“The Church in Antioch” – Acts 11:19-30

This past week I watched a national TV interview with a famous mega-church pastor on Fox News being asked for his wisdom about how we are to get through this difficult time with the coronavirus. Let me repeat. He is a pastor being interviewed on a national news program being asked why we should not be afraid or live in fear because of the virus. What an incredible opportunity! Here is his chance to say the name of Jesus to millions of people. I mean, as a pastor, surely that is what he said, right?

“Take it one day at a time and choose to live in a place of peace, not fear.” And with his perfect smile, he went on to say that we should think happy thoughts, not depressing thoughts because what we think, so we become. And while none of that is inherently wrong, during the whole five-minute interview, not one time did he mention the name of Jesus. He said “God” a couple of times but that works no matter what god you serve. It works for Buddha or Allah or your higher power of choice.

I couldn’t help but think of how someone like Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, would have responded to those questions. I’ve heard him interviewed before and it doesn’t matter what question he is asked, Franklin Graham is going to bring up the name of Jesus. “Bro. Graham, how do you like today’s weather?” “Well, Bill, it’s a beautiful day and it makes me think of how beautiful it will be when Jesus takes us home to Heaven!” You know, he’s that kind of guy which may be the reason he doesn’t get interviewed as often as the other guy.

But there is power in the name of Jesus! There is something about that name. And if you have a hard time saying that name when somebody asks you for the hope that you have, then there is a good chance you don’t know Him and if you don’t know Him then you have no business being a Christian preacher.

The thing about the name of Jesus is there is power in that name and because there is power, when it is spoken, one of two things is going to happen. The person hearing it will either accept it or reject it. There is no third choice. Because of that, Jesus is controversial. He is controversial because those that accept it want other people to have what they have. The people that reject it, reject it because they don’t want to change their lives. They don’t want to give up the power that they think they have and so they think the people that accept it should be quiet and leave them alone.

In the seventh chapter of Acts, Stephen was falsely accused of blasphemy and taken to court where he was asked if it was true. He went into a long lesson on Israel’s history that ended with Stephen accusing them of murdering Jesus, the Messiah. If you are wondering, no, that didn’t go too well. They stoned him to death for it. They rejected Jesus by rejecting Stephen and, while the first church was just getting started, one of the church leaders was killed and a great crisis started for the church that would continue until…well, it probably continues even today in one form or another.

That crisis led to the first church being scattered to the four winds. People lost their homes and their jobs and their families all because they professed the powerful name of Jesus. That sounds horrible, doesn’t it. It was horrible. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. How could God have allowed all this to happen? Was He not aware or did He just not care?

Today, you may be thinking the same thing about your situation. Some of you have been hit harder than others but we are all suffering right now through no fault of our own. Many have lost jobs. Many are hurting financially. We are all suffering relationally and it’s just not right. It’s not fair. Why does God allow us to continue suffering like this? Are we being punished or does He just not care?

Those are important questions and they can be hard to answer satisfactorily but I believe some of the answers can be found a couple of chapters later in the book of Acts. We are continuing our study of the New Testament churches to find out what they did right and what they did wrong so we will know what Christ Fellowship ought to be doing or not doing. Last week we saw the birth of the church in Jerusalem in Acts chapter two but that infancy didn’t last long. They had to grow up quick.

This week, we are in Acts chapter 11 and we see that some of the members of the first church have fled the persecution in Israel and traveled all the way north to the Greek city of Antioch. Now, Antioch was no small village. It had hundreds of thousands of people and was a major seaport and crossroads. I read that the city actually had marble roads and sidewalks for miles and miles. It was very wealthy and very busy. Think of it as a mixture of New York City and Las Vegas. Imagine leaving Lake Bridgeport and moving to Vegas. Yea, it was like that.

So, let’s turn to Acts 11:19-30 and let’s see what happened to the people of the first church as they moved away. Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. 20 Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. 22 News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. 24 He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. 25 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. 27 During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) 29 The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. 30 This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

There is a quote attributed to Martin Luther that says, “Apart from the church, there is no salvation.” What do you think about that? Is that true? Is salvation provided by the church? Of course not. Salvation, the assurance of Heaven when we die, is not provided by the church but only found in the grace of God through His Son Jesus.

But what is the church? The church is just the saved ones, the called-out ones and who is going to tell the unsaved if not the saved? If somebody is lost on a trail in the wilderness, who can save them except someone who knows the way? That is the reason that the church is not just raptured up to Heaven already. We are left to tell others. It’s the one job Jesus gave us before He went back to Heaven. As He said in Matthew 28, “As you go, make disciples.”

That is exactly what the first church was doing all the way up in Antioch. I love that is says they were telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus in verse 20. Notice that it does not say they were inviting them to church. There is nothing wrong with inviting someone to church. In fact, that is often where the conversation should start. But that is definitely not where the conversation should end.

If there is any good with this virus, it has taught us that the church is not a building. It is not something that happens at 1301 N Main St. The church is a group of believers that have jobs, go to school, share joys and hardships together and every once in a while, we get to meet together as a group and make God look good in a corporate way. That’s the way it should be. That is what the first church did from the beginning and what they continued to do as they scattered during their crisis. As they went, they made disciples even in New York / Las Vegas / Antioch.

Now, notice what happens when they did what they were supposed to do even in the midst of their crisis. It says in verse 21, “The Lord’s hand was with them.” We see in the Old Testament that there are two ways that the Lord’s hand can be with you or on you. The Lord’s hand can be on you in judgment or in blessing.

There is a short passage of scripture in 1 Samuel 5 that talks about how the Philistines stole the Ark of the Covenant and took it to a city called Ashdod. Let’s just say that God was not pleased with that decision and it says in 1 Samuel 5:6, “The LORD's hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation on them and afflicted them with tumors.” If you don’t think God causes bad things to happen sometimes, ask the Ashdodians how they felt about God’s hand being on them. Oh, wait. You can’t. There are no more Ashdodians.

God’s hand can be on you in judgment or in blessing and for the church in Antioch, it provided blessing. And what kind of blessing? Surely it means they were healthy and wealthy, right? No. Not necessarily. But God blessed their efforts and it says that a great number of people had their lives changed because of it.

