The Importance of Reading the Bible

And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. It's really been on my heart this year to get all of us as God's people into God's word. Because it's great that you come on a Sunday morning and hear what God's word has to say. Some of you even come on a Wednesday night, hear what God's word has to say. But there is to be much more to being a disciple of Jesus Christ than simply attending a church

and hearing the pastor talk about it. There's also the aspect of you being disciples of Jesus Christ for yourself and being in God's word for yourself. And again, that's the theme that God's really put on my heart for 2023, which is why over the summer we did an entire series on how to study God's word for yourself so that you could become a studier of God's word. And so as we have approached 2024, the Lord has laid on my heart.

And really, I started thinking about this at the very end of 2022. I just didn't get it together in time. But the Lord has laid on my heart to have all of us as the church go through the word of God together, to be in God's word together, because I think God's word is just that important. My own personal testimony is that I was instilled with a love for God's word as a kid.

And it really took its hold in my life when I got into later in high school and then into college. And then I continued to be surrounded by men and women who loved God's word and taught me even deeper things about the truth of God's word. And all I can tell you is that God's word gives life. God's word heals. God's word restores. It teaches. It does everything that we need.

It's the one thing that we need to truly navigate. To be who God has called for us to be. And so the title of the message this morning out of 2 Timothy chapter 3 is The Importance of the Reading of the Bible. Because if I'm going to give you a Bible reading plan for the year, I want to tell you why I think it's important that you're in the Bible all year long.

And so there's going to be a handful of quotes that I read to you, a whole bunch of scripture that we'll talk about. Some of it I'll just say sit back and listen. Some of it I'll have you turn to. But that's the theme that we're looking at. And so as we look at this theme, there's three things that we're going to cover this morning. We're going to see the effect of God's word.

We're going to see the testimony of God's word. And then we are going to see the profit of God's word. So the first thing that we'll look at is the effect. Actually, it's going to start with me reading some quotes to you. I have a book in my office. It's called Haley's Bible Handbook. And if you don't own Haley's Bible Handbook, I would highly encourage you to get a Haley's Bible Handbook.

Now, I know that you can get a lot of resources online. And I think you should take advantage of every resource online that you possibly can. But I'm also a big proponent of you owning a print copy of things. First of all, because if everything were to go down, something funky happens and all of a sudden you have no access to anything digital or electrical, then you've always got print that sits right in front of you.

But the other reason is that there is nothing quite like holding a book in your hand, physically turning the pages and underlining it or highlighting it yourself. There is actually a physiological truth that when you do that, it connects different to your brain than reading it on a screen. So if you don't own a copy of Haley's Bible Handbook, basically what it is is it will give you a little synopsis of every single chapter of the Bible. And so it's just a really good resource to have if you want a brief overview of every book and every chapter of the Bible.

But at the end of Haley's Bible Handbook, he says this is the most important page to read. So I want to read it to you. It says, Every Christian ought to be a Bible reader. It is the one habit which, if done in the right spirit more than any other one habit, will make a Christian what he ought to be in every way. If any church would get its people as a whole to be devoted readers of God's Word,

it would revolutionize the church. If the churches of any country as a whole would get their people as a whole to be regular readers of the Bible, it would not be a Christian. It would not only revolutionize the churches, but it would purge and purify the community as nothing else could do. He will go on to talk about through history how this has happened. But he goes on on the next page to say this,

And now today, the one best thing that the church could do would be to set itself to enthrone God's Word in the lives of its people. The rest would follow. That one thing. That one thing in itself would go further in solving all problems, individual, social, and national, than anything else the church could do. God's Word is the best weapon that the church has.

Now, the guy who is responsible for starting the Calvary Chapel movement, his name is Chuck Smith, and that was Chuck's philosophy. As a matter of fact, he credited those two pages in Haley's Bible Handbook for giving him his philosophy of teaching. Which line upon line and precept upon precept to go through God's Word and to get God's people into God's Word. But lest we think this is an antiquated idea or something that some guy thought of a really long time ago, I want to read to you a more current article that brings out the same thing.

