What The Bible Can Do For Me Series

[This sermon is contributed by Hal Seed of New Song Church in Oceanside, California and of www.PastorMentor.com. Hal is the author of numerous books including The God Questions and The Bible Questions. If you are interested in The Bible Questions Church-wide Campaign, please visit and watch Hal’s video at www.PastorMentor.com.]

What Can the Bible Do for Me?

The Bible Questions, Part 1

Joshua 1:6-8

For Bumper Video: https://vimeo.com/48489274

Special notes to the pastor/teacher:

1. We’ve placed pictures throughout the sermon. Where these pictures are available on a website, we’ve placed the web address directly under the picture so that you can access it in a format and bandwidth that is best for you.

2. This is the first of six sermons in The Bible Questions Campaign. It’s designed in conjunction with “The Bible Questions” book, which contains daily readings and weekly Bible studies for the Campaign.

Good morning New Song! Good morning to everyone online and at our Bonsall campus!

Welcome to The Bible Questions!

Are you ready to do some learning today?

For the over 3,500 years, people have been touched by the Bible and we are going to be touched deeply by it over the next six weeks.

For this series you are going to need a Bible. If you didn’t bring one with you today, there should be one under your chair or under a chair near you. Would you all take a Bible and hold it up for me for a minute?

If you don’t own a Bible, or know someone who doesn’t, we are selling Bibles for a dollar at the Fuel Bookstore in the lobby this morning. Please take advantage of that.

How many of you have ever had questions about the Bible? [Raise hands.] In a recent poll, 85% of Americans said they wished they read the Bible more.

My goal over the next six weeks is to give you the inspiration and tools to enable you to do that.

But let’s be honest: The Bible is such a big book that everyone who has ever heard of it or come in contact with it has had questions about it.

We are going to explore this book [hold up a copy of The Bible Questions]on weekdays, learn about this book [hold up a Bible] on weekends, and meet in small groups once a week to share what we’re learning with others in the adventure. I guarantee you this: if you will read each chapter, attend each weekend, and participate in a small group, six weeks from now you will have an appreciation for this book and be well on your way to mastering it. Not only that, you will have the time of your life.

So over these next six weeks, if you have to miss a sermon, do your best to watch it online as soon as possible. If you get busy and have to miss a day’s reading – which will take you less than 12 minutes a day, then do your best to catch up the next day. The book isn’t hard; many people have read the entire thing in one day.

Without wanting to be overly dramatic, what I want to say is: What we are doing may be the most important learning you’ll do in your entire life.

So, if you’re ready to do some learning say, “I’m ready!”

Say this out loud: Lord Jesus [Lord Jesus]

Speak to me [speak to me].

[Prayer] Father as we enter this series, inform us, inspire us, encourage us and transform us, in Jesus’ name, Amen!

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Open your Bible to Psalm 19, page 390 in the black Bible from under your chair.

While you’re turning there, I heard recently about a guy who said, “When I die, I want to go out like my 90 year old grandfather, peaceful and in his sleep… not like the five screaming passengers with him in his car.”

Abraham Lincoln once said “I believe the Bible is the best gift God ever gave to man.”

That’s kind of a lofty statement, wouldn’t you agree?

When you think about the beauty of the Grand Canyon, or the Rocky Mountains, or of the love of a man for a woman, or the love of a fan for the NFL, it may sound like a ridiculous statement.

“The Bible is the best gift God ever gave to man.”

• You can argue that everyone ought to own a Bible because it’s the best-selling book of all time.

• You can argue that everyone ought to read the Bible because of its great influence on our world.

• And you can argue that everyone ought to know the Bible because it’s changed more lives than any other piece of literature in history.

But can you really say that it’s the best gift God ever gave to man?