WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.360 So, this morning is a one-off sermon. We're going to look at 2 Timothy chapter 3, particularly 00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:12.720 very well-known words at the end of that chapter, verse 16, where we have all Scripture is 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:17.679 breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training 00:00:17.679 --> 00:00:23.879 and righteousness that the man of God may be completely equipped for every good work. 00:00:23.879 --> 00:00:29.359 So one-off just because I'm thinking of, and I'll mention more of this at the end of the 00:00:29.359 --> 00:00:38.840 service, thinking, or the end of the sermon, more about preparing us for our city group, 00:00:38.840 --> 00:00:46.239 studies our small church, big church, small church, and looking together around God's 00:00:46.239 --> 00:00:51.480 Word. I'll mention a little bit more about that at the end and what we're hoping to do, 00:00:51.479 --> 00:00:55.079 which is not rocket science, not that different from what we normally do, but there's just 00:00:55.079 --> 00:00:59.399 one or two little tweaks that we're going to make on that. 00:00:59.399 --> 00:01:04.079 But because of that, I think before moving back into Romans where we're going to start 00:01:04.079 --> 00:01:10.479 again next Lord's Day morning, God willing, this isn't going to be a typical sermon at 00:01:10.479 --> 00:01:18.159 that level. It's more of a shepherding call, talk, a rallying call. I want to point to 00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:23.560 scripture truths. I want to think about this particular passage and the principles that 00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:32.959 lie behind it for our congregational life as we start this new session, new chapter, new 00:01:32.959 --> 00:01:39.439 time in our lives as a church. So for me it's a little bit like, for me it's a little bit 00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:45.319 like when Captain Miller, who is Tom Hanks, rather Tom Hanks who's Captain Miller in the 00:01:45.319 --> 00:01:52.959 film Saving Private Ryan, he opens up to his troops at a very critical moment. Up to that 00:01:52.959 --> 00:01:57.519 point they don't know who he is. Now there's only so far this analogy goes, okay. But they 00:01:57.519 --> 00:02:02.799 don't know who he is and they don't know what his background is and that's a very significant 00:02:02.799 --> 00:02:10.560 tense time in the life of the troops as they are seeking to find Private Ryan. He tells 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:16.599 them who he is, he tells them what he does and tells them why he's doing what he's doing 00:02:16.599 --> 00:02:24.159 in order to get home out of the war context in order to make it back to his wife and family. 00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:29.120 So at that point in the warfare he makes it very real and personal for them. And I do 00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:35.120 think that that's important for us in an ongoing way but also maybe today in a church context 00:02:35.120 --> 00:02:39.960 that we don't come under the sound of the word and come to worship and the sermon in 00:02:39.960 --> 00:02:47.080 particularly and expect a mechanical unpacking of a text that will fail to provoke and will 00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:54.319 fail to encourage and challenge us into the reality of God's word and God's warfare in 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:59.760 which we'd engage spiritually and personally sometimes for us it's much harder than it 00:02:59.760 --> 00:03:07.040 is at other times. And we look for the living word of God to encourage and challenge us. 00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:12.359 And so we don't want this short time together just to be a mechanical outwork. I know we 00:03:12.359 --> 00:03:15.959 do it every week, I mentioned this last week, I know we do this every week but we don't 00:03:15.959 --> 00:03:26.599 want it to be simply a mechanical outworking, an educational moment together around the word. 00:03:26.599 --> 00:03:31.239 We seek for it to be more than that and deeper than that and I certainly do that in my own 00:03:31.240 --> 00:03:37.960 life. We focus at St. Columbus, everything really we do, we focus it around the words 00:03:37.960 --> 00:03:45.879 of this book, this book the Bible, this book that we have in our lives on our phones at 00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:51.200 the door of the church on a table and that we have I hope by our bedsides or somewhere 00:03:51.200 --> 00:03:57.000 in our homes and our task is sharing this unique book, this unique good news and then 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:04.439 living it, going from here and living this good news. And one of the things we're stressing 00:04:04.439 --> 00:04:11.960 this year is the habit of reading God's, Thomas mentioned the Bible in a year, we're looking 00:04:11.960 --> 00:04:19.360 to highlight and encourage us in the spiritual disciplines, the personal, regular, daily 00:04:19.360 --> 00:04:23.480 interactions with the living God. That's our job as spiritual leaders as a church. It's 00:04:23.480 --> 00:04:30.319 a job that together we share as leaders and people together to help us, to encourage