Sermon Cloud

God’s Road Signs: Construction Zone: A Building Guide for Life

2 Timothy 3:13-17 

Intro: The Neverending Story clip

What is the Bible to you?  Is it just another book?  Is it just stories?  Or maybe to some of you it is just a book of rules or just some long boring book.  This morning, I want you to look at the Bible with new eyes. 

This book is special.  Look, other books you read are safe.  By reading them, you get to become Tarzan or Robinson Crusoe.  But afterwards you get to be the same as you were before reading them.  The books you read are safe.

You see the Bible is the revelation of The real Neverending Story.  It is a narrative.  It is the stuff of legends.  It is God revealing Himself to you in a very real way.  Other books are safe.  This – if you let it – will change your life.

Have you ever realized that the Bible is mostly stories?

“Did you know that 80% of the Bible is narrative?  Yes, the Bible contains some good advice, some rules for living, but for the most part it tells us story after story about people just like you and me and how God has found them and worked through them, and how God can find and work through us too.” – Rev. Mike Pulsifer

You are living in a construction zone.  As the old saying goes, God is not through with you yet.  You live in a great crucible of life where God is using your story to shape and mold you.  Scripture is showing you how God has shaped and molded the lives of others.  And when you let it in you – His great story will shape and mold your story.

Proposition: The Scriptures are worthy of following as a guide and story to build and change our lives by.  This morning I will give you two ways to let the Neverending Story of God’s Word build, shape, and change your life.

I.                Let Scripture Teach You (13-16a)

Paul has been warning Timothy of evil men trying to trick the church to follow falsehood and go into sin.  Now Paul says – here is the best way to fight off such danger.  Know the Scripture and let them guide your life.  He tells Timothy that scripture will lead to wisdom and salvation.  And to remember that Scripture is the very word of God.

God has given us the Scriptures as a great story to teach us about eternal truths of life.

In the book Waking the Dead, author John Elderedge says all great stories express the three great eternal truths that we learn about from  Scripture.

Truth 1: Things are not what they seem.

V. 13 tells us there is deception going on.  A blanket has been pulled over our eyes and we don’t see all that is going on.  All around us are evil men and imposters looking to deceive.

Famous stories repeat this truth we learn from Scripture: Neo doesn’t know he is merely in the Matrix.  Dorothy wakes up to the full color Land of Oz.  Alice falls down the rabbit hole.  Lucy walks into a wardrobe and discovers the land of Narnia.  Horton discovers that on a speck of a dust was a whole planet of people from Whoville.

In the Bible Jacob falls into a dream and sees a ladder he never knew was there.  A ladder “set on the ground with its top reaching heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down on it.”  Genesis 28:12

When Jacob wakes up, he realizes there is more reality than he knew about:

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.”  Genesis 28:16

You see, Scripture is not just teaching you principles for a happy life.  It is teaching you that there is more going on here then simply what you see.  There is a spiritual world with spiritual truth.

Another great example of this is the story of Paul when he was still Saul on the road to Damascus in Acts 9.  Things were not what they seemed.  He thought he was glorifying God by persecuting Christians.  But Christ revealed himself to Saul on that road and cleared things up for him.

Scripture is teaching you things are not what they seem.  There is so much more going on in this world then just the physical world around you.  Open your eyes and see it.  When good things happen, when junk happens, when a stretch of “bad luck” hits you – look deeper.  There is more going on than just what you see on the surface.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  2 Corinthians 4:18

Truth 2: This is a world at war.

One of the few things I love about my cat is that she is always ready for battle.  If something is hidden – then it is at war with her.  Toes, Abigail behind the corner, etc.  She is ready for war.  We need to be ready for war, because we live in a world at war.

Verses 13-14 talk about evil men and imposters trying to deceive and then another side that has taught Timothy faith and truth.  There is a great battle going on – and it’s a battle for you and your mind.

Ex. I’ll get you David Garnder.  My brother loved to scare me with that.

