Morris More Than Words Study Guide

1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-949399-73-8
Verlag: Gateway Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 200 Seiten

The Bible is so much more than a big, old book. Many people want to read the Bible, but it's easy to feel overwhelmed. With 66 books and over 1,000 chapters, it has a lot of words! Where do you start? In this series, Pastor Robert Morris explains how the Bible offers life-giving revelation and power if we know how to read it. He dives into how you can read the Bible, experience the miracles within it, and discover the answers you need. This study guide is a companion to the DVD series and is designed for group discussion or individual reflection. Sessions include: Bread Water Breath Dominion Symbols Sight Light

Autoren/Hrsg.

Morris, Robert

Leseproben

1

BREAD

The Bible is the bread of life. It is our daily bread, our sustaining bread, and the true bread.

ENGAGE

If you had the option, would you rather spend one day in the past or one day in the future?

WATCH

Watch “Bread.”

• Look for the different functions of the bread of life.

• Consider how the bread sustains us and why we should read the Bible on a daily basis.

(If you are not able to watch this teaching on video, read the following. Otherwise, skip to the Talk section after viewing.)

Read

This is a series about the Bible. The purpose of the series is to help us better understand God’s Word. And the Bible is God’s Word. I once heard a professed Christian say that we should interpret the Bible the way we interpret other major works of literature, like Shakespeare. I was shocked. That is not the doctrine of biblical interpretation. The doctrine of biblical interpretation is the opposite: the Bible is of no personal interpretation. Let me put it this way: You don’t interpret the Bible. The Bible interprets you.

Once you decide the Bible is inspired by God, you know it is inerrant and infallible. I will show you how you know that for sure.

There is a whole move now against the inerrancy of Scripture, but it is the same argument that was used 30 or 60 years ago: that there are inconsistencies. Yes, I believe that it is scientifically impossible for a man to live inside the body of a fish for three days, for a sea to part on its own into dry land, or for a man to walk on water. It’s scientifically impossible for a man to be raised from the dead. That doesn’t prove that the Bible is not true. It proves that God is God. God is not a God of science. The first attack of Satan was to question the word of God. That leads to you becoming God. If you can decide which passages are inspired and which passages are not, that means you become God. And you’re not God.

This is the next attack of the enemy because he doesn’t have to attack issues anymore if he can attack and cast doubt on God’s Word.

This message is about how God’s Word is spiritual bread for us.

OUR DAILY BREAD

The Bible is our daily bread.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not” (Exodus 16:4).

Note the words “bread from heaven.” When God sent manna for the children of Israel, He provided it daily. This is important because Jesus also teaches this. Matthew 6:11 says, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Yes, this is talking about provision, but since the Bible is bread, it also refers to a daily word from God.

When we don’t eat, we feel tired and weak. I think some Christians feel tired and weak because they don’t eat every day. Psalm 68:19 says, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits.” I’d like us to make a commitment to read the Bible every day. It’s easy to do, and it’s free.

There are three types of Bibles. One is a paraphrase, like The Living Bible. It takes the English version and puts it into modern day language. Translations go back to the original Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament. There are two types of translations. An “exact equivalency” translates word by word. A “dynamic equivalency” translates the phrase or thought. I preach from the New King James Version because it is exact equivalency, and I like to know what the exact word means in the Greek or Hebrew. You can read whichever version you prefer.

OUR SUSTAINING BREAD

Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:3–4).

A word from His Word every day sustains us. Jesus used Scripture to overcome the devil. Three times when Jesus was tempted, He said, “It is written.” This passage shows that the Bible is our spiritual bread. He was quoting Deuteronomy 8:3:

“So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”

We need physical food to sustain our physical bodies. We need spiritual food to sustain our spiritual bodies. A whole bunch of Christians are dying from spiritual malnutrition. Isaiah 55:2 says that when we eat spiritual bread, our soul will “delight itself in abundance.” Job 23:12 and Joshua 1:8 express similar ideas. Joshua says that if you meditate on the Word day and night, “you will make your way prosperous … and then you will have good success.” If the Bible will make you prosper, then reading it is the most important thing that you can do every day.

OUR TRUE BREAD

In John 6, Jesus reminded the crowd that God gave manna in the desert to their forefathers after they left Egypt. It is bread from heaven.

Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”

And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. … I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world” (John 6:32–35, 48–51).

The manna was bread of life, but Jesus is the bread of life. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:14 says the “Word became flesh.” Revelation 19:13 says, “His name is called the Word of God.”

When you read the Bible, you are taking in Jesus. Jesus said in John 6:63, “The words I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” The more you read the Bible, the more Jesus gets in you. We have the key to everything. The secrets to miracles. God’s autobiography and the encyclopedia of life. We have the answer to every problem. And it’s an app on our phone that we seldom open. When we read God’s Word, we are receiving the life and power of Jesus.

Notes

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Talk

These questions can be used for group discussion or personal reflection.

QUESTION 1

Read John 6:32–35, 48–51. How is Jesus like bread?

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QUESTION 2

In the Old Testament, God sent manna on a daily basis. Why is it important to have a daily routine of reading the Bible? How does it affect us when we do and when we don’t have our “daily bread”?

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QUESTION 3

Read Matthew 4:3–4. When Jesus was tempted, He used the Bible to overcome the enemy. Share about a time you were going through a difficulty and how some key Scriptures helped get you through it. How did that affect you?

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