Anchored on God’s Word

Before we get to the text this morning, I want to just take a moment and remind you of a few things.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few months, we all know what this Tuesday is.

And if you are struggling to navigate what to think about some of the claims that are being made, and how you should respond to the upcoming election, we recently posted a video and sent it out in the harvest highlight that is meant to be a helpful unpacking of some crucial truths to keep in mind.

So if you have not had a chance to watch that yet, I would encourage you to do so before Tuesday - Even if you have already voted, because it isn’t just about the issues in the election, it is about the type of people we should be before, during, and after the election.

And I just want to implore you…

We should be living this week as an embodiment of the truth of who God is - And that is marked by trust in God’s word and in his sovereignty.

Not panic, not fear, not anger, not rage-posting on social media.

No, we need to be marked by a trust in God’s word and a trust in God’s sovereignty.

God is sovereign over the rising and falling of every nation.

God blesses nations and God judges nations.

I promise you friends, whatever the result of Tuesday is and whenever we find out about it, God will still be on his throne and human leaders will still be flawed.

So trust in God, not in people.

You and I won’t answer before God for the results of the election - You and I will answer to him for how we lived during this time, what we supported, what we said, what we did.

So let’s be a people whose lives display a trust in God as we seek to honor him with our lives

Amen?

Well, we are starting a new series this month

For the month of November, we're doing a four week series on our core values as a church. And we're calling it “Family values” because as a church family these are the values that should mark us and how we relate to one another.

Think about when someone comes into your home

There are certain values that are on display when people walk into your home.

Perhaps those values are hospitality or cleanliness (or uncleanliness).

Perhaps your home is decorated with your favorite sports team

Or there are, as in our case, dead animals on the walls

Those things that they experience when they walk into your home, tell them about your family, what you value, and who you are and listen: those help them make sense out of why you do what you do as a family.

And we as a church family should be marked by a set of values that when someone encounters someone from Harvest Bible Church, they know what we value, and our actions makes sense because they reflect our values.

And that we have family that we are anchored on God's word and so this message is on that value. Anchored on God’s word.

And we will be in 2 Tim. 3, so please take out your Bibles and turn there.

I like to pretend that I know how to fish (and I do enjoy fishing)

But this past summer, we went up to a lake up above the rim north of Payson and I was out fishing on a kayak, and I did not have an anchor on my kayak this time out, and I don't know if you've ever fished from a kayak without an anchor. All I can say is that I spent more time paddling and not a lot of time fishing.

Why? Because the movement of the water and the slightest breeze, and even the movement of me is a cast and I reel in caused the kayak to go off course and go somewhere I didn't want it to go.

When you are at the wheel and whim of all of the factors around you.

And we live in a time as a society in which we are not anchored to truth and the whim of all the factors around us

It seems like the very concept of truth changes from week to week and what is acceptable. Yesterday is deplorable today and what is condemned yesterday is celebrated today

Why? Because we have no anchor as a society anymore.

We've told everyone to look within, to find your own truth, to discover your own purpose, and in doing so what we actually did was remove any kind of foundation that we could build true meaning and purpose upon.

It's no wonder anxiety and fear are through the roof today.

But listen, when you do have an anchor, those outside factors are not able to move you because you are firmly fixed in your position.

And God's word is our anchor as a church family.

We need not look anywhere else for a foundation to build our lives upon, but instead we, as a church family must be marked by being anchored on God’s word, regardless of what may happen out in the world.

So we need Paul’s words to Timothy so that we can know what it looks like to be anchored on God’s word

So let’s give them our full attention

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Big idea: God’s word is the ultimate standard of truth for God’s people [10:00]

This is the idea that the reformers referred to as “Sola Scriptura” - That Scripture alone was the highest authority for all of life.

It is not that there are no other authorities in life and no other sources of truth

It is that God’s word is the highest, the ultimate, the final authority and source of truth

There will never be anything that is confirmed to be factual and true that will ever contradict God’s word

Oh there will be theories, there will be opinions, there will be claims that contradict Scripture.

