Mark Twain once said, “Never learn to do anything. If you don’t learn, you will always find someone else to do it for you.”
This week has been a week of learning for every single one of us. I spent parts of four days at a seminar in Indianapolis and by the second full day had a headache from the schedule and pressure of learning. It was well worth it and you will be getting bits and pieces of it in the later stages of this sermon series.
Some of our kids and teens have spent the week trying to remember what they learned up to this point as they took the ISTEP test. And we adults learned some new things as well on the job, at home, and in the community. Some of the learning was perhaps formal learning like my experience this past week and the rest was informal learning. But all of us learned something this week.
We are always learning – formally and informally. We never stop learning something each and every day of our lives.
Granted, some of us are glad when formal learning, school, was/is over and we no longer have to study things that we don’t understand, or like or find irrelevant to our lives. But we are always learning and some of the learning is hard for us to accept sometimes because it forces us to deal with aspects of life that we rather not have to deal with.
One important source of learning for us as followers and believers of Christ is the Bible. What have you learned from the Bible this week?
We are spending this fall looking at ways we please God. Two weeks ago we were told that we please God when we regularly examine our motives and priorities against God’s standards for us as His people. Last week we learned that we please God as we follow God’s plan of salvation.
Last week I also gave us a working definition of pleasing God because the word please and the idea of pleasing have emotional baggage for many of us because we have had times in our lives in which we have had to please difficult people in ways that were sometimes very demeaning to us and others. Here is our working definition, “to please God is to follow God and His purposes as stated in the Bible with a motivation of love and obedience.”
Our stop today is a key stop because it is a strategic way that we are able to please God because, as far as our first two stopping points, it is the standard against which we are able to measure our lives and it describes the way of salvation that God has made possible through Jesus Christ. We please God when we read, believe, understand, and practice what the Bible says.
Our text for this morning illustrates the place that scripture plays in helping us to please God, 2 Timothy 3:14-17:
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. 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. 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 straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God’s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do.
Paul, an important Christian missionary, is writing to a younger man named Timothy in this passage of scripture. We read more about Timothy in the book of Acts where we find out that he accompanied Paul on two of his three missionary journeys.
This book, 2 Timothy, was Paul’s last book. It is written toward the end of his life that ended by execution. It is a last work from a member of the first generation of Christian leaders and believers to a person who was a member of the second generation of Christian believers and leaders.
Please notice the following statements:
• Remain faithful to the things you have been taught, you know they are true for you know you can trust those who taught you
• The holy Scriptures… have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus.
• All Scripture is inspired by God
• Useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives
• God’s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do.
In his final writings, Paul is pointing Timothy not to a set of ideas or philosophy but to the Scriptures (the Bible to us today) that shaped both of their lives. Why? Because Paul is reminding Timothy that following scripture is a very important way that we please God. In fact, these highlighted statements are ways that the Bible helps us to please God!
We please God when we remain faithful to the teachings of scripture. When Timothy appears on the scene in Acts 16 he is described as a young disciple…well thought of by the believers. In the opening verses of 2 Timothy 1, we read of the influence of his mother and grandmother’s faith. This faith grew and developed throughout his life through both the example of his mother and grandmother as well as their teaching that included what we now call the Old Testament.
Timothy continuously made the choice to read, believe, understand, and practice what the Bible said throughout his life. His choice to do so pleased God and helped Timothy develop a strong and powerful faith.
Timothy also pleased God when, as he learned about and saw demonstrated the Christian faith, he received the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. The Bible makes clear the need for humankind to be saved from sin through the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus.
Jesus said so in places like John 3 “I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God.” Paul says in Acts 16:30 and 31, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with your entire household.”
We please God, when in response to this offer of salvation by faith; we accept it and put it to practice.
The Bible is critical to our faith. It has been the subject of much debate over the centuries and numerous people and movements have tried to completely destroy it. But the Bible is still here!
We please God when we allow His word to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. The Bible itself makes this clear in different passages. We read in Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are.
Jesus did that with His words and quotes of scripture as we read in places such as Matthew 3:7 and 8: “But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to be baptized, he denounced them. “You brood of snakes!” he exclaimed. “Who warned you to flee God’s coming judgment? Prove by the way you live that you have really turned from your sins and turned to God.”
The prophet Jeremiah wrote, Does not my word burn like fire?” asks the LORD. “Is it not like a mighty hammer that smashes rock to pieces?
The Bible reveals to us the power and purposes of God that at times go against attitudes, habits, priorities, and actions that are a part of our lives. The Holy Spirit uses the words of scripture to convict us when what we hear read or read ourselves conflict with our life. But, when we hear and respond to God’s word though an obedient action, we experience God’s salvation and God’s greater work in us.
We also please God when we let scripture prepare “us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do.” Not only does scripture equip us for eternal life in and with Christ, it also equips us for daily life. Now, a word of caution about the use of Bible in daily life.
Pastor Dana Chau once quoted Christian author and pastor Chuck Swindoll’s four spiritual flaws. Two of them had to do with Bible reading. One was, “All the problems you will ever have are addressed in the Bible. (When your computer crashes, please don’t go to the Bible. Go to your computer manual or call technical support.)” A second was, “Being exposed to sound Bible teaching automatically solves problems. (Hearing Bible teaching is not the same as obeying what the Bible teaches.)”
The Bible gives us in certain places very clear and specific instructions as to God’s plans and purposes and in other places, it gives us an overall plan but not a clearly stated one. For example, the Bible does not tell us whom we should marry but rather what kind of person we should marry.
Paul addresses this issue in 2 Corinthians 6 where in a larger context about relationships with those who don’t believe he says, “Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers… How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever?”
The issue is one of different loyalties. Paul is cautioning believers to watch their relationships with those who don’t believe as they do. He is not advocating divorce (see I Corinthians 7) but he makes clear that it is better for believers to marry believers because marriage is a very important relationship and commitment.
So, how well are you pleasing God with your reading of, belief in, acceptance of, and practice of the Bible?
To please God, we need to read the Bible everyday at a time that we intentionally set aside. How else can we know what God wants us to know?
To please God, we must thoughtfully and faithfully believe the Bible. Do you believe the Bible? Do you believe what it says? Do you believe that it is the Word of God? Failure to believe the Bible as God’s word will seriously affect our relationship with God and our ability to please God.
To please God, we must accept what it says and it does say some hard and difficult things. But, we risk our ability to discern God’s will and therefore be able to please Him, if we do not accept what it says.
Finally, to please God we must practice what it says. That is verrry hard to do at times! “What do you mean Jesus that I must forgive your enemy?” “What do you mean God that I need to daily take up my cross and follow You?”
We preach and teach scripture at this church. Each week I base my words to you on scripture and all the comments and illustrations are designed to help you understand what God wants for you. Please the Lord and ask Him to help you read, believe, accept, and obey His words of faith, hope, and love by pleasing Him through making the Bible a key part of your life.
Amen.
Dana Chau quote is from sermoncentral.com
Bible passages are from the New Living Translation