I came across this article. It's called Nine Tangible Benefits of Bible Reading for Your Church. It says this, Arnold Cole and Pamela Caudill said about, to perform a study entitled Understanding the Bible Engagement Challenge, Scientific Evidence for the Power of Four. In this study, they pulled 40,000 people, ages 8 to 80. They wanted to see how people were engaging in Scripture.

The study indicated that when people engaged in Scripture one time a week, which would include what we're doing right now, having a pastor say, turn in your Bible to this. In this particular passage, there was a negligible effect or on some key areas of their life. The same was true if people engaged in the Scripture two times a week. The result equaled little to no effect.

Three times a week showed a little bit of an indication of life. But the eye-opener happened when Bible engagement reached at least four times per week. A steady climb of impact would have been expected, but that was not the case. We're going to talk about that in a minute. We're going to talk about that in a minute. When day four was reached, the effects spiked in an astounding way.

Number one, feelings of loneliness dropped by 30%. Anger issues dropped by 32%. Bitterness in relationships dropped by 40%. Alcoholism dropped by 57%. Sex outside of marriage dropped by 68%. Feeling spiritually stagnant dropped by 50%. The viewing of pornography dropped by 61%. Sharing of faith jumped by 200%. And discipling others jumped by 230%. The findings hammer home the truth that there are profound differences

by people who engage the Scripture at least four times a week and those who engage less often. Number two, the difference between people who engage the Scripture at least four times a week and those who engage less often. The data is extremely revealing. Integral to these findings is that people who engage the Bible one to three days a week indicate basically the same effect on their personal lives as those who don't engage at all.

The deceptive reality is that they can feel good about their activity without any result. They think they're being good Christians, but their lives are no different from non-Christians around them. The reality is that people who engage the Bible one to three days a week are more vulnerable to falling prey to false teachings as well as lethargy and apathy in consistently living out their faith in their circle of influence. What does it mean?

If you don't read the Bible, it will have no effect on your life. You will live just like the world around you. That almost makes it seem like this is a pretty important thing to do. Would you agree? Would you agree? So, whether it be ancient, ancient, older writings, or more current writings, the study of the Bible is one of the most important things we can do as believers in Jesus Christ.

That is the effect that the Bible has on us. But the Bible itself gives testimony of how important it is in our lives. So what I want to do is I want to go through a whole bunch of verses. You don't necessarily need to turn there. I have them marked in my Bible so that I can go through them quickly. But I am going to have her put them up on the screen so that you will be able to write them down.

So, this is the testimony of Scripture. The first one is Deuteronomy 8, verse 3. Deuteronomy 8, verse 3. It says this, He humbled you, and He let you be hungry, and He fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds, out of the mouth of the Lord.

Psalm 119, verse 9. Which, by the way, if you want to read just how important God's Word is, read all of Psalm 119. Now listen, Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the world, or at least the Bible. It's incredibly long. It is broken up into sections. Each section is based upon one letter of the Hebrew alphabet. But the entire theme of Psalm 119 is the importance of God's Word.

It is the importance of God's Word. It is the importance of God's Word. It is the importance of God's Word. It is the importance of God's Word in our lives. But Psalm 119, verse 9, says this. How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your Word. The next one is Psalm 119, verse 11. It says this. Your Word have I treasured in my heart that I may not sin against you.

And I actually prefer the old King James translation of this. Perhaps it's because I have it memorized in that. Because it says, Your Word have I hidden, in my heart, that I might not sin against you. The next one comes to us out of the New Testament. It's John chapter 17, verse 17. And it's Jesus' high priestly prayer. And this is what it says. Sanctify them in your truth.

Your Word, O Lord, is truth. The next one is 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 15. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 15. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 15. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 15 says, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the Word of truth. If there was any question, Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12 says this.

The Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of the soul. And the spirit of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and the intents of the heart. I don't know if you realize this or not, but that means that the Bible says that the Bible is pretty important. It is the self-evidence, the testimony of what God has to say about His Word.