Let’s continue on looking at what that church did in verses 22-23. “News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them…” Stop right there. News got back to the first church there in Jerusalem and they told Barnabas, one of their main members, “Hey, go check out these stories of what our brothers and sisters are doing up there in Sin City.”

Barnabas was the right choice, too. His name actually means “Son of Encouragement.” It wasn’t his birthname. It was a nickname because that is exactly who he was and what he was. We have several Barnabas’s (Barnabi?) in our church and they play a vital role. I told Linda Pierot the other day that I remember the very first time I saw her because she walked into our church building one Sunday morning, late of course, but she walked in smiling and nodding and saying, “Amen” and she never stopped. She is a “Son of Encouragement.” That is a gift that a lot of people don’t have but everybody needs to be.

God-given gifts can be a tricky thing in the church sometimes. I believe God’s hand of blessing is on a person who admits that something is not their gift but they are willing to do it when they see a need. On the other hand, there are some people in some churches that think they have a gift and want to use it. That can be a problem. But whether or not you are actually gifted with encouragement or not, you need to be an encourager.

It has been really windy lately and the other day I was out on the back deck and I watched this buzzard trying to fly into the wind. He was making some progress but you could tell he was straining. He was basically standing still and working really hard. Finally, he had evidently had enough and he took off the other way like a jet. He had the wind behind him and he was moving fast. It might not have been the way he wanted to go but he was making good time.

Ministry is like that sometimes and we all have our ministries. What we need is somebody to be the encouraging wind beneath our wings so we can really do what we are supposed to do without a lot of resistance. So…now, I would like to sing a solo of “Wind Beneath My Wings” and dedicate it to all you encouragers out there. What do you think? No? No encouragement from anybody to do that? It’s not my gift, is it? That’s okay. I understand. Let’s move on then. 😊

We have seen that the church in Antioch, in the midst of their crisis, was continuing to make disciples and telling the Good News of Jesus and the Lord’s gracious hand was on them and blessing them. They had some natural encouragers in that church and were hitting on all cylinders in a land that was foreign to them and not where they really wanted to be but where God had called them to be for the good of the global church and for the glory of God’s name.

Now, if you go back down to verses 27-29 of our passage, you will see something that corresponds to encouragement. It says, “During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) 29 The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea.”

We’re not going to get bogged down with a lot of details or a history lesson or a debate on theology here but there is one main take-away I want to look at here. John MacArthur says succinctly about this when he says, “Like the apostles, the prophets were not a permanent order. Having fulfilled their foundational purpose, they gradually faded from the scene, to be replaced by the evangelists and the pastor-teachers.”

So, when it says that some prophets came to Antioch from Jerusalem and prophesied, it is like having a guest preacher and that preacher said there was about to be a great famine and so the gist of this passage is not that there was a great prophecy or there were prophets that we should emulate, but that in view of that famine, the members of the church in Antioch, knowing the poverty that the persecuted church in Jerusalem was undergoing, decided to send them some financial help.

“Oh, here he goes, Agnes, talking about money again! That’s all he ever talks about. Money, money, money.” Well, I hope you know that’s not true. I also want you to know that I don’t know who gives what. It’s not my business and I’m not the least bit worried about our finances here at Christ Fellowship. That’s not because we have a lot of money in the bank but because our God is loaded and He protects and provides for us beyond all we could ever imagine. I don’t bring up giving so that the church bank account will grow. I bring it up so that your treasures in Heaven will grow.

Matthew 6:19-21 says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” You store up treasures in Heaven by giving here on earth. That’s what the Bible says, not what Todd says.

But Todd does say that if you are a member of this church, you ought to support this church financially and with your attendance, virtually or in person. But if you are watching this on Facebook and you are a member somewhere else, support that church, not this church. Yes, you heard me. Don’t send your money here if your membership is somewhere else. If you want to support this church AND your church then that is fine for your over and above gift to come here.

Most of you know that our church tithes ten percent of our income to support five other ministries. Those ministries, in turn, support ministries and missionaries all over the world. So, when you give a dollar to Christ Fellowship, a portion of that goes around the world to help further the Gospel, just like the church in Antioch did.

Luke 6:38 says, “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” Now, the mega-church pastor I talked about at the beginning might tell you that means that if you give the church $50 then God will give you $500. But it doesn’t necessarily work that way. It might. God can do whatever He wants, but it probably won’t. How it usually works is that God honors your sincere gift in a way that He blesses you with His gracious hand in intangible ways – His protection and provision that we usually can’t see – but also in ways that we won’t ever see until we get to Heaven.

Now, would you rather have $500 in this life or God’s gifts that are beyond all we could ever ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20) in the next life for eternity? $500 would be nice. No doubt. But that is not what this verse is talking about. We give because we want to be obedient. We give because we love and want to support other ministries and we give because we will be rewarded for it in Heaven. That’s a pretty good deal.

This church in Antioch was in the middle of a huge crisis. The church in Jerusalem was in an even bigger crisis. The church today is in a crisis as well but I sincerely believe that this virus is not our biggest problem. The church has always been in crisis and it always will be because we represent the name of Jesus and some people are always going to reject Him through us.

In the midst of this crisis and any other crisis we have to continue telling other people the good news about Jesus and what He has done in our lives. We have to keep encouraging each other. Who else is going to? And we have to continue to support our church, for the sake of the church but also for the sake of the other ministries and for the blessings God wants us to have in Heaven. When we do those three things, we will see God’s hand of blessing on our church, virus or no virus.

Today, if you don’t know the good news about Jesus Christ, let me tell you. He has changed my life like He has changed the lives of so many people in our church and He can change yours. I don’t care how bad you are or how bad you have messed up. You would be hard pressed to top some of the horrible stuff some of us have done but God forgives when you repent and turn away from that lifestyle. All you have to do is believe and confess with your mouth that He is Lord of your life and He will come into your life and His mighty right hand will be on you with blessing instead of judgment.

He gives peace and joy in this life even in the difficulties and the crises of this world. Plus, you have all the assurance of Heaven when you die. What’s that worth? Trust me. It’s a pretty good deal. Do it right now wherever you are as the music plays.