us, 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:38.720 to example it as we do it together. Therefore at St. C's you'll always find the pulpit here, 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:43.520 the lectern in the middle of the church because that is symbolic, it's symbolic of the centrality 00:04:43.520 --> 00:04:52.600 of the word to what we do. That was why this monstrosity was built because it spoke of 00:04:52.600 --> 00:04:58.439 the centrality of the word even though it looks like a kind of gothic piece of torture 00:04:58.439 --> 00:05:02.240 for someone who didn't preach the truth, they might have just been swallowed up and never 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:07.960 been seen again. But the centrality of the word, the preaching of the gospel, the Bible 00:05:07.960 --> 00:05:13.920 in a year, our discipleship, encouraging us to become comfortable around God's word. 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:20.720 One to one in families are counseling with a professional or pastoral using God's word 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:27.080 to deal with our needs, city groups. It can't just be, it mustn't just be a Bible study, 00:05:27.080 --> 00:05:31.400 it has to be more. We know that studying the Bible is at the core of it, but more than 00:05:31.400 --> 00:05:37.520 that it's sharing God's truth together and into our lives. Kids' church is focused around 00:05:37.520 --> 00:05:45.880 teaching them the Bible. I'm going to put out on one of these notice boards a big color 00:05:45.879 --> 00:05:51.279 image of the four-year program that the children do. It's fantastic, four-year schedule where 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:55.040 they get the whole of the Bible. And I'm going to put that on the notice board for you to 00:05:55.040 --> 00:05:59.680 look at and it's lovely, it's full of colors and it's so encouraging. And they're teenagers 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:05.920 were looking to develop work of Bible handling and everything that we do, giving them good 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:10.680 times together as well as teaching them the Bible identity, truth of God's word for our 00:06:10.680 --> 00:06:15.199 students and young people into their new and exciting lives that they have begun in the 00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:24.800 city. Why? Why do we focus so much on this dusty old dry book? Because it's not that, 00:06:24.800 --> 00:06:34.800 is it? We're reminded here, to very important truths, it's God-breathed. That's why everything 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:41.919 we do is focused around this word and that makes this book absolutely unique. It's God-breathed. 00:06:41.920 --> 00:06:48.360 All Scripture is breathed out by God, a hugely significant theological reality and term that 00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:54.759 is weighed into this passage, into this verse. So it's not really, and I think one of the 00:06:54.759 --> 00:07:00.600 dangers is we just think about it as a book because it's bound and because it's got pages 00:07:00.600 --> 00:07:05.000 and a beginning and an end. We just think it's like a book. We think it's one of many 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:15.360 books that are in a library or in a bookshop, one of many, but it is not simply a book. 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:24.439 It is as much a message as a book. It is not simply history as much as his story. It is 00:07:24.439 --> 00:07:29.959 not just a guide to us as a living compass. It is as if his hand stretches out from the 00:07:29.959 --> 00:07:36.120 pages to lead us. And it's not so much just about God telling us about God as it is the 00:07:36.120 --> 00:07:44.399 voice of God Himself as He speaks through it. We found everything we do on the Bible 00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:51.240 because we are introducing ourselves and one another to the living God. That's why we regard 00:07:51.240 --> 00:07:56.639 it as so important. The living God, the God of the universe, the God who has created us, 00:07:56.639 --> 00:08:01.879 the God who knows how our lives will pan out, the God to whom we are accountable and will 00:08:01.879 --> 00:08:09.479 stand before. This is who the Bible is introducing us to. It's His Word that He has breathed 00:08:09.479 --> 00:08:17.279 out as something that He has breathed out. Therefore, it becomes self-authenticating. 00:08:17.279 --> 00:08:23.439 He has expired the words. He has done it through different authors over hundreds of years, 00:08:23.439 --> 00:08:30.879 but He has been the sovereign editor and overseer of what has gone out. His Spirit has breathed 00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:38.080 life into the words that we have. God brings it into being. He brings it to life using human 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:44.679 authors uniquely saying, uniquely saying what God wanted them to say. That's a remarkable 00:08:44.679 --> 00:08:51.080 truth for us. It is, and each section, each part of it, and then it has lots of different 00:08:51.080 --> 00:09:00.160 sections and parts and lots of different genres, but in each of these situations we recognize 00:09:00.160 --> 00:09:07.080 God's voice. It's given into specific situations, specific