our nation was founded and formed as a result of what was contained here.

Let me read you one verse.

For the Lord is our judge, our lawgiver, and our king.

He will care for us and save us.

For the Lord is our judge.

And our forefather said, we need a judicial branch.

He's our lawgiver.

We need a legislative branch.

The Lord is our king.

Well, we'll call him a president and have an executive branch.

For then he will care for us and he will save us.

Great help to our forefathers.

The foundation of how our government works today.

But this is far more than a book about government, isn't it?

We could say it's a book about worship.

Absolutely.

Many of the songs we sing are quoted right from the scripture, from the Psalms, which was the songbook for the temple.

But many other truths that we sang even today.

Quotes from the Scripture.

But it's far more than a book about worship, isn't it?

This is the Word of God.

There's a human movement that we're all part of here.

It's the largest human movement that's ever occurred on the planet.

Do you know what it's called?

It's the Christian movement.

Depending on what figures you look at now, it's it's somewhere between 2.2 billion and 2.8 billion people on the planet who believe that Jesus is Savior and Lord, and this is the Word of God.

And what's remarkable, different from all other faiths, all other on the planet, the Christian faith is not based on a particular geographic location.

Of course, the Muslim faith is based primarily around the Middle East and Iraq and Iran.

Of course, Buddhism is based more on Tibet and that area.

And you know, we could we could look at various regional pockets where a religion has been birthed.

But as we sit here now, the growth of Christianity is occurring equally across all the major inhabited continents on the planet.

Did you know that?

Russia and China and Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, South America, Australia.

We all are equally distributed across the entire world and growing everywhere.

And yes, even in the United States, for the first time in many decades, a recent Barna report, those are reports on the movement of American Christianity, which, as an old pastor, I gotta admit, for the last 30 years has been mostly depressing.

But a recent study came out and said, because of COVID, Americans, 77% of Americans, have come to realize their job is not as important as spiritual truths.

Are we at the start of a great revival in America?

As we discover we need something more than our job, more than money, more than comfort.

We need to know truth.

The word of God.

And look what she's holding.

And I was contacted by my friend just two weeks ago and said, Fred, please pray because we don't, we just need water.

Children are dying because we don't have enough water.

They're putting their trust in the living word.

But then as I was preparing this, I called my pastor friend in in India and said, Hey, Andrew, send a picture of yourself.

And he said, Well, I'm out in the, it's dark and in the streets.

And I said, That's all right, send me a picture.

He said, Well, I can wait till the morning.

I said, Well, that's fine.

And then I got this picture.

There he is.

A pastor and evangelist holding the word of God in his language.

Yeah, this movement is happening all over the place.

My first trip to Africa was in Rwanda soon after the genocide.

Met a remarkable man, a leader, one of the most godly men I've ever met, called John Rushihana.

When I asked him his story, he said he first got a job as a young teenager, and he saved and he saved and he saved until he had enough.

He bought his first Bible.

Because he knew this would be his most important possession in his life.

Isn't that interesting?

I was um on a mission trip in Haiti, and I was driven to an area that had been, it was horrible.

It was just a huge hill of rock where people who didn't have family to take them in after a disastrous flood were taken by the government to resettle.

So they're in these little shanty houses, thousands of people.

They put a wall around them, and you they weren't even allowed to come out unless there was a specific purpose because they were guards keeping them in.

And I see them with nothing.

There's no trees, there's no grass, there's no shops, there's nothing but thousands of people hoping against hope.

As I was driven through the great gate in the SUV, this is what I said.

Oh God, why have you brought me here?

I have nothing in common with these people.

That's what I told God.

That was the depth of my prayer, pretty good, huh?

You see, never put anybody up on a pedestal.

Nobody belongs there.

I'm just like everybody else, just trying to figure it out.

And that's what I told my Lord.

I have nothing to share with these people.

And I had stirring within me that thought that comes out of nowhere.

Have many of you, who's experienced that where you kind of know God's speaking to you?

Anybody?

Come on, put your hands up, come on, we got to validate this.

See, ooh, a lot of hands.

That thought that comes, and you go, What?

And the Lord said to me, I'm their shepherd also.

And I prayed, Yes, Lord.

And I taught them Psalm 23.

The Lord's my shepherd, I shall not want.

And those folks erupted into applause, like we do sometimes for Justin.

I thought I had nothing.

No, I had the Word of God.

It was enough.

It is enough.

It is always enough.

And you know what I found?

It doesn't matter whether I'm in the Bronx, it doesn't matter whether I'm in Detroit preaching to business executives.

