K4: Studying Scripture to Know God

Introduction

In 1907, George Freeth brought surfing to Southern California

A man named Henry Huntington (Huntington Beach) employed him

Did expositions for hundreds to bring tourists to his new piers

Some years later, Duke Kahamamoku followed his footsteps

By 1912, he was surfing for huge crowds

He won gold in Olympic swimming in 1912, 1920, and silver in 1924

He began starring in Hollywood films

As he continued to surf, it became less of a show, and more of a pastime

When cars were invented, it was easier to get boards to the beach

In the 1950’s, California surf culture grew with help from Hollywood

Books and movies about “Gidget,” a fictitious female surfer became popular

The Beach Boys rock n’ roll sound kept momentum in the mainstream

Today, it’s hard to imagine Santa Monica, San Diego, Malibu or Santa Cruz without surfers

Surfing is a California way of life!

And I know this! I grew up in California!

You can’t grow up in California without surfing!

Everyone surfs!

Well, except for me.

I have never tried surfing

How can you grow up in California and never surf?!

Let me come back to that… First:

Discipleship Formula

(TW+K4)xD3

TW is TIME WITH

K is KAVANAH

4 things are

STUDY SCRIPTURE TO KNOW GOD

PRAYERFULNESS

LOVING EXTRAVAGANTLY

ALL LIFE IS WORSHIP (C323 Living)

AKA - Scripture, Prayer, Love, Worship

D3 is MULTIPLICATION

2 weeks ago we talked about TW

You can’t disciple someone without spending time

It’s intentional time to growth together

Why? That’s how Jesus did it...

Relationships are not a component of discipleship...

Discipleship IS relationships

You have friendships, and you have personal growth in relationship with God

Discipleship is when those come together

You can have friendships

You talk about football, cooking, video games, whatever

That’s not discipleship

You have personal growth with God

You read alone, you pray alone, you fast alone, whatever

That’s not discipleship either

Discipleship is when friendship and intentional growth come together

K4 are the four intentional things we do

Scripture, prayer, love and worship

Today, we’re discussing “Studying Scripture to Know God

YouVersion: K4: Studying Scripture to Know God

Bouncing around

Let me tell you about the Bible:

Demand requires a Bible to be printed every 3 seconds

Second most printed book all time: “Quotations from the Works of Mao Tse-tung”

820 million copies

Bible? Over 6 billion copies and counting...

How far down the best sellers list to tie Bible?

All the religious texts: Qu’ran, Book of Mormon, Dianetics...

Then work down the most famous works of all time

A Tale of Two Cities, Harry Potter, Guiness Book… all the ones with 100 million+ sales

But keep going

DaVinci Code, Charlotte’s Web, Webster’s Dict., Betty Crocker Cookbook… 50 million+

Still not enough

Peter Rabbit, Diary of Anne Frank, Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book, all with 25 million+

Take the top 150 best selling books of all time, with all editions, including annual copies...

You STILL can’t pass the number of Bibles that have been printed!

If I talk about...

The blind leading the blind

The writing on the wall

Escaped by the skin of your teeth

A drop in the bucket

All sayings from Scripture!

Bible is the most shoplifted book in the world

Praise God...

90% of the population has a version of the Bible available in a language they understand

There is an endless river of books relating to Scripture:

Bible dictionaries, commentaries, textbooks, concordances, lexicons...

Books on church leadership, theology, history, apologetics...

Devotions, hymnals, trivia and Bible studies...

When it comes to Scripture there is no competition, parallel or improvement!

The most amazing book of all time

Aliens visiting us for the first time couldn’t possibly summarize our planet without including the Christian Bible

It is just too significant

And yet… remember when I said I grew up in California and never surfed?

How much stranger is it, that people grow up here, and never take the time to look at this book?

Clearly the most influential piece of writing ever, and it is dismissed without even looking

Let’s go to another level!

Some people go to church their whole life! And never bother to open the Scriptures...

A.W. Tozer: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

Question: is Scripture not the most important factor in defining what we think about God?

It is!

In Matthew 22, the Sadducees challenge Jesus

If a woman’s husband dies, and she marries his brother, who will she be married to?

Can’t figure it out, must not be a resurrection!

Jesus suggests that they could know things better… How?

Matthew 22:29 (ESV)

29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.

If you want to know about God

If you want to know what He wants

If you want to know what we need

If you want to know what to do

You look to Scripture!

But it’s archaic, it’s just a bunch of fairy tales, you can find truth in other places...

Isaiah 40:8 (ESV)

8 The grass withers, the flower fades,

but the word of our God will stand forever.

Mankind becomes archaic, cultures become archaic...

But Scripture does not

It is the one constant that pulls the swerving trailer of society back in line

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,

Even the old stuff!

Romans 15:4 ESV

4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Matthew 24:35 (ESV)

35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

What am I saying here?

Scripture is the most important factor in what we think about God

God does communicate in other ways

Prayer, Holy Spirit, morality is written on our hearts...

There may even be a place for prophecy and new revelation in the future

But I will tell you this: None of those things supercede Scripture

D.L. Moody: “I never saw a useful Christian who was not a student of the Bible.”

Scripture tells us the Word of God is inspired by God, and it is truth

So if the Bible says, “Don’t commit adultery, it’s a sin.”

And you come in someday saying, “I’m going to leave my spouse because my secretary is my soul mate… It’s alright, God told me it’s okay!”

So, what are the things the Bible communicates to us?

1. Scripture reveals who God is

Scripture does more that just tell us things about God

It also shows us who he is

Let me see if I can show you what I mean:

The Bible says, “God loves people...”

