The Bible: Pick It Up! Series

1. We are seeking authenticity – last week we considered the danger of hypocrisy. How are we to be real?

2. A Bible Like Mom’s

In her book Parenting with Scripture, Kara Durbin wrote, “When I was little, I wanted a Bible just like my mom’s, and I was thrilled when I received one as a present. As I grew up, I underlined verses as I memorized them and marked ones that spoke to me about a particular topic. I loved being able to flip through, finding familiar passages with my notations in that big book. It made God’s Word feel like home to me.”

Kara went on to say that when she got to college her Bible was falling apart and had to be replaced. She painstakingly transferred every underlining and notation to her new Bible, and that’s the Bible she still uses.

Our children need to see us maintaining our own personal relationship with Christ. They can spot hypocrisy faster than anyone. But if we truly love the Lord and His Word, they will notice. Our greatest legacy is the living faith that makes others want a Bible like ours, because a Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.

Instill in your child a habit of turning to the Scripture to answer questions…it will serve as the guidebook for life. Kara Durbin

• In American homes the Bible has taken on the status of an icon with little practical value. When asked, "What book has most influenced your life?" in a recent Library of Congress survey, respondents awarded the Bible the top position. But only 34 percent of American Christians read God’s Word on their own during the week, and of that group, only 13 percent claim to read it daily.

• "Americans revere the Bible," says pollster George Gallup, Jr., "but, by and large, they don’t read it."

• Statistics say that 92 percent of all Americans have at least three Bibles in their homes. Perhaps like the South Dakota rancher, yours is secreted away in a closet. And like him, you don’t suspect that there’s a fortune hidden within its pages. Signs of the Times (October 2002)

3. Quotes: [Phil Robertson Slide

• “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and Bible.” – George Washington

• The Bible, when not read in schools, is seldom read in any subsequent period of life… [T]he Bible… should be read in our schools in preference to all other books because it contains the greatest portion of that kind of knowledge which is calculated to produce private and public happiness. –

Dr. Benjamin Rush

• "So great is my veneration for the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read it the more confident will be my hopes that they will prove useful citizens to their country and respectable members of society." – JQ Adams

• “Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.”? Ronald Reagan

4. Psalm 19.7-9

5. How do we start if we are going to be real and authentic? We have to pick up the Book!

I. God’s Word has Transforming Power – (7a)

A. The Law of the LORD is Instructive

1. Torah = Instruction; Guidance – John 8.31-32

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

2. Point of Origin: the LORD – It’s His word!

B. The Law of the LORD is Perfecting

1. God’s Word is Complete for Us – 2 Timothy 3.16-17

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

2. Converts/Revives/Saves Souls/Lives – Hebrews 4.12; Acts 2.37

II. God’s Word is the Source of:

A. Wisdom (7b)

1. The Lord Testifies of Himself – LORD your God (Exodus 19, etc.)

2. He declares with Certainty/Reliability/Truth

Proverbs 30.5 5 Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

Hurricane of 1938

On the eve of the great 1938 New England hurricane a man living in the Stamford, Connecticut suburbs walked two miles to the Abercrombie and Fitch department store in downtown Stamford and bought a fine barometer. Delighted with his acquisition, he hurried home and proudly hung it on his living room wall. But what he saw made him very angry: the barometer reading indicated "Hurricane!" Convinced that he had been sold a defective instrument, he walked back to Abercrombie and Fitch, handed the barometer to the sales clerk, and snorted, "Fine barometer you sold me. I put it up in my house and what do you suppose it registered? Hurricane!'" To which the sales clerk replied, "No problem, sir. We'll replace it with a perfect one." Again, the man headed for home with his new barometer. When he arrived, he discovered that his house had been blown away by a hurricane! God’s word is reliable, trustworthy, perfect and unchanging.