What We Believe...about The Bible (Or "Always Trust Your Bubbles"

Larry Brincefield

larkayb@earthlink.net

January 19, 2003

Title: What We Believe....About the Bible (or "Always Trust the Bubbles")

Text: 2 Timothy 3:14-17

Introduction

1. I’m not a SCUBA diver, but SCUBA has always fascinated me.

A. When you take up SCUBA, one of the things that they will teach you is that your bubbles are always right.

i. When you’re deep underwater

ii. you’re surrounded by an aura of light

iii. it is very difficult to tell which way is up

iv. The water diffuses the light.

v. and since you have a sense of weightlessness in the water

vi. it is easy to get disoriented

vii. and lose your sense of direction.

B. You don’t know which is up.

i. You may feel so strongly that your perception of up is correct

ii. that you will ignore your air bubbles

iii. and go the way that you think is up.

C. And so, the SCUBA diver is taught to always trust and follow his bubbles.

i. No matter what you think or feel,

ii. your bubbles are always correct.

iii. They always go up!

iv. So always follow your bubbles.

v. Always!

D. If a diver takes it upon himself to ignore the bubbles...

i. because he KNOWS which way to go...

ii. it can lead to his peril.

E. Many people in world today are disoriented

i. they have lost their way

ii. because they have ignored the bubbles...

iii. they have ignored the only thing in life that is trust-worthy and true...

iv. God’s Word, the Bible.

F. They are going the way they THINK is right.

i. Or maybe they even know the right way...

ii. but they choose to live as they please

iii. ignoring the bubbles.

2. Like the scuba-diver’s bubbles,

A. the Bible is always right,

B. it doesn’t matter how you feel

C. it doesn’t matter what you think

D. the Bible is always right!

E. You can put your faith and trust in the Bible.

3. As we continue our study of the What We Believe...we come to Article 4, "We believe in the plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, by which we understand the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, given by divine inspiration, inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation, so that whatever is not contained therein is not to be enjoined as an article of faith."—Nazarene Manual 2001-2005

4. Read Text: 2 Timothy 3:14-17

Body

1. First of all, we believe it is important to teach the Bible to our children.

A. Paul says, "continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures" 2 Tim 3:14-15 (NIV)

i. Paul is telling Timothy that it is important for him to depend upon the Scriptures that he learned even from when he was very young.

B. We know that Timothy’s father was a Greek and his mother was a Jew.

i. And it was from his mother that he was trained in the Scriptures as a young boy.

ii. Jewish children began their FORMAL training in the Scriptures at age 5.

iii. But Timothy began learning Scripture even younger than that from his mother’s knee.

C. That’s one of the reasons that we believe in Sunday School in the Church of the Nazarene.

i. It is so important for our children to learn the Bible from the very youngest age....

ii. and not only LEARN about the Bible...

iii. but to also use it as a GUIDE for their lives.

D. But we can’t just depend upon the Sunday School either.

i. We as parents need to teach our children to read the Bible.

ii. We need to show them how to use Scriptural truth as a guide to their lives...

iii. our children need to see US reading the Bible.

E. If our children can learn to trust the Holy Scriptures, like Timothy did, then they will be able to "trust their bubbles".

2. We believe the Bible can save you.

A. Paul tells Timothy, "you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" 2 Tim 3:15 (NIV)

B. Albert was serving in the Armed Services and was to be shipped out to Europe.

i. His mother said, "Albert, I have purchased a small Bible for you to carry to Europe.

ii. Promise me that you will read from it every day."

iii. Albert promised.

iv. And for eight months, he made a point to read from it every day.

v. The day came for his division to advance along the west bank of the Rhine,

vi. which would bring him in close contact with the enemy.