Teaching God's Word

Introduction

We started a series last week on charting the course for Oasis Community Church. In order to know where we need to be headed, we need to understand who we are, our identity. In this series we are talking about two parts of our identity as a church: our mission and our values.

Our mission answers the question of what we are supposed to be doing. As we saw last week, that mission is to love all people into the family of Jesus.

Our values answer the question of what is most important to us. What is our DNA? What makes Oasis unique? What motivates us as a church as we pursue our mission to the glory of God? Our leadership team has settled on the top four values of our church. We value more than these four of course, but these four are essential to the heartbeat of what makes Oasis what it is. First value: Teaching God’s word.

What is a value?

First value: Teaching God’s word.

The Bible has fallen on hard times in both conservative and progressive churches alike.

Progressives find chunks of the Bible embarrassing, and so change or ignore many passages in the name of becoming more relevant to the culture we are trying to reach. Since the Bible is no longer the source of authority for such churches, the culture around us takes the final say in what it preaches and what it does.

Conservatives find parts of the Bible to be inconvenient, and so change or ignore many passages in the name of fitting in to the traditional and conservative cultures the church finds itself in. Such churches will claim to believe the Bible, but in their activity and in their beliefs they show the Bible is no longer its source of authority. Tradition is.

Now, many of you have a history in progressive or conservative churches that do these very things. You might not even realize it yet. That is why at the outset, we want to identify God’s word at the top of the list of our values. Our chief authority is the word of God. We desire to be a thoroughly biblical church in all that we do. Why? Because we value God’s word.

So let’s look at three texts tonight that give us reason to value God’s word this way.

God's word equips us

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.

2 tim 3.16-17

The Scriptures are breathed out by God

The Prophetic Word

They are from God

2 Peter 1:16–21 ESV

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 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.

Though God used men to write it, his Spirit oversaw its formation. The Bible finds its origin in God himself. It is not merely a human book. It is divine.

They are reliable

Everything that the Bible claims is true. The term inerrancy refers to this reality. There is no error in the Bible as God gave it.

That does not mean that our interpretations of the Bible are without error. Obviously we can get the Bible wrong. But the Bible rightly understood is never wrong.

For example, people have argued that the Bible teaches that the earth is at the center of the universe and that the sun revolves around it because it rises and sets.

There are many “literal” interpretations that due disservice to the Bible because the language is intended to be taken figuratively!

So, when the Bible is understood as it was intended to be, it is never wrong. Why? Because it comes from God who is never wrong.

They are authoritative

To obey God’s word is to obey God. To disregard God’s word is to disregard God.

We do not get to pick and choose what we want to believe in the Bible. If it is all God breathed, God means it to all be authoritative.

The Scriptures are profitable for us

They teach us right belief

The Bible teaches us sound doctrine. We know what is true about God and the world that he has made by reading the Bible.

Ex: We believe that God is triune because of what the Bible teaches. We do not arrive at trinitarianism outside of the Bible.

They rebuke our wrong beliefs

The Bible also is useful in pointing out our theological errors.

Ex: Many Christians believe that God plans to bless our health, wealth, and relationships. This is contrary to what the Bible teaches.

They correct our wrong practices

The Bible is useful in correcting our bad actions. It tells us what we are doing wrong.

Ex: We live in a divorce happy culture, even in the church. The Bible teaches that divorce and remarriage is adultery.

They train us in right practices

The Bible is useful in promoting the right kind of actions in us.

Ex: We know we are to love each other sacrificially because of what the Bible teaches us.

The Bible is sufficient to equip us for everything God calls us to do

We don’t need special messages or additional revelations from God in order to obey his will.

We just need to rightly interpret and apply the Bible

That is why Oasis Community Church values teaching God’s word

God’s word is the key to our joy

Psalm 19:7–11 ESV

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

God’s word is also central to our joy as a church

Psalm 19.

God’s word revives us

There is a refreshing element to being in God’s word together. He revives our dead and cold hearts with it. God’s word can ignite our hearts again.

If you are feeling spiritually dead or dry lately, I can guarantee that you are not seriously engaging with God’s reviving word.

God’s word makes us wise

God uses the Bible to make us wiser. When we are wiser we make better decisions. When we make better decisions we will be happier.

If you are making tons of really bad decisions, I can guarantee that you are not seriously consulting the word of God.

God’s word delights us

God’s word is sweeter than honey. It delights us. It gives us joy. It’s better than riches.

God’s word warns us

God’s word keeps us from doing dumb things. Dumb things rob our joy.

God’s word rewards us

God’s word rewards us. We get the joy of living a life according to the Scriptures.

We value God’s word because we want to be happy

God’s word points us to Jesus

John 5:39–40 ESV

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day thought that by keeping God’s word you would have eternal life.

Jesus says this is not true. He alone is the source of eternal life.

So why do we have the Scriptures? Why is the Bible so useful and so delightful? It points us to Jesus, the source of our life.

The entire Bible is about Christ. In fact, if we do not arrive at Jesus, we are misunderstanding the point of the Bible.

Jesus is our supreme joy and treasure. That’s why we value God’s word.

We value God’s word because we want to see more of Jesus

How we value God’s word

When we gather we open God’s word

Service - preaching, songs, prayers

Watering Holes

Bible Studies

Children’s ministries

Outreach and prayer

We strive to obey God’s word corporately

We will always be reevaluating what we do as a church to ensure we are consistent with what God’s word teaches

We will obey God’s word even when it is not culturally appropriate to do so

We strive to obey God’s word individually

We will regularly bring our own personal practices and beliefs before God’s word

We will obey God’s word even when it is not convenient to do so

We will use the Scriptures to point us to Jesus

If our handling of God’s word does not regularly point us to Christ, we are mishandling God’s word.

We will use God’s word to point each other to Jesus

Communion

On the night that Jesus was betrayed...

Communion reminds us of the focus of the Scriptures: Jesus given for us.

If you are a follower of Jesus, as you prepare your heart for communion, consider whether you value God’s word? In what ways do you devalue it?

If you are not yet a follower of Jesus, we ask that you not take communion. Instead take Christ so we can prepare you for communion next week.