historical situations we know, but 00:09:07.080 --> 00:09:13.440 we can't simply limit God's Word to these situations. It's not, when we read God's 00:09:13.440 --> 00:09:18.640 Word we're not saying, this is what God said to the church in Thessalonica. I wonder what 00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:25.439 maybe if anything there's relevance for us. He did speak to the church in Thessalonica, 00:09:25.439 --> 00:09:29.240 but as we read the book of the letter to the Thessalonians, we're saying, what is God 00:09:29.240 --> 00:09:35.080 saying to me? What is God speaking into my life? Because if we're just looking at it 00:09:35.080 --> 00:09:42.399 second hand as it were, as a possibility of something significant happening or something 00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:48.600 significant being understood from what was given to the original authors, we lose sight 00:09:48.600 --> 00:09:58.200 of it having a living relevance to ourselves. It is not simply a book inscribed and inspired 00:09:58.200 --> 00:10:08.680 by God to the original writers. It is given for us today. It is God breathed. That means 00:10:08.680 --> 00:10:16.040 it's a living Word because we believe and we worship today a living Savior. So the core 00:10:16.039 --> 00:10:22.319 of our understanding of the Bible should be relational rather than academic. It should 00:10:22.319 --> 00:10:30.839 be relational. It should be communicating the living God to us. Therefore, we believe 00:10:30.839 --> 00:10:38.719 the Bible has a purpose in provoking a lost, a relationship lost. It provokes a relationship 00:10:38.719 --> 00:10:45.039 that has been lost because of sin. And it stirs people to think about the living God 00:10:45.039 --> 00:10:50.679 with whom they may have lost and we may have lost contact. But as believers who have come 00:10:50.679 --> 00:10:57.319 to faith in Jesus Christ, it is there to develop a relationship found. So it's there to expose 00:10:57.319 --> 00:11:03.399 a relationship lost, but also then to develop a relationship found. Firstly, as we recognize 00:11:03.399 --> 00:11:10.639 Him as our Creator and as our King and our Lord, then as our Savior, our great Redeemer, 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:16.639 and we see Him in all the pages of Scripture and recognize that. Therefore, our relationship 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:23.000 to the Bible is never one of equals or is never one of authority over the Word. It's 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:29.720 very easy for us all the time in our lives in my life to be authoritative over the Word. 00:11:29.720 --> 00:11:36.120 But it is not that kind of relationship, not is it one of equality. We come in the language 00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:42.960 of Scripture of our relationship with God as one of students to a teacher as disciples, 00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:52.360 coach, parent, shepherd, gardener, mother, older brother, husband, king, architect, builder. 00:11:52.360 --> 00:11:56.600 You see the pictures that are being built up in Scripture. It's not a relationship of 00:11:56.600 --> 00:12:02.440 equals that we have. We come to the living God and we recognize that this is the living 00:12:02.440 --> 00:12:11.120 God who is speaking into our lives in any one of these contexts. So, sometimes we will 00:12:11.120 --> 00:12:19.920 come to God's living Word and it will give us a royal kick up the backside, because maybe 00:12:19.920 --> 00:12:24.560 that's what we need. It will convict us of sin. Other times it will come round us with 00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:32.399 warm embracing arms and it will comfort and encourage us. When we're lost it will guide 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:37.199 us. And I shouldn't say it really, should I? As the Word of God I say He will through 00:12:37.199 --> 00:12:45.359 these means guide us and He will encourage us. And therefore as we come to God's Word 00:12:45.359 --> 00:12:50.519 we recognize it's the place that we come to know God. Otherwise we will never entrust 00:12:50.519 --> 00:12:57.000 ourselves to it. You don't trust someone and I don't trust someone I don't know. We're 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:02.799 crazy to do that. We trust people that we have come to believe in and come to recognize 00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:10.120 and value. And so as we come to know the God of Scripture we therefore come under that 00:13:10.120 --> 00:13:14.600 place where we trust Him as our shepherd, our gardener, our older brother, our husband, 00:13:14.600 --> 00:13:28.120 our king, our teacher, our friend, our father. So as a living Word that I joined Kids Church 00:13:28.120 --> 00:13:34.519 today, that's what I'm just learning about the Israelites and defeating someone at the 00:13:34.519 --> 00:13:40.320 battle of Ai. But it's also therefore because it's living and we have this here, it is both 00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:47.000 practical and purposeful. It's all Scripture is God breathed, is breathed out by God and 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:55.000 profitable, useful, practical for teaching, reproof, correction and training and righteousness. 