Thank you, Barbara. Can I also encourage you to get the St Paul's app open? There is two points
to today's message and it would be great if you had it open. If you haven't got the St Paul's app,
you might need to get a pen out and a piece of paper to jot down a bunch of stuff, just even
Bible references in order to be able to follow through with them and check them out a little
bit later. The Appalachian Trail is the longest continuing walking track in the world. It
stretches for three and a half thousand kilometres up the east coast of the United States of America
and each year around about 2,000 bright-eyed keen bushwalkers set out to tackle this trail
and yet unfortunately very few make it. Half of those who seek to tackle it don't even make it
a third of the way. I mean, when I say even make it a third of the way, it's a thousand kilometres,
so it's still a fair way. But one in ten drop out in the very first week. There have been cases where
people have travelled halfway around the world, spent a small fortune in order to walk this trail
and lasted only three days. They turn up, it would seem, expecting some kind of a stroll
through the woods, sun shining, birds singing, squirrels playing, that kind of stuff.
And instead, they have those things, they do get those things, but they also get rocks to scramble
over, mountains to climb, rain, hypothermia, ticks, bears, blisters, physical and emotional exhaustion,
plus snakes. A whole heap of dangers and issues along the way. When you set off on a challenging
journey, such as the Appalachian Trail, you need the right equipment, you need the right resources,
you need the right supplies, but also the right perspective on what this journey is going to be
like if in fact you are to reach the destination. Now, if you were here last week, as we kicked off
our vision series, we discovered that the Christian fundamentally is what they are, is they are a
follower of Jesus Christ, the Lord and the Saviour of all of humanity. A Christian, they are a disciple,
they are a follower of Jesus, who we learn from him, we sit at his feet, we listen to his teaching,
we obey his teaching, we submit to his teaching and we become like him in all of life. That is,
his character becomes our character, his priorities, our priorities, his journey becomes our journey.
And we saw last week that the foundation of that relationship with Jesus is the gospel. It's the good
news that Jesus himself has absorbed God's punishment for our sin because we've chosen to walk a different
trail in life, chose to determine a different path for ourselves in life and rejected our creator God.
Jesus went to the cross, he died our death, he paid our debt and turned God's anger away from us
and has set us free to live a life we were created to live in the very first place and that is following
him. He's brought us back onto the path. Christian discipleship is a lifelong journey of following Jesus.
It's not a trip to the train station, it is a lifelong journey of following Jesus. And if you're going to
follow well and keep following him until the journey's end, we need the resources that God gives us. That is,
he doesn't sacrificially and generously and graciously get us back on the trail and then says,
well, there you go, just walk that path there. He gives us all the resources by his mercy day in,
day out to continue to walk the path with him. And so over the next three weeks, we're going to focus
on those resources and they are the Bible, prayer, the Holy Spirit and companions for the journey,
the church. And through these resources, our merciful heavenly father equips us and sustains us to follow
Jesus to the journey's end. Now, my aim today is to look briefly, even though it might not appear to be
brief, but it will be brief given the massive topic that it is on both Bible and prayer. Spend most of my
time on the Bible because we did a whole series on prayer this time last year. But I will also,
we're planning on doing a whole series on the Bible sometime probably this year as well. But so we'll
give a taste of a Bible, then we'll move into prayer. Okay. So first of all, if you've got the St.
Paul's app open, you'll see there the title God Absolutely Speaks. Now we exist in a culture,
in a society here in Australia, as does the Western world that asserts there is no objective and absolute
truth that must be understood, accepted and submitted to. That is the finite individual is the determiner
of ultimate truth. They become ultimate truth determiners. All claims to any form of absolute
ultimate universal truth in our culture is seen as bondage. That is, you must get rid of it if you want to
have any sense of freedom. That is, there's a connection and our culture's right. There is a connection between
something that is true and something that has authority over your life. It is binding for you. If something is
universally true, then it is universally binding. You cannot escape it. So even our secular society understands that.
So what I want us to see this morning, what I want us to become awakened to, is the authority of God's word over our
life is binding, but in fact leads to freedom, not bondage. Freedom. Salvation. Biblical truth leads to salvation and
freedom. Jesus himself said, the truth will set you free. So let's take a moment, see that connection.
And you might want to take notes because I'll move quick in through this stuff. Psalm 119, 155 to 160, which
Barbara just read out for us. Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek out your decrees.
