[MR. BEAN CHURCH VIDEO]
-I love that episode. It just makes me laugh way too much.
-but what we’ve been doing the last few weeks is taking a look at church. It can apply to other services but we’ve been looking at Fire & Water, lately it’s been Drink Deep, right here, what we do on Sunday nights. Why we do what we do.
-because church can seem weird. Well, anything is weird when you first do it. Even pooping in a toilet is weird the first time you do it, that’s why we have potty training.
-so if you don’t know what you’re doing or why, church can seem weird, and that’s why we’re talking about it. We want you to know why we are doing the things we do tonight, how they can help you grow closer to God.
-we started with hanging out and games, how we started tonight. We talked about how this is to help us build relationships with each other, how no one gets to know God in a bubble. It also helps us invite our friends, gives us a way to get to know each other so this place doesn’t seem so unfriendly or uninviting.
-last week we talked about singing, how we praise and worship God through music, and how that’s been going on for thousands of years because it allows us to basically have unified prayers to God.
-today we’re going to look at this, what’s going on right now. Our time where we have some teaching and discussion.
-so why do we do it? Why do it this way? Well, there are a few reasons.
1. TO LEARN HOW TO LIVE
-although we use the Bible a lot on Sunday nights, that’s how I like it, we don’t usually spend lot of time taking apart Bible stories or looking at one verse and what it really means. Instead we usually look at a topic or something that is relevant to life outside of this room.
-we purposely do this. We have designed Sunday nights to be more about a topic or more about how we live. If you want to walk through the Bible with a group of people or you want to have a “Bible Study”, that’s what Wednesday night is for. We’ll talk more about that next week.
-but this is important to us, you learning what the Bible has to say and how to apply it to your life. It’s one of our core values we keep bringing up, The T in WATER is teaching.
-for tonight, for Drink Deep, we look more at how we live out the Bible. After all, the Bible even says to do that.
**II Tim. 3:16-17 -> 16All Scripture is given by God and is useful for teaching, for showing people what is wrong in their lives, for correcting faults, and for teaching how to live right. 17Using the Scriptures, the person who serves God will be capable, having all that is needed to do every good work. (NCV)
-this is the purpose of our teaching here tonight, to look at how the Bible is useful in teaching us, in showing us what is wrong in our lives and how to live right and how we can rely on God to do every good work.
-but now I want you to think about what that means. How long would you think it would take for you to learn everything the Bible wants to tell you about how to live?
-we have on average under 30 Drink Deeps a year that have teaching (I’m taking out the Vicis Per Deus prayer nights). If I talk for a full 30 minutes each Sunday (which I don’t) and you show up to every single one (which you won’t), that means you will get a little over 14 hours of teaching of how to live for God a year. That’s it. That’s the most you will get. To give you an idea of how much that is, the average American watches that much TV in a little under 3 days. You will more than likely spend more time watching TV in 3 days than you will hear me or someone else up here teaching in an entire year.
-that’s not a lot. And think about it, you’re only here at most four years. I talk with the pastors all the time about this. They get to teach people about God every week for decades. In my four years with you I max out at about 58 hours with you teaching. Add in retreats and what not and maybe we’ll hit 70. Most of you will spend more time sleeping before we meet again in two weeks. Seriously!
-I’m just trying to get you thinking about how much time we spend together here talking about how God wants us to live.
-we here want to make sure that you know how to live. Just like you feed your body, you need to feed your soul. Jesus said it:
**Matt. 4:4 -> 4Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God’s mouth.” (MSG)
-where do we get the words from God’s mouth? Two ways, prayer and the Bible. The nice thing about the Bible is it’s black and white, it’s not, “I think God’s trying to say…” It’s right there in front of you.
-so we look at that black and white and we talk about what it means to live for God. Because let’s be honest, there are many different opinions on what it means to live for God.
-but it helps if we can come together to talk about that. It helps if you have someone help you understand it.
2. WE NEED HELP UNDERSTANDING
-the Bible is a big book. And if you don’t know everything that’s going on, it can be a confusing book.
-that’s why we have pastors. That’s why we have people who reach us Sunday mornings that didn’t just pick up a Bible yesterday and start trying to figure it out.
-realize, I’m not saying I know everything there is to know about the Bible, not by a long shot. I’m still learning too. But I’ve spent a lot of time learning, reading, went to school for it, spent a lot of time trying to figure this book out not just for me but to help other people figure it out too.
-and there are people in this church who probably know this book better than I do. And we need them to help us learn to.
-the simple fact is, sometimes we need help understanding things. That’s not just a Bible thing, that’s a common sense thing.