00:13:55.000 --> 00:14:01.660 So we have here the language of functionality, that the Bible has a function. It is a practical 00:14:01.660 --> 00:14:08.760 function for us as believers, a teaching, rebuking, correcting and training. So it's 00:14:08.759 --> 00:14:16.559 channeled, isn't it? God is in the self-authenticating verses, channeling what the purpose of Scripture 00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:23.200 is. It has this direct purpose for us to mold and guide and transform who we are and 00:14:23.200 --> 00:14:33.480 what we do in terms of the shepherding, leading, gardening, king, lordship over our lives. 00:14:33.480 --> 00:14:38.800 So we have this great practical reality of coming to a Word as disciples and as students 00:14:38.800 --> 00:14:49.080 learning from our great Master. But the setting is always grace. Setting is always grace in 00:14:49.080 --> 00:14:55.920 the context of the deadly virus of sin and death. The plot always revolves around the 00:14:55.919 --> 00:15:05.439 cross of Jesus Christ. He is the central character who lives beyond its pages, who literally 00:15:05.439 --> 00:15:15.360 rises from its pages into our lives and demands lordship in our hearts. He rises from the page 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:22.159 because it's the Word of His grace and of His salvation, and He embraces us in His love 00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:30.839 as we come to Him by faith in His finished work, that we must know of, that we must unpack 00:15:30.839 --> 00:15:36.799 and understand as we look at ourselves seeing Scripture as a mirror into our own hearts and 00:15:36.799 --> 00:15:42.279 as we therefore see the answer that is provided in Jesus Christ. 00:15:42.279 --> 00:15:49.720 So all of the practicalities, the teaching, the rebuking, the correcting and the training, 00:15:49.720 --> 00:15:56.560 they do presuppose our eyes having been opened to the beauty, the beauty of Jesus Christ 00:15:56.560 --> 00:16:03.639 and the glory of God the Father by coming to faith in Him in the gospel that's revealed. 00:16:03.639 --> 00:16:12.000 You see, because it's a training and a correction and a teaching and a reproof in righteousness. 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:19.840 Just recognizing that we are covered in our right, we are covered, we are clothed in His 00:16:19.840 --> 00:16:28.679 righteousness gifted to us. We are made absolutely innocent and right before God because of Jesus. 00:16:28.679 --> 00:16:34.320 And as those who are clothed in that righteousness, we seek then to live that righteousness, and 00:16:34.320 --> 00:16:38.320 that's where the teaching and the correction and the rebuking and the training comes in, 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:45.480 because we are covered in clothed in His righteousness, that sanctification gifted, but we then live 00:16:45.480 --> 00:16:52.879 out that particular Christ likeness by understanding God who reveals Himself. 00:16:52.879 --> 00:16:56.760 So the end game can never, the end game of this Bible, this book that we have here, can 00:16:56.760 --> 00:17:03.520 never just be knowledge. It can never just be, oh, I know, I know 2 Timothy 3.16, I know 00:17:03.519 --> 00:17:10.400 what it says, I know 1 Corinthians 8, verse 1, in a kind of knowledge, simply knowledgeable 00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:17.680 way. It's not simply the gaining of knowledge, not is it moralistic teaching that we go to 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:23.200 God in Jesus Christ as some would understand that you would go to Confucius or you would 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:30.920 go to Plato or you would go to someone else, great, to learn how to live. It's more than 00:17:30.920 --> 00:17:38.080 that as we understand it. It is the language and the culture of the new heavens and the 00:17:38.080 --> 00:17:45.120 new earth that we are moving towards as Christians. It is the righteousness that we will live in 00:17:45.120 --> 00:17:50.640 glory. That's why it matters now that the Word of God is teaching us the way we will 00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:57.880 live when we are with Jesus face to face. So, and the more we live like that now, the 00:17:57.880 --> 00:18:04.280 more we'll kind of experience that heavenly culture that He wants us to live as we look 00:18:04.280 --> 00:18:08.680 forward and the more attractive it will be and helpful and encouraging and uplifting 00:18:08.680 --> 00:18:14.480 for us. So, it's practical and it's also purposeful. Now, I don't know if there's any difference 00:18:14.480 --> 00:18:21.960 between these two words. That is because I think the verse breaks it, but it's practical 00:18:21.960 --> 00:18:28.079 and it is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction and training. And this may just 00:18:28.079 --> 00:18:37.799 be a defining of the same truth just in different ways so that the person, the individual, the 00:18:37.799 --> 00:18:43.200 man, the woman of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. So, there's a purpose 00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:53.920 behind us as Christians, making use of the practicality of God's Word is to equip us 00:18:53.920 --> 00:19:03.200 in our lives to be complete, to be ready to live out our lives on a daily basis. So, it's 00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:08.160 something that comes into our mind and also into our conscience. I would love, and I'm 00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:12.480 thinking of it, but I'm just not clever enough at the moment, I would love to preach a series 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:18.079 of sermons on the conscience. I think the conscience is a really underplayed aspect 00:19:18.079 --> 00:19:22.960 of our Christian lives and our thinking and it should be something we consider far more 00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:28.319 because it's our guide in so much of what we do and it is taken and led and molded and 00:19:28.319 --> 00:19:37.960 directed either by Christ in Scripture or by or not. And that makes a huge difference. 