Our Message Series

1st Peter 1:22-25

Suffering from Happiness:

Our Message

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.

I. What is the “word that was preached to you”?

A. The Roman Road

1. The power of the Gospel Romans 1:16

2. You are a sinner and have fallen short Romans 3:10-12; 19; 23

3. The price of sin is death Romans 6:23

4. The price for sin has been paid Romans 5:8; 8:1-2

5. How can you be saved Romans 10:9-10; 13

B. Other ways to describe the Gospel

1. There are many ways to describe the Gospel

2. Martin Luther states:

All the Apostles teach one message. So we must be careful when we talk about four evangelists and four Gospels. Everything the apostles wrote is one Gospel. The word gospel means nothing other than an announcement about God’s grace earned and purchased through Christ by his death.” Martin Luther 1483 – 1546

II. The Indestructible Word of God – Jeremiah 36

A. The revelation of the Word of God. verse 2

1. The very words of God.

2. Not a “record” of God’s actions

3. Not my impressions of God actions

4. St Augustine states – “O man, what my Scripture says, I say.”

B. The reaction to the Word of God

1. People heard with indifference

2. King heard and was angry

3. When Paul preached the Gospel one of two reactions would be had –

a. Revival

b. Riot

C. The rejection of the Word of God

1. Physical destruction of the Word – vs. 23

2. Spiritual Disregard – vs. 24

3. Destruction of the Messenger – vs. 26

D. Your response to the Word of God

1. Believe it

2. Ignore it

3. Reject it

III. What should you to do now?

A. Read the “Indestructible Word of God”

B. How long would it take you to read the Bible from beginning to end?

If you would read the Bible at a standard speed (slow enough to be heard and understood) the reading time would be seventy one hours.

71 hours

2.958333 days

4260 minutes

51120 seconds

11.671232 minutes a day

The word "Bible" simply means books.

The Bible was originally made up of books written in three languages; Hebrew, Aramic, and Koine Greek.

The entire Bible was written over a 1500 year span.

The Bible contains 66 books written by over 40 different authors.

The Bible contains 1189 chapters and over 31,00 verses.

The longest book of the Bible is Psalms.

The shortest book is 3 John.

The longest verse is Esther 8:9.

The shortest verse is John 11:35.

The shortest chapter is Psalm 117.

Psalm 118 is between the shortest and longest chapters of the Bible and Psalm 118:8 is the Bible’s center verse. "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man." (Psalm 118:8)

The longest chapter is Psalm 119.

The Bible’s longest word: Mahershalalhashbaz

(Isaiah 8:1, 3)

The Bible has been translated into over 1,200 languages.

The Bible is the best selling book of all time.

The Bible was the first book ever printed. In 1454, Johannes Gutenberg invented the "type mold" print press and began to print the Bible. Life Magazine called this the single most important event of the second millennium.

Stephen Langton first divided the Bible into chapters in 1228.

The Old Testament was first divided by verses in 1448 and the New Testament in 1551.

The first English Bible translation was initiated by John Wycliff in 1382 and completed by John Purvey in 1388.

It takes about 70 hours to read the entire Bible.

About 170,000 Bibles are distributed each day in the United States.

The book of Isaiah is constructed much like the entire Bible.

**Bible: 66 books.

**Isaiah: 66 chapters.

**Bible: First 39 books mainly concern Isreal.

**Isaiah: First 39 chapters mainly concern Isreal.

**Bible: Last 27 books concern the life and coming of Jesus Christ.

**Isaiah: Last 27 chapters concern the life and coming of Jesus Christ

At least 20 million Bibles are currently sold each year in the U.S. in addition to tens of millions that are distributed free. In 1956, that number was about 8 million in the U.S.

The American Bible Society advises that they distributed 60.2 million Bibles last year in the U.S.

The American Bible Society advises that since their inception in 1816, they have distributed over 7 billion Bibles worldwide in conjunction with the United Bible Societies.