Message
2 Timothy 3:16-17
Core Values 1 - Word Focused
There are many jobs which people do in this world which have an essential ingredient.
Painter
• These people have all they need
• Except the paint – painting without paint!
• The painter can even go through all the motions … but nothing is going to change.
• Paint is foundational.
To a painter … paint is essential.
What is the essential ingredient for a Christian?
Let’s read the Bible to find out.
2 Timothy 3:10-17
The essential ingredient for a Christian is Scripture.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
So here are some big questions.
• Do we get excited, and keep on getting excited, about this book?
• Do we believe that God’s Word is a resource for all? All ages. All types. All situations.
• Are we convinced that Scripture is the foundation for our daily, moment to moment, lives?
We should get excited. Because Scripture is foundational.
Scripture is foundational to our daily lives because of its Author … it is God-breathed.
Scripture into being because God pumped Himself into it … the whole book is there because of the breath of God.
Picture
We know important our breath is don’t we. If you have ever been swimming in the ocean and had an occasion when you have been dumped by a big wave you know what it is like to fight for breath. And let’s say that the worst happens and you need mouth to mouth. Even though the life-guard who rescued you is giving you mouth-to-mouth … and putting their breath into you … you will not be alive until you draw your own breath one again. That’s how it works doesn’t it.
The Scripture is God’s breath … God breathed. It is infused with the life of God. Such language is the strongest possible way to show us that Scripture is
not about men putting words into the mouth of God.
not the opinion of one men or a group of men.
God Himself is behind it all.
Since God Himself is behind Scripture it is the standard by which everything else is judged.
In the world of music … and I am thinking particularly of the world of violins … it is recognised that a violin made by Stradivarius is the best. In his life-time he made just over 1100 instruments of which 450 are known to still exist. But there are also many violins which bear the name “Stradivarius” – which were made by a company that copied his design.
If you have a company built model the violin will be worth $1000 - $2000.
If you have an original Stradivarius it can be worth 1 million to 1.5 million dollars.
The difference in price is attributed to the hand of the maker.
The one who made the Scriptures … and then breathed into it … is God.
The all-seeing … God.
The all-knowing ... God.
The all-present … God.
The all-power … God.
This is the God who knows the beginning from the end. He is the One who holds the whole universe together. It’s the same God who made us in His image and who Created us to be in relationship with Himself. And it is the same God who grieves over the fact that there is a break in the relationship between God and man.
God breathes life into the Scriptures because He wants to breathe life into us.
The overall message of the Scriptures is simple.
It is God saying to us, “I am not willing to let you go”.
Adam and Eve messed it all up. God doesn’t let them go … He finds them.
All mankind except Noah messed it all up. God saves us with an ark.
King David messed around with Bathsheba. God doesn’t let them go.
All Israel ends up in Babylon. God doesn’t leave them there.
And Jesus comes. I have come so that you may have life and have it to the full. That is what Jesus says. Indeed Jesus sacrifices His own breath so that God can breathe life into us.
That is the message of the Scriptures. It is all about God breathing every word … every syllable … every jot and title … into the Scriptures. To tell us about life … about living … and about eternal life.
This book is foundational because of the author … the Creator of all things is telling us how we can be in a relationship with Himself. That is enough of a reason to keep the Bible as an essential part of our lives. But there are more reasons given to us by Paul.
Scripture is foundational to our daily lives because it is useful …
If you are like a particular person in my household you like gadgets.
A gadget for peeling oranges.
Another gadget for slicing a banana into even-sized-pieces.
Another gadget for cutting carrots into long square strips.
Well all these gadgets sit in the draw because they are useless. They can’t really do what they claim to do and … in the end … a good old knife is more effective.
The Bible, on the other hand, is not useless. It is useful. And it is useful in four areas of life.
Scripture is foundational to our daily lives because it is useful for teaching.
Basically if you want to know what is right and wrong come to this book. And the reason you come to this book to be taught is because the author of the book knows everything.
Take a small parts of an animal and people have to guess, only when you have the whole picture that you can understand what the animal is.
When it comes to understanding life even the best man-made knowledge that we have is only a small part of all that can be known. And, unless you know everything, you cannot really know anything. The author of the Scriptures knows everything … so He is the only One qualified to teach us the truth.
