A Better Source

Romans 12:2 (NIV)

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:2 (NLT)

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of the world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Introduction

When I was growing up, I remember my mother took me with her on errands to the grocery store. The grocery store wasn’t exactly my favorite errand, but it alway guaranteed me a small moment of humor. This happened as we were in line for check out and there was a tabloid filled with fake news. It had the craziest stories on the cover; such as:

Elvis is an Alien

The President of the United States is a lizard

Vladimir Putin is a Robot

Hillary Clinton adopts a baby alien

Now, all of these crazy headlines only served one purpose - to grab people’s attention.

And it worked! I couldn’t wait to see what the newest fake story was!

But I would also think to myself, “how in the world do people buy this stuff?”

Today, we don’t have to go to a grocery store to find this same type of misinformation. It is sent directly to the news feed of your preferred social media network. Your responsibility is to think critically about what is being presented to you, and through your own research make an informed decision.

At least that is what you are supposed to do.

Transition

And I’ve said all of that to lead us to what I believe to be the best source of information for the Jesus follower, and that is the Bible.

What is the Bible?

The Bible has a lot of synonyms, so let’s just get that on the table right now - the scriptures, God’s word, the word of God, and if you’ve spent time in the South, it’s the Good Book.

Synonyms for the Bible are perfectly fine.

As a matter of fact, the word Bible is not in the Bible.

That’s because the earliest compilations of the letters that make up our Bible today were called “ta biblia” in Romanized Greek, which means the books.

The Bible is our english transliteration of ta biblia.

Now what you also need to know about the Bible is that is was written by over 40 men over a period of 1,600 years. God is the author of the Bible, and it was written by men.

I need for you to get that.

The Bible was not authored by men. It was written by men, but it was God who was inspiring them to write.

The Bible is filled with descriptors, thoughts, truths, and ideas that could not come from the mind of a man. They descend from the very mind of God and they inspired the men to write.

God’s Mind in My Mind

Now, God did this to bring our minds in sync with his.

Let’s get back to our verse that we opened with.

Romans 12:2 (NIV)

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Our natural bend is to follow the patterns of the world. That is normal. We will begin to follow the patterns of our environment.

Your environment is:

your home

your school

your coworkers

your friends

your clubs

Just by being in these environments you will begin to copy the patterns of these environments.

Following our environments is neutral - meaning if you are in a good environment, you will take on the good. If you are in a bad environment, you will take on the bad.

That is why it is so important that you carefully chose your circles.

Like the old saying goes, show me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are. All of that is facts.

But, here is where we as a nation are headed.

Right now, the prevailing thought of our culture is for everyone to do what is right in their own eyes.

Everyone is free to live THEIR truth.

There is no absolute truth anymore, everyone is free to live their “truth”, even if it ain’t true.

This is called expressive individualism, and it is growing in our culture.

So now, people are doing what THEY think is right, what THEY identify with, or what is the truest expression of themselves. Now you might say, is that a bad thing?

And unequivocally I would say that it is becoming a bad thing, because people’s expression of themselves is being politicized and weaponized.

Now, that’s going to take us down a rabbit trail if I keep chasing it, but that is not the point of today. Today’s point is to get back to our Bible, because the way we don’t copy the destructive patterns of this world is to renew our mind.

You see there are a lot of books that can fill you with information, but there is only one book with the power to bring about transformation.

God’s plan for the scriptures wasn’t just to inform, but to transform.

It Begins Here

When I read my Bible, there is information that I am receiving. It is getting received here, in my mind, but as I meditate on the word of God there is a flow of his word that is being deposited into my spirit. As it is flowing to my spirit, it is beginning to bring about changes inside of me. I’m beginning to be stretched as a result of God’s word. My behaviors are being exposed to the light of God’s word.

I love Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of the Bible in Hebrews 4:12-13

“God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one can resist God’s Word. We can’t get away from it - no matter what.”

What a description of God’s word! It is like a surgeon’s scalpel carefully working through our lives to remove the things in our life that pull us in the opposite direction of following Jesus.

This is why we need to renew our mind through God’s word.

Ephesians 4:22-24 NLT

Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

How do We Do It?

Now for the next few moments, I want to get really practical about our approach to the Bible. I’ve given you up until now a lot of ‘why’, but now I want to give you the ‘what’ to do. Is that OK?

It’s about to get very practical, but many of you need this. You just don’t know you need it, yet.

Read the Bible for Devotion

Why do we read for devotion?

We read the scriptures, and then we let the scriptures read us. We read a passage with the desire to have a spiritual connection with the word of God. This is not a study of the scripture, but purely a moment to delight in the word of God. We read the Bible, and then we let it read us.

Have a place and a space

Begin with prayer

Have a plan

Read and let it read you

Close with prayer

Our second approach to the scriptures is to Study the Bible.

This is the academic approach to the scriptures, but it is the best way for us to carefully handle the word of God.

In the days of scriptures, it was the Rabbi’s who were given the authority to teach and interpret the scriptures. You had to go through a rigorous process to be a teacher of the Bible, and you were not cut loose until you were 30 years old.

Too many people today will buy into the teachings of people with zero Bible training, and we just eat up everything they are teaching us.

Our devotion to Jesus demands that we not just become fans of Jesus, but that we become students of his word to us.

So when we study the word, we are answering these basic questions about the Bible:

Who was the writer?

Who was the audience?

When was this written?

What was going on at the time this was written?

What was the reason for the author’s writing?

What was the expected result of the author’s writing in their day?

Is there any application for me today?

Now that might feel like a lot of questions for you to try and answer alone. That is why we suggest you not do it alone. You can join a Small Group and together study the bible. Or, next Fall, you can join the Lighthouse Leadership College.

Our vision is to have a church that is not just biblically literate, but that like the Bereans, we would be known for the high value we place on the study, exegesis, and application of the scriptures.

Why?

Jesus and the Bible

The Bible, properly interpreted and understood it is a single cohesive story that points us to Jesus.

I’ll say that again.

The Bible is a single cohesive story that points us to Jesus.

So if you are a follower of Jesus, then it is imperative that you fall in love with the Bible. It is not enough to come and sit under a Bible teacher and listen to a 30-40 message about the Bible, and you not read the scriptures for yourself.

We are followers of Jesus. We are students of the life and the way of Jesus. And if we are going to succeed at following Jesus, it is necessary that we turn our attention to the Better Source.

I’ll insert this quote from my friend about the Bible.

You cannot fall in love with the Bible, without falling in love with Jesus.

One of the ways that the Rabbi’s would instill a love for the scriptures to the children of Israel was to have each child put a touch of honey on their lips as the Bible was being read. This simple act was a way of identifying the words as being as sweet as honey on their lips. They touched the honey and then they touched their lips.

I pray that we have this same relationship with the word of God today. That we have this same desire for the truths in God’s word today.

We have a source that is better than the news, that is better than culture, and that is better than what social media tells us. We have what God tells us. And what he tells us will remain forever.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but His word will never change.