00:19:37.960 --> 00:19:44.920 And conscience is a hugely significant tool that God uses to draw us constantly to Himself. 00:19:44.920 --> 00:19:50.799 So the Word of God equips us, our mind and our conscience, enabling us to be like Jesus 00:19:50.799 --> 00:19:56.120 in our day-to-day living. It's that spiritual handbook that breathes out. It's kind of like 00:19:56.120 --> 00:20:03.120 a three-dimensional living tutorial with God as our tutor. And we interact with it and 00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:11.000 seek to interact with it mentally, yes, intellectually, verbally as we pray over it and as we communicate 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:17.039 with God through it and spiritually with trust and submission, sort of trust and submission 00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:23.479 that comes in that makes it different from simply an intellectual pursuit. And the purpose 00:20:23.479 --> 00:20:29.000 then, the purpose is to make us ready. It speaks here about being complete or being 00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:34.519 mature. Some of the versions of it as being perfect. Now, the danger with thinking that 00:20:34.519 --> 00:20:41.200 is or misunderstanding what the Word actually means here is that we think always of the 00:20:41.200 --> 00:20:49.720 future. I'm not ready yet. I'm imperfect at the moment. One day I'll be complete. One 00:20:49.720 --> 00:20:54.039 day I'll understand the Bible, but the moment I'm not, and we just leave it there. But what 00:20:54.039 --> 00:21:00.799 it really means, it means making ready for the stage that you're at at the moment that 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:05.279 you can go out every day with the level of maturity, the level of knowledge, the level 00:21:05.279 --> 00:21:10.079 of understanding you have, and you can go out equipped by God and His Word to live your 00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:15.480 life and to do every good work. You know, it's like parents. We know as parents, with 00:21:15.480 --> 00:21:20.519 our children, don't we? We can equip them to go to primary one, but we don't expect them 00:21:20.519 --> 00:21:25.160 to take a higher mass book with them. You know, that's not equipping them. They're not 00:21:25.160 --> 00:21:32.799 perfect and they're not able to do university exams, but we can equip them to be exactly 00:21:32.799 --> 00:21:39.839 right for primary one and to know what that level is. And so, as we take God's Word, whatever 00:21:39.839 --> 00:21:45.639 stage you're at, whatever stage I'm at in my Christian life, it's uniquely suited to 00:21:45.640 --> 00:21:53.280 equip us for going out into our lives and our environment perfectly mature for the stage 00:21:53.280 --> 00:22:00.360 we're at and able to live for the glory of God, equipped for every good work. So really, 00:22:00.360 --> 00:22:08.400 what God is saying here is that we want to take Him as the motivation, the preparation 00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:12.120 and the reason behind every single thing we do. We want to tell our primary one children 00:22:12.119 --> 00:22:17.919 that, as well as our university graduates, as well as those who work in an office or 00:22:17.919 --> 00:22:23.599 those who work in manual labor or those who are at home. Whatever it is that we do, we 00:22:23.599 --> 00:22:29.359 take all of our lives and we make it under Christ, guided by Christ, obedient to Christ, 00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:38.000 for the glory of Christ, so that all our good works are His. So nobody is exempt from that 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:44.599 and nobody is unimportant or insignificant or nobody need be ill-prepared. God's Word 00:22:44.599 --> 00:22:52.119 is marvelous and is able to equip us as we take it where we are, whether we are young 00:22:52.119 --> 00:22:58.079 in the faith or mature and we apply it and live it and come under its truth. So God's 00:22:58.079 --> 00:23:05.559 Word is, it's God-breathed. And it's, secondly, it's all God-breathed, okay? All Scripture 00:23:05.559 --> 00:23:10.879 we're told is God-breathed. So it is one message and I hope that you'll remember, sometimes 00:23:10.879 --> 00:23:14.440 in our teaching last year, myself and Corey, when we were going through the whole theme 00:23:14.440 --> 00:23:20.119 of the great thread of the Bible teaching, that we could see a unity, uniformity of a 00:23:20.119 --> 00:23:27.519 message from beginning to end. This is what God has chosen for us to know. We wouldn't 00:23:27.519 --> 00:23:33.000 have chosen that. I constantly go to God and pray