The Bible According to You

Welcome to PowerPoint with Jack Graham. The Bible, God's word, is my authority in life. I want to be not a question mark, but a walking, talking exclamation point for the power of God's word. On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about how wonderful life can be when you live according to God's word.

Now here's Dr. Graham with his message: The Bible, according to you. Take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Joshua, chapter one. In the Old Testament, as in the book of Joshua, you have the story of the children of Israel after wandering in the desert for forty years, stuck in the desert due to their own rebellion. God had delivered them out of Egypt, but due to unbelief, they wandered in the wilderness.

They became desert disciples, but now after forty years in the desert. Moses has died, and Joshua is prepared and is being prepared to lead the children of Israel to cross Jordan and into the land of promise.

So Israel is prepared to go over and to take the land that God had given them. But Moses dies, and now Joshua, General Joshua, is taking command and is now being prepared to lead. The people over, and God says to them in Joshua chapter one, as we covered earlier, "I have already given you this land, and what you need to do now is by faith take it. Go and take it, possess your possessions, take what God has given you." And that example to us is a reminder that Canaan is in the Bible not a parallel with heaven, but rather the promised life that we live. It is this life of promise.

The land of promise represents a life of promise that is given to us in Christ, because He has given us all the promises of God. Yes, and Amen. And these promises, this life. Imagine, imagine how different your life would be if you would live in the promises of God and the power of God that He has given us according to His word. Imagine how your marriage would be, and your parenting would be, and your career would be if you lived in the fullness.

Because remember, the Promised Land is a picture of our freedom. It is a picture of our Fulfillment, the fullness that we have in Christ—it's all about our victory, victorious living, and that victory is already won. And therefore, we have been given all the promises of God and the presence of God in our life.

So, Joshua is being prepared. And Joshua, of course, is facing an uncertain future. He doesn't know what is on the other side of the Jordan. What they would face, because there are battles to fight in Canaan. In fact, the people that were occupying Canaan at that time were, in effect, evildoers themselves.

They were terrorists, immorality, prostitution, child sacrifice. These were pagans. These were false religionists who were living in the land, and now God is telling this band of believers from Israel to go and take it. There were powerful, fortified cities in the land, and people who were far from God. And God is saying to Joshua, saying, "You go and take it, because though there will be battles to fight." To be won and lost, I am going to give you the land that I have promised you.

And so, as an example to us, we're reminded that there are battles to be fought. We are in a spiritual battle. What we're seeing in Israel is an outburst of the spiritual conflict that is going on in the world today. There is a devil, and he's powerful, and he's evil, and he's moving. The world is becoming more and more hostile towards people of faith, not only Jewish people but followers of Jesus.

And so there are battles to fight, and there is some fear and trepidation. And that is why God says to Joshua on three occasions in Joshua one. Be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous, because I am with you.

And so God promises His presence and His power. And then in verses seven and eight, and this is our text. This is what God says to Joshua. And to us, only be strong and courageous. Being careful, watch this to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, had commanded you.

Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the to the left, that you may have what good success wherever you go. You know what success is. Success is not measured as to how the world measures success. Success. Is the progressive realization of the will of God in your life and mine?

That is real success.

So he says, according to the law that Moses, my servant, now remember, as God is giving His word, just as an aside here, but very important, the Bible is inspired. We're going to see that. But God used human beings. God uses people like Moses, prophets, and patriarchs and apostles to deliver His word. And so, as Moses is the human author of the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, the Law, this Law has now been kept and journaled, and the priests were taking care of it and preserving it.

And so, Joshua was very familiar with the Law of God as delivered by Moses. You know, of course, of the Ten Commandments, written by the very finger of God and delivered by Moses.

So he said, "You have it. Don't turn from it to the right or the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. The book of the law, the Bible, shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be able be careful to do according to all that it is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." And so we're believing God for more, more power, more anointing, more prayer, more people coming to faith. We're believing God for for more.

Jesus said in the Book of Revelation to His church, "I've set before you an open door. The door is wide open, but you need to have the strength and the courage to go through it and to take me at my word, lest." Talk for just a few moments about this book of the law, the authority of the word of God. This book is not a human book; it is God's book. It's the Jesus book because the story of the Bible is the story of redemption and salvation that God has given to us. And so, the authority of the word of God.