But because God is true and his word is true, what is ultimately true will always agree with and submit to his word.

And since God’s word is the ultimate source of truth for God’s people, we must be anchored on it.

Its not supplemental

Its not additional

It is foundational and necessary for our lives as a church family.

[Bridge Question] How can I know that I am anchored on God’s word as the ultimate source and foundation of truth?

We are going to see three necessary realities about God’s word that we must accept if we are to be anchored in God’s word.

I am anchored when:

I know God as the source of truth (16a)

Paul starts by saying that “All Scripture” is breathed out by God

That is an interesting phrase - Perhaps you were translation says “inspired by God”

But the word is literally “God-breathed”

So what is in Paul's mind when he uses this phrase?

Remember that the writers of the new testament are first readers of the Old Testament, so Paul is no doubt drawing from the Old Testament to inform this imagery that he is using of “God breathing” Scripture

The two passages that give us the most vivid imagery of God’s breath are:

Gen. 2 - Breathed into the man the breath of life

Ezekiel 37 - Valley of Dry bones

In Genesis 2, God’s breath is what gives life to the man and God is present in creation

In Ezekiel 37, God’s breath is his Spirit giving new life to the dead through the spoken word of God.

God tells Ezekiel to “Speak the word of the Lord to these bones” and when he does, God’s spirit comes upon them and gives them life.

In both, God is present and that presence brings life to his people.

So what is Paul saying?

All Scripture, the 66 books of your Bible, give life to God’s people because in them God is present.

Did you know that?

In the Bible, God’s breath, God’s word, and God’s Spirit are inseparable

Think about your own breath and your own speech - It comes from you and embodies your mind and your will

It tells people things about you, but it is also a part of you - Right?

When I speak, you aren’t experiencing my words - You are experiencing me in a tangible, real way.

It is the same with God’s word

When we read and hear the word of God, we are not just engaging words, we are engaging God through his word.

He is the source of truth - It comes from him and is inseparable from him.

And this should have a direct impact on how we view God’s word as the source of truth.

It is the strangest thing when we say that Scripture is God’s word and then we live as if it is no different than any other book!

In fact, I would argue that your view of God’s word is more telling of your view of God than your words about God.

Are you tracking with me?

If you have a low view of God's word in your life, that means that you have a low view of God. If you claim to have a high view of God in your life, it will play out and having a high view of his word in your life.

We see it all the time where people claim to be Christians and claim to be loving God, and all the while are diminishing the role of his word in their lives, instead depending on other voices and other ideas.

Instead, we should be anchored to his word, having a high view of its role in our lives

Because when we are anchored to God’s word, we are anchored to God himself because he is the source of truth.

And when I know God as the source of truth, then I know that it will do in my life what it says it will do, which leads to the second point:

I am anchored when:

I see growth as the use of truth (16b) [16:00]

Paul just told us that all Scripture is God-breathed, and now he's gonna tell us the implication of that for our lives.

He says that it is “profitable"

This is a word that means that is useful or it's beneficial.

Our society is obsessed with becoming the best version of yourself

We hear that all the time - “I am becoming the best version of myself”

But the best version of yourself is the version that God intends for you

And the only way to become that version is through his word applied to your life.

This is why it's so important to first see that all Scripture is God-breathed

Because then I don’t just stop at knowing about God’s word - I also apply it, cherish it, and follow it, knowing that God will work in me

Because God’s word comes from him and because he is present with his word, I can know that it will accomplish things in my life

And Paul gives four areas in life where God's word works in us by God Spirit and changes us.

And these four things will happen in our lives when we are anchored in God's word.

The first way that it is useful to help us grow is “Teaching”

This is instruction in what is true. Because God is the source of truth, that means that God's word instruct us in what is true.

It teaches us how the world really is

It teaches who God is, who we are, what we were made for, what is wrong, what God is doing to fix it and make us right again.

And this confronts the false idea that that is so common today that this is my world and you’re just living it.

