How Will We Know? Acts 8:26-38, Romans 10:14-15 and 2 Timothy 3:14-17 Conjecture Opinion Gossip Did you hear? How will we know?

We have to go to the original source Anything less is questionable That is why we open and read the bible We have to know God’s word for ourselves

Romans 10: How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

We have the Good News We have the temple, the bible and the preaching How will we know God’s Word? We have to read the bible

Sometimes reading is not enough We may read and not understand Acts 8: …This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet.

30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

32 The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”

34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

There is a reason we study together To better understand To learn from each other To share how God works within us

2 Timothy 3: But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Some of us have been entrusted with this responsibility of teaching I was prepared for this task Many are teaching around the world Others will follow us

A taste of why biblical knowledge is important This week in the news Was Jesus Married?

Papyrus from the fourth century From a Gnostic writer Secret knowledge Flesh is evil Jesus appeared to be human Many Gnostics believed Jesus was a false prophet John the Baptist was the true prophet

1 Timothy 6:20-21 knowledge 20 Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, 21 which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith.

We read our bibles… Not looking for hidden messages Looking for the many ways God loves us Seeing how God wants us to live our lives Trying to understand our culture and ourselves in relationship to God

We have to read the bible Sometimes reading is not enough We do not understand parts of the bible Therefore we study together Some of us have been entrusted with this responsibility of teaching Looking for the many ways God loves us How God wants us to live our lives Understanding our culture and ourselves in relationship to God

Therefore… We are going to take the next three years to read through and study the bible I want to invite you to read the whole bible An average of 6 to 8 chapters weekly We will look at those chapters each Sunday

We will not get bogged down in details but look at the big picture We will not ignore major or important themes You will know ahead of time what book and chapters we will study each week Bring your bible or note book

Conjecture, opinion or gossip How will we truly know? Because we will open our bibles and study them together