Teaching And Discussion Series

[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.