The Good Book

I came across a research study from Barna on Monday afternoon about what teens around the world believe about the Bible…

It’s all interesting because I’m a nerd and find this kind of stuff interesting, but there were some things I found encouraging and some things that I was bothered by. One thing that bothered me was that only 32% of all teens they questioned find the Bible enjoyable. Only 48% of those who say they are Christians find it enjoyable. Guys! How can you not enjoy this book?! Listen to this story!

read Judges 4:15-22

That stat about enjoying Scripture was one of several on this chart that bothered me. It asks several questions about what teens believed about the Bible. All things Christians should believe about the Bible, should really be givens, but just over half of teens believe these things about the Bible. We’ve got to believe these things because they are true and they are so important. And when we understand that, then we truly enjoy the Bible for the good news it holds, what I enjoy the most about the Bible. What the Bible tells us in Eph 2.

read Eph 2:1-10

So I want to talk tonight about what Christians should believe about the Bible and what difference it makes.

pray

The Bible is God's Word to us for our good and we should believe it and live by God's wisdom revealed in it.

What should we believe about the Bible?

It is God’s inspired Word.

What does inspired mean?

The Holy Spirit was leading the writers of Scripture either by direct revelation or guiding behind the scenes as they wrote the stories or the directions down.

2 Peter 1:21 CSB

because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

It is historically true.

It is powerful.

Hebrews 4:12 CSB

For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

it reveals God’s will; including how humans can have a relationship with God and how He wants us to live our lives.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 CSB

All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

It is the authority for my life because it is the Word of my God.

It is one consistent story from Genesis through Revelation. A holy God created everything but his creation has fallen into sin interrupting his relationship with it and He is pursuing his creation to restore his relationship and do away with sin.

This is important because understanding this gives us a reason that we can trust and believe the Bible.

Why should we believe these things?

We should believe all these things about the Bible because the God has told us these things… in the Bible.

Do y’all know what a circular argument is? You should believe this because of that, and you should believe that because of this! Like that commercial from a few years ago where a girl is going on a blind date with a French model, but he’s clearly not a French model. And someone else asks if she’s sure he’s really a model and she says, “yea, they can’t put anything on the internet that isn’t true!” “Where’d you hear that?” in unison “The internet!”

So want to look outside of Scripture to see why we should believe Scripture too. So think about this. The Bible was written by over 40 authors over the course of like 1,500 years. Yet from Genesis to Revelation we see one consistent story, from all these different authors over all these years, about God pursuing humanity through his Son because He loves them.

That consistency is unlikely and a testament to its truthfulness!

We see that things we know from outside of Scripture are backed up by the Scriptures.

History recorded in the bible is backed up by historical writings outside of the Bible.

Scientific information we know is talked about in the Bible.

There used to be a practice in medicine of bleed letting to cure sick people. The Bible tells us back in Genesis that life is in the blood.

So knowing what we should believe and why, what difference does it make?

What does that mean for the way I live my life?

It is extremely important to read it for ourselves often.

we cannot grow as we should in our understanding of who God is and how we can glorify Him if we do not.

Psalm 119:105 ESV

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Yet less than half of Christian teens interviewed read their Bible weekly, less than a third read it more than once a week.

If we believe these things we’ve said about the bible, why in the world would we not regularly read it?!

Spend time in his Word! A chapter a day, a section a day, a devotional book, something!

If we believe his Word, we believe it all. If we start picking and choosing only parts we like or agree with or understand, the it’s not truly our authority.

We align our lives to all of God’s Word, not God’s Word to our lives.

It’s not like rules to a game we’re playing.

When we go into the gym and play some game and see that something in the rules isn’t quite working, we can change it. Like if the girls keep winning and I need to do something to help the boys out then I can change a rule! That’s ok to do there, but we can not do that with the Bible!

If we believe what the Bible tells us about God, we should trust that his Word tells us the best way to live.

read Ps 119:1-16

The research says that teens who are spending time in Scripture regularly are more likely to feel fulfilled and loved.

It’s not the act of reading the Bible that brings these feelings about, it’s believing the Word of God that does.

The whole Bible is about God pursuing sinful humans for salvation to the glory of his name…