It really doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter whether I'm doing a funeral or in a mental hospital or with family who've just lost their stillborn baby.

What does everybody want to hear?

They don't want to hear somebody who tries to be clever.

They just want the word of God.

Why?

Even if you've never opened it on your own before, this is where we find food for our souls.

And you all know we need food for our souls, especially in the world we're living now.

And you will not find it on the evening news.

You will not find it at work trying to figure out all your responsibilities.

You will certainly not find it trying to balance your finances.

This is how we feed our soul.

This is the living word of God.

This is where we find who we really are.

I am not only a husband and father and grandfather.

I am not only a pastor or a priest.

I'm a child of God.

And this tells me that.

And so are you.

And you know what?

It means I'm chosen.

And so are you.

It doesn't matter whether you you have come to embrace that yet.

You may be struggling like I did for many years about that whole thing, but you are.

How do we know that?

Because the word of God says so.

You were worth dying for.

You don't hear that on the evening news, but you can read it any day in this book.

Any day.

This is where we find what the Greeks refer to as beautiful truth.

Truth that gives life.

Truth that awakens our soul.

Is it like that every day?

No, to be honest, no.

There's many days I read it and go, oh, yeah, I know these verses.

And it's kind of reminded of something.

But other days, and the word jumps off the page.

And said, Really, Lord?

Let me give you an example this morning.

My wife and I meet every morning for prayer and Bible study, and we had just taken a granddaughter off riding mules yesterday.

I'm amazed I'm able to stand before you today.

Two hours on a mule is not the best way to prepare for a message.

I'm just saying.

We're reading whatever it was, Psalm 18, Psalm 32, one of the Psalms, and it says, Lord, let me not be like a mule that needs to be bridled to know the path.

And we went, how does he do that?

God knows what you're in the midst of.

He does.

And he knows how and encourage you.

The word of God.

And it will change the way we look at life.

Because life is far more than status or power or bills or the opinion of someone in our home or someone we work for.

And this is far more important than our burdens.

We need to understand that, don't we?

That the challenges of life help us to mature and grow on the inside.

That's why they're allowed.

Sometimes they're from God, most of the time they're not, but he allows them so that we grow into a deeper place and get more mature so we can help others.

Blessed to be a blessing, as the word says.

But let me share with you just a little bit about my own testimony, then we're going to go deeper in this.

I was raised in a liturgical church.

What that means is I heard bits of scripture every single Sunday.

And I was the kid who was dragged to church, kicking and screaming sometimes, and hearing a lot of scripture, but it never made sense.

So when I was finally off to college, I had a chance and I read the New Testament all the way through.

I just wanted to make sense of it all.

And you know what my conclusion was?

This must be wrong.

Because this talks about people who are filled with joy and hope and life, who are living for others, and are excited about Jesus.

And I went, I've been in church my whole life.

That isn't true.

If those folks knew the Bible was the Word of God and that you could have a personal walk with Jesus, it was the best kept secret in the church.

And it would be a few years before I'd begin reading again and saying, There's got to be something more.

This can't just be another book.

And a few years later, after we were married, some of you heard my deeper testimony, but I had a we had a crisis in the plane.

We were flying in the Navy, and I had a chance to open up a Bible, and I read the one place that I remembered.

It was Psalm 23.

Duh.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside quiet waters.

He restores my soul.

And you know what?

Some of you heard me say this before.

At that moment I read that and I knew the next face I probably saw would be Jesus, and I was not ready.

I didn't know what that meant, but I knew I wasn't ready to meet Jesus.

One of the reasons was I didn't know this very well.

Later, when I had given my life to the Lord, I went to the pastor and said, What do I do now?

And he said, Well, Fred, you've got a Bible, don't you?

And I said, Yeah, and he said, Read it.

And I said, Read what?

It's a big book.

And he said, Well, start with, start with the gospel, start with Luke.

Because the more you know about Jesus, the more you'll understand the word.

Okay.

So I found in Psalm 23 that it went on to say the verse that I hadn't noticed before, He will lead us on paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

I went, oh, I thought it was in life for my name's sake.

Living for Jesus is to live for Him?

To live for others?

I hadn't been taught that.

And I was beginning to be shaped as I began to grow in the Word.

And I and through it, as I'm trying to figure out what does that mean to live for Jesus, I found in Acts 2.42 that these people who had come to Jesus following at the Pentecost, when thousands were added in one day, it says that they devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching.

Oh, that's what they did.