Your compassion is great, O Lord. Preserve my life according to your laws. Many are the foes who persecute me,
but I have not turned from your statutes. I look on the faithless with loathing, for they do not obey
your word. See how I love your precepts. Preserve my life, O Lord, according to your love. All your words
are true. All your righteous laws are eternal. Now what those verses are saying there is,
is that God communicates. It's saying, uses terms, decrees, laws, statutes, words, precepts.
Then in verse 160, what it says here, when God speaks, what he speaks is true, it's righteous,
it's eternal. The word all that begins at verse 160 is translated in Exodus 30. It's usually two other
places, this particular word in the Old Testament, Exodus 30 and Numbers chapter 1. And in both Exodus
30 and Numbers 1, it's not translated as all, it's translated as census.
So what it's saying here is, if you took a census of the entire word of God, did a survey, investigated
the facts, the conclusion is that the sum total of the word of God is true. It's truth.
But the second half of verse 160, it says, all your righteous laws are eternal. It's not
just the sum truth, sum total of it is truth, but there might be a few areas in between here
and there, but collectively it's okay. It's not saying that, it's saying all the individual
parts are also truth. The census would reveal that the whole and the parts are all true.
When God speaks, what he speaks is truth, not an opinion, not ideas, it's truth. Truth is
what he communicates and he can only communicate and only ever communicate what is true, what
what is right, what is eternal. The reason why God speaks truth, ultimate truth, and is the overruling
and final authority on all things is because the one who speaks is true. He is ultimate reality.
There is no one, no thing equal to him. There's nothing beyond him, nothing higher than he is. As Romans 11 says,
from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. This is the God who exists
from everlasting. From everlasting. Reality is created. It is determined and defined by this God. There is no
reality before this God. We are told at the beginning of the Bible that all is void and formless
when this God. When this God existed. No beginning, no end. He stands outside of all that he has created. The God of the Bible never had a beginning.
He's never ending. He's never ending. Never becoming. Never improving. Simply and absolutely there to be dealt with on his terms or not at all.
The one who never had a beginning. The one who never had a beginning, but always was and is and will be, creates and defines all things
because he created all things from nothing. When God speaks, he doesn't interpret history. He's not his opinion on history.
It's not his view or viewpoint on history. He creates history when he speaks.
It's not his spin on how things works. When he says, when he speaks, it happens. Let there be light and there was light. If I said, let there be light,
I have to walk over to the light switches and turn them on. My words in and of themselves do not have creative authority.
They need actions to back them up. And if my actions do not back them up,
it's called a lie. It's called hypocritical. But God, when he speaks, it happens.
And so this simply means that what matters above all things is this God.
He created all that is. He sustains all everything that is. He directs the cause of all that is
because from him and through him and to him are all things for his glory forever.
Reality is created. It's determined. It's defined by an infinite God who is true.
Now, truth is a communication of ultimate reality.
That's what truth is. It's a communication of ultimate reality.
Or it's a display of ultimate reality.
The one who is ultimately true, infinite and unapproachable,
has come to us and revealed himself to us.
Psalm 19, 100 psalms before, says,
The heavens declare the glory of God.
The skies proclaim the work of his hands.
The created universe is God's text message
to all of humanity throughout history to say,
I'm here.
Without me speaking, without me doing, without me acting,
you would have no idea that I exist.
You could not discover yourself, me for yourself.
I have to do something.
So here's the first thing I'm going to do, creation.
It's my text message to say I'm here.
That something bigger is here.
It's why prayer is so universal across all cultures throughout history,
because we know something is there.
I read this devotion with one of my girls the other day,
Indescribable.
And it's talking about the verse from Genesis 1, 3,
Let There Be Light.
And at the end of the devotion, it says,
God's universe is so big that it can't be measured in,
this is American, right?
Feet and inches or even miles.
We have to use a bigger ruler.
It's called a light year.
A light year is, you guessed it,
how far light travels in an entire year,
which is 5.88 trillion miles a year.
Our own Milky Way galaxy that the Earth exists in,
our solar system exists in,
is 100,000 light years wide.
And scientists speculate that's just one galaxy
out of billions of galaxies that our God created.
There was that pause.
There was that pause at the end of me reading that.
And she turned to me and said,
Wow.
God is big, isn't he?
Yeah, but I don't know how big.
Just marvel.
Marvel.
The created order is God's text message to say,
I'm here.
But the Bible tells us the place where reality,
the way things actually are,
and the representation of that reality,
the communication of that reality,
the move from textbook to Facebook,
here I am,
you can now look at me,
is the person of Jesus Christ.
