How Is The Bible Different Than All Other Books? Series

[This sermon is contributed by Hal Seed of New Song Church in Oceanside, California and of www.PastorMentor.com. Hal is the author of numerous books including The God Questions and The Bible Questions. If you are interested in The Bible Questions Church-wide Campaign, please visit and watch Hal’s video at www.PastorMentor.com.]

How is the Bible Different than Other Books?

The Bible Questions, Part 2

Psalm 119:97-105

Special notes to the pastor/teacher:

1. We’ve placed pictures throughout the sermon. Where these pictures are available on a website, we’ve placed the web address directly under the picture so that you can access it in a format and bandwidth that is best for you.

2. This is the second of six sermons in The Bible Questions Campaign. It’s designed in conjunction with “The Bible Questions” book, which contains daily readings and weekly Bible studies for the Campaign.

Bumper Video: Go to https://vimeo.com/48489274

Good morning and welcome to The Bible Questions everybody! It’s an exciting day because we are going to learn today about the Bible, and the Bible is like no other book ever written.

Last week, in our preview session of The Bible Questions, we said that the Bible is a great gift to us. Lincoln called it “The best gift God ever gave to man”. – Abraham Lincoln

During these next five weeks together, we are going to learn from and about the most important book in all of history. Our learning experience will include sermons every weekend, readings from The Bible Questions book Monday through Friday, and a small group discussion some time during the week with a group of others who are on the adventure with us. – Don’t skip any of this, because the experience is meant to be an integrated experience.

Some of what we’ll cover on weekends will be reviewed in your reading. Repetition is often the key to learning. You learn better and deeper and retain longer what you cover more than once. But much of what we learn here at church will be new, and most of what you read each weekday will be new as well. We’ll even introduce new concepts during your small group time. So soak it all in.

If you miss a sermon, watch it online as soon as possible. If you have to skip a day of reading, invest an extra 12 minutes the next day to absorb the material. Do your best not to miss a small group session, because if you miss, the group’s quality will be diminished without you, and you’ll miss out on the insights and relationships that will happen there.

Are you ready to do some learning today? [Ready]

[Pray] Father, speak to us today. Please do through me what only you can do. Teach us, encourage us, inspire us and change us I pray, in Jesus’ name, Amen!

Take out a Bible and hold it in your hands for a minute. This is the Bible. Bible is a Greek word that means “book.” For 2,000 years, people have thought this book was so important, they never gave it a title, they’ve just called it “the book.”

Turn to someone sitting near you and say this, “The Bible is a book like no other.”

And say, “And you’re going to learn some things today.”

Now, turn in that Bible to Psalm 119:97, p. 438 in the black Bibles under your chairs. Once you’ve found the page, take out your message notes as well.

Patrick Henry said that this book …is a book worth all other books in the world. – Patrick Henry

Charles Dickens said It is the best book that ever was, or ever will be written. – Charles Dickens

Ronald Reagan said Within the covers of… the Bible are all the answers to all the problems that face us today… - Ronald Reagan

Woodrow Wilson said A man has deprived himself of the best there is in the world who has deprived himself of a knowledge of the Bible. – Woodrow Wilson

I want to talk to you today about how the Bible is different from every other book in history.

97 Oh, how I love your law!

I meditate on it all day long.

98 Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,

for they are ever with me.

99 I have more insight than all my teachers,

for I meditate on your statutes.

100 I have more understanding than the elders,

for I obey your precepts.

101 I have kept my feet from every evil path

so that I might obey your word.

102 I have not departed from your laws,

for you yourself have taught me.

103 How sweet are your words to my taste,

sweeter than honey to my mouth!

104 I gain understanding from your precepts;

therefore I hate every wrong path.