To listen to today's sermon click here. You can read it below. The audio to an introduction video is not included in the recording but does not affect the impact of the sermon - it was more "food for thought" asking the question of people on the street: "Do you read the Bible?" and if no, "why not?" Then the question was asked "Where do you get your inspiration for your spiritual life, if there is one?"
BUILDING YOUR LIFE ON A SOLID FOUNDATION
Essentials for 21st Century Living
02-05-12 Sermon
We’re talking about Essentials for the 21st Century but they’re really essentials for any century for living a successful life. We talked last week about the first essential. I need people I can live with, some people I can count on in my life.
This week we’re going to begin to look at a second essential of living in the 21st century. I also need some principles that I can live by. I not only need people I can count on but truth I can stand on. In this world where there are so many ideas about what the truth is, there are so many ideas about what to stand on, I need something that I can build a solid foundation on in life. Where are you going to find that in this world?
2 Timothy 3:16 “The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and helps us do what is right.” I need that. I need something that shows me what is true in this world where everybody says “this” is true or there is no truth. I need something that is honest enough with me to say, “You’re heading in the wrong direction.” It straightens me out and helps me do what is right and gives me the strength and the power to do the right thing that I want to do.
The Bible says all that is in it was given to us to help us do these very things. We talk about this book every week. Every week in church we look at verses from this book. But there is a question we need to address. How do you know that it’s true? Ultimately this is a question of faith, but is there any external evidence, any other evidence that we base our faith on?
Here are three evidences behind the truth of the Bible that support our faith.
1. There’s the evidence of history. It’s a book that’s rooted in history. It’s not about made up people and made up places. The Bible has got real people and real places and real things that really happened. Again and again people have tried to say that the things that happened in the Bible didn’t really happen but it’s proved itself true.
There’s a group of people in the Old Testament called the Hittites. For thousands of years, up until about 1900, we didn’t know anything about these people. People said it was just a made up group of people. But then early in the 1900’s a group of archeologists found the capital city of the Hittites and once again the Bible was shown to be an historical book.
In 1990 a book came out saying that the David and Solomon who lived in the Old Testament times weren’t real people. These were nice stories but they never really lived. It was an unfortunate time for that book to come out because three years later some archeologists digging in the capital city of an ancient place called Dan unearthed a stone from 831 B.C. that talked about the House of David of Israel. The people who said David never really existed said, “No, that word doesn’t mean ‘David’. That word should be translated, ‘Dawd’, a false god of that day.” They said this until a year later when they unearthed some more of that stone and it proved that it was talking about David the person that lived in the Old Testament. In fact, upon further examination what was proven was that it wasn’t David who didn’t exist but Dawd who never existed. It was a made up name. Again and again the Bible has shown itself to be rooted in history.
2. Then there is the evidence of consistency throughout the Bible. Not only do you have external evidence but you have internal evidence. As you read through this book, you find what a unique book it is.
When you pick up the Bible you’re looking at a book that was written over about a 1500 year span by about 40 different authors. These authors ranged from kings to peasants. These authors ranged from doctors to shepherds to tent makers. Yet all these authors who wrote on three different continents wrote with agreement on what are some of the most controversial subjects in our world today. How do you get forty people in a room to agree on anything? Yet they agreed on these things.
They wrote one story from beginning to end. The Bible is one story, God’s love for us and how He wants to call us back to Himself. No human being could have sat down and planned such a book. That is the uniqueness of this book. The themes that go all the way from the book of Genesis in the beginning to Revelation in the end are incredible.
There is also a third evidence.
3. The evidence of changed lives. We could go around this room today and hear stories about how this book, the Bible has changed somebody’s life. The fact that the Bible has the power to make a difference in my life is one of the proofs along with its consistency and history.
I’d like to focus this morning not on the fact that you know it’s true but, “So what that it’s true? What does that mean to my life? How am I going to take the truth that is in the Bible and build it into my life?”
Jesus said in Matthew 7:24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Jesus says, “You want a foundation for life? You want something you can stand on when the tough times come? My words to you are like that.” How can I hear what God has to say and put it into practice so it makes a difference in my life?
A lot of people have a name for the Bible. They call the Bible, “the good book”. I guess that’s an ok name because it is a good book. But, I’d rather call it The Guidebook. A good book, I can put on the shelf and say, “Isn’t that a good book sitting up there on the shelf.” But a guidebook I have to pull off the shelf and carry it around with me in life. This is what this book is for – to build a foundation for life, to help me make good decisions in life, to make a difference in who I am every day of my life.