Now, I looked all of these up in my Thompson Chain Reference Bible and it gave me a whole litany of other verses. I just gave you a handful. But I believe that if we really want to appreciate the power of God's Word in our lives, the place where I would like for us to focus in is in 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17. 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17. It says this.

All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. Now, if you're going to read the Bible, if you're going to study the Bible, you must understand the number one rule for studying the Bible. Now, if you went through the How to Study Your Bible course that I did over the summer, you've heard this before and you know the number one rule. Don't tell your neighbor.

Does anyone know the number one rule? Number one rule? Number one rule for studying the Bible is context. You know what the second rule for studying the Bible is? Context. You know what the third rule for studying the Bible is? Thank you. Context. Because a text taken out of context is merely a pretext. In other words, if you take God's Word out of context,

you can make it say whatever you want to. Just ask any of the movements going on in the world today. It's always fascinating to find out how some of these false doctrines have gotten started. And they show you the verse that they base their teaching on. And you're like, funny thing is, if we took the entire context of the chapter, you would realize that that does not say that at all.

Context is so important. As a matter of fact, and I use this over the summer, so if you've heard it before, I'm sorry. Do you know that I can prove scripturally that there is no God? I can prove that to you. And I can even show you the verse that says, there is no God. However, if we take it in context, we know that the entire, the entire verse says, the fool has said in his heart,

there is no God. Right? But if you just lifted that one thing out, and you put it in a quotation, which is what false teachers do, then you would go, I can't believe that Scripture says there is no God. So does that mean all of Scripture is a lie because there is no God? No, it means that guy's lying to you because you took it out of context. Right? So the context is really important.

So what's the context of 2 Timothy, in particular 2 Timothy chapter 3? Well, 2 Timothy is written to a young man by the name of Timothy, which is why it's called 2 Timothy. I love that the Bible doesn't always have to be overly creative. It just says what it means, right? And so Timothy was a young pastor, probably about my age, and Paul was writing to him.

Paul was writing to this young pastor because this is Paul's last letter, the last writings that we have of Paul. And he was giving Timothy the instructions that he was going to need in order to live as a pastor. He was going to be a pastor in a very dangerous world. So 2 Timothy chapter 3 starts off by saying, perilous times will come. Perilous times will come when men will fall away.

They will become lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. They will be boastful. They will be arrogant. They will despise the truth. And sometimes they'll even slap their mamas, right? That's basically what it says. It means they'll be disobedient to parents, but I like to throw that part in because it's kind of funny. And so they do all of these things, and so you need to beware.

As a matter of fact, they will have a form of godliness, but they will deny the power. As a matter of fact, he gives two examples of people that did this. Remember Janice and Jambres in the Old Testament? They did the exact same thing. As a matter of fact, all who live righteously will suffer persecution. But you remember all the things that you were taught,

that you were taught by your mother, that you were taught by your grandmother, and that you were taught by me. Hold on to that truth. Why? Why? Because all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. See, Paul knew Timothy was going to face difficult times of people falling away. That people would fall away from the truth, that people would fall away from the Word,

and that persecution would continue to mount. Gosh, it seems like something we should pay attention to today. And because he knew that that was coming, he knew the best thing he could tell Timothy to do is to hold on to the truth because all Scripture is inspired. And so, as we look at this, there's three things that we'll see within this. As we look at the prophet of studying Scripture,

we'll see that it's inspired by God, that it is profitable, and that it produces results. So he starts off by saying, all Scripture is inspired by God. Now, of course, the first thing I notice is that it says all Scripture. So what does he mean by Scripture? Some will say that he only means the Old Testament. That the Old Testament is inspired by God. And I do think he absolutely points out that the Old Testament is inspired by God.

