Bunbury
Sun am
24/07/11
“Miners of the Word”
Intro: *** Ps Farrell was telling me last week that now in the middle of winter he comes into the building for morning prayer & some of the folks who have been in prayer go through & turn lights on everywhere. When he arrives he comes along & turns them all off!
The other morning he came into the sanctuary, the lights were already off & he notices that behind one of the pull up banners there is a glow. He goes to investigate & on the other side of the banner is Dave H***ey sitting there on a chair in the dark w/ a cap on & lights across the top of his cap shining down on his Bible so he can read it.
I couldn’t help thinking about the miners who go down into the underground shafts w/ miner’s helmet w/ a light on top.
Here was Dave like a miner in the dark of the underground but only he’s mining nuggets out of the Bible instead of the ground!
God’s word is not just a historical book which entombs the history of His people but the instrument through which He purposes to enrich / empower our lives.
Therefore – what we do w/ God’s Word determines what God’s Word does in us!
** Someone has rightly said many years ago now that “The Word of God is shallow enough for babes to drink from & deep enough for theologians to drown in.”
God’s purpose is not to drown you in His Word but like a miner we can dig into the depths of it & bring out nuggets & gems that will enrich our lives.
Like a pearl diver we can plumb its depths & bring up pearls of great price.
The exhortation of our text is that we would dig deep into God’s Word to extract its great riches.
God wants you to be like a miner in His Word!
T/m I want to preach on ‘Miners of the Word’.
Text: 2 Timothy 2:15 ( NKJV ) 15Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Let me also read it to you from the KJV ……
2 Timothy 2:15 ( KJV ) 15Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
# 1. Mining methods.
A. Serious mining operations require a serious commitment.
a. W/ gold mining operations there is a certain amount of profit that is made in alluvial deposits.
i. Alluvial deposits are deposits that basically sit on the surface & profit can be made w/o a lot of work being done – hence prospectors.
ii. In many cases gold nuggets can be found by just examining rocks that are lying on the ground.
*** Wayne B***n came up w/ an impact team one time to Kalgoorlie to help impact the city. During the spare time in the afternoon he decided to go & do a bit of prospecting. Strangely enough he decided to go to a pile of dirt that had been dumped at the top end of Hannan St, the main street of town. Personally I thought it was a waste of time & energy! But about an hour or so later he came back to my house w/ a gold nugget he had found while he was walking around fossicking in the dirt.
*** A man I did some work for there in Kalgoorlie many years ago found some gold nuggets on a small mining lease he had there & sold it to a company for $700,000!
*** Small mining operations can often make a quick buck by coming in w/ a loader, scraping up the top soil of a mining lease & processing it. They often find thousands of dollars of alluvial gold in the crushing on top soil.
iii. Now the Word of God is like this! There are gems / nuggets that can be picked up simply by making your way through its pages!
iv. The problem w/ this is that its very hit / miss – sometimes there are big profits striking alluvial deposits ….. other times there’s nothing much to be found.
b. Serious mining operations involve some deep digging.
i. Profitable mining operations make a study of the area they are going to mine first.
ii. Geologists come in & check out the ground & then there is test drilling / geological surveys / metallurgists / mining engineers etc.
iii. What I’m saying is that if you are going to get some gain / profit / enrichment out of this book you are going to have to dig deep – that’s where the profits are!
*** Peter C***ke, a mining engineer in the Kalgoorlie church was telling me that there was a young geologist who told some truck drivers to dump truck loads of dirt out of one of the underground mines in w/ the waste rock. By the time she had realised her mistake 4-6 truckloads later the company had already lost $25,000 of gold in the few truck loads of crushed rock from deep beneath the surface. The gold content from deep w/I the earth was so consistent that they could place a dollar value on each truck load.
iv. There are profits that are only going to come to you by digging deep into the Scriptures.
*** Ever found y/s witnessing to someone but in the middle of the experience found that you just don’t have the depth that you need to make the witness effective? That’s b/c you haven’t dug deep into God’s Word so that it can enrich your life.
v. Think about what the Bible itself tells us to do ……
Philippians 2:12 ( NKJV ) 12…….., work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
vi. The original Greek isn’t speaking about working for your salvation to earn it – Jesus has already done that –
vii. It’s talking about working out a math problem to bring it through to a conclusion!
c. Great men of God are miners in the Word – that’s how they work out their salvation / what they believe.
i. You’d be hard pressed to find a better man in the O/T than Daniel – T.B.S. that he had an excellent spirit.