“The Church in Jerusalem” – Acts 2:42-47

https://youtu.be/Q6HnFuzSJdQ

This You Tube video is about Nick Vujicic who was born without arms or legs but has managed to figure out how to not only survive but thrive in this life. I watched videos of him skydiving, playing golf and basketball, swimming and doing what he seems to do best, public speaking. He is married with four kids and has published eight books and I can’t imagine what difficulties he has had to overcome.

Living life without arms or legs is not fair. He has to work way harder than most people to do the most basic things in this life and I understand that he tried to commit suicide as a boy but he has forced himself to do what he has to do. He devoted himself to learning how to overcome his disability and make the best of an unfair situation.

He says in his book Life Without Limits, “We may have absolutely no control over what happens to us, but we can control how we respond. If we choose the right attitude, we can rise above whatever challenges we face.” I like that quote but there is more to being able to thrive in an unfair world. I understand that Nick Vujicic is a devout Christian so I know he would agree that, as Christians, when we devote ourselves to doing what God wants us to do, we also have the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us to help us.

The apostle Paul wrote, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you?” (1 Cor. 6:19) So, when we devote ourselves to doing what we are supposed to do and we choose the right attitude and with the help of the Holy Spirit, whether something is fair or not doesn’t really matter, does it? We can do what God calls us to do even if we are not as well-equipped as somebody else or maybe not as well-equipped as we used to be.

The question is, how bad do you want it? How bad do you want to be obedient? How bad do you want to be blessed? How bad do you want to do what God has called you to do or be? How bad do you want to change the life of your neighbor next door? How bad do you want to change the life of the person you work with? How bad do you want to change the world or even your child or grandchild?

If you have your Bibles handy, turn to the Book of Acts, chapter 2. Acts is after John and before Romans in the New Testament. It is the story of the first church. I have always said that this church reminds me a lot of the first church. It started small. It had some of the most loving and dedicated people. It had a few hoodlums in it but overall it was a world-shaking powerhouse of a church and it should be studied and used as a model.

So, I believe it is appropriate to start our new sermon series right here. For the next six weeks or so, we will look at different churches in the New Testament to see what they did right and what they did wrong and hopefully learn what this church is supposed to do in this weird and unique time in which we live.

Even just two months ago, if I were to study this passage and prepare a message from it, I would have gone a completely different route. But everything has changed in the last couple of months, hasn’t it? People in the church and even outside the church are asking questions about what the role of the church is nowadays. Who is the church? Where is the church? What are we supposed to do and not do? Who is our authority? What can we do? What do we have to do? And the big question is, how do we do it when we can’t even meet together?

These are questions that our parents and grandparents never had to ask. Over the years in the United States, the church has had some persecution. It has been misunderstood and put down and ignored but the church has always been able to meet together and be there for each other and so many of us have soothed our consciences by inviting people to church as we try to comfort them in their difficulties but we can’t do that anymore. That may change tomorrow but we need to know what the role of the church is in these unique times.

In Acts chapter 2, in the passages preceding the verses we are going to study this morning, Peter stands up to preach his first sermon and he hits it out of the park. I remember the first time I preached. It was at a nursing home in Ft. Worth and a little old lady in a wheelchair kept screaming at me, “That’s a lie!” I’ll just tell you, nobody got saved that day. (True story.)

But Peter stood up to preach, yes, that Peter. The same Peter that just a few days before had denied three times even knowing Jesus. But today he stands up and tells them the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ and 3, 000 people got saved. That’s a humdinger of an altar call right there. But can you imagine the questions those people had? Can you imagine the problems and the challenges? I don’t have time to go into it all but if you research the times they lived in, you will see it was not a good time to be a Christian and so you might think that the church would be slow in taking off but it was just the opposite.

Let’s read about that first church in Acts 2:42-47. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the LORD added to their number daily those who were being saved.

How many of you believe that God never changes? How many of you believe that God’s Word, the Bible, is completely true and inerrant in every verse? How many of you believe that God’s overall will for the first church is the same as God’s overall will for the church of today, specifically Christ Fellowship?

Be careful! Are you sure? Are you sure that God wants us to look like this church in Acts? I mean, how can we? We aren’t able to meet like they could. This is not an easy model to follow on a regular good day much less today. Let’s look closer at what it really says and then we will see what we can do. We will see just how close we can get to it in these unique days.

Let’s start at the beginning in verse 42. It says they devoted themselves. They devoted themselves. We could stop right there. Thanks for coming. See you next Sunday. Just devote yourself. Actually, there is more to it than that so let’s go further. What does it mean to devote yourself and to what are we supposed to be devoted?

I always like to look up the main words in my concordance to see what they mean and what they meant to the author and when I looked up this word that the King James translates as “steadfast” it says it means to continue strongly. There are other variations but it always means to continue. To keep on continuing and to never stop. To make it a priority and to keep making it a priority. To stay strongly involved.

Then look at what they were continuing strongly in. It says they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and prayer. They devoted themselves to what we would call the church. Remember, they didn’t have the New Testament like we do. They were living it and so they were devoted to what the apostles taught. And what did the apostles teach? They just taught what they had learned from Jesus.

The only difference between an apostle and a disciple is that the apostles were actually with Jesus all the time. But even today, we say that a disciple is just one who is learning from Jesus and telling others what you know. They devoted themselves to discipleship. So, the first church was learning from the apostles what we are learning from the Bible. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching which is discipleship.

They also devoted themselves to the fellowship. That Greek word is “koinonia.” It means sharing and fellowship and being intimately together as family, sharing the good times and the bad as they come. How appropriate that our name is Christ Fellowship because think about what happens around here when somebody gets a new job…or loses their job. Think about what happens when somebody gets married or a baby is born…or somebody dies. Either way, the family – the fellowship – the koinonia – comes together and either celebrates or mourns.

I was laughing earlier this week as I remembered one of our infamous game nights where we played spoons and Ruby Wisdom and Trey Pittman were down to the last spoon. If you don’t know, spoons is a card game and I don’t think it is meant to be full contact like we do but anyway, Ruby and Trey were the last two and one of them grabbed for a spoon and the other grabbed at the same time and they went to wrestling and fighting and fell over on the floor and all of us around them were screaming, “Kick him, Ruby! Bite him! C’mon Trey, get the spoon!” And we laughed until we cried at their game of spoons. That is part of koinonia.