God reveals himself most profoundly in the person of Jesus.
Firstly,
because Jesus speaks the truth.
Jesus says this in John 18,
verse 37,
For this I came into the world to testify to the truth,
to testify to the way things actually are.
Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.
You want to know reality?
Jesus says,
You listen to me.
And Jesus is saying there,
he speaks truth,
came to testify to truth.
But he also says something even more profound.
In John 14, verse 6,
I am the way,
I am the truth.
Not that I just speak truth,
but I am the truth.
And the most ultimate reason
why Jesus Christ would say,
I am the truth,
is because he is ultimate reality.
He is God.
Which, when you go to the beginning of John's gospel,
that's exactly what is affirmed there.
John chapter 1,
In the beginning was the word.
In the beginning was the communication of God,
the word.
He existed before anything was made.
And the word was with God.
And the word was God.
And then in verse 2,
we are told,
He was with God in the beginning.
And through him,
that is through the word,
all things were made.
Without him,
nothing was made that has been made.
And then,
down in verse 14,
of John chapter 1,
we read something there,
which is just startling to us.
The word,
who is God,
existed with God,
became flesh,
and made his dwelling amongst us.
We have seen his glory,
the glory of the one and only,
who came from the Father,
full of grace and truth.
And so the question is,
who's John talking about?
Who is this word,
who is God,
who existed before creation,
who created everything,
and who is,
full of grace and truth?
So you read on a little bit further.
John chapter 1,
verse 15.
John testifies concerning him.
He cried out,
saying,
this was he of whom I said,
he who comes after me,
has surpassed me,
because he was before me.
From the fullness of his grace,
we have all received one blessing after another,
for the law was given through Moses,
but grace and truth
came through Jesus Christ.
So Jesus doesn't just speak God's word.
He doesn't just speak the truth.
He is the word of God.
He is the truth.
He is God.
And so the place where God,
ultimate reality,
the way things actually are,
and God's communication of that ultimate reality,
come together most profoundly,
is in the person of Jesus Christ.
Christ.
He is both God
and the communication of God.
And we go,
yeah,
but Steve,
Jesus was 2,000 years ago.
That was great for,
you know,
those dudes who were there
when he was there.
How do we grasp this Jesus?
How do we see this Jesus?
How do we connect?
How does he speak to us
and we experience him?
Luke 24,
as Jesus has walked along the road to Emmaus,
he showed the disciples
how the whole Old Testament pointed to him.
The Bible,
as the word of God,
is where we have God revealing
the way things actually are.
He says,
the whole scriptures is what he's saying,
point to me.
Everything that God has communicated
throughout history
has pointed to me.
The 66 books of the Bible
with Jesus at the center
is truth
and therefore the authority
by which all things are measured.
The Bible is where God speaks,
what is real,
what is absolute,
what is true,
the way things actually are.
The Bible is the way God,
the ultimate and all important reality
in cross all of human history
reveals himself to us
with clarity and authority
to this day.
So if God is more important
than anything,
then the Bible is more important
than anything but God.
And what we need to embrace
as God's people,
what we need to be confident in
is that the whole word of God
is true
with the Lord Jesus
as the center of that truth.
The God who made everything,
the God who controls everything,
the God who has a purpose
for everything,
this God has spoken
throughout history
and it is all recorded for us.
Everything that we need to know
for life and salvation
is recorded for us
in the Bible.
2 Timothy 3
that was just read out to us
by Barbara,
all scripture,
the whole Bible
is God breathed
breathed
and is useful
for teaching,
rebuking,
correcting and training
in righteousness.
In what our God
has revealed
to us,
we are not left
without a knowledge
of his will.
We are not left
without a knowledge
of him
at work
in his world.
We are not left
without wisdom.
We are not left
without a revelation
of the way of salvation.
But also,
I will unpack this
a little bit next week,
with the presence
of the Holy Spirit
working through
the word of God,
the Bible,
we also have
God's active presence
in this world
now.
Not just,
here is a
guidebook,
here is a handover
new card,
there is the manual
if something goes wrong
for you,
but God himself
walking with us
on the journey.
that is,
that is
just priceless.
If we could awaken
our hearts
and our minds
the confidence
to the confidence
that this is so,
just imagine
how we would
navigate our lives,
how we would
live our lives.
Just imagine
how we would
navigate the complexity
of this life
of this world,
which is our vision
for our next generation,
that they would,
they're getting
millions and millions
of options,
of identities
and options
to live in life
in this world.