When God says to Joshua and to us, "Keep the law of God," but you shall live according. To my laws, to my word, and now the Bible encompasses not only the law, the penitute, the first books of the Bible, the first five, but also the prophets and the Psalmist and the Proverbs and the the Gospels and the Apostles. This is now the word of God, preserved and and protected for us throughout generations. And so the Bible is to be treasured. This book is a treasure house of truth.

The Bible is God's book. It is written, and therefore it is true. It is trustworthy. It is timeless. It is inspired.

It is infallible. It is inerrant. It is indestructible. But it is God's word. To attack or to deny or discredit or disbelieve or try to deconstruct or disobey God's word is to attack, disbelieve, try to endeavor to destruct God Himself, because God is in His book, His word is His breath.

In fact, Second Timothy three sixteen and seventeen: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. For doctrine, reproach, correction, and instruction in righteousness.

So when he says all Scripture is given by inspiration, literally means breathed out by God, just as my breath is producing my words over my larynx, throughout my throat, and through my tongue to you. God's breath is given and. The word of God is alive because His breath is in it. Just as He breathed into humankind and they became the life that God gave, so as He breathed into His word, and His word is alive. This is a living book.

And therefore, it is authoritative. Jesus underscores this in Matthew five eighteen. He says, "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until it is accomplished." We believe that Jesus, the Messiah, fulfilled the law and the prophets. And therefore, when he speaks of authority, you know Jesus believed the Bible. And the stories of the Bible in the Old Testament, for example, the flood in Noah's era.

Jesus spoke of the flood. It's interesting the very things, the very events in biblical history that are questioned by so-called scholars and certainly by unbelievers are the very things that Jesus affirmed. The worldwide flood. Jesus spoke of Noah and even. Paralleled it to his own resurrection.

He spoke of Jonah being swallowed by the great fish. He spoke in terms of marriage and the foundation of all society. He spoke of Adam and Eve. People say, "Where did Adam and Eve exist?" Of course, they did. Of course, they did.

And Jesus affirmed that, and not only in affirming. Adam and Eve as literal physical people created by the hand of God, not the product of selection or the product of evolution, but by the hand of God. God spoke and God created the man and the woman. Jesus spoke of Adam and Eve and then spoke of marriage as between a man and a woman. The point that I'm driving home to you is the Bible is true.

It is trustworthy. It is timeless. And it is transforming. This word of God will change your life when you yield to the authority of what God is saying. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, the Bible according to you.

Did you know that you can join Dr. Graham for his daily devotion? It's a study of God's word that will help you grow in your faith, encourage you in your walk with Christ, and show you how to navigate through the challenges of life. To sign up, text DEVO D E V O to five nine seven eight nine and begin receiving Doctor Graham's devotional every day. Again, text DEVO D E V O to five nine seven eight nine.

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Now let's get back to today's message: the Bible according to you. You can't pick and choose what you believe about the Bible.

Some try to do that.

Well, I like the part that says, "Love everybody." I like the part that talks about judge not lest you be judged, but I don't like the part about the sanctity of life that life begins in the womb. I don't like that part, or I don't like the part, thou shall not lie, or thou shall not steal, or commit adultery. I don't like that, and so people want to accommodate. We live in a world of compromise and accommodation. And what I am saying to you is what God was saying to Joshua.

Get into God's book. Believe it, receive it, live according to God's word—the authority of God's word in your life. I want to talk to you then about the sufficiency of Scripture. The sufficiency. What did God say to Joshua?

He said, "Now don't turn from this to the left to the right. You'll have success." And He said, "The book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it." Day and night, the sufficiency of Scripture, meaning that the Scripture is not only true, but the Word of God meets every need in our lives, and this is why we are to meditate on it. Whatever the subject, whether it is faith or finances or family or the future, what the Bible says is what God says.

So I want to give you ways in which the Word of God can be sufficient in your life, powerful in your life. And I learned this a long time ago as a boy using my hand and the five fingers of my hand. This will help you learn how to assimilate and meditate. Upon God's word in your life, number one, hear, hearing.