But koinonia also means coming together and crying bitter tears when a family member passes away. It means sharing the good times and the bad. It means asking for prayer and celebrating answered prayer. It’s just what family does and I honestly don’t know how people do it that don’t have a church family.

They devoted themselves to the teaching and to the koinonia and to the breaking of bread. We’re still in verse 42 but this passage talks twice about breaking bread, here and in verse 46. Now, I like a church that likes to eat but the words used here are slightly different. They actually come from the same root word and mean basically the same thing. But taken in context, we know that one means to eat a meal. I’m sure, like good Baptists, they had several casseroles and there was always that one dear sister who brought her famous dessert and then there was the bachelor who was encouraged to just bring…I don’t know. Bring some ice or some plates or napkins or something. Right?

The other use of the word means to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. I believe, in context, the first usage means this. They devoted themselves to the Lord’s Supper or Communion. Can you imagine taking the Lord’s Supper from Peter or one of the others that was there with Jesus in the upper room and heard Jesus say, “This is my body that was broken for you”? How powerful that must have been. But there is something powerful about taking the Lord’s Supper anytime because Jesus said to do it and He blesses it when it is done. So, Christ Fellowship does it often.

The last thing in this verse that is says they were devoted to is prayer. They devoted themselves to prayer. They continued strongly in prayer. They believed in the power of prayer. You might have heard the story of the little boy trying to sit through a church service in the south but he was fidgety and talkative and finally his father had warned him for the last time and just snatched him under his arm and headed out the back door with him. The little boy, knowing what was about to happen, hollered out, “Hey! Y’all pray for me now!” That’s somebody that was desperate for prayer and didn’t mind asking for it. That’s how we should all be. I say all the time that everybody we know should probably be at the top of our prayer list.

Now, as I was thinking about what all this means to us as members of Christ Fellowship in April of 2020, I came across a couple of quotes on prayer that I would like to share. The first is from E.M. Bounds who said, “What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use--men of prayer, men mighty in prayer.” I thought that was so appropriate for what we are living through today even though Bounds died over a hundred years ago.

The other quote I found was from Martin Luther who died nearly 500 years ago. He said, “Pray as if everything depends on God, then work as if everything depends on you.” I believe those two quotes sum up perfectly where we are today. If we are going to be the church that God has called us to be and continue strongly in all the things that the first church was devoted to and continue to minister to the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated as God has called us specifically to do then we have to start with prayer.

We never have been a church of great wealth or lots of people and people have never expected much of us because of it. I remember being told years and years ago, “Todd, you can’t just run 20 people til Jesus comes.” Well, how many people we have is not my big concern because when Jesus talked about the church, He said He would build it and if He wants us to run 20 people that’s okay. Now, here we are in April of 2020 and we can’t have more than 10 people in the building.

So, it’s a good thing that the church is not in this building, isn’t it? You are the church and the church is you and goes with you wherever you go. Now, like the man born without arms or legs, we have to decide how bad we want to do what we are supposed to do. We have some great challenges in front of us because God does not change and His Word does not change and His greatest commandment is still to go and make disciples. We are still supposed to devote ourselves to being the church and doing what the church is supposed to do.

I don’t have any doubt that this virus is not going to affect us forever. Someday, I think sooner than later, we will be able to meet here in this building again and we are gonna have a throw-down, good-time party. Just be preparing for that. Okay? But, honestly, I am thankful for what I have learned from all of this about what it means to truly be a church. I think we have pawned our responsibilities off on the church that meets at 1301 N Main St for too long. It’s easy to think, yes, we are the church but the church meets at this building and if it needs to happen, it should happen here.

When in reality, we have to be devoted to what the church has always been devoted to even if it means doing it off campus. We aren’t going to do anything worthwhile without bathing it in prayer. That’s where it starts. But maybe it leads to having small groups of 4-6 in our homes to watch the Sunday service on Facebook Live. Maybe it leads to having small groups in our homes for Bible study to go over what Ben emails us during the week or maybe something God lays on your heart to share. And, of course have a snack to eat, right? That’s just biblical.

I am thankful for the technology that we have and we are going to continue to use it to the best that we can. I’ve tried to send a few videos out to encourage you the past few weeks and so you don’t forget just how ruggedly handsome I am. 😊 But I don’t want to overdo it either. I am not the church. We are the church and as always, the body of the church is made up of many members. Scripture uses that metaphor a lot describing how each member of the church is like a body with different parts but it’s just a metaphor and the metaphor breaks down when we can’t all be together in one place.

That’s okay, though, because we are still a body with some members gifted to be able to teach or sing or show mercy or give hospitality or any number of other gifts and talents. What is your gift? Where are you talented? Now, how can you use that gift to God’s glory and for the edification of the church but not in the church building at 1301? I thank God for this opportunity we have been given. The church is not closed. It has been set free!

We have challenges today that have rarely, if ever, been faced before and the thing is, it will get worse as the years go on. We will come through this virus thing and we will meet together again but scripture warns us that the church will suffer persecution in the last days so we are able to use this time as a warm up. The question I come back to is, how bad do you want it?

How bad do you want to change the world? Maybe the better question is, how bad do you want to change the lives of your kids and grandkids, Christ Fellowship? Devote yourself to the things mentioned in this verse; to the things of the church. Look, I’ll be the first to tell you that church is not going to save you. Church doesn’t save people. It doesn’t change people’s lives. Jesus does that. But people find Jesus and get power from Jesus and are blessed by Jesus by the church – you.

I heard the story of some friends who were in the middle of a big discussion and they saw the preacher walking by and so they brought him over to help solve the problem. One of them asked the preacher if you had to go to church to get to Heaven and the preacher immediately said “No.” They all laughed and relaxed and one guy said, “See! I knew you would understand how things work, preacher.” And the preacher said, “Well, I don’t understand though. I don’t understand why you would want to go to Heaven if you don’t want to go to church because the only people there are going to be church people doing church stuff.”