But do you know what's kind of fascinating? You know what else is referred to as Scripture in the New Testament? The writings of guys like Paul and Peter. As a matter of fact, Paul and Peter both refer to each other's writings as Scripture. Peter literally says that Paul's writings are Scripture, that they came directly from God. Paul claims it of himself, that the things that I'm telling you came...

directly from God. We know that Peter's teaching came directly from God because he was a disciple of Jesus Christ. Therefore, when he says all Scripture, I believe he's referring to both the Old and the New Testament. As a matter of fact, in the book of Hebrews, the writer to the Hebrews says, in former times, God spoke to us through his holy prophets. But now he has spoken to us through his son.

Well, how has he spoken to us through his son? Well, the Bible says, the Bible says, the Bible says, and we refer to it as Scripture. He says, all Scripture. Then he says something about all Scripture. He says, all Scripture is inspired by God. Now, when you first hear that word inspired, you think about an artist, right? Like William Shakespeare was an inspired writer.

You name a painter, they were an inspired painter. Maybe somebody writes a song and they were, they had inspiration. They were inspired to write this song. But that's not... idea behind inspired here as a matter of fact what the word inspired in second timothy chapter 3 verse 16 literally means is divinely breathed or god breathed what does that mean it means that

scripture are the very words of god spoken to a holy prophet who then wrote them down that means that when we look at god's word this is not just another religious book these are the words of god because all scripture is inspired by god or god breathed or god spoken now you know as well as i do matter of fact i was looking up some stuff for my study last week some historical stuff and i i typed in something about like uh history of the bible and the first thing that popped up was we know that the bible is inspired by god and we know that the bible is inspired by god the bible is not accurate for history that was the first thing that popped up it you know what's

funny is that that's actually not true the bible is actually the most historically accurate book that we possess i have this book in my office it's called the g3 tactical manual and it's it's a uh it's a a discipleship and evangelistic training tool for teenagers that took a group of teenagers through this about eight years ago probably and within this g3 tactical manual there's a part that has to do with uh with defending your faith i looked this up in some other places but this actually just put it in the most simple way possible so i want to read it to you it says it's often said by skeptics that the bible is not a reliable document of history you should be happy to know that nothing could be further from the truth the bible is completely

trustworthy as a historical document in fact the bible is far superior to all other historical documents although we do not possess the original autographs of the new testament in other words the original copies the what the disciples actually wrote on of the new testament we do have around 5600 completed manuscript copies some of it some of which were copied less than 100 years after the original this is staggering when compared with other documents of antiquity for example secular scholars consider the writings of plato to be accurate and trustworthy however we only possess seven copies of plato's writings the earliest of which were copied more than 1200 years after the original

if it's a matter of credibility the bible clearly wins there's a chart at the bottom of this we'll read some of these results to you the writings of caesar the earliest copies we have were around a thousand years after the original and we only have 10 of those copies of the writings of aristotle there's about 1400 years of the original and we only have 10 of those copies of the writings of ==== которых around 100 yearsчески waking become the titular blank angle the uncorrected writes between the original and the copies of we only have 49 copies love you better remember in high school have you struck the early add at or the audacity written by homer which is considered to be one of the most accurate historical documents

the first office were written five hundred years after the original the earliest copies we have were less than 100 years after the original we have 5600 copies and listen they are 99.5 accurate and the only inaccuracies have to do with what men copied down and they have to do with nothing that involves root doctrine in scripture it usually is a capital or uh or a comma so can we trust what the bible has to say yeah we can because i believe in the inerrancy of scripture in its original autographs and so we have that the bible was inspired or god breathed now we need to understand something about scripture since it is god breathed it is very spiritual in nature

which means that when you approach the bible you don't approach it like a textbook although you could use it as one that's not its point it's very spiritual in nature therefore its truth can only be spiritually understood which is why so many people that want to approach the bible as simply a historical document they never get it you can present to them all of the evidence in the world but they still don't pick up the truth why because it's a spiritual writing and it's a spiritual writing and it's a spiritual writing and it's a spiritual writing and it's a spiritual writing it can only be understood by a spiritual nature therefore if you want to get into god's word for

