2020-04-30 Coffee with Chris - Things are not always what they seem

The speaker begins by discussing how things are not always what they seem, using the example of their coffee cup containing tea. They then emphasize the importance of diving into the Word of God during this time of being at home, to discern between truth and lies. They highlight the accessibility of the Bible through technology and caution against relying solely on others' interpretations. It is important to personally know what the Bible teaches and to understand objections raised by others. The speaker shares an example of a misinterpretation of child sacrifice in the Bible and emphasizes the need to study and understand Scripture for oneself. They encourage focusing on personal time with God and the Bible rather than relying solely on external sources. Good morning and welcome to Coffee with Chris. You know, things are not always what they seem. For example, there's no coffee in this cup. This is my coffee cup. There's no coffee in that cup either. It's tea. Because as Philippians 21 verse 17 says, things are not always what they seem. And I lied. Philippians doesn't have 21 chapters. And that brings me to what I want to talk about today. And that is, in this time, when you've got time at home, jump into the Word. Because right now there is an abundance of live streams and videos online from people of God, from teachers, and from, unfortunately, so-called teachers. And I think it's very important right now to make sure that we are in the Word so that we can rightly divide between truth and lies. And to know exactly what it is the Word says. Because I think in our generation, the beauty of technology is that we have the Bible at our fingertips wherever we go. If you have a phone, you can get a Bible app, which is awesome. You can get every translation you would like in an instant. And if you don't have the app, you can Google it, you know. And even without that, we have such free, easy access to, you know, getting Bibles and things like that right now. And so, with that though, it's ironic that I think we've had, sometimes seeming like more of a Bible illiteracy, right? Because we know it's there at an instant. We know we can just Google that Bible verse, Google Bible verses on fear or revenge when that's the subject at hand. So we don't take time to study what it actually says. And then when someone else comes along and just says anything, it's easiest for us to believe it because it might just sound like something we want to believe. To be honest with you, there's a lot of things in the Bible that I don't want to believe. And I think if we dive into it, we're all going to find something in there that we're a little bit uncomfortable with. No matter what spectrum of denomination you are in, there's going to be passages that confuse you and frustrate you. That's because, I believe, it's because God is so much more vast than us, you know? And He is there, the Holy Spirit is there to help us to be able to learn and understand and grow from the Bible. And good, solid Bible teachers are there to also help us learn. But you have to know what the Bible says for yourself. I don't mean that it says different things for different people, but what I mean is you need to know for yourself personally what the Bible says, what it teaches, what God actually says. It's also important because if you strongly believe in your relationship with Jesus and you have experienced Him in such a personal way that you want others to have that kind of personal relationship with Him too, and then when they come with objections to, well, the reason I don't believe, I don't, I could never believe in Christianity or God or Jesus is because X, Y, and Z. Because of what the Bible teaches on this. Because the Bible says this, or because Christians do this. You need to know what the Bible actually teaches on those things to see if their objections are, A, actually an objection of something that the Bible actually even said. It might not even be. I had somebody once tell me that they couldn't really believe in Christianity because it endorsed child sacrifice, which the Bible doesn't endorse. They were, of course, referring to Genesis when God had asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, which was something that he never intended for Isaac to actually follow through with, and I encourage you to read the story for yourself in the book of Genesis. But they misunderstood that story, taken it out of context, and thought it meant something that it didn't. God abhorred, and still abhors, child sacrifice, and that is evidence over and over again in the Bible when He, you know, with His very honest raw thoughts about nations that were doing child sacrifice, and He was very not okay with that. So sometimes people have objections that are not actually something the Bible said. Sometimes they have objections to something the Bible said and they got it out of context, or they don't understand the reason that it's there. And, you know, maybe it's about certain things that they wish they could do, and they think, well, why is God against X, Y, and Z, you know? You need to be able to understand from Scripture and explain from Scripture God's overarching plan, His knowledge of us and what's best for us, the fact that He created us, and that He is that supreme being, and so He has the right and the knowledge to know what is best for us or not. But to know, also to be able to outline that the whole structure of the Bible showing the creation, the intention of that beauty and unity with God that God created, the fall from that, and then the lead-up to Jesus coming for paying the penalty for our mistakes and that redemption that is available, you need to be able to outline that. So in this time where you're stuck at home, I challenge you to turn off all these extra voices, even if they are Christian ones. I'm not saying don't tune into your local church online, but, you know, and there's nothing wrong with watching preachers, other preachers online as well, even outside of your own home church, good Bible-believing preachers, but make sure that the majority of your spiritual diet is not coming from something secondhand like all of these teachers. Make sure it's primarily coming from your personal time with God in the Bible. Anyways, that's my reminder for you today that things are not always as they seem. God bless.