The church has changed in some ways in the past couple of months. There’s no doubt about that but it’s not all for the worse. We are able to reach and minister to people that we couldn’t before. And we are given opportunities every day to do what the church is supposed to do every day instead of just once a week in a building. That’s a good thing. What is your role in all of that? That’s the question that you need to ask God in prayer right now.

Let’s bow our heads and close our eyes and devote ourselves to prayer. Maybe you don’t know how to pray. Maybe you aren’t a member of this or any other church. Maybe you don’t know Jesus as a Savior and Friend. I would love to help with that. If you are reading this as a letter or on our website, please contact me and allow me to introduce you to Jesus, my friend. If you see this on Facebook, please reach out and let me know how I or this church can help you.

Being a Christian doesn’t mean you are perfect and it won’t make your life perfect, not by any measure. But with your devotion to God comes a peace and joy in this life that passes all your understanding. And you get the assurance of life in Heaven with all the other members of the body of Christ but mainly with God the Father, through His Son Jesus and all you have to do is believe and allow God to change your life. Do it right now as the music plays.

“Does God Exist?” – Jeremiah 9:23-24

Three brothers all got married about the same time and were sitting together bragging about how they had given their new wives duties. The first man had married a woman from Oklahoma and had told her that she was going to do dishes and house cleaning.
It took a couple days, but on the third day he came home to a clean house and dishes washed and put away.
The second man had married a woman from Louisiana. He had given his wife orders that she was to do all the cleaning, dishes, and the cooking.
The first day he didn't see any results, but the next day he saw it was better.
By the third day, he saw his house was clean, the dishes were done, and there was a huge dinner on the table.
The third man had married a girl from Texas. He told her that her duties were to keep the house cleaned, dishes washed, laundry washed and hot meals on the table for every meal. He said the first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see anything, but by the third day some of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye - enough to fix himself a bite to eat and load the dishwasher.

Don’t you hate when people brag? And I will admit, in Texas we do a lot of bragging. You’ve heard it said that it ain’t bragging if it’s true, right? No. It’s still bragging and nobody wants to hear that. Do you know what people brag about? They brag about whatever is most important to them. If you want to know what you or anybody else thinks is most important in this world, listen to what is bragged about.

If I were to ask you today what is the most important thing in your life, you might say something about God or Jesus or going to Heaven or something like that. Those are good churchy answers but if I were to ask you at the store in the middle of the week, would your answer be different?

Scripture warns us in several places about bragging. Proverbs 27:2 says, “Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.” Matthew 6:2 says, “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.”

But there is one place that says we have something to brag about and I want you to see it. Turn to the Old Testament book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah is between Isaiah and Lamentations in a part of your Bible that probably doesn’t see much daylight and probably not the first passage you think of on Easter but with God’s help, I think we can tie it all together. We are finishing up our series on apologetics today. Hopefully we have given you some ammunition to use as you talk to your unbelieving and skeptical friends and neighbors about the Lord.

While almost nothing spiritual can be proven mathematically or scientifically, we have shown why we believe that the universe was created by God, that Jesus is the only way to Heaven and why we believe that scripture is the inerrant Word of God among other things. So, building on those foundations, we will show what we believe and why we believe it when it comes to the subject of God’s existence.

Just like believing in Jesus or the Bible or almost anything else, if somebody just doesn’t want to believe in God, you are wasting your time arguing and debating with them about His existence. But if an unbeliever has an open mind and is willing to accept some answers that will change their life, then Jeremiah 9:23-24 is a good place to start. So, let’s do that right now.

Now, if you read this passage to an unbeliever and they continue to not believe what Jeremiah said, don’t worry. It is hardly the first time that somebody disregarded what Jeremiah said. In fact, in forty years of preaching and prophesying what God wanted Jeremiah to say, not one person believed him. Not one person was saved. Not one person repented or had their lives changed so don’t be surprised if somebody receives this with a hard heart and a stiff neck. Everybody else did. But, like Jeremiah, we have to keep preaching it and being obedient because we also know that God’s Word will never come back void. (Isaiah 55:11)

Jeremiah 9:23-24 says, “This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong man boast of their strength or the rich man boast of their riches, 24but let the one who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD.”

Now, I don’t know about you but I think that sounds like big talk. Jeremiah says to brag about knowing and understanding God. That’s serious bragging even for a proud Texan. In fact, I thought we couldn’t understand God. I thought God said His ways were above our ways and His thoughts higher than ours as it says in Isaiah 55:9. Can both be true? Let’s look at it closer.

Those two words, “understand” and “know” mean basically the same thing as Jeremiah spoke them in ancient Hebrew. The original word for understand is “shakak” and the word for know is “yada.” They both mean to observe or to see, to pay attention to, to ponder and in doing so, to prosper.

Now, if scripture is true (and we hopefully showed why we believe it is absolutely true and inerrant last week) then how could you possibly know and understand or pay attention to something or someone that didn’t exist? Jeremiah tells us to pay attention to God. Understand Him. Know Him and in doing so, you will prosper. Now, don’t get too anxious about that word “prosper.” We will talk about that in a minute. For now, let’s think about how we know that God exists.

I would say that first off, we know God exists because the Bible that we know is true tells us He exists even right here in this passage. In fact, God Himself gives us one of His many “I Am” statements in verse 24. God says, “I Am the Lord.” If scripture is true then God exists because God says He exists.

An atheist was rowing on the Loch Ness in Scotland one day, when suddenly the Loch Ness monster attacked and grabbed him from his boat. He panicked and shouted "God, please help me!", and suddenly, the monster and everything around him just froze. A voice from the heavens boomed "You say you don't believe in me, but now you're asking for my help?" The atheist looked up and said, "Well, ten seconds ago I didn't believe in the Loch Ness Monster either."

Some people wouldn’t believe in God even if He spoke to them but God tells us right here that He exists. Secondly, we can know that God exists is because nature declares He exists. Romans 1:20 is so plain when it points out that “since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” We can “see” God at work in nature. We can “see” Him and observe Him and pay attention to Him when we see a sunrise or sunset or when we see a flower or a newborn baby.