yourself and start to read god's word for yourself your heart must be in tune with the holy spirit you must begin by saying lord open my eyes to see the truth of your word do you remember that prayer in the book of ephesians chapter one that the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened that we may know what is the hope of your calling and the glorious riches of your inheritance in the saints and the mighty power that works in us the same power that raised christ from the dead we have to pray things like that so that we can understand the spiritual nature of these god-breathed words and so we find that scripture is inspired by god but not only that it is also second of all it is profitable it is profitable in other words it does good for us

and there are four ways in which scripture is profitable number one number two is for teaching for teaching the word teaching literally means instruction or doctrine now who here gets nervous when you hear the word doctrine right because that's a scary word because the word doctrine sounds like something that only smart people can learn right but i'm here to tell you right now the word of god is full of doctrine and you shouldn't be scared of it because it's simply instruction the instructions of god's word are so important for us because it keeps us out of trouble it teaches us what is right let me give you an example from the old testament you may remember way back in the book of i'm thinking it's second

samuel if i remember correctly in the book of second samuel the ark had the ark of the covenant which was the supposed to be the very presence of god among the people had been captured in battle when king saul died in battle well after david was established in the throne and and uh things were to go a lot better for the kingdom he said i want to bring the ark of the covenant back and so he set about to bring the ark of the covenant back to the tabernacle only he didn't follow the instructions he didn't follow the teaching he hadn't read the doctrine so what he did is they put the ark of the covenant on a cart and some uh some oxen were pulling it and everybody's excited

the ark's coming back right i don't know what they're saying but they're excited because the ark is coming back to the kingdom and they're going to bring the ark of the covenant back to the to where the tabernacle is right except the oxen stumble because the the the or the oxen stumble the cart starts to tip and there was a man a faithful servant of god named uza who stuck out his hand to steady the ark when he touched out his reached out his hand to steady the ark and touched it god struck him dead and david got a little huffy about it right he's like god what are you doing i'm doing a good thing here i'm bringing the ark back why would you kill him and god says because

you didn't follow the instructions you didn't follow the teaching you didn't follow the doctrine so david kind of pouted for a little while then he realized he was wrong so he said let's do it again only you know what he did the second time around he went and talked to the priests and he got the teaching he got the instruction he got the doctrine of what it looks like to carry the ark of the covenant and they said okay here's what you got to do first of all it's got to be the right priest second of all you need to use poles because no one can touch the ark of the covenant you run the poles through the uh through the holes to the sockets that are set up on this on the side of the ark and you carry it that way and so once

he had learned the doctrine once he had learned the instruction the teaching he brought the ark back and oh the celebration of the ark of the covenant coming back but you see what was the most important thing was that he understood the teaching or the instruction for how to do it correctly and that's what we need in our lives this is what god's word does for us is it gives us instruction that's why if you don't know what it really has to say you can fall prey to false teachings because someone can quote something out of context to you and you'll never know the difference because you don't know what it says for yourself so number one it is profitable for teaching the second thing that god's word is profitable for is it

is profitable for reproof reproof now i don't know about you i don't use the word reproof very often right um i don't ever tell my daughters listen you've done something wrong and today i will reprove for you right like they would be like you're gonna what i don't know i don't know what that means that right but the word reproof literally means to refute error to bring conviction to tell you what is not right it is how we are rebuked now when we are caught up in something that we should not do the word of god is faithful to show us that remember what it said in hebrews that the word of god is living and active sharper than any two-edged sword able to pierce between bone and marrow so god's word always reproves us it rebukes us it

reveals the error in our lives that's why a lot of lots of people don't like to read the bible for themselves because when they start reading the bible and start showing them things that are wrong in their lives and especially in today's world nobody wants to be told that they're wrong nobody wants to wants to hear that what they're doing is sinful as a matter of fact well as a matter of fact let me let me tell you a quick story so uh there's a player for the uh washington they're wait i got to do this right otherwise i'll get canceled uh what are they called now it's a stupid name commanders the washington commanders at least they're not the washington football team anymore right that was the dumbest thing i'd ever heard in my life