Only God knows what happens from eternity past to eternity future. He is the only One who knows anything for sure. And in His grace He tells us how we ought to be His people and what is important. We go to the Bible when we want to know about practical stuff like.
… how to run my marriage and raise my children.
… how to run my business and look after my finances.
… how to build godly relationships and be kingdom minded.
… how to work through major difficulties and hurts and abuse.
In all of these areas, and many others, the Bible has useful teaching which is foundational. All we need to do is take time to read it.
Another reason the Bible is useful in giving us a foundation in the area of rebuke.
Scripture is foundational to our daily lives because it is useful for rebuking.
What is it that causes us to go to the doctor? If you are a man my guess is the reason you have gone is because your wife made you go. And she made you go for a reason.
• You don’t go to the doctor because you plan to have a beer with him and talk about the weather.
• You go because something is wrong. You’re constantly tired. You’re experiencing a lot of headaches. You have had a pain in your chest
You have come to see the doctor because you want to come up with a strategy to improve your health. You want to overcome these things which are slowing you down and making you feel debilitated.
Focussing on the short-comings in your life doesn’t seem like a thing to get excited about, nor does it seem particularly useful. But think about this.
When you go to the doctor you do so because you want to find out what is wrong with the purpose of discovering how to fix it.
In the same way it is through rebuke that we improve in our daily living. For through rebuke God shows us where we have taken matters into our own hands so that we can change.
It is through the Scripture that we are told where we fall short of God’s glory.
And we may not like to hear what it says. God has some pretty rigid standards when it comes to things like forgiveness, controlling anger, not taking revenge, loving your enemy, shunning immorality, controlling our tongue and a whole host of other things.
But there is much value in allowing the Word to put a spotlight onto these issues. Because the beginning of improvement – the beginning of living through each day – comes when we understand where we are going wrong.
Proverbs 15:31 He who listens to life-giving rebuke … did you hear that? … life-giving rebuke. He who listens to life-giving rebuke will be at home among the wise.
Then the very next verse He who ignores discipline despises himself. If you are not willing to grow and change then, really, you hate yourself.
Rebuke it’s a concrete, relevant, personal, trustworthy … and foundational use of the Bible. But Paul has given us other reasons to see the Bible as foundational. In one way the next two items are similar so we will take them together.
Scripture is foundational to our daily lives because it is useful for correcting and training in righteousness.
Talk about the difference between juvenile inmates who are not given help in terms of a trade etc … and those who are given help.
The best way to grow after rebuke is to be corrected and trained.
That’s what God’s Word does … it corrects and trains. Correction and training in righteousness are two sides of the same coin. Both tell us what happens after we have been rebuked. You see
God’s Word doesn’t just strip us … though it does strip us of our sin.
God’s Word doesn’t wound us … though it does wound us by point to our shortcomings.
God’s Word doesn’t just hurt us … though it does hurt us by challenging our comfort zones.
God’s Word doesn’t just knock us down … though it does knock us down by revealing our complacency.
God’s Word doesn’t just do these things … God’s Word if designed to help us move on and straighten out in our lives.
Scripture corrects us by telling us what sort of behaviour we need to have as we life for God. It sets out the path that we need to follow and it gives us all sorts of directions for our daily life. If we want to know how to live all we need to do is read the Bible.
Scriptures trains us by helping us take on that behaviour and make it our own. Training is all about taking the things that we learn and applying them personally in our lives. So that each day we wake up with a greater ability to walk in the ways of God and do what is pleasing to Him.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for
… teaching … as it shows us how we ought to live.
… rebuking … showing us when our living doesn’t conform to God’s will.
… correcting … because God wants our lives to be filled with grace as we live for Him.
… training … that we may be walking in the footsteps of Jesus.
The importance of Scripture is why a core value of NEC is that we are:-
Word Focussed.
“To reflect the transforming power of God’s Word in our own lives as we continually grow in spiritual maturity and holiness.”
We have seen what this means … so we come back to the original question.
Are we convinced that Scripture is the foundation for our daily, moment to moment, lives?
Or are we more inclined to rely on ourselves?
Only one way gives us access to the very breathe of God.
Prayer
