Azimuth: Know the Route (Bible Reading)
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Sermon Title Slide
ME: *Introduce Self*
Let me tell you about the first time I did land nav, because it was terrible. This was at the Chaplain’s Basic Officer Leaders Course, and they had us do it by squads. In my squad were two guys who told us they great at Land Nav. In fact, both of them had at one time wore that 428 patch that many of you in here are wearing. One was a former 13B NCO, and the other was a FA officer. They said, we got this. We will teach you all how to do this, and it’ll be easy.
Cool.
So they plot all the points on the map, which of course we already knew how to do all that. That’s the easy part. And they say, ok we are going to do this first one, and then the others who haven’t done land nav before will do the rest. So they determine the azimuth, figure out the distance, and we all head off and are all counting steps. And we walked. And we walked. And we walked. And they never even found the first stinking point. We walk forever. Eventually everybody gets radioed in. And we are all super embarrassed. Well, I’m kinda embarrassed because I’m in the group. But I was also embarrassed for them. Because if you would’ve been out there, you would’ve seen they weren’t exactly taking any tips or hints from anybody else in the group. They were gonna figure it out. Only they didn’t.
So we get back. And one of the Majors there is like, “What in the world? Get over here.” Luckily, he’s also one of the nicest and most encouraging guys you will meet. So our guy pulls out the map where he had plotted the points and takes it to him. And the Chaplain looks at him and says no show me points on the other map.
There was no other map. This was the only map we had.
No. The map you are using is 1:100,000. With the space we gave you, its too big to use your Azimuth and do Land Nav. The one degree difference will send you way far off. We gave you a 1:5,000 map, too. You were supposed to use both.
Then, at that time, the guy in our squad who literally was never paying to anything and we were always having to drag everywhere to keep us from being late, pulls that map out of his pocket and says, “You mean this map?”
Oh those guys were so mad.
It is very hard to Land Nav when looking at the wrong type of map.
YOU: It is very hard to do life without knowing how to get where you’re going. I may have been lost in Land Nav, maybe you have been, too, but I bet you’ve also felt lost in life before. Where you knew you were moving in a direction, but you had no idea where it was headed. You were just going along with something. For some of you, that may be why you joined the Army. For a purpose. To feel like you were going somewhere instead of being lost.
And it’s very hard to live the Christian life without knowing the route you’re supposed to be taking. You know you’re saved. You know you’re final destination is heaven, like CH Powell talked about last week, but what do you do in the meantime?
God has provided us a way to know that route, to know what to be doing, to know how to live, and that way is the Bible.
If you want to know the route, you’ve got to read the map.
GOD: So I’m not going to be telling you what your route is this morning. That’s not for me to say, at least not your specific path. I’m just telling you where to look, the Bible, and why this Book is so important.
If you have your Bibles, you can turn to 2 Timothy 3:16-17. We will read it in a second. This is a letter from Paul to his disciple Timothy. And he is encouraging Timothy in his work as a young pastor, and starts to tell him to remember the Scriptures. In verse 15 he says these Scriptures are what point all people to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, which we talked about last week. And then he continues to talk about the Bible.
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Let me show you another translation that has a more literal rendering of that word, “inspired.”
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
The Bible is “God-breathed.” It is inspired by God. The source of the authority of the Bible is that the Bible comes straight from the mouth of God, then written down by human hands.
The source of the map’s authority: God
It’s such a cool word picture that the Bible gives. I like to imagine it being really cold, and you could actually see the breath of God as he was speaking the Scripture. But it gets even better. You see, this isn’t the only place that this expression is used of God. In fact, using this “God-breathed” statements puts the Bible in the same category as some pretty huge moments in God’s work.
When God created, it was through his breath. In Genesis, it says that God spoke, and things existed. God spoke, and there was the sun, moon, stars, plants, animals, bacteria, everything.
6 The heavens were made by the word of the Lord, and all the stars, by the breath of his mouth.
God-breathed creation. And God-breathed life into us. The Bible gives us this picture that God created man, but man was still lifeless. Man was still a corpse, until God’s breath.
7 Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
And I’m going through these huge, big events because the Bible is in this same category! God breathed creation, God breathed life, and God breathed his Word. It is a living, double-edged sword that God uses to guide and direct. If you want to know what God has for you, read that which he spoke.
If you want to know the route, read the map.
So the source of the Bible is God, but what does it do for us?
So the source of the Bible is God, but what does it do for us?
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
It’s useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training. Do you notice the order of all the Bible does? How it builds on itself to build you up?
It teaches you what is right.
It shows you what you are doing wrong.
It helps you fix what you are doing wrong.
You practice doing it right
If you have any good instructors while you are here at AIT, which I know you at least have some, this is the exact same they do! First, they teach. Then, they watch you do it. And if you do something wrong, they call you out on it. They rebuke you. That’s wrong. Clean it up. And maybe some of them use some colorful language while they do that.
But, if they’re good, they move on to step 3. They not only tell you what you are doing wrong, but they help you fix it so you can succeed next time. Then, you get to train so you can do it right when it matters.
The Bible does this for us for life. It teaches how to live, and then when you aren’t living up to that, God uses the Bible to rebuke us. To show us where we are going wrong. To convict us. Man, sometimes I hate reading the Bible because God is having to do some work on me. And he’s showing me places where I’m not living up to what he has taught me is right.