They devoted themselves to what the Apostles were teaching.

The Hebrew Scripture, the Old Testament, the life of Jesus, the Gospels, and what they taught and wrote the epistles.

Oh, I need to be devoted to this.

Oh, I didn't know that.

Nobody ever told me that.

That this was the word of God.

Oh.

Okay, Lord.

But as I told you, I'm a by by training a scientist scientist and an engineer.

I had all those doubts.

Some of you do.

Some of you may have friends who have the big doubts.

Yeah, but how do you really know?

It's such an old book.

How do you know that people haven't changed it over the years?

How do you know, you know, clergy and church leaders haven't just changed it to make it sound better or otherwise?

How do you know?

Well, as a matter of fact, uh, most ancient texts we have that are any good, you know, we have 10 or 12 ancient copies, and when you compare them, they're really close, and we get some sense of, yeah, this must be true.

Well, let me ask, for those of you who were like me or are like me, uh, doubters, how many copies of an ancient text would we need to be able to compare before we believed it was really what was written?

Well, we know in history that there was a book that Homer wrote in the 8th century BC called the Iliad.

We actually have 2,000 ancient copies of that.

Pretty cool, huh?

2,000.

And when you compare it, we pretty much get the story that he wrote most three centuries ago, three millennium ago.

Well, that's a long time, isn't it?

How many ancient copies, how many ancient texts would we need to compare to believe this is really what was recorded way back when?

Thousand?

Five thousand?

We actually have twenty-five thousand ancient texts that confirm this is what was written.

In the book of Revelation, there's the caution in the very last chapter.

Cursed is those who adds to these words or takes away from these words.

One of the proofs, and at least in my lifetime, was and when I was young, they found the Dead Sea scrolls.

This shepherd boy traveling in the desert by the Dead Sea, looking for a lost sheep, found this cave he hadn't noticed before in the hillside, didn't know how deep it was, so took a rock and threw it down, and it broke a jar, a clay jar, and he heard it crack.

He went back and got his family, and they lowered down on a rope and found all these ancient scrolls from the Qumran community of the first century.

What they found has stirred the world.

Because what they began reading and interpreting was the ancient Hebrew of texts that had been written thousand, a thousand years earlier than anything else we had at that point.

And it was identical.

So what I'm inviting you to consider is in the whole business of has this been authenticated?

More than any other book in history.

By far.

And I just invite you to do you put a T or an F next to that?

Do you believe that?

You're do a research now with the internet, you can find all sorts of things.

Do a research and find.

Far more than any other writing in history, the Bible has been authenticated.

But we might say, well, yeah, but there's all these translations.

How do we trust the translations?

They might have missed something.

Well, what's remarkable is the Hebrew scripture in the time of Jesus had already been translated into Greek.

Translating the Word of God has been done since way back when.

By the end of the first century, the Greek, which is what the New Testament was mostly written in, um, was already being translated in all the known world, all the languages.

As of today, over 3,325 human languages have the Bible in their own language.

That's pretty amazing, don't you think?

And by the way, let me just raise the stakes a bit.

Probably not in my lifetime, but in the lifetime of most of you here, every human person on the planet will be able to read the Bible in their own language.

They expect that to happen sometime in the next seven to thirty years.

That includes Braille.

Now, because so many in the world now speak English, you know the English language is a little different if you're in you're an Aussie, isn't it?

And certainly the Brits don't think we Americans have spoken English in years.

Um over 425 versions of the Bible just in English.

Pretty amazing, don't you think?

And and yes, translating from one language to another is hard because you got to know what the is it, do you translate the word, do you translate the phrase, do you translate the sentence, do you translate the thought that's included?

Because cultures speak differently.

And that's one of the reasons we have so many translations.

Trying to get an essence of it.

Today I'm gonna be using the NLT.

That's what we often use here at his hands.

When I'm in other teaching settings, I often use the ESV or the RSV or the NIV, or, you know, yes, sure.

Sure.

What language allows God to touch your heart?

That's one you ought to study.

That's one you ought to read.

We'd also have to admit that it is the most distributed book on the planet.

The Gideons, one of the many Bible distribution groups.

All a bunch of Christian businessmen who pay a fortune, sacrificing every year to get books in the language of the people that they're trying to distribute all over the planet.

That one organization has distributed over two billion Bibles.

And I'm grateful to say it's more than just hotels.

It's in schools, universities, on the streets, all over the planet.

And I'm grateful because when I needed to hear the word of God, that Bible I pulled out had been given to me at my graduation by Gideon, and I hadn't read it until I needed it.

