Currently we’re in a message series called “Faith Workout.” A lot of people think that faith is just about something that you believe in. For example, someone might say “I believe in Jesus” and by that statement, they mean that they believe that a man named Jesus lived 2000 years ago. That’s not what the Bible is talking about when it talks about faith. No, faith involves a commitment to whatever we believe in. That faith commitment is worked out in the actions of our lives.
I’ve named this message series “Faith Workout” because true faith is always worked out in the life of the believer. A faith that is not worked out or is not visible in the actions of a person is not a true faith. In this series we are studying the book of James, a short book of five chapters in the New Testament. To get the most out of this series, I would encourage you to read through the book of James on your own.
Today my message is entitled “Your Workout Manual.” If you want to learn to workout in a gym, you need a workout manual, a set of instructions to guide you in your exercises. The same is true for your faith workout. Your workout manual for life is a book called the Bible. The Bible is an amazing and absolutely unique book. It was written over a 1500 year span by more than forty authors in different places. Yet it presents a single unfolding of a story – God’s redemption of human beings and His instructions on how we should live to fulfill His purpose for our lives.
In the past, the mark of an educated person was his knowledge of the Bible. Today, you can get a PhD in most disciplines without even being required to open the most famous book in human history. Knowledge of the Bible is at an all-time low. However, you don’t have to remain ignorant of the Bible. A wise person understands that knowledge of the Bible is one of the most important things you can have in life. NLT Psalm 119:72 Your law is more valuable to me than millions in gold and silver! Which would you pick? Winning the lottery or understanding God’s Word? The right choice is understanding God’s Word.
To use the Bible as your faith workout manual, you’ve first got to make a decision to believe whatever God tells you in the Bible. Do you believe the Bible? Do you believe in God who wrote the Bible? Faith is a choice of your will. As you choose to believe the Bible, you will begin to see wonderful results in your life. However, just like physical exercise, if you stop working out with your Bible, you will lose all the benefits you gained by using it in the past. Today, I want to look at three keys to using the Bible as your faith workout manual.
To hear more about this topic, listen to my August 12, 2007 message entitled Your Workout Manual