And to say
that there's
one firm foundation,
just imagine
how we would navigate
the complexity
of this life.
Just,
God has not
left us
without a way
to measure
every single
thing that we face
every single day.
The Bible speaks
about everything
we face
every day.
Everything we face
is either,
is touched
by the Bible,
it is either
directly touched
because it is
in the Bible
or it's
indirectly touched
because the Bible
shapes every category
by which we approach it.
Every criteria
which we deal
with it.
The Bible
will be the sun
in the solar system
of all of our learning.
It gives light,
perspective,
meaning.
Its truth
needs to permeate
everything.
All ideas
will be judged
by this book.
This book
must be known first
and it must be known
better than all
other books
and ideas
and information.
this absolute
God
absolutely speaks.
But
when he speaks
what he reveals
is he absolutely
listens too.
There's one more
step we need
to take here.
See,
it's one thing
to say
that God
is ultimate
reality
and God
has revealed
ultimate reality
by speaking
to us
but that
does not
mean in any
way
that we
can have
any form
of relationship
with this
creator God.
It just
means
that
ultimate
reality
has
communicated
ultimate
truth.
Except
there's one
thing
that is
absolutely
essential
that this
God
does reveal
to us
about himself
in the
Bible
and that
is
that
fundamentally
in his
very
nature
he
is
a
God
of
ultimate
love
relationships.
The nature
of God
becomes
explicit
for us
at the
end of
Matthew's
gospel
Matthew
28
verse 19
this is
where
Jesus
sends
his
disciples
into the
world
and he
says
I
call
you
to
baptize
people
in the
name
of the
Father
the
Son
and the
Holy
Spirit.
Now he
doesn't
say
I
baptize
you
and call
you
to
baptize
people
in the
names
of the
Father
Son
and Holy
Spirit
but in
the
name
of the
Father
Son
and Holy
Spirit.
That
is
they
have
a
single
name.
That
is
the
Father
Son
and Holy
Spirit
all
share
one
divine
nature.
They
are all
one
being.
There
is
only
one
God
not
three
gods
but they
are
distinctly
the
Father
Son
and Holy
Spirit.
They
are
all
equally
God.
They
are
three
persons
of the
Godhead.
Three
persons
within the
unity of
God's
being
who
are
equally
divine
who
know
and love
one
another
and who
from
all
of
eternity
from
everlasting
that way
to
everlasting
that way
have
poured
love
into
each
other.
And
from
all
of
eternity
they
have
worked
for
our
salvation.
God
himself
by
himself
before
he
made
a
single
thing
has
always
within
himself
had a
perfect
relationship.
God
is
infinitely
profoundly
happy
filled
with
perfect
joy.
The
fierce
happiness
of
dynamic
love
relationships.
God
would
have
spoken
and
created
the
universe
and
created
humanity
was not in
order to
extract cosmic
love and joy
out of us
for himself
because he
already had
that
but in
fact was to
share it
with us.
The
God
of the
Bible
calls
us
into
that
relationship
to
converse
with him
to know
him
to relate
to him
because
it's
what we
were made
to do.
It's a
relationship
that God
himself
delights
in
and to
share the
joy that
he has
in
himself.
What we
discover
is that
the New
Testament
particularly
is the
character
of God's
fatherhood.
It becomes
so prominent
and so
clear for
us.
Galatians
4 verses
4 to 6
puts it
very succinctly.
God sent
his son
born of a
woman born
under the
law to
redeem those
under the
law that
we might
receive
adoption to
sonship
because you
are his
sons.
God sent
the spirit
of his
son into
our hearts
the spirit
who calls
out
Abba
father.
See what
you're saying
there?
This God
is not just
an all
powerful being
but this
God
has made
it possible
for us
to call
him father.
He has
adopted us
and being
adopted is
not just a
legal event.
To be
adopted into
a new
family means
a revolution
in how you
live your
life day
by day.
In Jesus
believers are
personally
established
into
the
ultimate
reality
relationship.
In
John 17
23
is a
remarkable
verse
where
Jesus
prays to
his
father
for his
followers
for us.
He says
that the
world will
know that
you sent
me
and have
loved
them
even
as you
have loved
me.
As you
have loved
me so
we have
loved
them.
To be
adopted
means that
now God
loves us
as he has
done all
along with
Jesus.
He loves
us as if
we have
lived as
Jesus has
lived.
And that
means that
this God
who has
revealed
himself is
a God
that we
can run
to.