It is absolutely the most distributed.

Oh yes, it's the most popular.

Fifty-five thousand copies of the Bible are purchased every single day.

55,000.

Because it's the word of God, and people want to hear it.

It is our living hope.

But would you say, is it worth dying for?

That's the last point I thought I'd make before we get into it a little bit.

Is it worth dying for?

William Tyndale thought so.

He was a Brit who in the early 16th century became convinced of the Lord that the Bible needed to be put into English.

Up until that time, it was only in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin for the most part.

And the establishment, including the church in that day, felt that it's too important a book for common people to read.

It needs to be taught by the clerics of the day, by the clergy, so people could understand it.

William Tyndall said, no, it needs to be put in the hands of everybody in their own language.

He had to flee to Germany.

He completed the translation, the first translation of the Bible into English in 1525.

They smuggled it back to England.

The authorities caught up with him.

He was strangled to death, then burned at a stake.

But what those authorities didn't appreciate at all is the printing press had come into use.

And the most important book to copy was the Bible.

By the time he was executed, 18,000 English Bibles had been spread around England.

We are the recipients of people who felt this is worth dying for.

In the days before they had zippers for the suitcases, he said, I had a secret compartment.

And I shoved as many Bibles as I could.

I said, weren't you afraid of getting caught?

And he said, Well, there were times when the inspectors were open up and look and rifle through my clothes.

And I just prayed, Lord, Lord, don't let them find the Bibles.

And I said, Well, were you ever caught?

And he said, No.

And I said, Well, what would you have done if you were caught?

And he said to me, Fred, it's worth dying for.

It's my own cousin.

Worth dying for.

Whoa.

Well, what does it say?

What does it say?

Let's consider it.

Fortunately, Justin's going to show us a lot what it says, but just start with Genesis 1.1.

In the beginning, God.

It's a great place to start life.

It's a great place to start every day.

In the beginning, God.

And so that's what I've learned over the years, is the place I want to start every day.

I don't want to start with my agenda of what I have to accomplish.

I don't even want to start with what Jill wants me to accomplish.

Her list is always longer.

Men it always will be.

But we love them, don't we?

Don't you want to check in with your real boss?

The lover of your soul?

Each morning?

You don't want to be defined by what you have to accomplish by your boss, do you?

In the beginning, God.

Genesis chapter 1, verse 1.

Genesis 1:1

But just consider with me some of the verses of Psalm 119.

Longest Psalm in the Bible.

It is all about how important the Word of God is.

And it uses a lot of terms to refer to the Word of God, but I picked out just a couple of them that I thought you might like to consider.

Verse 1 in Psalm 119 says, Joyful are people of integrity who follow the instructions of the Lord.

The more we grow in this, the more the Lord is allowed through his spirit to put joy inside.

Not happiness, we're not talking about just how the circumstances go in a day, the deep joy that's within.

You know you're loved, you're forgiven.

You are not defined by your past.

And you stop judging yourself and carrying around that burden.

That's what Jesus died for.

He wants you to put all that crap on the cross and let his blood wash it and let us walk away new and know that joy.

That's what the word of God tells us.

Consider verse 43.

Do not snatch your word of truth from me, for your regulations are my only hope.

My only hope.

I don't understand.

Will remain great mysteries, doesn't matter.

This reminds us our hope is in the Lord, and that's enough.

But Psalm 119 goes further.

It says in verse 105, Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light from my path.

And when we consider that a moment, we have to realize it doesn't say the path will be easy and clear, and you'll see your destination up ahead.

It just says it's it's a lamp for our feet, so we can take the next step.

We may not know what job he wants for us.

We may not know where we're supposed to live, we may not know how it's all going to work out.

But he lets us take the next step, and we don't have to be afraid because he's with us.

Because he's within us.

That's what the Bible says.

What do we do with that?

Do we say true?

Do we say false?

Or do we admit before God, I'm not quite sure, but I'll at least consider.

And for many in this room, that may be what you need to do today.

Just maybe this is the way people are learning how to live their lives more and more.

Maybe.

Perhaps.

Consider another verse, verse 162 of Psalm 119.

I rejoice in your word like one who discovers a great treasure.

Jesus even told parables about this.

I know folks who give lottery tickets to their family and friends at Christmas in the hopes they find a great treasure.

Matter of fact, it worked for one of my daughter-in-laws, but I won't go into detail.

But you know, you want a big treasure.

It's great joy, it's rejoicing.

Great treasure, great gift.