Today, some of you may be curious about this book. Or you may be someone who respects this book. Or you may be a person who believes this book or even loves this book. I want to use our hand as an illustration of ways to take this book and make it real in your life, some practical help.
Let the little finger stand for the first way to get the truth of this book into your life so that it builds a foundation. If you want to let the truth impact your life…
1. I hear God’s word.
There’s lots of ways to hear God’s word. You can hear it in messages in church. You can hear it on the radio, tapes or TV. When you hear God’s word, the Bible says in Romans 10:17 “So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” Every time you hear God’s word it raises your faith, it enables and empowers your faith. That’s incredibly good news.
But I’ve got some bad news for you too. The problem is, we tend to forget about 95% of what we hear after about 72 hours. That depresses me. To think that after all this work to put together a message each week, a great worship service, and after three days you’re going to forget 95% of it! How do you do more than just hear it because hearing it isn’t enough? Hearing is one way but it’s like holding on to it with my little finger. If I try to hold on to this book with my little finger, it’s too heavy. It starts to slip out very easily. You’ve experienced this. You hear a message and you think, “I'm going to do something about that.” But before you even get out of the parking lot, the truth slips away. How do you get a firmer grip on this so it lasts in your life?
2. I read God’s word.
I need to start to read it for myself; I need to let it make an impact in my life. This book, the Bible, it’s the best seller in human history. It’s filled with the kind of stories that we like to read. It’s got stories about sin and sex and violence right in this book. It also has stories about God’s compassion. And about how God reaches out to people who felt like they could never find God. And about God working miracles in people’s lives. It’s an incredible book. It’s filled with stories of larger than life people. People who fought against giants and won, who were swallowed by whales and people who rose again from the dead. It’s a cornerstone of our entire civilization. Across this world there have been incredible numbers of freedom movements inspired by this book that changed the geographical and cultural center of our world.
Yet with all that, the incredible thing is how little we really read this book. Statistics across the U.S., not just people who come to church but everybody in the United States, say that 91% own a Bible. The average is three Bibles in each home. And 80% of the people, when they’re surveyed, say that they believe the Bible is the most important book ever written, 58% of Americans say they think everything in the Bible is true.
So why don’t we read it as much? Why do we struggle to read it? Maybe we don’t understand why God wants us to read it. Does He want us to read it to scare us? To scold us? Revelation 1:3 “Happy is the one who reads the words of God’s message.” God wants you to read his book because He wants to make you happy. He wants to bring joy to your life, the joy of knowing which direction to go next, the joy of finding a solution where it didn’t seem like there was one possible, the joy of finding hope where there is nowhere else to find hope. That's why He wants you to read this book.
Deuteronomy 17:19 says, “The scripture shall be his constant companion. He must read from it every day of his life so he’ll learn to respect the Lord his God by obeying His commands.” God wants all of us to read from His book on a daily basis. This verse was originally written particularly to the king of Israel which tells me the more responsibility you have, the busier your life gets, the more important it is that you read from this book. Why don’t we?
I think one of the reasons is sometimes we have a hard time understanding this book. Have you ever watched a cricket match? It’s a very strange game. Really weird uniforms to begin with. This guy holds this little ball and runs at another guy and throws the ball at a peg and it bounces and the guy swings a really weird fat kind of a bat, barely hits the ball. It dribbles out into the outfield. He runs from one peg to the other peg and the crowd goes wild. And I have no idea of what just happened. I know that something exciting happened and I know that I should be able to celebrate about it but I have no clue.
I think a lot of people read the Bible like that. You read a verse and think, “I know this is important. I know I should be excited about it. But I don't really get it yet.” There’s a lot of really weird words in this game called cricket. They have words like bouncers and yorkers, and a play called a maiden-over. Things called “out for a duck” and a “wicket”. And they call their players “rabbits” and “ferrets”. Admittedly people in Australia and England would be able to say, “Your super bowl is a little strange too. What’s the difference between a touchdown and a touch back? What’s the difference between an end zone and a red zone? Your players – you call them flankers and tight ends? That’s a little bit weird too!”
You pick up the Bible and start to read it and there’s some weird words in there. “Righteousness”, “justification” and strange names of people and places. But I enjoy watching football so I’ve spent a little bit of time understanding the game and I know when to cheer. And if I would spent some time watching cricket, I’d enjoy watching it too because I’d know when to be excited and know what to enjoy and I’d know what was important.