hey good job what are you a football team what's your name football team right geniuses anyway so the washington commanders have this player that plays for them uh they actually got a couple of really solid believers on that team but one of them is a linebacker can't think of his name right now they have this thing in the nfl called my cleats my cause if i remember correctly and on the side of his cleats he wrote fellowship of christian athletes and i loved it i'm a huge proponent of fca i was a part of it when i was in high school right now i love it it's a fantastic thing it does a great job in the lives of athletes and he said the whole reason he put that on his cleats is because he would not be where he where he is

today if it weren't for the work of fellowship of christian athletes because they kept him out of trouble and pointed him towards jesus but you know who didn't like that the lgbtq community you know why because the fellowship of christian athletes has in their charter the truth of god's word that marriage is between a man and a woman and so everybody got really upset about it why because nobody wants to be told they're in sin nobody wants to be rebuked nobody wants to be reproved nobody wants to see that they are in error or have conviction brought into their life but that's exactly what god's word does is it rebukes us which is why god's word will keep you from sin and sin will keep you

from god's word because we don't want that error pointed out in our lives but i'm here to tell you brothers and sisters one of the best things that we can do is get into god's word and have it show us the error in our lives because if we don't ever do that then we just keep getting off and the farther that we go getting off the worse that it is it always starts off small right i was helping somebody put a ridgeline on a roof one time it was a metal roof and we had these small metal pieces that created the ridgeline so we start going and you got to get it perfectly in line right because if you don't what happens you get off and the first time you get off it's only like an eighth of an inch right it's not really all that

big of a deal but if you go about 150 feet and an eighth of an inch per foot pretty soon the ridgeline is down at the bottom of the roof right because if you're off a little bit and it just keeps getting more and more and more and more and more off right and that's what happens to us that's why we need that plumb line of god's word that ruler of god's word that measuring stick of word to say you're getting off it brings about the conviction that we need in our lives so number one it is profitable for teaching or telling us what's right number two it's profitable for reproof or telling us what is not right but the third thing is profitable for is correction that word correction literally means improvements of life and character correction of error

to obedience that great that word correction literally means restoration because when we've been off the bible is faithful you see god is really faithful because if he shows us where we're wrong he will show us how to be right he will show us how to get right with him and i think that that's so important you know there's two different words that usually happen to us as christians we can deal with both conviction and condemnation and those are two very different things condemnation will push you away from god that's from the enemy it will tell you you're so bad of a sinner you can't ever go back to god you can't ever go back home you can't ever get right as a matter of fact if you're in a place

right now where you feel like something's wrong in your life but god's not showing you how to be right i would tell you to ask yourself a question is that really from god because god never shows us where we're wrong without showing us how to be right condemnation pushes us away from jesus conviction on the other hand draws us to the lord because it's from the holy spirit and it says you're wrong go home you're where you shouldn't be get back to where you need to be you are off this is where you need to come back to that's the difference between conviction and condemnation i lived my life for years under condemnation feeling like i was wrong but i'm not like i could never be good enough until i learned that that's what that is that's condemnation

that's not jesus you know that part uh when jesus talks about being the good shepherd he says the sheep hear his voice and they won't listen to someone else well as you get into god's word you learn to hear god's voice and you go that's god i know that's from him because that lines up with scripture and correction will always line up with what scripture has to say because it always not only that improvement of life and character but it always brings restoration it brings about that restoration that we need in our lives and i can tell you from personal experience that if your life is in need of restoration the best place you can go is god's word i can tell you from experience that all i knew to do at one point in time in my life was say lord heal me

and like it says in psalm 107 he sent his word and he healed because that's what god does and that's what his word does because it not only shows us what's right it not only shows us what's wrong but it shows us how to get right it shows us how to make those corrections in our lives and so it's profitable for teaching it's profitable for reproof and it's profitable for correction number four it is profitable for training in righteousness. Training in righteousness. That word training literally means education and instruction. It's actually the same word that would be used about child training, child rearing. It means to bring them up, to educate, to instruct them. And it's kind

of similar to correction, except correction shows us how to get right. Training in righteousness shows us how to stay right. Let me read this to you out of the Amplified Bible. I thought this was really good. It says, learning to live in conformity to God's will, both publicly and privately, behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage. It's what continues