and say, why did He give us that? Why, 00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:39.519 why, I would want something much more tangible and black and white and A and B, but He tests 00:23:39.519 --> 00:23:45.839 us, He draws out wisdom from us. He asks us to think about our lives. He wants to point 00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:54.200 out things that we don't think are important, but He thinks are important. You go through 00:23:54.200 --> 00:24:01.720 numbers and think about what God wants us to know. All of it is this God-breathed Scripture 00:24:01.720 --> 00:24:07.680 He chose for us and the context is a broken relationship and a covenant promise to bring 00:24:07.680 --> 00:24:14.799 us back. A people before and a people after the coming of Jesus Christ, our great Savior, 00:24:14.799 --> 00:24:21.960 incredible, unexpected God. The unexpected God on a cross. Nobody expected that. Nobody 00:24:21.960 --> 00:24:27.319 was looking for that. And yet this is what is promised and this is what is prepared 00:24:27.319 --> 00:24:34.439 for and this is what we look back to as He promises His return, the resurrected Savior. 00:24:34.439 --> 00:24:42.000 Therefore this all of Scripture, it needs to be learned and convinced of and trusted 00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:48.079 in. Verses 14 to 16 says a little bit about that, but as for you, continue what you have 00:24:48.079 --> 00:24:53.000 learned and have firmly believed or convinced of and knowing from whom you've learned 00:24:53.000 --> 00:24:57.799 it. In other words, you trusted someone and you learned from this God and you've been 00:24:57.799 --> 00:25:04.079 acquainted with these sacred writings, wise unto salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:25:04.079 --> 00:25:14.319 So this truth needs to be learned. That takes time, doesn't it? It takes time to learn Scripture. 00:25:14.319 --> 00:25:23.599 I don't mean learn by rote, I just mean learning about God. Now we will always find time for 00:25:23.599 --> 00:25:28.720 the things that are important in our lives, the things that we love. We will prioritise 00:25:28.720 --> 00:25:40.399 these things and rightly so. And to know God is a priority we must have and must make and 00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:45.800 recognise that it will take time. It's His living Word and we seek not to come under 00:25:45.800 --> 00:25:55.560 it critically or dismissively, but we seek to make it part of our life routine, our use 00:25:55.560 --> 00:26:02.240 of time. We're not here long. We could work out mathematically roughly if we live an 00:26:02.240 --> 00:26:05.759 average life, how long we've got, it will not be that long, and then we can work out 00:26:05.759 --> 00:26:10.559 how long we sleep and then we can work out how long we spend in work. And then we can 00:26:10.559 --> 00:26:21.000 work out what's left for us. Bring time and learning into our relationship with God through 00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:26.200 His Word and use technology. Technology is great. Use your phone, use the apps that are 00:26:26.200 --> 00:26:34.119 available, use all kinds of things to learn and listen to God's Word, verbally, maybe, 00:26:34.119 --> 00:26:42.199 whatever works. And therefore be convinced, He says, it's important that we recognise 00:26:42.199 --> 00:26:50.119 that we continue to firmly believe that. Now that to me suggests that we need convinced, 00:26:50.119 --> 00:26:55.079 we need to be convinced. And that's certainly my experience because there's lots of really 00:26:55.079 --> 00:27:03.519 difficult bits. And it's an honour to God to wrestle with that, to ask questions, to 00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:08.919 realise that the Bible itself does interpret the Bible, that it's progressively revelatory, 00:27:08.919 --> 00:27:13.159 that it's not everything was revealed in the beginning and we know more and more as we 00:27:13.159 --> 00:27:19.879 go on and we allow the later Scripture to inform us and teach us and interpret the 00:27:19.879 --> 00:27:23.879 earlier Scripture. Not all of Scripture is equally important, but it's all there for 00:27:23.880 --> 00:27:29.080 a reason and we need to be convinced by that. And therefore then we come to trust in the 00:27:29.080 --> 00:27:36.280 God of the Word. Not so much the guide book as a guide and I recognise, a recognition 00:27:36.280 --> 00:27:44.160 that it is the divine wisdom spoken and crucified and resurrected. So very briefly as I close, 00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:51.920 just a couple of things practically. In our worship, in our worship, the Word of God will 00:27:51.920 --> 00:27:57.160 always we will seek to make it central. And to our gathered, and I'm speaking primarily 00:27:57.160 --> 00:28:02.120 about our gathered life in worship, I know our life is worship and we are living sacrifices, 00:28:02.120 --> 00:28:08.680 but I'm speaking about on a Sunday when we come together that the Word of God and the 00:28:08.680 --> 00:28:14.560 living reality of that Word will be something that marks our public worship together so 00:28:14.560 --> 00:28:21.759 that you will come and I will come and together we will be under the living Word of God and 00:28:21.759 --> 00:28:27.119 respond accordingly and prepare accordingly. And so that people who might come in and we 00:28:27.119 --> 00:28:32.720 long, really long for people to come in here who don't know Jesus, who will say, this is 00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:42.920 real. Their Christ is here and this people are hungry to learn and the guy at the front 00:28:42.920 --> 00:28:52.440 as believes what he is saying and it matters and that should be what marks our worship. 