So let's let let's let the thumb represents hearing the word of God. How are you to hear the word of God? By asking God to open your eyes to truth. Have you prayed? Did you come prayerfully and expectantly today?

Did you ask God to speak to you? Through His Word, you see, is hearing the Word of God, and and and this, in some ways, is level one of your engagement with your Bible. This is why we gather each week and multiple times throughout the week to to hear the Word of God. And God sends preachers and teachers and and leaders among us that help us understand the Scripture. But you should come expectantly and excitedly, I might add, asking God to speak.

I would encourage you. To take notes, take notes. The weakest ink is better than the strongest memory. And so often you hear something, it goes in one ear, out the other. You ask, "What did the pastor say today?" I don't know.

Maybe take a note or two, write in your Bibles, and bring a pad, bring a pencil. Hear the word of God. Start with hearing the word of God, then reading the word of God.

Now this is on you to read the Word of God. It's good to have someone read it to you. Read God's Word to your children in a translation that they can understand and hear you read the Scripture again. It was my grandfather reading the Scripture to me that put the Word of God in my life so long ago. It's good to read it out loud sometimes for yourself.

Now, typically, we read silently. But when it comes to the Word of God, I would encourage you from time to time to read it out loud. Read God's Word out loud, and hear yourself speaking God's Word because now it's getting in you and through you. Read the Word of God, and when you read the Word of God, don't just rush through a passage just to check. You know the Bible a day keeps the doctor away.

No, get a passage. I like reading long lengths of passages, but normally I'm concentrating on a small passage. I'm reading it through, and and when I do, I'm I'm underlining it, I'm highlighting it, I'm I'm taking some notes in the margin of my Bible. Say, can I do that? Can I write on my Bible?

Of course you can. In fact, your Bible. If you're writing in it and note taking in it and underlining, it can be a legacy piece for your children and their children that they'll pass on from generation to generation. Amen.

So, reading God's word, and then as you think it through and pray it in and write it down, the next step is study the Word of God.

So, we're on the big. Middle finger at this point.

So, study the Word of God. That's the next step.

So, what are we doing? What are we doing? We're hearing God's Word. We're doing it faithfully. We're coming to hear God's Word.

We show up because we're hungry for the Word of God. We get up in the morning and we read our Bibles. No Bible, no breakfast. Before the world rushes in, while it's still relatively quiet, at a time and a place where you're reading God's word, study it. That's the next step as you take steps of spiritual growth and development as a disciple.

That you begin to study God's word on your own. There are wonderful study Bibles that are available to us today that previous generations did not have. Their notes. You can study your Bible by reviewing your pastor's notes or the preacher's notes from Sunday. You can study your Bible, so it's good to hear it.

It's good to read it, but take the next step of studying God's Word. Know what it says. Know what it means. A lot more about that, maybe at another time. And then memorizing.

So that's the fourth thing: memorizing the Word of God. I'm glad that. I learned as a young Christian to begin actually memorizing the Bible portions of it, scriptures of it, great texts, great scriptures, great promises. And so I have a file in my head of God's word, and it's always expected that when I have a need in a certain hour, a certain time. Even when I'm preaching, that the scriptures that I that I've memorized so long ago, I'm able to share with others because that's important.

It's always in our mouth. He said that we're not only hearing but we're speaking God's word, but we're memorizing it. Are you memorizing scriptures? Said, well, my memory is not as good as it used to be. I guarantee you, if I gave you fifty dollars for every scripture you memorize, you would be a scripture memorizing machine.

It's a priority, and so I'm typically always working on a scripture, a passage scripture that I'm memorizing. Are you memorizing scripture? And then, fifthly, is meditating. Meditating on Scripture.

So, how is it different? Hearing, reading, studying, memorizing. How is meditating different?

Well, the goal of biblical meditation is to concentrate. The word is concentrate, meditate, assimilate Scripture in your life. It's a word that can mean to mutter. You ever just go around muttering or talking to yourself? It's the idea of meditating.

