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Review:

• The Bible is God’s inspired, completed, and perfect Word.
  
  
• The Word is finished because the work is finished.
  
  
• Studying 2 Peter 1:12-21, 3:1-2
  
  
• The Spirit is the greater weight that the lesser weight conformed to in the writing of Scripture. Each author is carried along by the Spirit.

Today, I will speak to the Word’s authority over us as the guide to the life as God had originally authored.

Read 2 Timothy 3:10-17

Pursuing a life in Jesus with your eyes wide open.

1. Live for Jesus, persecution will follow. (12)
   
   
2. Things will get worse—impostors, deceivers, people being deceived. (13)

 Equipping yourself for anything that happens in life. (17)

• Choose carefully who you learn from. (14b)
  • Paul appeals to them—“You know me.” (10-11)
  • Paul’s qualifications of trustworthiness.
    • What he teaches.
    • The way he lives.
    • His purpose and motives.
    • His faith.
    • His patience.
    • His love.
    • His endurance through suffering—the great revealer of true commitment.
  • Continue abiding in what you have learned.
    • Continue in that which you know that you know is correct— “convinced of”.
    • By those who have proven to be trustworthy.

• Put into practice the knowledge that comes from Scripture.
  • Scripture gives us the wisdom needed for salvation.
    • You are a sinner that cannot save yourself.
    • Jesus Christ has provided what is needed to save you.
    • The Scripture gives you the knowledge needed to come to faith in Jesus’ work.
  • Scripture is the written words that come from God’s mouth.

Scripture provides the practical wisdom needed to live God’s way.

• Teaching- learning what we need to know.
  • The good teacher will use the Word of God as the source and instruction for how to live.
  • We strive to be a teaching church that develops teachers you can trust because of the life we see them live and their commitment to God’s Word.

• Rebuking- refuting/convicting error of life or teaching.
  • The Word should form our response to a potential imposter or deceiver.
  • The Word should form our response by how we address someone who is being deceived.

• Correcting- the reparation or restoration of someone who has errored in teaching or in life.
  • This follows the rebuking.
  • Correcting is bringing a person back into the correct mind and action of living God’s way.

• Training- taking what we learn from God’s Word and putting it into practice.
  • God’s Word give us great direction on how to train someone to live in application of His Word—discipleship, modeling (join me), giving opportunity (your turn), debriefing (how did it go), going again. OIKOS model!

What happens if we do life without the Word?  2 Chronicles 34:14-21, 30-33

1. Men and women become their own authority.
   
   
2. People will pursue a god.
   
   
3. Society becomes unsustainable with competing morals and values.

**A single generation without the word and two generations of poor leadership led to this societal shift post Hezekiah. (25-50 years)

What happens when the Word of God becomes the authority in society?

1. Leaders become beneficial and redemptive for society.
   
   
2. Society follows the Lord and discovers renewed health.

**Both Josiah and the nation grieved and repented of their sin at the reading of the Word.

**Wisdom from the Word caused the people to live in a pleasing way to the Lord.  They avoided the wrath and judgment of God.

“All of this was from the public reading of God’s Word.”