00:28:52.440 --> 00:28:58.800 I think also in our discipleship as a church, let's take discipleship around God's Word 00:28:58.800 --> 00:29:04.680 seriously, whether it's one to one, whether it's in city groups or I'm going to say a 00:29:04.680 --> 00:29:11.279 little bit more about that. We open to the Bible and open to what the Bible says to one 00:29:11.279 --> 00:29:15.680 another to each other. The men's curry night that we're plugging, the fellowship that we're 00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:21.279 having, hoping to have together as men. It's not just have a curry together, great though 00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:28.680 that is, tremendous. It is to see beyond it as an activity and recognize it as an opportunity 00:29:28.680 --> 00:29:33.160 for us as men because as men we struggle sometimes and we struggle to share our faith 00:29:33.160 --> 00:29:37.879 and we struggle to share our faith with one another, let alone with others, to be encouraged 00:29:37.880 --> 00:29:46.360 and discipled informally under the Word, living it out. And in that context our city groups 00:29:46.360 --> 00:29:52.600 need always to be more than a half out answering questions in an interpretative way in a biblical 00:29:52.600 --> 00:29:58.640 passage. That can be as dull as dishwater if it's an academic exercise. If we're just 00:29:58.640 --> 00:30:02.320 looking for the right answers each time we get together, no wonder people don't come 00:30:02.319 --> 00:30:10.159 because that's dull. It is listening and learning from God's Word together in a humble 00:30:10.159 --> 00:30:16.639 and united way, encouraging each other then to go and live it out. So what I'm hoping 00:30:16.639 --> 00:30:24.759 in this study, this year Romans, we're doing the next section in 5 to 11 and we're going 00:30:24.759 --> 00:30:30.799 to buy the Lifebuilder Bible study booklet which you'll all have. But it's too long for 00:30:30.799 --> 00:30:35.879 each Wednesday night, there's eight or nine questions and it's just too long and we're 00:30:35.879 --> 00:30:40.680 trying to do too much and we're not together for that long, we've only got an hour or so. 00:30:40.680 --> 00:30:46.639 So the idea is to take the studies that we do on a Wednesday evening twice a month and 00:30:46.639 --> 00:30:52.159 maybe prepare them in your own personal devotions. So you've got some kind of background to what 00:30:52.159 --> 00:30:56.359 we're going to look at. And then spend the time when we're together, maybe answering 00:30:56.359 --> 00:31:00.719 one or two of the difficulties but speaking about the implication section. What does this 00:31:00.719 --> 00:31:05.799 mean for us in our lives? So that I hope we're benefiting from that, we're learning ourselves 00:31:05.799 --> 00:31:13.519 and then we're coming together to share that. And it will roughly link with, it will roughly 00:31:13.519 --> 00:31:19.919 link with our Sunday sermon series. So that's what we're hoping to do and I hope you see 00:31:19.919 --> 00:31:24.959 that as a great encouragement, a small church coming together living out the Word which 00:31:24.960 --> 00:31:32.880 God is sovereign over. And city groups for us are core to our growth and the working 00:31:32.880 --> 00:31:40.039 of the Word and community. They remain core for that and it since says it's tough, it's 00:31:40.039 --> 00:31:44.640 tough for us to do that because we have such a turnover. We have so many people come and 00:31:44.640 --> 00:31:49.360 go, building relationships is vital to this but building relationships is hard because 00:31:49.360 --> 00:31:53.880 so much changes this summer. I think I've said it in the update that was with your boat 00:31:53.880 --> 00:31:59.960 and I've said at least 42 people that have left the congregation. That's a decent sized 00:31:59.960 --> 00:32:06.280 church in a lot of places. That's a lot of people that's a quarter or so, people that 00:32:06.280 --> 00:32:12.320 were core, people that were always part of the congregation and that's hard and you 00:32:12.320 --> 00:32:16.960 need to recognize that's hard for us as leaders. That's hard for us as a people to lose so 00:32:16.960 --> 00:32:24.519 many and we welcome and we rejoice that people come but we need to be passionate about building 00:32:24.519 --> 00:32:31.519 these relationships again and seeing people converted, we long for that, we long for 2018, 00:32:31.519 --> 00:32:39.120 19 to be a year of conversions, people coming to meet with this living Savior from His book, 00:32:39.120 --> 00:32:44.720 from His Word. So I would really encourage you to sign up for city groups to be part 00:32:44.720 --> 00:32:50.240 of that if you haven't done so before, a challenge you to be. I know it's hard work, I know 00:32:50.240 --> 00:32:56.360 the turnover is so great but it's also a great way I think of assimilating new people into 00:32:56.360 --> 00:33:00.319 the congregation. I think I mentioned this last week but it's kind of struck me strongly 00:33:00.319 --> 00:33:10.079 that the original word for hospitality