But, he doesn’t stop there. It’s not just, “You’re doing this wrong!” But its also, let me help you get it right. The Bible helps us to get it right. To live the life that God is calling you to. And then it becomes training.
What is the point of training? In the army, what is the point of training? In Land nav, what is the point of training? Well, when you get down range, you’ve got to be able to do it! When it matters, you’ve got to be able to do it. We train so that we are successful when it matters. We train so that it becomes muscle memory. We don’t have to think about it, we just do it.
The same can be true of the Christian life. We read the Bible to train, so that when life is hard and temptations come, we don’t even think about it. The muscle memory is to do what the Bible says.
In the Book of Matthew, we get to see the temptations of Jesus. Jesus had fasted in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights, and then the devil comes to tempt Jesus. We aren’t going to look in depth at it, just know that’s what happens. When Jesus was physically at his weakest, because 40 days and nights is a long time, he then faces temptation. And every time, his immediate reaction to the temptations is to quote Scripture. Jesus’s muscle memory was to go to God’s Word. To go to the Bible. When we read the Bible, on our own, we are training for those moments. We are training for God’s Word to be what we immediately go to in the hard times.
And when we are in God’s Word, and we allow the Bible to go through those 4 steps in our lives: teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training, we are then equipped to do the good works that God has called us to.
Last week we read from Ephesians.
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—9 not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
Out of our salvation, out of grace, out of our faith, we are able to do the good works. Well, let me tell you this, if you want to be prepared to do those good works, if you want to be equipped, you’ve got to be reading the Bible. On your own.
If you want to know the route, you’ve got to read the map.
Let’s zoom in a little closer on this “training” aspect. I think it can be a little confusing.
What does it mean to train in righteousness?
What does it mean to train in righteousness?
At its most simplest form, it just means doing it. It means you read the Bible, and then you do what it says. It’s not rocket science. It’s not easy. It’s hard to do. But its simple. Here’s what James says about it.
22 But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. 25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does.
If you hear the Word, or read the Word, and then do nothing, it was pointless. God’s Word, that which he breathed, changes you. Or it should.
Otherwise, you are like somebody who looks at a mirror, but then forgets what you look like. You are like somebody who uses the mirror, but then doesn’t actually use the mirror for its purpose! The whole point of the mirror is to see yourself so you can know yourself so you can fix yourself! Believe it or not, the mirror is not intended for you to just gaze at yourself admiring how good-looking you are. We use the mirror to check ourselves in the morning. Does my hair look ok? Did I shave? Do these clothes match? What does my face look like? Does my make-up look good?
Who in the world would look at a mirror, notice they have a huge booger sticking out of their nose, and do nothing?? Nobody! That’s the point of the mirror. You don’t forget that booger. You grab a kleenex and you take care of it.
Who in the world would read something in the Bible, the inspired word of God, that convicts us and shows us we are doing something wrong and shows how we can do it right would do nothing??? ALL OF US!
We are hearers and readers who do nothing, and it does nothing for us.
If you want to know the route, you’ve got to read the map. But, then you have to follow the map.
YOU: I don’t know where you are in relationship to the Bible this morning. Maybe you are still stuck on that very first idea, that the Bible is truly God-breathed. The authority of the Bible is the very God who created. If that isn’t true, then there’s no reason to follow the Bible. I would encourage you to begin reading the Bible. Begin practicing what it teaches. And see if God begins to use it to change you, to show you that this Word really is His Word.
Others in here, you’ve got to start reading the map for yourself. Remember how in my terrible first land nav experience we were reading a map whose scale was just too grand us to navigate well. If the only time and place you are getting the Bible is here on Sunday mornings and then every now and then on Wednesday nights, your scale is off. You are too zoomed out. You can’t read the map well enough to know the route. You’ve got to start reading the Bible for yourself. You’ve got to make that part of your routine. So here’s what I’m going to ask you to do. For the next two weeks, commit to reading the Bible on your own at least two more days than you are right now. If you’re doing 0, do it twice. If you’re doing it twice, read 4 days. If you’re already reading 6-7, good job.
WE: And then for all of us in here, we’ve got to do what we read. It’s not about just checking a box saying I read. We need to do what we read.
As the worship band comes back up, I want you to imagine with me what a difference in the Kingdom we could see if we had 40-60 Believers spread across all kinds of batteries and platoons reading the Bible and living out what it taught. Not one person doing it, but all the people in this room, training to live Biblically. Training to make decisions and choices and actions based on what God has said. Squad cultures would start to change. Platoon cultures would start to change. Battery cultures would start to change. Because God would be moving, and he would be using you to do so.
This wasn’t the feel-good, come to the alter type message. But here’s what I want to ask you to do during this last song. If you are willing to make that commitment to read your Bible two more times and then do what it says, I’d love for you to make that commitment public. That way all of us in here can know that we aren’t alone in that commitment. That there really is a whole team of Believers striving and wanting to make a difference in the Kingdom. So to make it public, I’m going to ask you to do one of two things:
Find a Chaplain and ask them to pray for you to follow through.
Right where you are, get on your knees and pray to God letting him know this commitment to get into His Word.
I know that might feel awkward at first, especially if you are the first to move, but if you start doing what the Bible says, it will put you in some awkward situations, so just let this be the first of several over these next few weeks.
If you need prayer or to do any other business, please come find one of the Chaplains. We would love to talk and pray with you.
*Closing Prayer*