Essentials Of The Faith /
Sunday Morning Sermon Series /
Special Services
New Years 2006
Message: ‘The Word: Read it! Love
it! Live
it!’
Text: Various
Introduction: Have you ever
purchased a self help book hoping to improve some area of your life? You are
not alone. Go into any bookstore and you’ll find the Self-help section one
of the largest in the store. Millions of dollars are spent each year on
these books because in them people find the promise of a better marriage, a
more successful career, a happier life if you just follow their 7 proven
steps for a better.
However, the biggest problem with Self-Help books is the idea of SELF. The
authors want us to do what they have done to be successful in life because
it worked for them. But the reality is, you’re not them and they don’t know
you. That’s why Self-Help books fail to deliver on their promises.
But
• most of you already own a book that always delivers on its
promises.
• most of you already own the most powerful book ever written in
terms of improving your life.
• most of you already own the one book written for you by the One who
knows you infinitely better than you know yourself.
This book promises to do more for your life than any self help book because
instead of depending on self, it depends on the one being in the universe
who can actually do something about your marriage, your career, your
life…because he truly knows and cares for you. That book, as you may have
already guessed, is the Bible.
While some self-help books offer a money back guarantee, the Bible promises
a even better guarantee. God guarantees to impact your life every time you
read and consider what the Bible says. Listen to God’s guarantee as written
in the Book of Isaiah.
• So shall my word be which goes forth from my mouth; It shall not
return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without
succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.’
How’s that for a guarantee? Every time you open the Bible and read it, every
time you hear the Bible preached on Sunday mornings or taught some other day
of the week, it will accomplish God’s desire...for you. Since God guarantees
that his Word will always accomplish what he intends it to accomplish in our
lives, then if we want a better marriage, a more successful career, a better
life, we need a greater exposure to God’s Word.
Think about it. If the only time you read/hear the Word of God is on Sunday
mornings, then
• you are missing out on 6 days of God’s transforming presence in
your life,
• you are missing out on 6 days of God’s promises being fulfilled in
your life.
• you are missing out on 6 days of power, God’s power to get through
the difficult days.
You are missing out! But many, at least by their actions, seem not to care.
We have all heard the excuses people make of why they can’t read the Bible
on a regular basis…perhaps you have made them yourself?
Transition: I’m here this morning,
this start of the New Year to challenge you to stop making excuses and to
start taking God up on his on his guarantee…I am here this morning to
challenge you to read the Bible through this year.
I’ve titled the program ‘Read it! Love it! Live it! Share it!’. Today I will
examine regular Bible reading and next Sunday I will look at sharing the
Bible regularly with others.
Why? Because
• I want to see your life transformed by the powerful hand of
Almighty God in the coming year.
• I want to see you have power, God’s power to face and be victorious
over the temptations Satan will throw at you in the coming year.
• I want to see you experience the comforting presence of God in
difficult times in the coming year.
• I want you to know in the coming year that God loves you. No matter
what.
• I want you to know in the coming year that God desires that you
share his free, healing and forgiving love with those who are headed for an
eternity separated from his love.
• I want you to know in the coming year that all this is possible
when you regularly spend time in God’s Word.
Regular Bible Reading
1. The Benefits (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Read: 2 Tim. 3:16-17
What are some of the benefits of regular Bible reading?
A. It will equip you for good works.
• The beginning of this passage and the end are key to understanding
this passage. Combined it says that Scripture is profitable to thoroughly
equip you for every good work.
• To equip means to completely furnish, to give you everything you
need to do the good works God has planned for you to do.
• The words ‘teaching, rebuking, correcting, training’ in the text
are some of the good works Paul is speaking about…but certainly not all the
good works God has planned for us.
B. It will change you
• DL Moody once said ‘The Scriptures were not given for our
information but our transformation.’
• Paul says in vs 14-15 ‘But as for you, 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…’
• Who did he learn it from? Chapter 1 vs 5 ‘I have been reminded of
your sincere faith which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your
mother Eunice…’
• Timothy’s grandmother and mother exposed him to Scripture from the
time he was young and it changed his life. Paul testified to it. And the
Bible mentions by name., two women and a man who saw the transforming power
of Scripture in their life.
