Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - 8 Reasons I Love the Bible | New Testament | Hebrews 4

Episode Date: March 6, 2023

Do you really know the Bible? Or are you blindly believing what the Bible says? Here's the bottom line: if you want to be closer with God, you have to read the Bible. In today's episode, Keith uses��Hebrews 4 to share reasons why the Bible is life-changing. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Hebrews 4

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Today we're going to look at one verse in Hebrews chapter 4. It's verse 12. For the Word of God is alive and active, sharper than a double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

The Bible is the Word of God. That's why it's a unique book. It was written over the course of about 1,500 years and has 40 different authors who contributed at least a little bit to it. The Bible claims that it is divinely inspired, or as Paul puts it in 2 Timothy, it is God-breathed. Jesus claims the Bible is without error. It really is a one-of-a-kind book. I don't think anyone can read the Bible and come away unmoved. The whole Bible is translated into over 500 languages, with hundreds of more languages having only the New Testament.

Have you ever noticed that people have? have respect for the Bible, but that doesn't necessarily mean they've read their Bible much. Like, you could believe the Bible is the Word of God, but that doesn't mean you spend much time in it or know it very well. Sometimes I think Christians treat the Bible like a software license update. You know, something you might see on iTunes that you have to click that you agree with before you can move on and use the program. Now, when you see one of those updates come across your screen, do you scroll through it and read it? No, of course not. You just scroll to the bottom and click I agree. And I think that describes a lot of church people's approach to the Bible.

I agree with it, but I haven't really read it and I don't really know what it says. E-readers like Kindles tell us that a lot of people buy big, important novels, maybe something like war in peace, but that they don't actually finish the book. And we know a book's position on a bestseller list may indicate that it was bought, but that's not the same thing as being read. People who attend church regularly, 15% say they read the Bible every day, 25% say once a week, 40% say once or twice a month, and 20% of church attenders say they never read the Bible. Barna Research shows that 60% of Americans can't name five of the Ten Commandments.

81% of those who identify as born-again Christians think the phrase, God helps those who help themselves, is a Bible verse. If you're one of those 81%, let me tell you, that's not. not in the Bible. It was in poor Richard's almanac. Given the lack of biblical knowledge and wisdom, it's no surprise that the church is weak and superficial. If you have any desire to go anywhere in your faith, if you're going to experience the joy that God wants or the peace that God gives, if you're going to see your character change, if you want to have a closer relationship with God, you have to be a person who is engaged with your Bible. Here are eight reasons why I love the

Bible and I hope you do too. The first reason I love the Bible is because that's where God speaks to me. See, I want to hear God's voice. I want him to speak to me in a personal way. I want to know that it's really and truly him. I mean, that's not too much to ask, is it? In the Bible, our father, our God speaks to us. He speaks clearly and he speaks personally. When we think of God speaking to us, we expect something dramatic, maybe an audible voice or a whisper or to see a sign. But John Piper said, if you want to hear God speak to you, open your Bible and read it out loud. Because when you read your Bible, that's God talking to you. Maybe you say, well, that's not exactly what I meant.

I mean, I want something more personal about me. But the Bible already is personal. In fact, it's the most deeply personal communication we can experience in this life. because the Holy Spirit takes the words in the Bible, confirms their truth to us, and applies those words in the most precise and intimate ways. When we are despairing, he uses the Bible to speak hope to us. When we are weak, he uses the Bible to speak encouragement.

When we are sorrowful, he speaks joy. When we are sinful, he speaks a rebuke and correction. The Bible is as personal as it gets. Whatever you expect to hear God speak outside the Bible will not be near as good as what you find. within the Bible. It won't be as clear. It won't be as trustworthy. It won't be as pure. You need nothing more. We don't need visions to believe that heaven is for real because we know it from the Bible. We don't need miracles to confirm that God loves us because we know it from the Bible. We don't need

great wealth or freedom from suffering to tell us that God is for us because we know that he is for us because the Bible tells us so. In other words, assuming we pay attention to what it says, the Bible is enough. The second reason I love the Bible is because without it, I would be left to speculation and human opinion. Or here's another way of saying it. The Bible is the best authority in our life. Bob Dylan sang the song, that you've got to serve somebody, meaning that everybody

has an authority in their life. Now, that runs counter to the spirit of our age. People reject the Bible because modern people don't want an authority in their life. But remember what Dylan said, everybody's got to serve somebody. Everybody is going to be looking for an authority, and whatever authority you find won't be as good as the authority of the Bible. Your feelings can't be your authority because they're unreliable. Think about every high school student. They look back at their life when they were in middle school and they go, and I was a fool then.