Right? In our hyper-self focused world, I am the center of my world and you orbit around me.

But God’s word shows us that we live in God’s world and it is the way that he made it and so I need his word to instruct me in how his world works so that I can live in it well.

When I am anchored in God’s word, It teaches me the truth about God’s world and my place in it.

The second way that we grow through being anchored to God’s word is through “reproof”

This is the idea of someone disapproving of what is false or wrong in my life.

You are reproved when you have been getting something wrong and somebody comes along and says “That's wrong!”

God's word, because it is from God himself, confronts all of the areas in my life where I have been pursuing the wrong thing and where I have been viewing things in the wrong way and where I have been thinking the wrong things.

It's common today for us to think that because we think things they must be right because we would never think wrong things, right?

That's what other people do - But as for me, my thoughts and beliefs are right, thank you very much

Wrong! We are all fallen in our nature and that affects our beliefs and our thoughts as well which means while we could have the best of intentions, and while our thoughts are reasonable to us, they still can be severely flawed and what God’s word does is it reproves us in those things, it exposes the error in our thinking.

And it doesn’t just show us that we have been wrong, it shows us precisely how we have been wrong so we know what to change.

Which leads us to the Third way God’s word helps us grow, we grow as God’s word corrects us

This is the idea that it points me to what my life should look like, and it shows me how I should live in God's world.

After showing me what is wrong in my life, God shows me how it can be right and it points me in that direction.

As I am anchored to God, his spirit works in my heart to convict me of sin AND to convict me of righteousness, to show me what is wrong AND to point me toward what is right.

The world just tells you how you are wrong, but there is no consistent answer for how you can be right

Just repent of your wrongness and do what everyone else is doing

But when we are anchored on God’s word, it not only shows us what has gone wrong in our lives, but how we can be made right, both with God and in our lives.

And the fourth way that the truth of God’s word grows me, according to the Apostle Paul, is that it trains me in righteousness.

It educates me in right living.

God's word does not just tell us what's wrong with us and what our lives should look like and then leaves us to figure it out.

Instead, God's word as it is applied to our hearts by God's Spirit, trains us in righteous living. We actually grow to look more and more like Jesus as we submit to his word.

We grow in our ability to honor God with our lives and reflect God to the world, as we engage with his word more and more.

But when we don’t see growth as the use for truth, when we don’t see how God’s word grows us,

we end up seeing the Bible as optional and so we go out and we live lives that look much like the world because we're not anchored to God's word,

but instead, we are without an anchor, floating around in the world of relativity and subjectivity, and we experience the same fear and anxiety that the world does.

But if I see God as the source of truth, I will not be very far from my Bible because I will know that it is effective in my life.

This is why Charles Spurgeon once said "the Bible that is falling apart, belongs to the Christian, whose life is not.”

A Bible that is falling apart is one that is opened often and consulted regularly. It's pages are turned constantly. It's reader is pouring over it intently.

And the result is that no matter what may come in that person’s life, he or she has grown in the truth and is anchored in God's word

But the opposite is also true friends

The Bible that is in pristine condition because it is never opened, often belongs to a person whose life is in shambles

because that person's life is not anchored on God's word and instead they get tossed and throw by every wind and wave of doctrine and every deceitful scheme of the world, and they have fallen pray and victim to all of the lies that the world would offer that couldn't deliver.

The only way that we can know that our lives are on the track of growth in Christ-likeness is when we are anchored to God's word.

Listen to the way that John Stott puts it:

“Do we hope, either in our own lives or in our teaching ministry, to overcome error and grow in truth, to overcome evil and grow in holiness? Then it is to Scripture that we must turn, for Scripture is ‘profitable’ for these things.”

To Scripture we must turn

Not the latest social media influencer.

Not pithy sayings that are superficial

Not the latest self-help ideology.

To Scripture we must turn because it is Scripture that is profitable to grow us as a church family.

When I see growth as the use of Scripture, I will use it because I know that God will grow me through it.