If you could talk to a person in the deepest, darkest part of Africa who has never heard the name Jesus or formally been taught anything about God, they would almost certainly tell you that there is some kind of higher power just because of what they see around them in nature. If something is created, there has to be a Creator.

The third reason we know God exists is because man’s heart declares that He exists. You don’t have to raise your hand but how many of you were not raised in church and went through most of your life trying your best to do what you thought would satisfy you? You tried drugs, booze, sex, rock ‘n roll and maybe even driving a Ford and nothing satisfied you.

In all of that, you knew there had to be something more. There had to be something else, something better. Finally, one day something happened that made you turn to God and you found the satisfaction you were looking for. You have heard it said before that there is a God-shaped hole in your heart and nothing else will fill it but when it is filled, you know it.

One last and best reason that we know God exists is because He wants us to know Him. There is a view of God that, while acknowledging that God truly exists, says that He is distant and removed from creation. He started creation, wound up the clock, and then left. He is sort of an absentee father. This is known as deism. But nothing could be further from the truth. Those Hebrew words translated “know” and “understand” in Jeremiah 9 mean to have an intimate and personal knowledge of. We look at, observe and have personal knowledge of God.

What a mind-blowing thought! I understand why some people want to explain that away because it is hard to believe. It is hard to believe because we can’t understand why holy God would want to have a relationship with us. We can’t believe He would want us to know Him and fellowship with Him. And do you know how we know that we know that God wants to have a relationship with us? Because He sent His Son Jesus to provide the way to do it.

If you still have your Bibles handy, turn to the Gospel of John, chapter 20. We don’t know a lot about Mary Magdalene. She is mentioned several times in all the Gospels but we don’t know a lot of details about her. She obviously loved Jesus and was one of the few who was around to show it in His life, death, burial and resurrection. She had spent years watching Him, observing Him, paying attention to Him and pondering what He said and taught.

But even she didn’t understand why He had to die. She was crushed. If you have lost a close loved one, you know what feels like having a lung pulled out when they die. This was how Mary was that Sunday morning as she went to the tomb of Jesus. She didn’t understand. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. The trials were a sham. They were illegal. Everybody knew it and yet they still pronounced Him guilty and killed Him on a shameful cross.

If we can attempt to put ourselves in Mary’s shoes we have to understand that her grief was absolutely overwhelming. She couldn’t eat. She couldn’t sleep. She wasn’t thinking straight. All she could do was cry. But first thing Sunday morning, as soon as she could, she made her way to the tomb. She just wanted to pay her respects and remember her friend but when she gets there she sees the worst has happened. It looks like somebody had rolled the big stone away from the tomb and when she looked inside, it’s obvious that somebody has stolen the body.

Can’t you imagine? Now she’s sobbing. She can’t breathe. The pain is more than she can handle. Maybe you have been there. Let’s pick it up in John 20:10-18. Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. 11Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my LORD away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." 14At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15He asked her, "Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." 16Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means "Teacher"). 17Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" 18Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the LORD!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.

"I have seen the LORD!" She had spent years with Him, listening, watching, observing but now she can truly say she has “seen” Him. She understands Him now and is now prospering for it. Do you remember how the words in the passage in Jeremiah tell us to know and understand God and if we do we will prosper? This is what prospering looks like.

It is what Job said in the last chapter of his book (Job 42:5) after his long ordeal and having everything taken away from him but knowing in his heart that there was still a God. He said, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” He wasn’t talking about seeing God physically. He knew God existed like Mary Magdalene knew God existed because they had seen Him work in their lives in personal and intimate ways.

We prosper when we truly see God through His Son Jesus. We may have everything taken away from us. We may lose our best friend. We may contract an unseen virus or any number of other bad things may happen to us but it is always in the bad times that we are able to truly see God. When we understand that Easter is not for bunnies and egg hunts and pictures and big hats (okay, nobody wears big hats anymore anyway) we start to see that Easter means Jesus is alive and well and provides a way for us to have a relationship with and spend eternity with God the Father in Heaven. That is prospering.

How do we know that God exists? I can’t prove it mathematically or scientifically, at least not in a way that will convince someone who doesn’t want to believe. But I know because my lighthouse in the storm, my Bible, tells me that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no man gets to the Father except through Him. (John 14:6)

Because there is an Easter, we celebrate Christmas. Because there is an Easter, we celebrate every Sunday. Because there is an Easter, because Jesus rose up alive out of that grave and defeated death and Hell and sin and Satan, I can have a relationship with God. I can have forgiveness of my sin. I can have peace and joy in this life and assurance of eternal life in Heaven with Him and I celebrate that every day and I say with Mary and Job and Jeremiah and every other true believer, I have seen God!

How about you? Have you seen Him? Again, I don’t mean physically. I mean have you seen Him in a way that you know that you know that he is real and is at work in your life? Have you gone through the rough times and come out on the other side by His grace and mercy with a renewed passion for Him, prospering in this life? You can.

Let’s bow our heads and pray right now as the music plays. If you have that relationship with Him, just spend a minute thanking Him for what Easter means to you. If you don’t, then right where you are, go to God in prayer and tell Him just like you would tell a friend that you need forgiveness. Tell Him truthfully that you want to turn away from that sinful lifestyle and want to turn to Him, believing in His name and in His power that you can. Do that right now.

“The Bible: Con Job or God’s Word?” – 2 Timothy 3:16

It is Sunday night about 8 pm on October 30, 1938. Families all over America are sitting down in their living rooms to gather around the family radio for their evening entertainment. Some may have hoped to hear some big band music or maybe the Andrews Sisters or Bob Hope. Some wanted to hear a funny story by Jack Benny or hear another episode of “The Shadow.”

But as the music played on CBS that night, a reporter broke in to announce that an explosion on Mars had been detected. More details to follow. Then the music started again but not for long as the reporter then announced that a UFO had landed in a farmer’s field in Grovers Mills, New Jersey. He described the UFO as a large metallic cylinder and then, to his horror, described an alien life form coming out of the UFO.

“Good heavens,” he declared, “something’s wriggling out of the shadow like a gray snake. I can see the thing’s body now. It’s large, large as a bear. It glistens like wet leather. But that face, it… it … ladies and gentlemen, it’s indescribable. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it, it’s so awful. The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is kind of V-shaped with saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seem to quiver and pulsate.”