It's like a song you can't get out of your head. Meditating, thinking about it. Um, because as the mind goes, so do you go. As the mind goes, so the man goes, so the woman goes, and so I want to fill my mind with scripture. That's meditating.

It's like ingesting food. It's like digesting food.

So the great preacher Spurgeon said that our very blood becomes be blind. Our blood—it's in our blood. It's in our DNA. It's life to us. And so, in that morning time, and you can, whenever you choose to have a quiet time, you can, you can have it at any time.

Of course. And in fact, we're to meditate upon the scriptures day and night. But I like the morning because the first twenty or thirty minutes of your day sets the priority and the pace of your day. I just want to fill my life with the presence of God through His Word at that hour. I want to make an ungodly hour a godly hour.

Saying so, day and night meditate on the word of God. What does Psalm One says? Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners. Or sits in the seat of the scoffers, but his delight, his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. And he's like a tree planted by streams of water; the yields its fruit for its season, and its leaf does not wither.

And all that he does, he prospers. You see, there's the success, the prosperity. And if you're taking notes, that's the final point that we'll just skip this morning. But it's the authority of God's word. Have I not commanded you?

It is the sufficiency of God's word to fill us up and meet the desires. I am telling you, there is joy, there is strength, there is power, there is grace, there is mercy in God's word. His God Spirit enlightens us and moves us in His word. When I when I then pray, as I am talking to God, having listened to God, I can talk to God like He's sitting in the next chair. God is with me.

God is in the room, because what we have is a relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and so it's real. This is not religious experience or ritual. This is a reliable relationship with God. Thus, I speak then, and I just say it, and that is the proficiency. Of God's word, then you will have good success.

You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, the Bible according to you. We want to tell you about an encouraging resource available this month from PowerPoint Ministries. It's Dr. Jack Graham's book Destiny. Have you ever wondered if God really has a purpose for your life?

Or question what he might be doing through the seasons of disappointment, waiting, or uncertainty. In Destiny, Dr. Graham explores the life of Joseph to reveal how God's sovereign hand is always at work, even when we can't see it. This powerful resource will help you trust God's plan. Find peace in a difficult season, and move forward with confidence and hope.

And when you give a gift of ten dollars or more to help share the biblical truth around the world through PowerPoint, we'll send you Destiny as our thanks. To give your gift and request your copy, text OCT OCT to five nine seven eight nine. That's OCT OCT as in October to five nine seven eight nine.

Let me remind you that you can join Dr. Graham for his daily devotion. It's a study of God's word that will help you grow in your faith, encourage you in your walk with Christ, and show you how to navigate through the challenges of life. To sign up, text DEVO D E V O to five nine seven eight nine, and begin receiving Dr. Graham's devotional every day.

Again, text DEVO D E V O to five nine seven eight nine. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today? I have known and loved God's word since I was a child. I learned to read by reading my Bible. That's how long I have known and loved God's Word, and that, of course, is childlike faith.

But when I became a teenager and my faith was challenged, and then a college student and a seminarian, when there were accusations being thrown at the Bible, I came to believe my Bible even more as I searched the Scriptures. And Jesus said, "Search the Scriptures, for in them you find Me, and it is in the power and the presence of God in the Scriptures." That I've grown to love God's word more, and here I am, all these decades later. I believe the Bible more than I've ever believed it, and there are many reasons that you can believe the Bible. And the purpose of this sermon is not apologetics. You know, just briefly, the the historical and scientific accuracy of the Bible, the documentation of the manuscripts of the Bible, the unity and the harmony of the Bible, the transforming power in people's lives, the preservation of the Bible, the illumination, the work of the Holy Spirit through the Bible—all of these reasons and more—I can stand here and say, the Bible, God's Word, is my authority and.

I don't question the word of God. I want to be not a question mark all heaped over, but a walking, talking exclamation point for the power of God's word. That's the authority of Scripture, and that's how we lead. And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember, when you give a gift of ten dollars or more, we will send you Dr.

Graham's book Destiny as our thanks. Just text OCT to five nine seven eight nine. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about how Jesus can give you hope even when all seems lost. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham.

PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.