I pursue glory as the product of truth (17) [28:00]

Paul finishes this description of Scripture with a subjunctive clause

Let's remember back to middle school grammar for a moment

A subjunctive clause is something that is conditional, it is like an if/then statement

For the second half to be true, the first half must first be true

Paul says that the result of seeing God as the source of truth and seeing growth as the use of truth will then result in “the man of God being complete, equipped for every good work.”

Now this word complete is a unique word. It's the idea of being well fitted for a task, having the right tools.

Jeannie and I enjoy doing DIY projects, though as I've matured in life, I have learned what I am capable of and what I just am not capable of and need to pay somebody to do.

But one of the challenges of DIY is that you don't necessarily know the tools that you need your knee-deep in the job and don't have the tools that you need.

And then, what do you end up doing? You end up just trying to make the tools that you have work and that can get kind of crazy.

I can't tell you how many times I have been in the middle of a project and said the words "this would be so much easier if I just had the right tools.”

Listen: While that might happen with a DIY project, That is never going to happen with God

There is nothing in the Christian life that God calls you to that he does not also provide what you need to do it.

And God has given us the task of reflecting him to a watching world and bringing him glory.

If we will see God as the source of truth and see his word as useful to grow us, then we will have what we need to glorify God in this life

We will be “equipped for every good work.”

Listen to the way 17th century preacher Matthew Henry puts it:

“That which finishes a man of God in this world is the scripture. By it we are thoroughly furnished for every good work. There is that in the scripture which suits every case. Whatever duty we have to do, whatever service is required from us, we may find enough in the scriptures to furnish us for it.”

And there is such an important connection here between the good work that scripture points us to and the glory of God.

I want you to turn over to Exodus 33 because I want you to see the way that God defines his glory in that passage.

If you remember, the second half of Exodus, Moses is up on Mount Sinai talking with God as God gives him the law.

And we don't have a lot of time to unpack this passaging great detail. I just want you to see one thing. Moses says starting verse 18

Exodus 33:18–21 “Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you…

Moses asks to see glory - God’s response is “I will make all my goodness pass before you.”

Is God denying Moses request and instead showing him something different?

No, jump down to verse 21:

And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock…”

What's going on here? I thought God said his goodness was going to pass by?

That’s right - God is saying that when his goodness is put on display, that is his glory.

God created the world to glorify his own name, and at the end of each day of creation, he declared what he made was good, which means it is the way that it was supposed to be, and it was the way it was supposed to be, because it was good, it brought glory to God, because he is a good God.

That means that that which is good properly reflects him - That’s why it brings him glory

So what does this have to do with our passage and 2 Timothy about God's word?

When I see God as the source of truth, and when I see my growth as the use of truth, that will necessarily result in seeking to live a life that reflects God goodness, which then means that I am pursuing God's glory in my life.

God created us to bring him glory, and through his word he will provide everything that we need to be able to do that, for every good work.

But we have to define the way that scripture defines it - We can’t define glory the world’s way or our own way.

We have to be anchored to God's word if we are to pursue God's glory in our lives, because only the truth of God’s word gives us what we need to know what is good and how to bring God glory.

The world would convince you that the best thing you can do is to pursue your own glory,

but then it will also tell you that you have to define what glory looks like and you have your own purpose and you have to define truth for yourself and you have to define goodness for yourself

but then all the while it will judge you and cancel you if the world thinks that you somehow got any of those wrong even though it told you to define them for yourself.

That is what it looks like to be lacking an anchor.

But as God's people, who are anchored in God's word,

we can let God define goodness for us

we can let God be the source of truth for us

we can let God define our meaning for us

we can let God equip us to live according to that meaning and thus we were meant to live, pursuing God's glory.

[CONLCUSION]

So that is our first family value: We are a church family that is anchored on God’s truth.

Knowing that God is the source of the truth

Growth is the use of truth

and glory is the pursuit of truth

Because God’s word is the ultimate source of truth for God’s people.