Or a 30-year-old looks back at their 20-year-old self and goes, man, I is an idiot. Well, that's always going to happen. I mean, if we could live to be 130, we'd look back on our 85-year-old self and think how naive we were. Whatever age you are now, you are a fool, right? I mean, it's just that you can't see it now, but you can only see it in hindsight. So you should never rely on your feelings, on your intuition, what seems right to you. Proverbs 1412 says there's a way that appears right, but in the end, that way leads to death. I don't want to live my life by changing human opinion or culture.

I don't want an authority in my life that's going to be proven wrong 100 years from now. I want an authority that's firm and sure and eternal. On a personal level, what's the authority in your life? Whose authority do you submit to? In Luke 5, Jesus had told the disciples to lower their nets to catch fish. Now, these disciples have been out fishing all day. They were tired. they were grumpy, they hadn't caught a thing.

And this is how Simon answered him. He said, master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets. You hear that? Jesus, my experience tells me there are no fish here. But because you say so, I will let down the nets to see. That's what it means to have God as an authority in your life. That you don't have to have an explanation.

It doesn't have to make sense to you. you listen and obey his word. Third, I love the Bible because it sustains me during difficult times. When Jesus was being arrested, he said that was foretold by the scripture. In other words, the scripture was being fulfilled in his arrest. He saw his arrest through the lens of God's word. In difficult times, Jesus turned to the scripture. On the cross, he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

That comes from Psalm 22. said, into your hands, I commit my spirit. That comes from the Psalms as well. So in the darkest hour I have, I need scripture. And when other people are in a dark moment in their life, the only thing I have to offer them is God's word, the promises of God made in the Bible. Fourth, I love the Bible because it teaches me who I am. I learn about myself. Psalm 103, the life of mortals is like grass. They flourish like a flower in the field. The wind blows over it and it is gone and its place remembers it no more. Or Jeremiah 17.9.

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? See, I have a tendency to think that my life will go on forever. But Psalm 103 reminds me that my life comes and goes and I need to live inside of God's story. I tend to think that I'm a good person and that my motives are good. But Jeremiah 17 says, be careful because your heart. can deceive you to believe anything. Fifth, I love the Bible because it helps me fight sin. When Jesus was confronted by Satan in the wilderness, Jesus fought off the lies of Satan

by saying three times it is written. Three times Satan tempted him and three times he went back to the scriptures, specifically to the book of Deuteronomy and quoted scripture in order to fend off the temptation. Jesus memorized the Bible so that he'd be prepared when temptation came. Now I know you say you can't memorize things you don't have time or your memory is not good, but what if I paid you a thousand dollars for every Bible verse you memorized? I bet you would get motivated, wouldn't you? But Psalm 1910 says that the Bible is more precious than gold than much pure gold. It's not about the memorizing.

It's about knowing the Bible so that you can fight the sins you struggle with. Six, I love the Bible because in it I find answers to questions that you can't find on Google. You can find a lot on Google. You can find facts, but you can't find wisdom. The Bible won't answer every question you have. It won't figure out where you should go to college. But it will answer important questions like, what will make you happy?

Or what should I look for in a spouse? Or how do I forgive someone who deeply hurt me? How do I make a difference in this world? How do I deal with unfair and disappointing circumstances? We turn everywhere but the Bible, but it's the Bible that has the answers to the questions that we're asking. Seven, I love the Bible because while it is deep, children can understand it. A woman in our church sent me a note about her son.

He's seven years old and he has some significant health issues. He has a rare chromosome disorder that has left him with all kinds of issues along with developmental and speech delays. She wrote this. After our third Sunday, my nonverbal son brought me his communication device and pushed the buttons to form the sentence, want read Bible. She said I knew that my child could understand way more during his time at church than I gave him credit for. Eight, I love the Bible because it points me to Jesus. The goal is not to know a lot of facts from the Bible. The goal is to let the Bible help you develop a relationship with God. I'm glad you're listening to 10-minute Bible talks. Whatever you do to get more of the Bible in your

life is a step in the right direction. Hey, thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talk newsletter. You'll get a short email once a week. It'll challenge you to grow in your faith, give you interesting background on today's passage, and a lot, lot more. Just click the link in the show notes to sign up. It'll help you deepen your journey with Jesus.