He calls
us his
sons and
we call
him our
father and
we run
to him
not with
fear and
trepidation
because he
has embraced
us.
We have
the most
intimate and
unbreakable
relationship
because with
the God
of this
universe
he has
made
everything
possible
that we
might be
called his
children.
We have
direct
access
to ultimate
reality
and unless
he revealed
himself and
made it
possible we
would not be
able to do
that.
We are
blind and
in the
darkness.
So prayer
for the
Christian is
offered on
the basis
of God's
free saving
grace and
his steadfast
endless
fatherly love
for us.
How is
such access
and freedom
possible to
ultimate
reality?
Well
mark this
the only
time
in all
of the
gospels
in all
four
gospels
that Jesus
Christ
the son
of God
who existed
forever with
his father
in the
spirit
prays
to
God
but never
calls him
father
is on the
cross.
it's the
only time
every
other
time
he says
I'm going
to teach
you how
to pray
father
in heaven.
His
prayer on
the cross
was my
God
my
God
why
have
you
forsaken
me?
The
father
turned his
face away.
Jesus
lost his
relationship
with the
father for
that moment
on the
cross so
that we
can have
a
relationship
with
God
ultimate
reality
and call
him
father.
Jesus
was
forgotten
so that
we
would
be
remembered
forever
from everlasting
to everlasting.
Jesus
Christ
bore all
the eternal
punishment
that our
sins
deserve.
The
sin
of
living
life
and becoming
determiners
of what
reality
is
sin
is
that
is
the
cost
of
prayer
for
us.
Jesus
paid
the
price
so
that
God
could
be
our
father
and
we
would
have
direct
access
to
him
unhindered
access
to
him.
So
to be
a
Christian
without
prayer
and if
this is
a rebuke
then take
it
to be
a
Christian
without
prayer
is
no
more
possible
than
to be
alive
without
breathing.
Prayer
for the
Christian
is a
unique
gift
from
God.
Christianity
declares
that through
the Bible
and the
work of
God's
spirit
in our
lives
our
understanding
of
ultimate
reality
becomes
unclouded.
True
knowledge
of God
is
nothing
more
very
simply
as a
gift
from
God.
It's
not
because
Christians
are
more
clever.
Without
God
first
speaking
to
us
we
would
have
no
way
of
speaking
to
him.
This
is
the
gift
and
the
wonder
of
the
Bible
and
prayer
for
the
Christian.
Prayer
is
not
plunging
into
the
abyss
of
the
unknown.
And
so
these
two
resources
of
Bible
and
prayer
are
just
gifts.
wonderful
gifts
for us
as we
navigate
life
in a
complex
world.
Gifts
from God
that we
might
fellowship
with the
personal
God
who is
ultimate
reality
and defines
all things
as we
follow the
Lord Jesus
Christ
as truth.
you
see we
only
know
who
we're
praying
to
first
of
all
and
foremost
is
because
we
learned
it
in
the
Bible
and
we
know
how
we
should
be
praying
only
by
getting
our
vocabulary
from
the
Bible
our
prayers
should
arise
out
of
immersion
in
the
Bible
what
we
discover
is
that
the
God
of
the
Bible
is
both
simple
and
complex
he's
majestic
and
tender
he's
holy
and
forgiving
he's
loving
personable
and
mysterious
at the
same
time
he
has
given
us
everything
we
need
for
life
and
for
salvation
but
he
has
not
given
us
everything
there
is
still
mystery
what
we
discover
is
the
God
of
the
Bible
is
as
I
said
simple
and
complex
loving
personable
and
mysterious
and
therefore
as
we
listen
we
study
we
think
we
reflect
we
pondered
this
God
in
this
Bible
our
response
to
him
in
our
hearts
and
our
minds
is
therefore
going
to
be
varied
it
may
be
one
of
shame
it
may
be
one
of
joy
it
may
be
one
of
confusion
or
of
appeal
our
prayer
can
never
be
primarily
confessions
or
praise
or
appeals
it
cannot
be
mainly
one
type
of
expression
or
the
other
some
prayers
in
the
Bible
are
like
intimate
conversations
with a
friend
others
like
an
appeal
to
a
great
monarch
and
others
akin
to
a
wrestling
match
in
every
case
the
nature
of
prayer
is
determined
by
the
character
of
God
who's
revealed
himself
who
is
at
all
the
same
time
our
friend
our
father
our
lover
our
shepherd
our
creator
and
our
king
we pray
in
response
to
God
himself
and
only
if
we
respond
to
his
word
will
our
own
prayer
life
be
rich
and
varied
the
more
we
clearly
grasp
who
this
God
is
the
more
our
prayer
is
shaped
and
determined
accordingly
but
friends
be
patient
this
journey
may
be
slow
as
slow
as
a
child
learning
to
speak