Daniel 9:2 ( NKJV ) 2in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
ii. Think about that – Daniel through mining the Word of God worked out what was happening in Jerusalem.
iii. We find Jesus sitting around a group of scribes / Pharisees blowing their minds b/c he had already been mining the Word at 12 years of age!
Luke 2:46-47 ( NKJV ) 46Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.
47And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.
iv. Stephen in Acts had been doing some serious deep mining of the Word & the Bible says ….
Acts 6:10 ( NKJV ) 10And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.
B. Now the Bible encourages every one of us to b/co miners in the Word.
a. We need to u/s the reality of the challenge here, any one of us can take it up.
i. Listen to what Paul says to Timothy in our text…
15Study to show thyself approved unto God, …….
ii. KJV – ‘study’ ….. u/s what is happening here – the Greek word study lit = make effort / be earnest / give diligence – one translation says ‘bend yourself’.
*** Now think about the time in which this KJV translation was written b/4 1611 A.D. The primary task of the translators is to bring the Bible across from one the original language – O/T – Hebrew & N/T – Greek. The challenge facing them is to find the suitable word to describe what the Hebrew & Greek is really saying.
There are no reference libraries / Greek dictionaries / lexicons / no data bases of information you can search. Books were relatively scarce – in fact Gutenberg’s had only rolled the first article off the press by 1450! So the way it had to be done was by combing through words / finding the real meaning / diligently considering what those words meant! They lit had to study the text / meaning / words to work it all out!
So the Word they decided on to carry the real meaning of what Paul was saying was – study!
iii. Think about the word ‘study’ dict def – the application of the mind to the acquisition of knowledge through reading / investigation & reflection.
iv. If you investigate the etymology of the word you’ll discover that it first began being used around 1250 – 1300 …… think about what study would have meant at that time!
v. Literally the surrender of your mental capacity to the acquisition of information – giving your mind over to it.
vi. Study was a good translation b/c it literally meant you were going to have to dig to get what was valuable – combing through every word / inflection to get the gold.
b. In reality our text is an exhortation for you & I to b/co miners in the Word.
i. A call to dig / investigate / explore / labour for gems / riches / treasure from the Word of God for our own lives.
Hebrews 4:11 ( KJV ) 11Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, …..
ii. Here we have the same Greek word as study translated ‘labour’ ….but labour in what to enter the rest? What is the labour for? Not salvation – Jesus did that!
iii. It’s labouring in the Word of God ….. digging for treasure / gold ….
** Adam Clarke says “Endeavour so to cultivate your heart & mind.”
c. Have you dug anything valuable / precious out of the Word of God lately?
i. Or are you satisfied just stumbling across the odd nugget from time to time …… some alluvial / surface deposits?
Matthew 13:44 ( NKJV ) 44“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
ii. It’s just like buried treasure – it has to be dug up if you want to enjoy the riches!
Psalms 119:162 ( NKJV ) 162 I rejoice at Your word As one who finds great treasure.
# 2. Test results.
A. All of life is going to be tested!
a. You may as well get used to that idea – life is full of tests – school / driving / working / character tests – life’s full of tests!
i. You are always labouring for something – even when you’re not putting in any labour – you’re still labouring for something.
*** I saw that Master Chef program not long ago. One guy in the competition was a bit baffled about what he was going to cook. He eventually whipped out some pasta that even he thought was unimaginative. When it came to be tested the judge said to him that his dish was about as good as 2 minute noodles!
He literally got what his labours deserved!
ii. It’s no different in life / the kingdom – we get the kind of approval our labours deserve …… which sometimes is disapproval!
Luke 19:22-23 ( NKJV ) 22And he said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. 23Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’
iii. But when we labour diligently we get the appropriate approval ….
Luke 19:17 ( NKJV ) 17And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.’
b. Think about what we are looking for as we mine / dig into the Word of God.
Vs 15. 15Study to show thyself approved unto God, ……
i. Mining operations are very strategic / specific ….. they don’t keep mining the ground unless the minerals are there!
*** Once the dirt is dug out samples are sent off to the laboratory to make sure that the gold is in the dirt. They crush the rock, fire it & put it through a rigid process of analysis to test gold content. This process is called ‘assaying’.
ii. Vs 15. 15Study to show thyself approved unto God, ……
iii. The Greek word ‘approved’ lit = acceptable & has to do w/ the process of assaying metals.
iv. What God is looking for is the gold content in your labours …..
*** The Royal Canadian Mint currently produces the finest gold in the world at the moment. Historically gold has been recognised as pure when refined to the point of .995 – 1 being perfect. Now w/ modern electrolytic processes the common level is .999 but .9999 is even quite common w/ modern techniques.