And if you’ll spend a bit of time in this book, you’re going to find out when to cheer, and what’s important. That’s why I think sometimes we don’t read it. Just take a little bit of time and the payoff will be incredible.
Let me give you one suggestion. Read it in a translation that you can understand. That’s very important. I know a lot of you, your grandma or when you were a kid in Sunday School they gave you a King James Bible. That was written 400 years ago, in King James English. I'm not knocking the King James Bible but I want to say to you it is the best translation for any of you who are 400 years old and older. You’re going to understand it the best if that's your age. But if you happen to be born a little bit later than that, why not get a modern translation? Not that the King James Bible isn’t beautiful. But do you understand Shakespeare? I have a hard time understanding King James English. Get a translation that you can understand.
If you read about fifteen minutes a day you’ll be able to read through the Bible in about a year. Get to know this book that can change not only our world but more importantly can change our individual lives. You hear God’s word and you read God’s word and the third finger stands for…
3. I study god’s word.
Not just read it but begin to really dig into it and study it. Acts 17:11 “They accepted the message eagerly and they studied the Scriptures every day.” The Bible values this attitude of digging into the Bible and really understanding what it means. What’s the difference between reading the Bible and studying it? The difference is you take notes when you study. You write down something. You learn something for your own life from it. Those notes that you’re taking, you can make them on a piece of paper or the Bible itself. I can find a favorite verse and highlight it in the Bible. Some of you are thinking, “Lightning is going to strike him!” You had a third grade teacher that told you it’s the Holy Bible. You’re not supposed to mark in it. Can you imagine a football player after a game going up to the coach and saying, “Coach, you like how clean I kept my uniform?” Would the coach be excited about that?
What makes this Bible a Holy Bible? The fact that you use it. The more written in it is, the more used it is and the more holy it is. That’s what makes it the Holy Bible.
You study God’s word by writing down things that God has said to you. Why study it? Why read it? Why hear it? Just for better information? No. God wants to build a foundation for our lives. So I study and hear and read God’s word so that I can find the answers that I need for today, so I can find some hope that I need, so I can find the joy that I need and I have the energy that I want for this life.
More than anything, I want you to see that this book, the Bible, is given to us to help us develop a relationship with God. It is not a cold list of rules and regulations. It really is God’s invitation to us to have a relationship with Him. When you sit down and read the Bible it’s not as if you’re reading a list of laws. It’s more like a father’s guidance. Like God sitting down with you and saying, “Let Me help you with that problem you’re having with your kids. I can show you how to make it through this one.” Or God looking you right in the eye and saying, “I know you feel like there’s no hope right now. Let me show you where there is some hope even in the hopeless days.”
That’s what the Bible is about. It’s a book about God’s relationship with us. In His relationship with us, He wants to build a lasting foundation in our lives. That’s why I hear it and read it and study it. The fourth finger is…
Some of you right away are thinking, “That’s the one I'm not doing,” because the last time you memorized something that you can remember was when you were in third grade and you didn’t do very well even then. Many people say, “I just can’t memorize.”
The truth is we can memorize one category of things. As you talk with somebody about whether they can memorize and start to go down the list you find out they remember phone numbers. They may have 20-30 phone numbers memorized of people who are their friends. Stock quotes, business plans – they’ve got all that memorized. Some guys who say they can’t memorize have got every baseball statistic memorized for the last twenty years.
We memorize what’s important to us. The Bible says in Proverbs 7:2-3 “Guard My words as your most precious possession. Write them down and also keep them deep within your heart.” I'm not talking about just a mental exercise of memorizing God’s word. I'm talking about getting a better grip on life, on truth, to build a stronger foundation for life.
Psalm 119:11 “I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.” When temptation hits you, where does it hit you? Sometimes it doesn’t come conveniently when you have a Bible and can look up a verse. So if you put a verse in your mind it helps you when temptation comes. The more verses you memorize the more help God can give during tough times, when you’re facing a decision, facing a time of depression or stress. God can pop a verse into our minds to help us to make it through. For most of us, all we’ve ever memorized is John 3:16. (Not the verse. Just the reference!) We haven’t given God a lot to work with. The more you give Him to work with, the more He can encourage you in tough times. The fifth finger is…
5. I MEDITATE ON GOD’S WORD
When you hear the word “meditate” you probably think of something with Eastern religions. Our idea of meditation and the Bible’s idea are very different. When you and I hear the word “meditate” we think lose your mind to the universe. That is the exact opposite to the Bible’s idea of meditation.