The “reporter” goes on to describe mass horror and devastation with other “reporters” from all over the world reporting similar catastrophes. Some of you may recognize this as a radio dramatization by Orson Welles called “The War of the Worlds.” It was meant to just entertain but actually created a nationwide panic as people all over thought their world was being attacked by aliens from outer space.

We laugh at the ridiculousness of this now but the people that heard it were convinced. Their lives were shaken by it and I’m sure some of them had a hard time believing anything they ever heard again. It was so well done and well-acted and thought-out that a lot of people were completely fooled. Do you think anything like that could ever happen again? It happened once. What is to keep it from happening again?

Every Sunday morning we gather together in person or by video and we talk about, sing about, pray about things we have read in the Bible. Our lives have been changed by it. Our futures are guaranteed by it. We claim it as our rock and our light and the answer to all our problems and we justify everything we do, say and think by what it says. It’s kind of a big deal for us around here, right?

What if it’s a scam? What if it’s an elaborate hoax? What if it is not really true and it’s all made up and God is not real, Jesus never died for us, He never rose again and everything we count on was made up by some guy a thousand years ago as a joke? That would change everything, wouldn’t it? If that is true and God never gave us His Word then think of how many things would change.

We get our laws, our morality, our history and our peace from scripture. How we act and how we think of others is all dependent on what the Bible says and if we ever found out it wasn’t true, I don’t think it is an over-statement to say that our society would collapse. If scripture is not true, then there is no God and there are no morals and there is no reason to live or allow others to live except for the most basic of instincts and desires.

So, how do we know? How do we know that what we read in this book is God’s Word? How do we know that all 66 books are what He wants us to know? How do we know that every different author of these books was inspired by God and not just having a dream or ate some bad pizza the night before? Those are big questions that need to be asked if we are going to point to scripture and tell people it is truth as we witness to them.

We are continuing our sermon series on apologetics this week and if you will turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3, we will see what scripture has to say about scripture and then we will decide if we can believe it or not. Apologetics is just knowing what you believe and why you believe it and everything we believe as Christians is based on what the Bible says. So, it is vital that we are able to answer the questions that come up about the validity of our source of knowledge. You can expect people to question the Bible. They should. There are not a whole lot of trustworthy sources of truth in this world so let’s talk about how we know scripture is truth.

In 2 Timothy, Paul is writing to his young preacher boy, Timothy, to encourage Timothy with literally Paul’s last words. This is Paul’s last letter to write and so you can imagine it includes what Paul thinks is most important. The whole book is so relevant to us today but especially the third chapter. He starts the third chapter by telling Timothy there will be terrible things happen in the last days. They will be perilous, treacherous, dangerous times and people will be so ungodly. Does that sound like truth so far? Let’s read 2 Timothy 3:16 to get some more relevant truth for our study today.

Paul says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”

All scripture is God-breathed. Some versions say, “given by the inspiration of God” but the NIV translates it best here when it says it is “God-breathed.” Ok, I’m gonna teach you some Greek this morning. It is, in fact, all the Greek I know and I only know it because I looked it up this week. That word translated “God-breathed” is “theopneustos.” Say it with me. Theo, which means God and pneustos which means air, wind or breath. We get the word “pneumatic” from pneustos. Theopneustos. It is only used here in the Bible but there is another time when scripture refers to God breathing and it is found all the way at the other side of the Bible in Genesis chapter two where God breathes into the nostrils of Adam and it says, “the man became a living being.”

Now, obviously this was before the six-foot rule came into effect with the Coronavirus but God breathed life into Adam and He did the same thing with this book. He breathed life into it by inspiring some forty different authors over the course of 1500 years, give or take a few, to say what he wanted said to all of mankind.

But can you believe that? Can you believe what the Bible says about the Bible? Well, the Bible actually encourages you not to take my word for it. You should see for yourself. In 1 John 4:1 it says, “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” And in Acts 17, scripture applauds the Bereans for checking things out for themselves. It says, “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”

So, who should you believe? How about Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States? He said, “Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet-anchor of your liberties. Write its precepts in your hearts and practice them in your lives.” How about good old Ronald Reagan? He said, “Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.” Charles Spurgeon said, “A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.” And Abraham Lincoln said of the Bible, “Take all that you can of this book upon reason, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier man.”

Let me read one more. The great scientist, Isaac Asimov said, “Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.” Okay, you can’t win ‘em all and you can’t believe ‘em all either. So, how else can the Bible be proved? Well, the Bible makes claims on the basis of history and eyewitnesses.

The Gospel writer, Luke, starts off his book by saying, “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” In other words, Luke saw what he saw and wanted to write about it as an eyewitness.

Another eyewitness, Peter, said in 2 Peter 1:16, “For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our LORD Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” We can prove these men lived and worked and how they died so the words of eyewitnesses are powerful.

But I hear ya. Some people say they don’t believe the Bible that we have is the same as the Bible that was originally written. That would be a good point if it were true because maybe the Bible started out true but has been corrupted after all these years and translated into all different languages and just in English we have a hundred different versions of it. We don’t even have original manuscripts so how do we know?

Well, let me give you some details. If you want this to show your unbelieving friend, you can go to our church website tomorrow or the next day and I will post this whole sermon on there if you want to plagiarize me and that’s okay because I’m plagiarizing somebody else much smarter than me. But for the Old Testament, we have three main Old Testament manuscripts: the Masoretic text (a Hebrew text dating from about AD 1000), the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Hebrew dated 3rd century BC), and lastly the Dead Sea Scrolls (408-318 BC). All these are in significant agreement, although there are some minor differences. (And by minor differences, I mean, like, how Nebuchadnezzar is spelled and stuff like that.) Therefore, we can be sure that the Old Testament we have today is the same as the one Jesus used (which Jesus freely quoted from) and is the same as Jews were using 400 years before Jesus came!

