Applying Your Life to Scripture

2 Timothy 3:16–17 NIV

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Introduction: Jerry Vines said, "An unread Bible is like food uneaten, a love letter never read, a buried sword, a road map unstudied, gold never mined" (A Practical Guide to Sermon Preparation, p.69).

4 - How Can I Apply My Life to God’s Story?

Apply the Bible to My Life - is focused on us.

Apply my life to the Bible - Focus on God, others, and us.

Ask - What are the Implications?

Billy Sunday: " The bible will always be full of things you can not understand as long as you will not live according to the things you do understand."

1. In Augustine’s manual Instructing Beginners in Faith, he offers these words about the aim of Scriptural instruction, teaching, and preaching: “Thus, before all else, Christ came so that people might learn how much God loves them, and might learn this so that they would catch fire with love for him who first loved them, and so that they would also love their neighbor as he commanded and showed by his example—he who made himself their neighbor by loving them when they were not close to him but were wandering far from him. And all of the divine scripture that was written before the Lord’s coming was written to announce that coming; and everything that has since been committed to writing and invested with divine authority tells of Christ and calls to love. If this is so, then it is plain that on the two commandments of love for God and neighbor hinge not only the whole law and the prophets—the only holy scripture that existed when the Lord spoke these words—but also all the other books of divine writings which were later set apart for our salvation and handed down to us. Hence, in the Old Testament is concealed the New, and in the New Testament is revealed the Old. … Keeping this love before you then as a goal to which you direct all that you say, recount every event in your historical exposition [the instructor’s account of salvation history in the Bible] in such a way that your listener by hearing it may believe, by believing may hope, and by hoping may love” (Augustine of Hippo, Instructing Beginners in Faith, ed. Boniface Ramsey, trans. Raymond Canning [Hyde Park, New York: New City Press, 2006], 70–72).

NT Wright on being a character in the Story of God - What Chapter are we in?, and how would people who are living in this chapter going to participate in the story. - Improv.

15 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCjXuXDamNE

If you were a character in Star Wars how would you live that out? - Fight off the Empire.

5 - How Would you live the Story of God - Story of God Slide

6 - Holy Spirit, How Are you Equipping Me in this Passage?

1. All Scripture, including the Old Testament, is “breathed out by God,” or divinely inspired (v. 16). - Another analogy is the creation of Humans, where God breathes life into them. We are distinct humans with our Spirit, but it is God's Spirit that gives us the spark of life.

And so this is a conversation with the Holy Spirit.

1. All Scripture is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (v. 16). The point of Bible study and daily devotions is personal growth in our relationship with God. Reading the Bible is meant to be a transformative experience; it should change us! In order for this to take place, it is important that we approach the Bible in an intentional, personal, and relational manner—not just for the purpose of more knowledge or education.

7 - What is this Passage Teaching me to....

8 - Know? - Know about God, And Know about others, and Know about myself.

Be? - This is about Identity. If this passage is true then who am I in relationship to God.

Do? Jesus said that the wise man is like the one who builds his house on the rock. And the one who hears my words and does them, is like this man who builds his house on the rock.

9 - How is this Passage Exposing My Sin?

The word here for rebuke means - It means “to show someone his sin and to summon him to repentance.”

“to set right,” namely, “to point away from sin to repentance.” It implies educative discipline.

And so the heart behind it is not to blame, or condemn, or to be judgmental, but rather to bring healing, set the person on the right course/way, for what is best in their life.

10 - How is this Passage Getting me Back to God’s Way by...

11 -Transforming/Renewing my Thinking?

Another Pastor who was being difficult and hateful. That day, I read about Jesus encouraging Christians to work out a lawsuit before getting to the Judge.

Forgiving me?

By healing/restoring me?

Ravi Zacharias tells the amazing story of a young Christian in Vietnam. He writes, “I was ministering in Vietnam in 1971, and one of my interpreters was Hien Pham, an energetic young Christian. He had worked as a translator with the American forces, and was of immense help both to them and to missionaries such as myself. Hien and I traveled the length of the country and became very close friends before I returned home. We did not know if our paths would ever cross again. Seventeen years later, I received a telephone call. ‘Brother Ravi?’ the man asked. Immediately I recognized Hien’s voice, and he soon told me his story. Shortly after Vietnam fell, Hien was imprisoned on accusations of helping the Americans. His jailers tried to indoctrinate him against democratic ideals and the Christian faith. He was restricted to communist propaganda in French or Vietnamese, and the daily deluge of Marx and Engels began to take its toll. ‘Maybe,’ he thought, ‘I have been lied to. Maybe God does not exist. Maybe the West has deceived me.’ So Hien determined that when he awakened the next day, he would not pray anymore or think of his faith. The next morning, he was assigned the dreaded chore of cleaning the prison latrines. As he cleaned out a tin can overflowing with toilet paper, his eye caught what seemed to be English printed on one piece of paper. He hurriedly grabbed it, washed it, and after his roommates had retired that night, he retrieved the paper and read the words, ‘Romans, Chapter 8.’ Trembling, he began to read, ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him. . . for I am convinced that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ Hien wept. He knew His Bible, and knew that there was not a more relevant passage for one on the verge of surrender.

12 - How is This Passage Training me to Live for God?

1. Scriptural study is meant to equip us “for every good work” (v. 17).

A ton of how to’s, how to share the Gospel, how to encourage others, how to live in freedom not fear, how to disciple others, How to listen to the Holy Spirit, How to discern the Holy Spirit, How to use your Spiritual Gifts, How to engage in Spiritual Warfare, How to relate in all kinds of relationships, etc.....

13 - Lord, What do you Want me to Do? and By When?

Learning Circle

Conclusion: