INFORMATION AND TRANSFORMATION
Pastor Dennis Clanton
Woodland Church
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
The Bible is a love letter.
(Philippians 3:6, NLT) “I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.”
1. The Bible gives me a foundation for my faith.
(2 Timothy 3:16, NLT) “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.”
“The Bible teaches us what is right, what is not right, how to get right, and how to stay right.” – Warren Wiersbe
(1 Timothy 1:7, NLT) “They want to be known as teachers of the law of Moses, but they don’t know what they are talking about, even though they speak so confidently.”
(John 5:39–40, NLT) “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.”
(Matthew 13:18–23, NLT) “Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds: The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts. The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced. The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”
“The fault is in the hearers, not in the message. When the seed falls in good soil, it will be productive. In this way, Jesus assured his disciples that, despite the areas of hostility and inadequate response, there would be a harvest. Even in the good soil, however, there is room for some variation in the degree of productivity—100, 60, or 30 times. In other words, disciples do not come in only one size or type, and there is room in the kingdom of God for the ordinary as well as for the spectacular.” – Don Carson
HOW IS MY HEART?
(Romans 6:22, NLT) “But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.”
(Galatians 5:22–23, NLT) “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
(Colossians 1:10, NLT) “Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.”
2. God gave us the Bible for transformation not information.
(James 1:22–25, NLT) “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.”
a. Does my knowledge of the Bible increase my ability to love?
(1 Corinthians 8:1, NIV) “Knowledge puffs up while love builds up.”
b. Can I discern negotiables from negotiables?
“In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty, in all things, charity.” – Augustine
c. Do I have a teachable spirit?