Every legend includes great battles and struggles.  Luke learns he must stand up against the great dark side and Darth Vader.  Frodo fights all sorts of evil to protect the one ring.  William Wallace fights for Scotland’s freedom and even his allies conspire against him.

Your life is no different.  You are in a great war against the Evil One.  Why do you think Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:14-16: Awake, O sleeper…be careful how you live, not as fools, but as those who are wise.  Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days.

Or as the Message paraphrases it: Wake up from your sleep…watch your step.  Use your head.  Make the most of every chance you get.  These are desperate times!

Have you realized you are in a great war?!  Right now, here in Marshall – there is a spiritual battle going on.  How do you survive it?  Read Scripture – see how God got His people through battles.  Let it guide you and teach you.  That boss who needs you to work Sundays.  Your spouse that won’t come to church.  Your bills pounding against you and tempting you not to tithe.  Your temper that seems to get shorter ever day.  These aren’t just simple events.  You are in a daily spiritual battle!

The whole world lies under the power of the evil one.  1 John 5:19

Truth 3: We have a crucial role to play.

Verse 14 starts out: “You, however”

You are crucial in this great battle being waged.

“Of all the eternal truths we don’t believe, this is the one we doubt most of all.” – John Eldredge

There is a great spiritual battle and Satan has his target set on you!  You have a huge role to play whether you know it or not.  All the great legends copy this idea from Scripture.

Neo thought he was just Thomas Anderson – not THE ONE.  Dorothy thought she was just some girl from Kansas.  Frodo thinks he’s just a meaningless hobbit.

Be on your guard.  Your enemy the devil is like a roaring lion.  He prowls around looking for someone to chew up and swallow.  1 Peter 5:8

“The story of your life is the story of the long and brutal assault on your heart by the one who knows what you could be and fears it.” – John Eldredge

II.             Let Scripture Transform You (16-17)

If you are going to accept the task that God has called you to: the task to do great things for His Kingdom.  Then you have to let Scripture not only inform you, but also transform you.  You have to let this Neverending Story construct you daily.

Paul says very clearly to Timothy here that Scripture is THE great tools for transforming your life.  By being taught by it, reproofed by it, corrected by it, and trained in it; you will become transformed as a great instrument for God’s use.  That is why you must allow God’s word to transform you.

As Luther said, “You may as well quit reading and hearing the Word of god, and give it to the devil, if you do not desire to live according to it.”

A great example of how the Word can transform is in the story of a 26 year old King named Josiah.  He was a good king, but he was unwittingly doing every thing wrong.  Everything you could imagine was going wrong in the kingdom he ruled.  (Ever have a day or year like that?  Everything seems to be going wrong?  4 checks on the board in Kindergarten.)

11 When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. 12 He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king's attendant: 13 "Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord's anger that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us."  2 Kings 22:11-13

God did not harm Judah during Josiah’s reign and even said about him:

25 Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did--with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength. 2 Kings 23:25

You see, Josiah did not just learn about the Bible – he let it transform Him and God’s people.

“The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.” – AW Tozer

We should be so consumed with God that we seek to have His word transform us.

1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2

The word for transform is the same word used for the metamorphosis of the butterfly coming out of its cocoon.  It is saying to become who you really are.  If you are going to be the you that God is calling you to be – you have to allow His Word – this great story to change and transform you.

Conclusion:  In 1999 an authorized biography of Ronald Reagan came out called “Dutch” by author Edmund Morris.  Regan had picked the guy and let him follow him around for 14 years to write this book.  Problem: the guy made up stuff and even called Reagan an airhead in the book.  Reagan’s people were furious.  But they had been the ones who allowed him to write the story.

Who are you letting write your story?  Are you letting your circumstances write it?  Are you allowing a daily rut to write it?  Is sin writing it?  Or are you going to let God write it?  The way to let God write your story is to become part of His story.  Scripture is God’s story to you.  Let it teach you and let it transform you.

Wake up from your sleep…watch your step.  Use your head.  Make the most of every chance you get.  These are desperate times!