Risk believing it's true.

Listen to Psalm 19 and what it says about the Bible.

Psalm 19 begins proclaiming the amazing glory of God proclaimed in creation.

But it goes on and says this the instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul.

Exactly what Psalm 23 says.

You know what?

In my life, I found a whole lot of people who have sought to get their soul revived with all sorts of means.

And as Pastor Justin taught us last week, it's like a stone rather than bread.

And it leaves us wanting more.

It's too much food, too much drink, drugs, sex, success, status, size of our bank account, it goes on and on and on.

I once read an article that said Americans have probably invented 400 idols.

But the word of God tells us this is how our soul gets revived.

It's why my favorite verse in Scripture, my life verse, you know, many of us as we grow in the Lord find a verse that, yeah, that's that's my marching orders.

Mine is out of 2 Corinthians.

If anyone is in Christ, you are a new creation.

The old is gone.

Why?

Because he makes us new.

But the Psalm 19 goes on and says some other things.

The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart.

There it is again.

The commandments of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living.

Reverence for the Lord, another term for Scripture, is pure, lasting forever.

The laws of the Lord are true, each one is fair.

They are more desirable than gold.

Even the finest gold.

They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb.

They are a warning to your servant, a great reward for those who obey them.

Wow! All that in one book?

Well, again, 66 books.

Yes.

The Word of God.

The prophet Isaiah had something to say about this, because he was trying to figure out what is he supposed to say as a prophet?

And in chapter 40, we hear his lament.

A voice says, shout, and I asked, What should I shout?

The people are like grass, their beauty fades as quickly as the flowers in a field.

And he heard the Lord say to him, The grass withers and the flowers fade beneath the breath of the Lord, and so it is with people.

You know, the kind of, yeah, Isaiah, that's true.

People come and go.

It's true.

The grass withers and the flower fades.

But the word of our God stands forever.

Don't you think that's significant that on so many of the gravestones throughout history it's got a scripture passage there?

Or a reference to a passage?

The word of God stands forever.

Wow.

True or false?

True.

Brothers and sisters, it's true.

This will long outlast every one of us until the Lord returns.

And then it probably isn't gonna fade either.

In in John chapter 1, the gospel writer was trying to figure out where does he start talking about Jesus?

John 1 · chapter mention

After all, he'd walked with Jesus personally.

He'd been walking in the life of the Spirit for decades.

The other gospels have already been written, and we've heard about the manger and the shepherds, and we hear about the wise men and Mary.

And yeah, that's all wonderful, wonderful.

We celebrate it every year.

But John came to realize there was a deeper understanding of who Jesus is.

He said, In the beginning, the word already existed.

The word was with God.

The word was God.

He existed in the beginning.

God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.

The word gave life to everything that was created.

His life was brought light to everyone.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.

That is that Jesus is the word made flesh.

The fancy thing is word incarnate.

He is the word, God's word that came to life, so we would understand what God looked like.

As Paul writes, he is the visible image of the invisible God.

We need to know what God was like.

So he spoke his word through Mary, fully God, fully man.

He comes to redeem us.

His love is that great.

Jesus is referred to as the Word of God.

This is referred to as the Word of God.

This is the Word of God written.

Jesus is the Word of God incarnate.

What did Jesus say to his disciples in the upper room?

He said, It's to your advantage I go away.

Because when I do, the counselor will come, the Spirit of truth, and he will guide you into all things I've taught you.

That is, as we increasingly grow in our walk with the Lord Jesus, the Spirit increasingly talks to us, and the written word becomes more and more alive.

It wants to jump off the page.

In 2 Timothy chapter 3, Timothy was one of Paul's most beloved followers.

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

Timothy was assistant to Paul in many, many ways.

So he's writing deep words of encouragement to Timothy.

And in 2 Timothy, he wrote this, chapter 3.

You have taught been taught the Holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Jesus Christ.

All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach what is true and to make us realize what's wrong in our lives.

It corrects us when we're wrong and teaches us to do what's right.

He says that this is inspired by God.

The word in the that comes from the Latin inspiritus.

It means in the spirit, it means alive in the spirit of God.

In other translations, it says, All scripture is God breathed.

Now, do you remember in after Jesus conquered death?

Or you may not have heard the story, but it's a great story.

After he conquered death, he appeared to the disciples in the upper room that night.

They were all there in fear, thinking they were going to be next.

They were fearful for their lives because they had been followers of Jesus.

Jesus appears in the midst and he says, Peace be with you, peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, now I'm sending you.