-have you ever read the manual for something and realized after reading the section you’re looking for three times that you think you’re dumber and more confused than when you started? It happens! That’s why we have tech support, kinda…
-but this happens with the Bible too. A very popular story from the Bible. There was a man named Philip who was part of the first church and taught people about Jesus. In learning about him we find this story.
**Acts 8:26-35 -> 26But as for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, “Go over to the road that runs from Jerusalem through the Gaza Desert, arriving around noon.” 27So he did, and who should be coming down the road but the Treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship 28and was now returning in his chariot, reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah. 29The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the chariot.” 30Philip ran over and heard what he was reading and asked, “Do you understand it?” 31“Of course not!” the man replied. “How can I when there is no one to instruct me?” And he begged Philip to come up into the chariot and sit with him. 32The passage of Scripture he had been reading from was this: “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before the shearers, so he opened not his mouth; 33in his humiliation, justice was denied him; and who can express the wickedness of the people of his generation? For his life is taken from the earth.” 34The eunuch asked Philip, “Was Isaiah talking about himself or someone else?” 35So Philip began with this same Scripture and then used many others to tell him about Jesus. (LB)
-the guy was reading about Jesus and he had no idea! But he knew enough to ask and say, “I don’t know what’s going on, do you?”
-that’s why we have someone spend time looking at a piece of Scripture or an idea or a topic or a fact of life or something and then they stand up here and help us understand it.
-but my personal thing with how the church is set up right now, we end there. The pastors have just started doing this where we have “Branching Out” tonight and people are meeting upstairs to talk about the Sunday sermon. I think it’s funny how we spend time in church, we introduce an idea or a part of the Bible and then we just end and go “See you next week.”
-here, Liz and I talked about this a long time ago and figured out, that’s dumb. And so we added something a few years ago.
3. SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION
-I know it’s hard to believe, but there are people out there who hear something on Sunday morning, sometimes even at youth too, and they never get a chance to think about it or ask questions.
-to me, that’s sad. Because I’m not stupid enough to think that you all are hanging on my every word, that every single thing I say is so important you are taking notes or better yet, just straight memorizing every grain of knowledge that I say and instantly you fully understand and want to change your life because the knowledge of God is just entering your soul through some sort of holy magic.
-I get it, that doesn’t happen. And no matter what I talk about, no matter what I say two things will happen. One, someone will not understand. Two, someone will relate or know what I’m talking about better than me.
-and that’s why we have small groups at the end. It’s a very healthy thing even though I know many pastors or teachers would be scared of it. Yes, when you break into groups I no longer control what’s being said and that can be scary to someone teaching. But on the other hand, I’m not that smart. I know I don’t know it all. And I know that some of you understand things from your own life experiences that you can share with others in your small group and you can work through some of the ideas that are talked about.
-I also know that people are more likely to ask questions in a small group and add to a discussion in a small group. Those of you on the mission trip, every night this is the reason we met in small groups, not as one big group. Because the bigger the group, the more scared people are of sounding stupid and they don’t want to add or ask anything. Or you get the polar opposite where you have three people who talk all the time. In small groups they’re not all together, hopefully.
-and in those small groups, you get to hear many different points of view, you get to hear many people’s stories, you get to hear how a Scripture affected somebody and what it means to them.
-it is always good to get more than one point of view. Add that to the foundation of the information you started with and you will probably better understand something. Hey, that’s even Biblical.
**Prov. 15:22 -> 22Get all the advice you can, and you will succeed; without it you will fail. (GNT)
-one of the many Proverb fortunes that are with the sodas you buy here.
-but it’s true, by asking more than one person you can probably get a better understanding of something.
-so that’s why after this we break into groups and each group gets a sheet with questions on it. They’re given to you to make you think, to help you process, to make sure that what you’ve heard tonight isn’t just a bad Canadian droning sound but instead it’s actually something you’re thinking about.
-and guess what, you can talk about things other than the questions. Don’t go crazy, it’d be nice to stay on topic, but if what we’re talking about brings up questions and you want to ask the people in your group, ask. It’s not like my feelings are hurt because you didn’t get through all the questions. My feelings would be more hurt if you sat there with something that could help the others in your group better understand or you had a question and you didn’t ask it and left tonight confused. If I had feelings anyway.
-my goal is not to make you learn what I say or think how I think or only talk about what I say. If all you do is hear what I say about God and never think about it, it will never do you any good. Eventually something will happen or somebody will ask you a question you never thought about and your faith will shake. And when that happens I want you to be able to think about what you believe and why, not think “I better call Troy to tell me what to believe.” It won’t work.
-so I encourage you, we’re about to break into smaller groups. Talk. Ask. Discuss. I don’t know where you are with God but if you have questions about who He is or how to get to know Him better, ask. You’ll probably like the real world answer you get from your friends who are going through life the same way you are rather than hear the churchy answer anyway.