to keep us on the path. And this is what God's word will continue to be for you. This is why after you get back on the path, you can't be like, okay, I'm good now. I don't really need the Bible. I've been corrected. No, you need it now more than ever, because now you need it to teach you what it looks like every day to walk with Jesus. What does it look like to live as God has called

for me to live? What does it look like? In the professional world, we call this continuing ed, right? Like any of you that are in any kind of profession, you know that while you've gotten your degree, while you've been trained and you're good at your job, the best thing that you can do is continue to get better at your job. And so a lot of times they will send you to,

conferences. They will make you take classes. They will do all these things so that you can continue to be trained so that you will continue to grow in your particular field of employment. Well, it's no different in being a believer in Jesus Christ. We need continual training in righteousness because all of us are a little bit ADHD in our walk, right? All of us as human

beings are kind of like, wait, what was I doing again? And the Bible's like, we're like, oh, that's right. Path. Stay on the path, right? Because we all get easily distracted. We're like, ooh, shiny things, right? I remember when my oldest daughter was born, you know, you go through the, okay, nursing and all that kind of stuff. Then she starts eating solid food,

the most disgusting stuff you've ever seen in your life. And you have to be like, hmm, that looks so good, right? And so you're, well, my youngest daughter or my oldest daughter just loved to eat, right? And so, but she was easily distracted. And so you'd put the spoon, right? She'd take that big bite on their way down to get the next spoonful. She'd like, ooh, my bib and

stick that in her mouth. Oh, my goodness. And so you're like, oh, my goodness. And so you're like, oh, my hand and stick that in her mouth or see something else and stick that in her mouth. And it's like, stop it. Stay focused on what you're doing. And I remember distinctly God saying, you're just like that. And I was like, ooh, that would hurt, right? But he was right.

I'm the exact same way. I'm so easily distracted. I'm like, ooh, that looks fun. And God's like, no, path. Stay on the path. We need that training in righteousness, right? And that's what God's word does for us. And so it's profitable for teaching what is right, for reproof what's not right, for correction how to get right, and for training in righteousness

how to stay right. But God's word is profitable for all those things, but it also produces results in our lives. Notice what it says in verse 17. So that the man of God may be adequate and equipped for every good work. What's the result? Well, God's word does its work in our lives. And the first thing is, it does is it makes us adequate. Now, I don't love that translation of this word.

It's a, pardon the pun, it's an adequate translation of the word. See what I did there? But it's not my favorite translation of the word. The word adequate literally means complete, capable or proficient, able to meet the demands. But there's another word, some of your translations may even use it, and it's the word mature. Mature. And I prefer that. I prefer that translation of this word because that's exactly what it is. It means to be

mature. So that the man of God may be mature in everything that he does. You see, when you first start off in God's word, you're a little bit unsteady about it. You're a little bit unsure about it. Okay, I hope I do this right. I hope I'm understanding this right. But pretty soon, as God's word begins to take its hold on your life, there's this maturity that's produced,

right? And you're not swayed by every little thing that comes along. amazed right now. And if this is you, I'm sorry, I'm not trying to attack you. It just does. I can't help it. I'm amazed at people who are just swayed by every new thing that comes out at the Christian bookstore, by every new idea that comes out on Christianity Today, which by the way, if you're reading Christianity Today, maybe just don't, okay? Because there's nothing Christian

about Christianity Today. I'm amazed at the people that are swayed by all these things. They see the next new movie that came out about a kid that saw Jesus in the Cheerios or something, and they're like, you're not going to believe what I just watched. I'm like, stop watching it. Quit being swayed by every single little thing that comes along, right? That's not maturity.

