Today, we begin a new message series called “The Power of God’s Word.” We’re going to be talking about the power of the Bible to bring about positive change in our lives and families. You see, the Bible is not just another book, like the millions of other books out there. The Bible is one of a kind, it is unique. It contains 66 books written by 40 different authors about thousands of topics. The Bible was written on 3 continents over the span of 1500 years in 3 languages, Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.
Knowing those facts, you might think that the Bible would be hodge-podge of contradictory ideas. Yet, when you carefully study the Bible, you find that it has one theme and message throughout, written in perfect harmony. The Bible is the story of God’s love for man by sending Jesus to save us from our sins.
What is different about the Bible from other books written by religious people? Even though the words of the Bible we written down by 40 different human authors, those words were inspired by God Himself through the Holy Spirit.
2 Peter 1:21 (NIV) For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
What this verse is saying is that the Bible is not simply the ideas of men written down. The Bible was written by men, but these men recorded truth from God conveyed to them through the Holy Spirit. That is why we call the Bible, God’s Word. And as the Word of God, the Bible has power.
Jeremiah 23:29 (NIV) “Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?
God’s Word has the power to change lives. It is the manual for life, written by our creator. Yet, in America today, the Bible is becoming a lost book. That’s the title of my message today, “The Lost Book.” Fewer and fewer Americans read the Bible on a regular basis. Fewer and fewer believe that the Bible is God’s Word and contains no errors. More and more people believe that the Bible is just one of many religious books and you can pick and choose which parts to believe. The knowledge of what the Bible actually teaches continues to decline, even among church goers. And so, it is not surprising that things are not going well with America. We need personally and as a nation to rediscover the power of God’s Word.
Today, we’re going to look at a story from the Old Testament in which the Word of God effected powerful change in a dark time. It was a very dark time in Judah’s history. King Manasseh had reigned for 55 years and had been incredibly evil. Manasseh promoted idolatry on a massive scale, practiced sorcery, consulted mediums, shed much innocent blood and even sacrificed his own son to an idol. Manasseh’s son Amon only reigned 2 years before he was assassinated and his son Josiah became king. But Josiah was very different from his father and grandfather. We’re going to learn some principals from his life that will help us rediscover the power of God’s Word.
Listen to or watch my June 24, 2012 message The Lost Book.