The New Testament situation is slightly more complex. There are thousands of Greek manuscripts (the language the New Testament was originally written in). And while none of them are complete, there is a ton of overlap and what is written in one is the same as what is written in another to the point that New Testament scholars estimate that we can be 99% certain that the text we have today is completely original! (https://www.biblword.net/is-the-bible-true/)

By comparison, Homer’s Iliad has only 643 manuscripts and nobody questions its validity. But there is something about the Bible that makes people want to question it and need to question it because to claim the Bible isn’t true is way easier than trying to live by it. And if you believe it’s true then that is just what you have to do.

Look, where we can check biblical claims against verifiable truth, the Bible proves itself accurate. History, archaeology, science, and philosophy have shown Scripture to be factual and consistent. (https://www.gotquestions.org/is-the-Bible-true.html) There are the Old Testament prophecies that came true in the New Testament. We have talked about this lately so I won’t go into it again but those are easily verified and prove the validity of scripture.

Part of how we know scripture is true is just its endurance. Ever since its beginning, people have tried to do away with it. It has been banned and burned and taken away and yet, as Isaiah 40:8 reads, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.” Even today, it is forbidden in places not far from here. According to a December 2001 decision by a Saskatchewan court of appeals, the Bible is now considered hate literature in Canada if it is quoted verbatim and in context, specifically if it’s used to condemn homosexuality. But there is a double standard for the Koran as it’s not been labeled as having hate speech, even though it contains verses that demand the death of all who reject Allah. (https://faithinthenews.com/)

So, I’ll tell you one of the ways I know that scripture is true is that all the people that want it banned and say it’s not true and get so upset about it or the Ten Commandments or any part of scripture being read – all those people live in such a way that they look and act and sound miserable. If you have no peace and no joy in your life and you hate the Bible, that tells me a lot about the Bible. Do you know what I mean?

It’s sort of like, as a Christian conservative, I know that if Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and the whole Democrat party are against something, it must be something to support. That’s not the only litmus test to use but it definitely helps me. If I know that Cher or Madonna say I should do something, I know I should do just the opposite, right? That’s the way it is with the Bible. When the world wants it banned but don’t have a problem with any other religion, we must be on to something.

So, if you want or need to prove the Bible is real and true and God-breathed then those are some of the ways that you might go about it. You can tell what other respected people think about it. You can show how it lines up with history and how the authors were often eyewitnesses to what they wrote. You can prove it is consistent by comparing all the old manuscripts or even comparing it to respected archaeology, science, and philosophy…and that will be fine if you want to do that. Boring but fine.

Admit it. You won’t hurt my feelings. Hearing about how many manuscripts there are for the Old Testament and the New Testament is not exactly fascinating, is it? It’s boring. I’ve struggled with that all week long preparing for this message. I have struggled because if somebody doesn’t want to believe the Bible, no amount of proof will change their mind. If somebody is dead-set against God and His Word, then you can talk and argue and debate until you are blue in the face and they will not allow themselves to be convinced.

They don’t want to be convinced because, like I said earlier, if you truly believe the Bible, then you have to live it out. You have to do what it says. It WILL change your life. If you realize that the Creator of the universe has written you a letter telling you the best way to live, you should read it and believe it. He sent you this letter because He loves you so much that He would even send His only Son to die for you and He wants to spend eternity with you. And if you can read about Jesus being crucified and dying for your sin and NOT be changed by it then no amount of pie charts, graphs, letters, notes, manuscripts or any other kind of proof is going to change your mind.

I’ve told you before that going to the jail is one of the highlights of my ministry. It is so much fun to talk with those guys, many of whom have never set foot in a church building but got their hands on a copy of the Bible, read it and had their lives changed completely. I see it all the time. We have men in our church that were in that exact situation. They had no hope, no peace or joy and they got a jailhouse copy of the Bible and now they are different men than when they went in and have been for years. That’s just fun to watch and that is how I know the Bible is true.

I ran across a blog awhile back written by a woman who is just an average, ordinary (maybe even boring) old mom but her words were powerful and obviously given by God. Forgive me for reading but she is a better writer than I am a speaker so listen to this.

Reading the Bible all the way through changed my life forever. Before then, my understanding of Scripture was like a collage of little pictures glued together on a poster board. I knew bits and pieces of the Bible and a lot of Bible stories, but I didn’t understand how everything fit together. I didn’t have context for the things I knew, and I kind of thought the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament were at odds with each other.

That January with my discipleship group’s encouragement and accountability, I opened my Bible to the book of Genesis and began to work my way through its pages. Averaging three chapters a day, I walked with Abraham in the deserts of ancient Mesopotamia and wrestled along with Sarah as she waited for her promised son. I observed the brutality of mankind and how it infuriated God. The stories of God’s wrath actually began making sense to me. Who would want a God who didn’t get angry at oppression and injustice and rape and infanticide and the idolatry which led to it all?

Page after page, I saw the suffering sin always brings and God’s continual, tender call to His people, “Come to me. Make me your refuge. Give your hearts to me and no other. Turn from your sin and suffering and come to me.” The Bible wasn’t a rule book; it was a love story.

Even now, the very same God who called Abraham is calling us to Himself through the Scriptures. His love for us pulses through every point of time and pursues us right now—even through the modern-day technology of this blog! Every time you open your Bible and read its words, you are close enough to God to feel His very breath.

Isn’t that good? When I grow up, I want to write like her. See, the Bible is God-breathed. Every word is what God wants us to know so that it changes our life for our good and His glory. When you read and believe and live out the Bible, that is the proof that others really need to see and it’s not boring. It’s not a book of rules. It is a love letter from all-mighty, all-loving, all-powerful God who wants you to live a full and abundant life here on earth (John 10:10) and to have eternal life in Heaven with Him when this life is blessedly over.

There is a lot of bad news in this world nowadays. But we are not the first generation to go through difficult times. Through the Bible we can learn how to act and what to expect and how to get through these difficult times through the stories and lives of people all the way from Genesis with Adam and Eve to the lives of Paul who wrote our text for today to John who wrote what God told him to write in Revelation.

Their lives were changed. How about you? Do you have a relationship with the Author of this best-selling book? You can. You can be forgiven of your sin. You can have a new start. You can have peace and joy in this world and the assurance of life in Heaven when you die. It’s a pretty sweet deal because all you have to is believe and allow God to come into your life and start to change your life.

Do that right now in prayer as the music plays.