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Handout
Introduction
Attention:
Thank Bob for opportunity to preach
New Year’s Resolutions
Working out
Example from Liberty: Gym full in January, empty by March
Dieting
The Splenda only goes so far
Reading the Bible
Done by Leviticus
Today = Why this is important (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Need:
Statistics from American Bible Society’s Annual State of the Bible Report
2021: 50% of Americans read Bible at least three of four times per year
2022: 39%
The sharpest decline in history
Before pandemic 14% read Bible every day
After pandemic: 10%
People are reading their Bibles less than ever
We get to be a part of changing this trend
Reading the Bible Post-Pandemic
So what are we waiting for? Let’s dive in!
Read in entirety first, then we will break it down
2 Timothy 3:16–17 (ESV)
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Body
The Big Idea: Continue in the Bible
The Big Question: Why should we continue in the Bible?
1. The Bible is inerrant
2 Timothy 3:16a
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God
Explanation:
“All Scripture”
What does this include?
Obviously OT
But what about NT?
15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
What Paul says, along with “the other Scriptures”
Paul’s letters = Scriptures
Paul Himself seems to have realized this as well
37 If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.
Paul recognized and affirmed his own authority
And here’s another example that shows us the inspiration of the Gospels:
18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”
2 quotes:
Deut. 25:4.
Luke 10:7.
Thus, we can confidently affirm that “all Scripture” includes the NT writings as well
But what is it that it says about “all Scripture” again?
“Breathed-Out By God”
Literally “God-Breathed” in the Greek (1 word)
Only occurrence of the word in NT
There’s a chance that Paul coined the phrase Himself
The point: there is nothing else like the Bible!
What makes the Bible unique is that it comes from the mouth of God
It is His Word written to us
God, the ultimate author through human authors
21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
This gives us the picture of what inspiration looks like:
God speaking through humans
What’s in the Bible is exactly what God wants to be in there
All of this shows us that the Bible is inerrant
But what do we mean when we say that?
Inerrant = free from error
Because our God is free from error
The Word is free from error because it was breathed out from He who is free from error
The Bible is completely true; it all really happened, and God really is the author
To say that this book is worth reading is to say the bare minimum
Illustration:
Preschool Chapel:
“This is God’s special book that He wrote to us.”
This is the reality; The Bible is God’s perfect word written to us
Application:
What place does the Bible hold in your life?
Is it authoritative in your life?
Is it your bedrock of living?
In what ways do you need to return to the authority of Scripture?
Haven’t been reading as much
Hasn’t been a priority
Got off track in 2023
Allow the perfection of God’s word to draw you in
The Big Question: Why should we continue in the Bible?
1. The Bible is inerrant
2. The Bible is profitable
2 Timothy 3:16 (ESV)
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
Explanation:
Because Scripture comes from the mouth of God, it is profitable
Profitable = meets needs
God’s word meets our deepest needs.
-Tony Merida
Meeting us where we are at
But what are our needs?
2 general needs:
Orthodoxy and orthopraxy: doctrine and behavior
We need to know what we believe and how to apply it
A Biblical Sandwich
Doctrine: ____________
Behavior: ____________
Behavior: ____________
Doctrine: _____________
A Biblical Sandwich
Doctrine: Teaching
Behavior: ____________
Behavior: ____________
Doctrine: Training in Righteousness
Doctrine: Teaching and Training in Righteousness
Knowing what we believe and why we believe it
Making your faith your own
Instruction that points towards behavior
A Biblical Sandwich
Doctrine: Teaching
Behavior: Rebuking
Behavior: Correcting
Doctrine: Training in Righteousness
Behavior: Rebuking and correcting:
Rebuking: Pointing out sin in someone’s life
Easier said than done
The Bible is the standard
Correcting: Helping someone recover from said sin (getting back on track)
Summing up our needs that are met by the Bible:
Knowing what we believe
Knowing how to apply what we believe
The only way for these needs to be met is for us to read the Bible regularly
Illustration:
My water bottle that Samie got me for my birthday (show it to congregation)
I forget that I need to drink water sometimes
This one lists out the times, so that I can stay on track
Sometimes, we fail to realize that we need to read the Bible daily
But we need it, desperately. As a person, as a generation, and as a church
Application:
Are your needs in life being met?
What are you trying to use to get your needs met?
Filling up a God-sized hole in your heart
How can your needs be met through the Bible?
Reading it consistently
Making it a habit
66 days (European Journal of Social Psychology)
Read your Bible and get your needs met
The Big Question: Why should we continue in the Bible?
1. The Bible is inerrant
2. The Bible is profitable
3. The Bible equips
2 Timothy 3:16–17 (ESV)
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Explanation:
“That” = the purpose of Scripture’s inspiration
That we would be equipped
The reason that God spoke His Word to us from His mouth was so that we would be equipped
But what do we have to do in order to be equipped by Scripture? We have to read it regularly
Without regularly studying God’s word, we will never be equipped like He wants us to be
One of God’s main purposes in inspiring the Bible was so that you would read it.
Complete + Equipped = “fully equipped” or “super-equipped”
Equipped for what? Good works.
Good works don’t save, but saved people do good works.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Not saved by works, but created for them
In fact, a lack of good works has strong implications on one’s lack of faith
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
What are the good works that we were created to do?
Loving God
Loving others
Making disciples
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Without regularly reading the Bible, it is impossible for us to love God and others in the way that He has called us to
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Without regularly reading the Bible, it is impossible for us to be disciple makers
It is His Word that equips us for the work of ministry
We can’t do it on our own!
The Bible is not lacking in its ability to equip us for good works
Timothy and all Christians can find in Scripture everything necessary to do good works.
-William Mounce
Not “the Bible +,” just “the Bible”!
The Bible is how we do what God has called us to do
Illustration:
If you want to do something, you need to be equipped adequately
Renewed interest in playing the guitar
The bad capo (show congregation)
The good capo I got for Christmat (show congregation)
But in order to get equipped to do what God wants us to do… we already have what we need! The Bible
Application:
How equipped are you to do good works?
How could the deficits that you see be dealt with by simply being more committed to spending daily time reading the Bible?
What can you do to make sure you are equipped?
Choose a Bible reading plan.
He who fails to plan is planning to fail.
-Winston Churchill
The plan that I am using: The One Year Bible
Scan the QR code to do the plan with me!
Not just reading the Bible, but asking key questions:
How can I apply this to my life?
Making sure you “get something” out of it
Prepare yourself for whatever this year may throw at you by reading the Bible daily!
Conclusion
Do you want this year to be one to remember?
Do you want God to work in your life?
Do you want to see God bless our church?
Submit to His word by committing to the task of reading it daily
Take this seriously, because it really matters
Alter call
Come up if you feel God calling you to commit to this
Maybe you already read consistently, but you just need to come up here to pray that God refreshes the experience of reading Scripture this year for you
You come as the Lord leads
PRAY