The Bible (The Movie) Series

The Gospel According to . . . Hollywood?

The Bible

Scripture: Genesis 3:1-24

Today is Father’s Day, and as a way of honoring our fathers, I thought we should all just take a few moments to reflect on all the things we’ve learned from our dads. Okay? I think that was plenty of time, don’t you?

No, seriously, we’ve all learned a lot from Dad,

so let’s reflect on it by listing:

The Top 10 Things You Learned from Your Father:

10. When he was your age, kids had to walk six miles to school in the snow and rain . . . uphill both ways.

9. If he had acted like you, his father would have knocked him into the middle of next week

8. When he was your age, kids had to make their own fun

7. You weren’t born in a barn

6. When he was your age, he had to work for what he got

5. You don’t wanna make Dad stop the car

4. “Because I said so” is a reason that makes perfect sense to an adult

3. You’d better stop crying or he’ll give you a reason to cry (like you didn’t already have one)

2. You’d lose your head if it wasn’t attached

And the #1 thing you learned from your father . . .

1. Money doesn’t grow on trees!

We learned a lot from our dads. . .

Some of us more than others. . .

And some of us more than we wanted to.

Thirteen years ago,

Robert Fulghum claimed:

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.

Some of us might say

All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Dad.

I know that’s what my kids would say.

But even though my father is here this morning,

I can’t really claim that.

But I think he’d be prouder to here the claim

I’m about to make:

All I Really Need to Know I Learned from the Bible.

Now, you may be suspicious about that.

After all, the Bible didn’t teach me how to read,

it didn’t teach me how to write,

it didn’t teach me how to make coffee . . .

And believe me,

those things are pretty important in my life.

But I’m talking about THE BIG QUESTIONS,

the really important things,

the kind of questions

British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, talked about when he wrote:

"We find ourselves in a bewildering world. We want to make sense of what we see around us and to ask: What is the nature of the universe? What is our place in it and where did it and we come from?"

(A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, 1988, p. 171).

THAT is what the Bible does.

That’s amazing enough, but you know what else?

Let me tell you how amazing the Bible is.

Let me tell you just one reason I believe it to be

God’s Word.

The Bible answers those questions--

and MORE--

in the first three chapters!

It does it in the first 2,000 words!

Part of the miracle of the Bible

is that in just the first three chapters of Genesis

it answers a score of questions like,

“Is there a God?”

The Bible says,

In the beginning, God. . . (Genesis 1:1, NIV).

It answers,

“Why is there something rather than nothing?”

The Bible says,

In the beginning, God created. . . (Genesis 1:1, NIV).

It answers,

“Who am I and how did I get here?”

The Bible says,

God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27, NIV).

But we’re not going to focus on those questions this morning; instead, I hope to show you how the Bible answers the BIG questions:

“Why do I do the things I do?”

and

“What can be done about it?”

Good morning. My name is Bob Hostetler,

and I want to welcome you all

to Cobblestone Community Church,

a group of people whose mission is

to love people

into life-changing encounters with God.

And this morning,

we’re beginning a new series of messages called,

“The Gospel According to . . . Hollywood?”

Each of the 7 messages in this series

is going to feature a clip or two from

a Hollywood movie,

only we’re going to ask more from these movies

than what we’ve come to expect from Hollywood.

We’re going to take a few minutes each week to discuss what the Bible teaches,

how Hollywood treats it,

and how you can learn from it

to improve your life.

And what better place to start than with the movie, The Bible?

Now, this movie was intended to be the first

in a series of films