A Light Unto My Path Series

A LIGHT UNTO MY PATH

(2 Timothy 3:16-17)

“The Importance of Studying Your Bible”

The Scripture reading this morning will be from 2 Timothy, chapter 3, verses 16 and 17. And the title of the message is “A Light Unto My Path.”

Last Sunday I mentioned five “IF’s” that will be required if Grace Memorial Baptist Church is going to grow closer to the Lord and also grow in numbers. The five “IF’s” were:

IF everyone will study their Bibles daily;

IF everyone will pray daily (for the church, for each other, for a lost person;

IF everyone will attend Sunday School, Sunday morning and evening worship services, and Wednesday night Bible study;

IF everyone will witness to at least one lost person each month; and

IF everyone will invite at least one person each week to church;

These five “IF’s” are important not only for us to mature as individuals, they are also important for us to grow as a church.

If we will be faithful to do these five things, then our church will grow closer to the Lord and we will grow in numbers.

I gave every member who was here a workbook to help you keep up with your efforts.

If you are a member here and didn’t get one, please see me after the service and I’ll give you one. We want every member to be involved.

The workbook is an accountability tool. You’re not accountable to me. You’re not accountable to the deacons or to your Sunday School teacher.

No one else will look at your book unless you show them, but it will help keep you accountable to yourself and to God.

This morning I’m going to start a series of messages that deal with the five “IF’s” of church growth. The first message will be on the importance of Bible study. Let’s read:

2 Timothy 3: 16-17, “ 16All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

According to George Barna Research, “memorizing and studying the Bible are low priorities. Their most recent surveys show that about half of all adult Americans listen to preaching or Bible teaching in a typical week.

And, even though, 1 out of 3 read the Bible during the week, only 1 out of 10 claim to study the Bible weekly and fewer than 1 out of 25 devote themselves to memorizing at least one new Bible verse per week.”

Is it any wonder that this once great Christian nation is slipping farther and farther away from God?

D.L. Moody, a well-known evangelist in the 1800’s, once said, “ I prayed for faith and thought that some day it would come down and strike me like lightning.

But faith didn’t seem to come. One day I read in Romans that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”

I had up to this time, closed my Bible and prayed for faith. Now I opened my Bible and began to study and faith has been growing ever since.”

Do you want to have a faith that will move mountains? Do you want to have a prayer life that packs a powerful punch?

Then pray with your Bibles open. Study and pray and pray and study, and then pray some more.

The Book of Psalms is a good place to start, go to Psalms and pray along with King David. Pray the Scriptures. Listen to some of the heartfelt prayer that David prayed in Psalm 25,

“ 1 To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

2 O my God, I trust in You;

Let me not be ashamed;

Let not my enemies triumph over me.” (Psalm 25:1,2)

“ 4 Show me Your ways, O Lord;

Teach me Your paths.

5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me,

For You are the God of my salvation;

On You I wait all the day.”(Psalm 25:4,5)

Or go to 1 Chronicles 4: 10, and pray the prayer of Jabez, “ 10 . . . Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!”

The end of the verse says, “So God granted him what he requested.” His prayers packed a powerful punch.

A survey showed that 92% of all households in the United States owns at least one Bible, but owning a Bible and studying a Bible are two different things.

I own a Webster’s dictionary, but I certainly don’t know the meanings and pronunciation of all the words in it. Because I don’t study Webster’s Dictionary.