lan Warner
Its easy to get swept off into the ways of society and culture and forget that Jesus is Lord over all in life. You can be loyal to your culture, nation or whatever else as long as it does not conflict with the word of God. Your entire desicion making process should require you to lean on Jesus. We need to get back to The Bible and being desperate for the Holy Spirit to guide us.
Society has a lot to say about how we should live our lives, but there is nothing new under the sun (Ecc 1:9). Society had a lot to say about how people should live in Biblical times too.
Getting backt to the Bible means that recognizing that the word of God is the story of Gods love and effort to save his people. The story is not about us but we can use it as a guide for how we should live our loves. You learn throughout the Bible was pleases God and we should live to please him as well.
How can you follow someone you know nothing about? How can you follow someone if you’re not aware of what pleases them? You have to get back to the Bible to know what is true.
Psalm 19: 7-11
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul;the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;9 the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;the rules[of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold;sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
Get Back to The Bible as Your Filter
You have to run all the information you take in through the Bible. In the age of “fake news” there are too many people who turn to their friends or social media to learn what is true. Everythign needs to be run through the scripture.
- Books you read
- Podcasts you listen to
- Advice from friends
- Guidance you seek
- Sermons you hear
1 Timothy 1:3-7
3 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship[a] from God that is by faith. 5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.
Consistently throughout Pauls New Testament Epistles, you see him warning different churches not to get swept up by unsound doctrine. We will always having itching hears and we will want to believe in things that sound good to our own hearts.
The problem is that not all of these teachers and people will teach us things are that are according to the world of God. The only way to know for sure is to go back to the word of God and know the word so well that you can pick up when teach is not sound.
You need to be able to filter all the noise in the world through the word of God to make sure you’re belieivng and following Jesus Christ. If you realized that you have drifted, repent and sin no more!
Get Back to The Bible as Your Final Say
When you turn to the word of God and prayer for decisions in life, you’re declaring a dependancy. You are showing that you’re desperate for a God whose ways are higher than yours.
Everytime you make a decision without turning to the word, praying and leaning into the Holy Spirit, you’re declaring that you go this. You’re making it clear that you don’t need God.
Philippians 4: 4-7
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Psalm 119: 9-10
How can a young man keep his way pure?By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you;Let me not wander from your commandments!
Culture does not have the final say in your life! Your friend do not get the final say in your life!The word of God has the final say in your life.
Get Back to The Bible as Your Hope
What do you put your hope in? The definition of hope is “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” The thing in life that you should be the most certain in is Jesus Christ.
Romans 5: 1-5
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
The greatest gift you ever recieved is salvation through Jesus Christ. if you work for something, your wages are not a gift but what you’re due. The grace of God is not something that you can work for because there is nothing a sinner can do to meet God standards of perfection.
God sent his only son to be the perfect sacrfice. He lived here in the flesh and experienced life as we all do, only he did not sin! Since he was not a sinner he was able to die and take on all of our sins so that we could be forgiven and made rigth with God.
There is nothing that you should have more hope in than that. If God will do all that for broken people, how much more will he do for people who believe in Jesus? (Romans 8:31-39).
Hebrews 11:1-7
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. 5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
Get Back to The Bible as Your Joy
The Bible needs to be your joy and delight. Thing about all of the things of this world you delight in, how can they ever be more important than the one who saved your soul? The Bible often comes off as this complicated book that is hard to read. That is the amazing thing about the book though. Everytime you read it, God reveals more of himself to you and the mystery never stops unwrapping itself.
The more you dive into the word, the hungrier it makes you and the more you want to learn. The difference in hunger is like comparing a kid who is in a house full of food and snacks and a malnourished child. You put food in front of spoiled brat who is hungry and they will be picky about what they feel like. You put food in front of a malnourished child and they will eat it up with no questions asked.
Its like the difference between some one walking towards Chirst and someone waking up and sprinting as fast as they can each and everyday. When Christ is your joy, you feel like sprinting towards him each day.
Phillipians 1:18-21
18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Colossians 3:14-17
14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