That's what we do when we're kids. That's why when you ask a little kid what they want for Christmas, it changes seven times. It changes seven times before Christmas Day, right? One of my favorite memes that I saw had to do with some kid saying, you know, I told Santa this, but I hope he understood that what I meant was this on Christmas Eve, right? Because that's immaturity, and that's what we can sometimes be as Christians, but the Word of God

will make it to where we are mature. One of my favorite movies, We Were Soldiers. Anybody ever see that movie? It's a great, great movie. One of my favorite scenes in the movie comes at the very end. There was a guy that was a reporter, if you remember the movie correctly. There was a guy that was a reporter. They said, what are you doing? He goes, man, I don't think anybody really

understands what's going on over here. So my mission is to capture it on film so that everybody really understands what you guys are going through. Well, this battle is just horrific, right? In the beginning, he's totally freaked out, right? He shows up completely clean and got the sweet little press helmet on and everything, and he's freaked out every time he hears something go off. But

after he spends that 36 hours or whatever it is in battle, he's not the same guy that he started as. And now that the battle's over, he's standing there only. At the end of the battle, he's covered in blood. He's got blood on him. He's not just wearing the press thing anymore. This guy has seen battle now, and he's not moved by things. And all these other reporters show up, and there's some shelling

going off in the background, and they're freaking out. And he just stands there. He goes, it's okay. It's residual shelling going on back there. You know why he could do that? Because now he's mature. He's seen battle. He understands what's happening, and he's not moved by every little thing that comes along. If he's scared, be scared, right? And that's the way we should be as believers

That's what God's Word does for us, is it makes us mature. It makes us to a point where all of a sudden we're not moved by every little thing. Because if you see an old saint who knows the Word, you see them get concerned, that's when I go, now I'm going to pay attention, right? I see somebody who doesn't really know the Word that well being moved by everything that comes along.

I'm like, I don't think so. What's that guy have to say? Because I want to know what he's thinking because he's mature in his faith. And that's what God's Word does for us. That the man of God may be equipped. And the second thing is that we may be equipped. Equipped. The word equipped means thoroughly furnished. And I don't remember where I read this. These are some old notes that I was

using. I tried everywhere to figure out where I read this, but I had to have read it somewhere because I wrote it down. I love what it says. It says, furnished to finish. Thoroughly equipped means furnished to finish. You have everything that you need so that you can finish. Because God did not call us to faith so that we would quit. God called us to faith so that we would

finish the race. Thoroughly equipped for every good work. Let me read this to you out of the New Living Translation. It says, God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. Brothers and sisters, why is it important that you be in the Word of God? Because as it says in Deuteronomy chapter 32, it is your life. It's your life. I want to close by reading a quote to

you from David Guzik on this. It says this, this reminds us that we are not in the business of building sermon appreciation societies, but in the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry. I'm so often afraid in the 21st century Western culture, church, that all we are is a sermon appreciation society. Everybody gets excited about the new guy that comes along who is maybe fun and exciting. Brothers and sisters, that's not what we're here

for. We're not here to get excited about a sermon. We're here to do the work of the ministry. The only way that we can do the work of the ministry is if we are thoroughly equipped through the reading of the Word of God. So brothers and sisters, here's where it starts. Tomorrow, January 1st, decide between you and God exactly what you're going to do and get into

God's Word for yourself because it is literally the most important thing you'll do in your life. Amen? Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me in prayer. Father, we come before you. And Lord, I thank you. I thank you for your Word. Lord, that you have seen fit to write down for us everything that we need for life. And for godliness. And so, Lord, I want to lift up every person that's here this morning,

whether they be here in person or watching online. And Lord, I ask that your Holy Spirit would move their hearts to choose exactly where they're going to start, to choose exactly how they will be in your Word for this year. And Lord, may we not just take it as a duty that we must perform, but Lord, the very breath that we breathe, the very life that we live. And so, Lord, move in our hearts, move in us to dedicate ourselves to study your Word. And Lord,

move in us to understand exactly what you have to say to each heart here this morning. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

Lord God, we just thank you for the day. We give you honor and glory and praise, God, for just who you are. For how much you love us. God, use us. Use us for your glory. God, use us how you will. Use us how you see fit. Help us just to surrender each and every day to your will. We love you, Lord. We praise you. All God's people said, Happy New Year.