Minute By Minute: God's Word Sermon

Minute By Minute: God’s Word

September 13th, 2020: The Lookout

Title: Foundation, Filter, & Force

Series: Minute By Minute

Question: Has anybody here read their bible every day since becoming a Christian? If you have read the bible every day since becoming a follower of Jesus then please stand up.

The purpose of today’s message is not to make you feel guilty for not reading your bible or how you may be a little behind on your current bible reading plan. :). We’re not looking to bible shame anyone here today. In fact it’s quite the opposite.

Big Idea: My goal for today is to show you that God’s Word is more than a book, more than wise counsel, and more than history. When we open up God’s Word, it is more than a religious activity and more than a spiritual discipline, it is an encounter with a living and holy God!

The Word of God meets you right where you are. If you’re angry, it meets you there. If you’re selfish, it meets you there. If you’re happy all the time, then you need help, cause ain’t nobody happy ALL the time. Just playin… the Bible meets you happy people there too.

The Word of God meets us right where we are, but it doesn’t leave us the way we are. It is alive, it is powerful, and it has a purpose that will transform us from the inside out if we will allow it.

There is no greater comfort and joy than spending time with God in His Word. May this not only be a habit in our lives, but may it be a longing that we cannot contain.

Story: Just this week I was spending time with a friend of mine and he was asking about my soul and personal life. In this season of turmoil, crisis, and chaos, I feel like God is giving me peace, comfort, and vision. In His Word and in prayer He is satisfying the deepest longings of my soul.

We’re living in a minute by minute reality. The world is changing, wildfires spreading, the political season is here, and so much more. And we’re having to pivot, make decisions, and really protect our time minute by minute. “Minute by minute” is a phrase that means “very quickly as time passes.” Days and minutes pass quickly and we can easily find ourselves focusing on the circumstances around us and the turmoil of our society and if we’re honest, we can miss spending time with God. We can often become so busy minute by minute that we neglect the most important relationships in our lives. What if instead we looked at our relationship with God as something to be considered minute by minute. Something that we made a priority in our lives to schedule, resource, and lean in to? How different would our perspective be if we focused on God minute by minute?

Passage: 2 Timothy 3:14-17 CSB

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

Pray: (Pause 3-5 seconds)

Background: This is a letter from Paul to Timothy. Paul is in prison and about to die, and he’s writing to his protege, Timothy.

Main Points: 3 Truths from This Text

1. Foundation - “All Scripture is inspired by God”

   1. Surely we’ve all wondered how the Bible came to be, who wrote the bible, and how the books were put together. These are all good and normal questions we should be asking.
   2. Our view of Scripture determines our value of Scripture.
      1. If you believe that the Bible is a book of rules, then you probably wouldn’t place it very high on your priority list.
      2. If you believe the Bible has errors and is full of lies, then you are probably not going to waste time reading it.
      3. If you believe that the Bible is not relevant for today, then you're more likely going to turn to more current self help books and leadership books over the Word of God.
      4. Question: It all really comes down to one question: Is the Bible the Word of God? If the answer is no, then it’s just another book. In your view it may have some good teachings that could improve your life, but it’s still just a book nonetheless. But if the answer is yes, then there’s nothing greater we could do with our lives than read, study, know, and share the Word of God.
   3. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on these points, but it’s worth looking at a few insights to get you thinking.
   4. 40 different authors, on 3 different continents, in 3 different languages, at different eras of time, independently of one another, over the span of 1500 years, to write 66 books, all with perfect harmony, about 1 man, 1 messiah that would come to save the world.

   5. The Manuscripts

   6. Dead Sea Scrolls

      1. The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are manuscripts that were found in the Qumran Caves in the Judaean Desert on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. They were discovered between 1947-1956.
      2. The Dead Sea Scrolls took our manuscripts from 900AD back to as early as about 250 BC. Every Old Testament book except Esther was found.

      3. The Isaiah scroll, 1,000 years older than our previous copies, matched word for word in more than 95% of the text; the rest was mostly spelling (Gleason Archer).

         7. The Disciples & Apostles

      4. According to church tradition most of the apostles were martyred; James (Acts 12:2), Peter and Paul are the best attested.

      5. All of the New Testament writers were Apostles that learned from and walked with Jesus or they were direct disciples of those apostles.

      6. “Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.” 2 Peter 1:20-21

         8. Prophecy

      7. By many counts, Jesus fulfilled hundreds of prophecies.

      8. If you want to look deeper at the probability of all of these prophecies being fulfilled in one man look up Peter Stoner’s book Science Speaks, which estimated the odds of just eight prophecies being fulfilled in one man. It will blow your mind!

         9. #1 Best Seller

      9. Guinness World Records has the Bible as the world’s best selling and most widely distributed book. (Non-fiction book that is…)

         10. THE BIBLE IS A BIG DEAL!
         11. There’s so much more, but the point is that God’s Word is sacred and inspired.
         12. Our view of Scripture determines our value of Scripture.
         13. When we make God’s Word our foundation then we can stand firm in any season and in any circumstance.

      10. Question: Who or what is the foundation?

      11. 24 “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.27 The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. It collapsed with a great crash.”
      12. Filter - “teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness”

   7. Inputs and Outputs

      1. What we watch, what we listen to, what we consume… all are inputs to our mind, heart, and soul.
      2. What we say, how we see, how we project, all outputs based on what we input.

      3. Depending on what your foundation is will determine how you filter the world around you.

         2. Time in the word vs. time on Instagram

      4. There’s always going to be something grabbing for our attention that will draw us away from spending time in the Word.

      5. For the benefit of all of those other things, it’s critical that you are saturating yourself in the Word and spending time with God.
         3. Story: When I was being ordained as a Pastor, every member of my council told me the same thing “There’s no substitute for a personal quiet time with God.” “Never neglect that!”
         4. Illust: Bucket of water and sponge
         5. We like to give God a little. A little prayer, a little bible reading, a little relationship, but when the pressure is on, a little is not going to be enough.
         6. When do we usually give God the least? When things are the best right? But what happens when things all the sudden aren’t so great? What you’ve saturated yourself in is what’s going to overflow when the pressure is applied to your life.
         7. Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled. - Romans 15:4
      6. Force - “that the man (woman) of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

   8. The bible was not given for information, but transformation.

      1. The Bible is not a book of rules, although it does tell us how to live. It’s a beautiful love story of God’s redemptive plan for all humanity.
      2. This is a message of total transformation. Grace changes everything.
   9. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” - Hebrews 4:12
   10. Illust: fighting with a sponge or sword?
   11. Not only does the Word of God make us complete, but it equips us for every good work.

Big Idea: Reading and studying the Word of God is not just a daily habit, it’s intentionally building a deeper relationship minute by minute. Intentional and focused time to know God more and listen to what He’s saying to you. It’s not about reading, it’s about relationship, relationship, relationship.

Walking Points:

1. Read

   1. YouVersion App
   2. Bible reading plans in app
   3. Memorize a verse

   4. Respond

   5. James 1:22 says “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.”

   6. There’s several practical ways you can follow through with obedience, but the one I’ve found to be most helpful is by writing out how you will obey either in the form of a prayer or “I will…” statement.

   7. Repeat

   8. Do it again.

   9. Illust: Working out and wanting gains
   10. “Repetition creates reputation” - Rich Wilkerson Jr.

Let’s pray.