Formed by Scripture
Obey It (E4)
May 28, 2023 • Trey Van Camp • Matthew 7:24–29, James 1:19–27
At the close of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus ends with a warning: our obedience to his Word is what makes us true disciples. While most of us would agree with this idea, few of us live it out. We’re either too afraid of becoming legalists, too obsessed with information alone, or too unwilling to humble ourselves and live out what we read. In each of these cases, we fall short of the blessing of being formed into a person of love. But the cross frees us from falling short. By accepting this gift of grace from God, we have freedom from earning God’s love. And by embracing this freedom we’re able to truly live out God’s commands and experience the transformative power of His word.
Eat It (E3)
May 21, 2023 • Trey Van Camp • Joshua 1:7–8, Revelation 10:9–10, Psalm 1
All of us tend to twist the Bible to mean something it doesn’t or tame the Bible to make its teachings more palatable for us. But both ways of handling Scripture lead to our destruction and deformation. Instead, throughout the Scriptures, one of the most common metaphors for engaging with God’s word is eating it. We eat the text when we meditate on it, study it, and submit ourselves to it. We chew on passages, mulling their truths over and over in our minds and rethinking how we’re living our lives in light of what the Bible commands. And while this way of meditating on the Bible confronts and challenges us, it’s also the way we allow Scripture to form us into better followers of Jesus.
Story (E2)
May 14, 2023 • Trey Van Camp, Caleb Martinez • Psalm 119:27–37, Luke 4:16–21, Isaiah 8:11–13
All of us are living by a story. We tell ourselves stories about our identity, our purpose, and about how to find meaning and success in life. We also tell ourselves stories about the world around us, how it got this way, and how to fix it. The stories we believe end up being the stories we live out. But these stories we tell ourselves often fall short of reality. The Bible presents us with true reality, and it does so by telling us a story. Each part of Scripture, each book, each genre, each poem, and each law, fit together to tell one unified story that leads us to Jesus. And by learning to read Scripture as a story.
Authority (E1)
May 7, 2023 • Trey Van Camp • Matthew 5:17–20
We’re bombarded with messages from political pundits, popular culture, social media ads, and news stories, all urging us to be true to ourselves, vilify those who are different, and pursue our own happiness no matter what the cost. These lies offer happiness but instead bring us slavery, just like how Satan deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden. Satan still uses lies to lead us astray from God today. To follow Jesus in today’s world, we must seek and live by the truth. Reading Scripture helps us understand what’s true about the world, God, and ourselves. However, just reading the Bible isn’t enough. We must also let it shape us by setting aside our assumptions, presuppositions, and personal experiences to submit to its authority. Matthew 5:17-20; Mark 2:23-28; Matthew 22:23-28