Dr. M. Taylor Bach I Timothy 4:11-16 Matthew 7:24-29 In Super Bowl XXVII, Fed Ex ran a commercial that I thought was quite clever. It was a take-off of the movie Castaway. In that movie, Tom Hanks was marooned on an island all by himself. In the commercial, the actor was marooned on an island all by himself with horrible struggles. He was there for five years when he finally flagged down a ship and it came and got him. Darned if he didn't still have an unopened Fed Ex package which he then took and delivered to the lady who was supposed to get it. She simply gave him a noncommittal thank you. You would have thought, “Oh my gosh. He went through all this effort. Five years later he still brought the package.” He says to her, “Just out of curiosity, would you tell me what is in that package?” She opened it up in front of him and there was a satellite cell phone, a compass, a hunting knife, and seeds. Everything he could have used for survival and to have gotten off of that island. It had all been with him for five years. You just thought, “If he'd only opened that package.” Well, guess what? This book (the Bible) is just like that. This book contains the Words of Life. This book contains direction for all of us. It sadly can sit on somebody's coffee table or in their library for five or more years, and it has everything that anybody needs and yet it never gets opened.

This morning, I am talking about Discipleship in Study, how we are to become familiar with this book because this book isn't just an ordinary book. People make the mistake of trying to find science in it and it is not a science book. It was never intended to have anything of science in it. People make the mistake of trying to make a history book out of it and it was never to be a history book. But what is it? It is the love letter of God to His people. Though it is made up of sixty six pamphlets so to speak, sixty six little books inside it, it's both not about us and about us. How is it not about us? It is not about us in the sense that it is about how God interacted with people over a twelve century time period. But it is about us in that as we read about the intervention of God with those people over those twelve centuries, we also discover that there are eternal truths and messages which create something that is beyond just facts or doctrine. It creates a relationship with God Himself with us. That is why the book is so important. It is called the Word of God because it speaks to us and as it speaks to us, we have what I would call a sacred encounter with God Himself. We become immersed in a relationship and that is exactly what studying the Bible is all about. It is to create the relationship with God. It is not to answer science questions. It is not to answer history questions although there is a solid historical background for it. There is not a solid scientific background for it. It was never meant to say anything about science. But it is meant to be a sacred encounter with God Himself.

What is the Word? The Word is described in John chapter 1 as Jesus Christ Himself. So as we read this book and read His words and the words of the prophets and other authors, we begin to be involved in this encounter with God. Interestingly, the Bible can interpret itself. Read the beginning to the book of Proverbs. As I have shared with you, my wife and I read Proverbs every day. We discovered you can read a chapter of Proverbs every day for thirty one days and you will cover the whole book in a month. This is how the Bible interprets itself. It says that the words of the Bible are for, “&attaining wisdom and discipline, for understanding and insight, for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair, for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young. Let the wise listen, and add to their learning and let the discerning get guidance, for understanding proverbs and parables, for sayings and riddles of the wise. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” So as we read this book, we get great knowledge. But the greatest knowledge of all is the knowledge of God Himself, the personal encounter with God Himself that takes place in and through this book.

Since this is Scout Sunday, one of the things that came to my mind is the Boy Scout oath and how important continual lifelong study is as the Boy Scout oath proclaims. I am going to ask our scouts and scout leaders to stand up and recite the scout oath. Listen carefully to its content.

On my honor I will do my best To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

Thank you. Job well done. I sprang that upon them this morning. It is a good thing you guys know your stuff. But why do they know their stuff? Because they study it, they rehearse it. The first thing that jumps out of that oath is that scouts are to be mentally awake. How do you become mentally awake? You become mentally awake by keeping an open mind. What is that old saying? That a mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work unless it is open. So you keep an open mind. You study. Then the second part of that oath that is relevant is that scouts and we are to keep morally straight. There is a religious substratum to the scout oath that actually begs for knowledge of the Bible. It begs for study of this book, for encountering God in the word that is written here. I want to urge all of you to get more deeply into this book.

I often think of the Bible as protection. The world can be an awful place. Picture a quagmire of green slime beneath your feet. Picture that as the sin of the world. Then there is a glass shield between it and you that protects you. That is like the Bible. The Bible can protect you from all the slime and evil of the world if you learn it, if you know it, if you have that personal relationship with God that is created through it. It can be of a magnificent protection. Everyone should get into this book at an ever increasing level. Yes, it can be hard to read. But there are helps and I ask you to take advantage of the helps. There are things called commentaries on the Bible. They can help you understand it better. There are dictionaries that can help you understand the words of the Bible when there are big words. There are other books like books of maps, Biblical maps and things like that that will help you to understand the culture of the original writing. When we read the Bible, we have to actually study three levels of it. First, you get into the original culture of the original people that the authors addressed. Then secondly, you need to study the culture of the early church as it read the Bible and formed the Canon. The Canon is the list of which books were inspired and deserved to be included and which don't. Then lastly, how does it all apply here and now to me? So you attempt to answer three questions. What did it mean to the original author and people? What did it mean to the early church? What does it mean now? The Bible is not a book that answers the question HOW. How do things happen? The Bible is a book that answers WHY, WHAT and WHO. Why do things happen? Why are things the way they are? What is my purpose in life? Who are we? Who is this person that we worship? And why did He create us? Why are we here on this planet? So that is the kind of thing that it will answer for you. So I urge you greatly to read it.

I frequently think of something that I heard another minister say that might describe studying the Bible. He likened the study of the Bible to military boot camp. How many of you have served in the military? Raise your hands. Quite a number. So you know what boot camp is. It is the most fun part of it, right? Wrong! Boot camp is tough. There is no doubt about it. It is the time when a fat out-of-shape kid is taken into the service, his/her head is shaved, he/she is put into baggy clothes with camouflage on them and he/she is driven until he/she becomes strong and powerful, man or woman. He/she may be awakened in the middle of the night to march twenty two miles. He/she may be asked to crawl under live bullet fire on their belly while they fly over head and replicate real-life war conditions. But the whole purpose of it is training, discipline. Discipline is not punishment, discipline is a privilege. When you are disciplined through the hard work of scouts, or the hard work of boot camp, you become prepared for life. The Bible is like that. If you get into the Bible and read it, it will help you discipline your mind. It will help you become prepared for the battle against evil in this world and believe me, as you all know, there is plenty of evil in this world. This book will prepare you to tackle that evil and be able to defend yourself. When a person is finished with boot camp, they're not a fat little boy/girl standing up as a target. They are a lean mean fighting machine. The Bible says that we are to be courageous in our fight against evil. We are to be prepared to tackle the problems of this world. We are to be “more than conquerors.”

And how do we get that way? When people are in boot camp, the message is DON'T QUIT. If there is a straggler in that twenty two mile march, he/she is urged to finish, to complete the task, to get the job done. That is how we have to be. Christianity is not a sprint. It is a marathon. As we go through life, we are to run that marathon, to fight the good fight as Paul said. Merit the crown. Win the reward. That is how we are to approach this life.

Here is my final thought. Jesus never quit on you. Don't you quit studying the Bible and learning about Him. Daily encounter Him in this book!