Corner Posts Of Our Faith- Knowledge Series

---Corner Posts of our faith---

“The beginning of knowledge”

The author of Psalms in

Psalm 111

Verse 10

Writes these words

“Fear of the LORD is the foundation of true wisdom.

All who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom.”

Fear of the Lord is the foundation

Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom

And those who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom

Before I begin todays message

And deal with a sometimes hot

Sometimes

Deeply debated

Sometimes even heatedly argued topic

I need to tell you

The Psalmist

Is not telling us to be afraid of God

In a scary monster type way

Fear in this passage

Means reverence

Respect

Love

Fear means we listen to

And obey God and his holy word

Not that we tremble in fear at the mention of his name

Unbelievers

If you do not know Jesus as savior

The fear you should feel is just the opposite of what I just described

Read the book of revelation

Dying apart from Jesus

And being separated for eternity from the God who loves you and created you

Should male you tremble

But for believers

The Fear, respect, reverence, love

Of God is the beginning of wisdom

And obedience is how we grow in wisdom

There is a lot of talk these days about preaching styles

What should and should not be discussed in a message

Some like evangelism only

Other like biblical teaching

Some want a soft a fuzzy message that makes them feel good about coming to church and being a Christian

Others want to be told that they will be healthy, wealthy and wise if they just

Give

Come

Do this or that

Some of these preaching styles have great benefits

Evangelism – tells the basics of salvation and moves the lost into a relationship with Jesus

Bible teaching- gives us head knowledge but to be effective must move the head knowledge to heart knowledge

Feel good messages can encourage us but often don’t convict us or correct us

And the health wealth and prosperity messages also can initially make us feel good

But when the promises / man’s promises/ not God’s promises

Don’t come true

They can make us question our own value

Worth

Question God

And can derail our faith

I believe in my heart that in order to gain the wisdom needed to become all that God has called us to be

We must become students of God’s word

God’s word is powerful

Inside the pages of this great book

Are the secrets to life and death?

The answers to life’s questions

Questions

Like why Christians sometimes suffer

Am I truly loved by God

Do I matter

What is my purpose

Answers to the questions of right and wrong

Good and evil

Inside the pages of this book are the path to salvation

The path to sanctification

The path to justification

And the path to glorification

We see the assurances of God’s promises

We see the consequences of obedience and disobedience

We see great men and women of God

And how they often make the same mistakes we make

And we understand

That we are all sinners

Deserving the devil’s hell

“ But God”

My text for today comes from 2 Timothy

Paul is giving instructions to his son, brother, student

About how to Pastor the church at Ephesus

Paul had a great love and connection with the church there

And Paul desires for it to thrive and become a lighthouse to the lost and dying world

2 Timothy 2:15

15 Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.

Paul is telling Timothy to work hard to receive God’s approval

Is he saying Timothy, earn your salvation by your works

No

He is saying Timothy

Because God saved you by his grace

Do the things he has planned for you as a gift to you

And work hard at them

Give it all you have

In this context Paul is specifically telling Timothy to work hard at his study of God’s word

So that he can correctly teach God’s word

So, that Timothy’s congregation can grow in knowledge

And wisdom

Though obedience to the word of God

Paul tells Timothy

Simply this

Teach the truth

Teach the truth

Let me ask you a question

How is the only way that Timothy can be assured that he is teaching the truth?

By studying

Learning

Reading

Praying about

God’s word and applying it to his own life

Paul goes on in chapter 3 of 2 Timothy

Verses 14-17

To tell us

Timothy and us in the process

What we should study

14 But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. 15 You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.