The Royal Canadian Mint however refines it’s gold in minted gold coins to .99999 which means that there is an impurity rate of only 1 particle in 10,000. The 2002, $350 Wild Rose coin actually sells for $899 USD.
Why? B/c it’s the purest gold in the world of any gold w/ the highest approval rating!
B. Now what we need to u/s is that what’s being approved is not the Word but the worker!
a. Think about what our text is saying again ….
Vs 15. 15Study to show thyself approved unto God,…..
i. Think about these riches that are being dug up ….. where are they being deposited? The answer to that is simple – in the worker!
ii. The gold is going into the heart / mind / life / character of the worker himself which is why the worker is being assayed!
iii. Listen to what Paul says here in …..
2 Corinthians 4:7 ( NKJV ) 7But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, …..
1 Peter 1:7 (AMP) 7So that [the genuineness] of your faith may be tested, [your faith] which is infinitely more precious than the perishable gold which is tested & purified by fire …..
iv. So what’s being tested / assayed / purified here is not the ‘Word’ itself – that’s already perfect – but the worker into whom the word is being deposited!
b. There’s coming a day when everything that has been deposited into your life from the word is going to be due for approval.
1 Corinthians 3:13 ( NKJV ) 13each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.
i. The big question is ….. how’s the test going to go for you?
# 3. Striking it rich!
A. God wants us to u/s that we can strike it rich in His Word.
*** In 1894 an Irishman by the name of Paddy Hannan along w/ some of his fellow prospectors wandered out to a piece of land north east of Perth about 300 miles. Paddy, after doing some prospecting in the area found gold which sparked a gold rush bringing thousands of gold prospectors into the area & opening up one of the richest gold finds in the history of the world. That gold strike has enriched prospectors / corporations & individuals for nearly 120 years.
a. Now God wants you & I to strike it rich in His Word.
i. He wants you & I to be enriched / blessed / edified / built up by digging into His Word & having it deposited into our lives.
Ps Rob W***h a few years ago when he came to preach for me in Kalgoorlie went to a mining operation not far from Kalgoorlie to visit his brother Steve. Steve was overseeing a processing plant on the tail end of the mining operation where the gold was refined & cast into ingots. While he was there Steve took an ingot of gold & put it into Rob’s hands & said to him you are holding $250,000 in your hands. That mining operation churned out several dozen of those every year.
ii. No less true is the fact that our lives are involved in the mining operation of God’s Word out of which we can extract great riches every year.
iii. God calls us to be miners in His Word so that we’ll have the gold that we need to live life right.
iv. Think again about what our text is saying to us …..
Vs 15. 15Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
b. God gives us the riches of His Word not just to hoard it up but to use it in life.
*** When I lived in Kalgoorlie it was common for people to pay for things in gold. They knew the daily gold price & rather than exchanging their gold they would sometimes just pay in gold. My boss told me that people would sometimes pay his invoices in gold nuggets.
i. So God gives us the gold of His Word so we can divide it up & use it to live life!
ii. This is what our text is saying ……. Vs 15. …… rightly dividing the word of truth.
iii. That’s what the Word of God does – it divides …….
Hebrews 4:12 ( KJV ) 12For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
iv. The Greek word ‘divide’ in our text lit = ‘to dissect’ or ‘make a straight cut’.
*** When our kids were young we could often get away w/ buying one chocolate bar between the two boys instead of giving them one each – mean parents huh? But of course if boys have to share anything …. Especially food or drink there are always going to be arguments. To head off the potential of any arguments we had a simple plan in place. We would hand them a chocolate bar & we’d say to them “OK, Mick, you cut the bar & Jesse you choose which piece you want!” You can bet that whoever was cutting the bar did the best possible job b/c he always knew that his brother would definitely take the largest piece. So there would always be a very careful dividing of the bar!
v. Now the Bible says that by digging into / mining the Word of God we learn how to make straight cuts.
vi. Or in other words we learn how to divide it up & serve it out as it’s needed in life.
vii. Life is full of situations that need a straight cut / piece of the pie of God’s word to know how to deal w/ that situation correctly.
B. By mining God’s word we have the right nuggets to deal out to the needs of life.
a. There’s nothing like not having the resources you need to make it through life.
i. Would you like to pay for that or book it up?
Vs 15. 15Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
ii. By mining God’s Word we remove the shame from life b/c God’s Word gives us the resources for life …..
iii. By b/co a miner in god’s Word we acquire the lasting resources we need to be able to live life at the a level that God calls us to live it.