is philoxenos, love of strangers, xenophobia, 00:33:10.079 --> 00:33:14.640 that's where we get that word from and it's the love of people who are new to us and that 00:33:14.640 --> 00:33:19.520 that's what you're great at doing here in St. Columbus is welcoming people who are new 00:33:19.520 --> 00:33:25.480 and please keep doing that so that they become no longer strangers but become friends in 00:33:25.480 --> 00:33:30.160 the city groups and a great way to help us with that. So in worship and discipleship 00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:37.000 and last line very, very briefly in evangelism, take the word of God and make it central in 00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:42.200 our evangelism. We really struggle what to say, I struggle what to say sometimes and 00:33:42.200 --> 00:33:49.920 how to say it to people. Just tell people about Jesus. Tell them about His word, let 00:33:49.920 --> 00:33:57.200 the word speak itself, have confidence in it, maybe do one to one through one of the 00:33:57.200 --> 00:34:04.200 gospels in Mark's gospel and just invite a friend to, well you read a couple of chapters 00:34:04.200 --> 00:34:09.119 and then we'll come together and you share with me your questions, what did you find 00:34:09.119 --> 00:34:13.000 easy, what did you find difficult, what do you believe, what do you think is ridiculous? 00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:19.719 Just let God's word speak. We don't need to open people's hearts, that's God's work 00:34:19.719 --> 00:34:26.440 but we do have a privilege of sharing that and culturally I think we find it incredibly 00:34:26.440 --> 00:34:30.920 difficult some of us to do that. I'll finish with this, I got an email this week from 00:34:30.920 --> 00:34:36.880 someone who shall remain anonymous, many of you will know her but she will remain anonymous 00:34:36.880 --> 00:34:43.200 but she's not with us at the moment but she emailed a long email about where she is and 00:34:43.200 --> 00:34:51.480 about the work she's doing, she's just working in a different part of the world and she just 00:34:51.480 --> 00:34:56.280 wrote a paragraph about eight or ten of the friends that she's made since she's been 00:34:56.280 --> 00:35:04.880 there. Ordinary people in all kinds of different contexts and in every single situation she 00:35:04.880 --> 00:35:10.000 was saying how they had responded to her faith and to what she'd been able to share 00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:16.800 and some were very blank, some were very inquisitive and it was just a huge encouragement in an 00:35:16.800 --> 00:35:20.920 ordinary person's life that they were doing, the ordinary things that we've preached about 00:35:20.920 --> 00:35:28.440 the last four weeks just in a very simple way telling them about Jesus. It isn't rocket 00:35:28.440 --> 00:35:34.800 science for us sometimes and I think the evil one likes to make us think it is. We just 00:35:34.800 --> 00:35:40.880 need the confidence in this word because it's living and it's changed our lives and it continues 00:35:40.880 --> 00:35:47.760 to change our lives and maybe sometimes the reality is that we're not letting it which 00:35:47.760 --> 00:35:54.600 is why we find that we lack confidence in sharing it with others. So may it be that 00:35:54.600 --> 00:36:00.320 we recognize this living relationship we have through this word in all its battles and struggles, 00:36:00.320 --> 00:36:09.160 the beautiful bits and may we submit as disciples to our great teacher. Amen. Let's pray briefly 00:36:09.160 --> 00:36:18.280 together. Father God help us to recognize who you are. We rejoice at this time of year that 00:36:18.280 --> 00:36:25.120 we look forward to welcoming new people. It's such a thrill, it's such a blessing, it's such an 00:36:25.119 --> 00:36:31.960 encouragement when our hearts are sore having lost so many friends over this last two or three 00:36:31.960 --> 00:36:38.039 months as people have moved on, families have moved on, individuals have finished studies and got 00:36:38.039 --> 00:36:46.159 jobs elsewhere and Lord we rejoice that they belong to your kingdom and we rejoice that the time 00:36:46.159 --> 00:36:51.480 they have had here is something that we hope and pray will have been encouraging and uplifting 00:36:51.480 --> 00:36:57.840 for them and will have pointed them further to Jesus. And we pray and ask that new friends who 00:36:57.840 --> 00:37:04.000 come and worship with us will settle quickly, will understand what we strive to do here as we are 00:37:04.000 --> 00:37:10.880 a city center church but want to plant churches in throughout the city that we love and we pray 00:37:10.880 --> 00:37:16.320 that we would live out our gospel lives and remember the people we're praying for who are not 00:37:16.320 --> 00:37:23.680 saved that we will be the answer to our own prayers in many ways by being the ones who share 00:37:23.680 --> 00:37:30.680 Jesus courageously with them, unhumbly with them and sometimes stumblingly with them but may we 00:37:30.680 --> 00:37:37.240 do it in the name of our great God and prayerfully dependent on allowing him to do his work as we 00:37:37.239 --> 00:37:48.000 share Jesus to a people who need Jesus. Lord help us to overcome the feeling of unbelief or 00:37:48.000 --> 00:38:08.000 lacking in the power of the word and may we be transformed by it we ask and pray in Jesus name. Amen.