C. It will comfort you
• How often in painful times we long to find relief a respite from
the suffering…but it eludes you? When we look to the Bible we always find
the comfort we need. The psalmist wrote ‘This is my comfort in my
affliction, that Thy Word has revived me.’
These are but a few of the benefits of regular Bible reading. As you read
thru the Bible this year, you will discover many more wonderful benefits of
regular Bible reading.
Transition: Let’s say you choose to
begin the new year reading the Bible through. What’s next?
2. Staying the Course (Nehemiah
6:1-13)
Read: Neh. 6:1-13
Have you ever lost focus? You were making great progress on a task then
something derailed you? It’s so easy to lose focus, especially in our
spiritual life.
So how do we stay focused? How do we maintain our regular Bible reading
throughout the year?
A. God called Nehemiah to make a difference,
he calls you to do the same.
• Nehemiah saw the sad conditions in Jerusalem and heard God call him
to do something about it…God called him to make a difference.
• God calls each one of us to make a difference here and now not only
in our lives, but in the lives of those around us.
• Regular Bible reading will give us the knowledge, the power and the
ability to make a difference for God.
• When you begin to skip a few days reading the Bible, remember, God
has called you to make a difference.
B. When God calls you to make a difference,
there will be distractions.
• Everyone wanted Nehemiah to stop rebuilding the walls of
Jerusalem…the towns people, his enemies, everyone. But Nehemiah would not
let these distractions stop him from completing his task.
• Your favorite TV show, your children’s activities, the overtime at
work, your friends who want to spend time with you will all try to keep you
from daily bible reading. No, they won’t say that. But they will compete for
your time.
• Will you choose to give in or be successful as Nehemiah was by
choosing to complete the task, to continue God’s calling to make a
difference by regularly reading God’s Word?
Remember, focus will make or break you.
Transition: So, how do you finish
what you started today?
3. Finishing Strong (Philippians
3:12-14)
Read: Phil. 3:12-14
You finish strong! But our tendency is to let up right before the finish
line. Many runners have lost a race because they let up just a little at the
end. They had the stamina, they had what was needed to win, but
overconfident, they coasted to the finish line…only to lose the race.
• When you get near the end of reading the Bible thru this coming
year…say Oct, Nov, Dec, it will become easy to say, ‘Hey, I made it this
far, I did good. I deserve a break. After all, I read most of the Bible this
year.’
What you will do is what Paul tells us not to do…look back and become
content with our past success. But Paul tells us to finish, to press on, to
win the prize. To look forward, not backwards… to make a difference,
everyday, not just yesterday.
Conclusion
Well, you’ve made it through another year. 2005 is history and 2006 hold
many promising opportunities.
• 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days
• 8760 hours, 525,600 minutes and 31,536,000 seconds.
What will you do with all that time? May I suggest two things?
1. Practice saying yes to God’s priorities.
We become aware of them by regularly reading God’s Word. Hear what
God has to say to you as you read his Word.
ILL: A Native American left the
reservation to join his cousin who lived in the city. One day as the two men
walked down the streets of the city, the Native American said that he heard
a cricket. His city cousin was amazed because all he could hear was the
traffic. After a short search, the man reached down and picked up the
cricket he had heard. He then pulled some change from his pocket and dropped
it on the sidewalk. The noise of the coins was no louder than the sound of
the cricket, but immediately several people stopped and turned towards the
sound of the coins hitting the pavement. The man turned to his city cousin
and said ‘See, people hear what’s important to them.’
What are you hearing today? What is important to you? Are you focused on
God’s kingdom or on a bunch of other things? Say yes to God’s priorities.
2. Practice saying no to Satan’s
distractions. Take some time to ask the Holy Spirit to identify those
things that are distracting you from making a difference in life. Is it
money, recreation, career, TV, computer gaming, or disappointment with your
past? Say no to those things that are a distraction to regular Bible reading
in the coming year.
Bottom Line…
• Sports fans read Sports Illustrated.
• Lawyers read the Harvard Law Review.
• Doctors read the New England Journal of Medicine.
• Businessmen and women read the New York Times.
• Christians read the Bible.
Read it! Love it! Live it! In 2006