That’s information - clear and accurate

Let’s look and see how Scripture says it though:

John 10:11 (ESV)

11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

You begin to gain a sense for who Jesus is with that

You understand the type of care He has

He’s an overseeing, guiding, loving protector, willing to set Himself aside

He can be trusted, He has our best interest at heart, we find assurance and safety

I know my wife - I am a student of her

She has the gift of discernment, she is a very talented home designer, she’s an external processor and loves chihuahuas!

If you ask her a hard question about morality, she will answer confidently and rightly, or she will be honest with her limitations. She will likely be blunt, but she will be kind and compassionate.

How do I know that? It’s not because I know information about her...

She is 5’4”, wears a size 7, graduated from Chino HS...

It’s because I know her character, I know her

Rather than just giving information on God, Scripture paints beautiful pictures

So many verses beautifully describe to us who God is

No slides, just listen:

1 John 1:5 ESV

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

Psalm 54:4 ESV

4 Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life.

Exodus 15:11 ESV

11 “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

Isaiah 40:28 ESV

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.

When you learn who God is, you carry that with you

It’s not just information about God you know

It’s knowing Him through His word

2. Scripture reveals God’s actions

This is an easy one

Scripture has an interesting record of God’s relationship with humanity

From a birds eye view...

God created mankind, we sinned

He made a people, then a Temple, then a kingdom, then salvation, then the church...

Then there’s the tribulation, millennial kingdom, new heaven and earth...

But rather than say it like I just did, God wrote more than 31,000 verses for us

He took a period of 1,600 years and used about 40 different authors

Avg. 1 author every 40 years to tell His story

Luke 1:1–4 ESV

1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

Bottom line, God wants us to know what He did, and what He will do

We are still living that same story - we’re just waiting until we fulfill the last part of it

Billy Graham: “If you are ignorant of God’s Word, you will always be ignorant of God’s will.”

If you want to know who God is and what He does, go to Scripture

We know the Bible tell su about God, but the it also tells us about us!

3. Scripture reveals who we are

Playing in an indy band in the early 2000’s, I loved a band called “The Used”

At the beginning of a song called take it away, there’s a vintage, scratchy old man voice

He says, “Life's greatest questions have always been: Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? You are about to see and hear one of the most significant messages given to us from God.”

Then there’s a record needle and gun cocking, it fires and the song starts

God does answer all of those questions in varying ways

Romans 9 - We are His vessels - some for honor some for dishonor

Genesis 1 - He made us to reflect His image in creation

Ephesians 2 - We are His workmanship

Genesis 2 - God brought Adam up from the dust

Psalm 139 - He formed our inwards parts and knitted us together

John 1, Romans 8, Galatians 3, 1 Peter 2 - Some of us have become children of God

Isaiah 43 - We exist to worship God

2 Corinthians 2 - We are His ambassadors

Ephesians 5, We are His bride

Genesis 1, Isaiah 11, We will be rulers with Him

Ultimately that can all be summed up this way

God made us to serve His purpose for us

Many of us try to find or make our own purpose

Whether thats our careers, our accolades, our children...

Each of those things will leave you empty

You will eventually retire, your kids will grow up, your statue in front of your school will be replaced

It is what you do for the sake of the gospel that will stand forever

And so it’s okay to pursue those other things...

But work hard - as to the Lord

Raise your children well - to be Godly people

And store up treasures for yourself -in heaven

Finally:

4. Scripture teaches us how to live

This is really where that knowledge thing becomes a problem again

Too often we know what Scripture says...

But we should be living what Scripture says

Theodore Roosevelt: “No educated man can afford to be ignorant of the Bible.”

And that’s the problem

We set the Bible aside to favor our own thoughts

Sometimes we open Scripture and find something we do not like

So we either ignore it and move on

Find a way to explain it away

Or we give up on it

Sometimes, we give up on it without even looking at all!

You know - the Bible is so old it doesn’t fit our culture

The Bible has so many contradictions

It was written by man and is a bunch of fairy tales

People that say those things often have a common flaw

They don’t actually look at and study Scripture!

The truth is, as I said before:

1 Peter 1:24–25 (ESV)

24 for

“All flesh is like grass

and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers,

and the flower falls,

25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

Here is Peter quoting Isaiah 40

Scripture isn’t just a suggestion for you

A set of feel-good quips to write in calligraphy on a canvas in your kitchen

As for this house, we will serve the Lord...

As you’re screaming at each other in the kitchen...

God gave us His Word because He plans on it changing you

Refining you, making yo more like the person He designed you to be from the get-go

Someone made in His image

Someone who knows and understands how to love, how to serve, and how to be holy

Closing

I want to close with a challenge

When I was a little boy, we ate at Burger King

Inside was a man sitting by himself

Even at 8 years old, it made me sad

Why would he want to sit alone?

I wanted to go sit with him - I didn’t, but I wanted to

In hindsight, he might have been on break or flew in on business...

At the time, I couldn’t understand why anyone would eat alone

Let’s imagine for a second, the word of God is our daily bread

The thing that nourishes us more than regular bread - Matthew 4:4

Here’s the question:

What are your spiritual dining habits?

Are you anorexic and not eating at all?

Starving yourself daily...

Is it just fast food for you?

I’ll let someone else do the work, I’ll just eat a little bit of the stuff that tastes good

Ignoring the stuff that’s good for you?

Are you eating enough, but eating alone?

Sad person eating in front of the TV...

Or are you feasting together with friends regularly, the way Jesus did!

Allowing yourself deep, rich nutrition

Laughing, commenting, enjoying the delicious bounty that God has given

Of course, every meal is different...

But in this community of believers

I pray that we eat well together as we disciple each other

Think about your Scriptural diet this week, and eat well my friends!

Communion

Speaking of the Word of God, did you know Jesus if referred to as the Word?

He also calls Himself the bread of life

One who offers the ability to never thirst again

He revealed how this works to us by dying on a Roman cross...