And he breathed on them.

Receive the Holy Spirit.

I've asked before when I've asked before on this stage, if Jesus breathed on them, do you think you'd receive something?

Folks?

Do you think if Jesus breathed on you?

When you open up, there's going to be times you go, that's just what I need.

Oh, not every day.

Not every day.

But it happens so much you go, I want to, Lord, what have you got for me today?

And yes, sometimes it just opens it up and say, oh, this.

And sometimes it's a very disciplined, structured study.

Okay, sure, however you approach it.

I would suggest don't start with Genesis because by the time you get to Leviticus, you're going to say, This can't be for me.

Maybe read one of the Gospels if you haven't already and learn a little bit more about Jesus.

Then you see how he uses all the words.

In Hebrews, there's some challenging words.

That's a New Testament book written to the Hebrews.

It has a whole lot of Old Testament connections.

But in chapter 4 it says this the word of God is active and alive.

It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow.

It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God.

Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.

You see, this is not just for comfort.

It's not only for wisdom or clarity in life.

It's to convict us there's times in life where we just need to be corrected.

And wouldn't you rather have God and the Spirit correct you on the inside and realize you're making some poor choices rather than hearing it on the final day?

I would.

I'd just as soon like to know anything in my life that displeases God and get rid of it now before I get there.

And I want to promise you, as I'm getting close to my 70th birthday, it's become more and more of a reality.

You know?

I feel like, okay, I'm going to be there sometime, and I want to be ready.

And we're told this is one of the ways we get ready.

Right here.

Jesus had something to say about this.

Last verse.

Matthew 22.

Once again the Sadducees, the religious leaders, came to Jesus to harass him and try to trip him.

And this is how he replied.

And you don't know the power of God.

True or false?

Is that true?

Because we can't know the power of God if we don't know his word.

But the more we grow in understanding the word, the more we see God at work in our lives.

And I can promise you, it eventually is no longer just on occasion you see him.

It's just the coincidence, it's not just the coincidence that you can't explain.

It's an ever-present reality.

The power of God at work in life.

Whoa.

And and parents, don't you want that to raise your kids?

Grandkids, don't you don't you think that grandkids deserve to be mentored in this?

Oh, absolutely.

We were supervising a granddaughter just yesterday and and took her to her softball tryout.

And I said, Did you do your best?

And she said, I think so.

I said, Well, that's great.

And she said, But I really wanted to be in this other team and I might be picked by another coach.

And I said, Honey, what difference does it make?

Why don't you just give it to Jesus?

And then whatever team you're on, be a blessing.

And she said, Pop up, I can do that.

I said, honey, yes, you can.

You see, Jesus loves you.

This I know.

Because the Bible tells me so.

And you know what?

I came to believe that's true.

Because all my doubts, all my problems, all my complaints, they eventually just disappeared, and I realized the world is wrong, and the word of God is true.

If you don't remember anything that's been shared, risk putting a true, a T next to this.

God has more for you in your life than you can possibly ask or imagine.

But He wants you to grow in trusting Him.

You never get to a point where it's all figured out, it's all easy.

It does get easier with time.

But risk believing that Justin isn't just being clever.

He listens to God.

And the most important thing he can teach us each Sunday, and I can't wait for it to start, is to teach us the word.

And maybe that'll spur each of us to read it a little more, to study it a little more, to get online and figure out what it means, or even to get quiet before God and just be still and know that He is God.

Okay?

So, but there's one more thing before we go.

No, nobody forgot.

It was actually another early devotion of the church.

They were devoted to the Word of God.

They were also devoted to this mystery that somehow we are to remember what Jesus has done for us.

So if somebody does, if you don't have one of these, there's still some left back by the in little baskets back by the doors.

Don't hesitate to get them.

We're going to start with the bread if you pull that out and place it in your hand.

We call this the body of Christ.

It reminds us what his body went through because he loves us.

He decided you and I and the world were worth dying for.

And in this moment, he chose you as his own and paid a price that you could come home to God.

That I could come home to God.

And this is our reminder.

Lord, bless this bread that would truly be for us the body of our Lord.

Now let's eat the bread.

And now the cup, the juice.

He turned to the disciples at that table and said, This is my blood.

And as we take it, we're to remember the blood shed for us.

It's the blood of Passover.

It's the blood that forgives and washes and cleans.

It is the one sacrifice that's needed to bring us back to the Father.

Lord, bless the cup that would be for us.

Our Lord Jesus and His love and forgiveness.

Drink the cup.