and
read
it
takes
discipline
consistency
a
child
does
not
learn
to
speak
and
to
read
without
effort
and
those
that
do
and
do
well
they
learn
to
navigate
life
better
than
those
that
don't
the
Bible
and
prayer
are
God's
gift
God's
gift
from
a
loving
heavenly
father
for
this
journey
so
don't
neglect
them
personal
time
communing
with
God
in
his
word
and
prayer
are
essential
for
the
life
of
discipline
of
discipleship
in
fact
I
would
say
it's
essential
for
life
full
stop
can
I
say
listening
to a
sermon
once
a
week
online
at
church
is
like
eating
food
once
a
week
and
thinking
that
will
sustain
you
a
research
project
on
personal
Bible
reading
revealed
that
it
made
virtually
no
difference
in
your
growth
as
a
disciple
of
following
Jesus
unless
you
were
doing
more
than
four
a
week
four
week
times
of
commuting
with
God
and
that's
why
in
our
strategic
plan
you'll
notice
that
strategic
priority
number
one
not that
they're
all
necessarily
ordered
but I
want to
make
the point
this
one
they're
not
ordered
in
terms
of
you know
which
is
the
most
important
priority
but
strategic
priority
number
one
is
for
70%
of
this
church
practicing
a
daily
devotional
life
of
more
than
four
a
week
now
my
goal
this
year
is to
read
the
New
Testament
and
Psalms
twice
and the
rest of
the
Old
Testament
once
and my
intention
not just
this year
but my
intention
is to
do that
throughout
all of
follow 25
and the
reason I'm
saying that
is because
I heard
from someone
his name
was mentioned
earlier
Tim Keller
that it
takes at
least five
years of
that sort
of discipline
before you
start to
grapple with
and grasp
the enormity
and the
scope
of scripture
five years
of discipline
so why
don't you
join me
on that
one
the reason
I'm doing
it is
because I
want to
navigate
life
well
I want
my life
to be
aligned
with the
things
the way
things
actually
are
and when
they are
it's for
my joy
I want
to know
the God
who simply
is
other
members of
my family
are aiming
to read
the whole
Bible
in the
entire
year
they're
doing
a
read
journal
what's
your
plan
to take
up
God's
gracious
gift
of
Bible
and
prayer
this
year
out
on the
table
out there
I just want to mention a couple of resources
out on the table out there
you'll see this little booklet
getting into the Bible
it's just a really
really simple
book to grasp
how to interpret the Bible
how to understand the Bible
and how to get into the Bible
they're free
and I've got lots more
so you know
take them
you're sitting here going
not really sure what you said about that Steve
I'm a bit of a skeptic
well there's a great book for you
Doubters Guide to the Bible
this is my copy
so if you want to
it can be a boomerang
but I won't be offended if you take it
and digest it entirely
it'd be totally
that's totally fine
I'm going to stick it out there
you want to sneak it in your bag
and walk out
with it
or if you're someone online
and you want to get a copy of this
then please send us an email
so please take that up
if you're somebody who's not convinced
for what I said
also James has put together
as at least a starting point for us
a set of devotions
for this whole follow series
whatever it is
that you want to do
can I just encourage you
speak to the staff
to your community group leader
they would be delighted
to speak to you
about this
and how to get going
on this journey
in God's word
and prayer
this year
let's pray
gracious God
wow
it was
over
480 years ago
now
that
William
Tyndall
was
strangled
he was tied
to a stake
and he was burnt
to death
all because
the consuming passion
of his life
was you
and to have you
accessible
in the common language
of all people
so that we might
this morning
here
in 2021
have the Bible
in our language
sitting on our laps
Lord
we owe him
a debt
but gracious God
I pray
that
our commitment
to you
through your word
and prayer
will not
primarily be
because we owe
Tyndall a debt
of gratitude
but because
it's you
a God
who is
who defines
all things
and is worthy
of all praise
and glory
you God
have spoken
to us
and you
have made it
known
and possible
for us
to speak
to you
to relate
to you
to know you
to be in fellowship
with you
gracious God
from this day
we ask that you
would by your spirit
enable us
to not despise
that gift
Amen