The Bible’s idea of meditation is focusing your mind on a Bible verse so you can see how the truth fits in your life. Look at a Bible verse and think, “How does that truth fit into the way I talk with my kids? How does that truth fit in the way I'm managing my business? How does that truth fit in the kind of attitudes I have today?” That's what meditation on a Bible verse means.
Look at the benefit. Psalms 1:2-3 says, “They love the Lord’s teachings and they think about those teachings day and night. So they are strong like a tree planted by a river. Everything they do will succeed.” The Bible says when you meditate on His word, it’s like planting yourself in rich soil where true success can come into your life.
Why is this so important, thinking about, meditating on God’s word? Proverbs 4:23 “ Your life is shaped by your thoughts.” What I'm thinking about today is what I'm going to become tomorrow. That’s why this is so vital, so important. So you focus on God’s word.
That takes a little bit of work. There’s lots of ways to do it. A lot of times I’ll read through a passage and not get anything; I need to focus my thoughts. You can focus your thoughts by picturing the Bible verse. When Psalm 23 says, “The Lord is my shepherd,” you can picture what it’s like for God to be a shepherd and you His sheep. You can focus your thoughts by just reading the verse out loud. There’s a lot of ways to focus your thoughts. You can focus your thoughts by asking questions of the verse. What does this mean to me? How does this fit into my family? What does this mean about some struggles I'm facing? You can focus your thoughts by thinking about praying the verse back to God and talking to Him about what you’ve just read.
When you do that the result is Joshua 1:8 “Meditate on the word day and night so you may be careful to do everything that’s written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Some of you from the beginning of this message have had a problem. I’ve said I'm going to base this on the hand. I’ve got five fingers and there’s six points. You’re worried about where this is going.
Once you get it in your hand, the final point is…
6. i Do God’s Word
What’s the use of getting it in your hand if you’re not going to do something with it? You get it in the palm of your hand, you do God’s word and you start to live it out. You watch out for the greatest danger in Bible study that there is. James talked about it in James 1:22 “Do not fool yourselves into just listening to the word. Instead, put it into practice.” You can fool yourself. You can hear a lot of Bible studies or come hear sermons and hear people talk about the Bible and you can fool yourself into thinking that you’re growing spiritually, that great things are happening in your relationship with God when all that’s really happening is you’re listening to other people talk about it. James said don’t fool yourself.
If we all went to a big weight room and you were all there working out and I walked in and got my lawn chair and set it up to watch you work out, I’ve got my bag of Doritos and I open it up and eat the whole bag while I watch you, I crumple it up, throw it away, pick my chair up and say, “Wow! Wasn’t that a great work out!” would you think I was a little strange? What’s it worth watching somebody else work out? I’ve got to do it myself. Many times you can fool yourself by listening to somebody else talk about it but not doing anything about it.
The question is, What will you do about what we’ve talked about today? One of the ways to decide I'm going to do something is to write a sentence on a Bible study or message that you hear. Each week you can write down, “I will do….”
And, by the way, the word “I” is very important. Have you noticed how easy it is to figure out what other people should do about the Bible? Like “I wish ‘so and so’ were here to hear this today.” It’s so easy to figure out what other people should do because they’ve got to do it. I hate it when I’ve got to do it.
What are you going to do about God’s word? The value of doing His word is that it builds a foundation that lasts for the rest of your life.
Matthew 5:19 says “Whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Not only do them myself but help someone else to learn how to do them. What are you going to do? What are you going to do about what we talked about today? John 13:17 “Now that you know these things, do them. That is the path of blessing.”
Prayer:
Say to God, “Here is my commitment. God, I want to make a commitment to reading Your word. I want to make a commitment to spending time with You.”
Father, as we make these commitments to You, I pray more than anything that we’d make them out of a sense of anticipation and not guilt. Lord, I know a lot of people who feel guilt about the Bible. Guilt about what they haven’t done. I pray today that instead of feeling guilt, we would feel invited by You. We’d feel the opportunity of the future. As we make these commitments to You, we’d feel the joy of the fact that You want to have a relationship with us, that You want to build a foundation in our lives that gets us through the tough times. So, God, we bring these commitments to You with a sense of joy and we say to You, “Help us to live them out. Help us to get to know You better. Help us to find in You the foundation that we really need.” We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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