Set the Record Straight | Representing the Bible (Intro)

Whether you're new to faith or you've been following Jesus for years, one of the most important questions you must decide on is this. Can I actually trust the Bible? And let me go ahead and give you the answer. It's yes, because whatever you trust, you build your life on. And I want you to build your life on something that will last forever. Hi, my name is Michael and this is class number one called set the record straight in our digital discipleship collection called represent the Bible. Can I really trust the Bible? Today we're going to set the record straight and represent or we like to say represent, re-gift or repackage the Bible to you. Here at Transformation Church, our vision is very simple to represent God to the lost and found for one reason, transformation in Christ. But another way that we say it sometimes is re-present. I want to give you a little example. These right here are some of my favorite shoes. These shoes were not given to me brand new or bought brand new, they were re-gifted to me. Somebody saw my size 13 feet looking lonely and they offered me these amazing pair of shoes. And they have become one of the greatest gifts

that I ever received because somebody once had it and then gave it to me. That's what I want to do with the Bible for you. It is a gift that God left for humanity and now I want to re-gift it to you to maybe change your perspective, to maybe change your ideas about how it applies to your life. Maybe the Bible was presented to you from your grandma as a book or coffee table holder, come on. Or maybe some of us, the Bible was used even as a weapon against you. But today I want to change all of that. This Bible wasn't written just to you, but it was written for you. So can I really trust the Bible? You can go ahead and answer that question right now. Say it with me, yes, yes you can. It's important for you to know this so you can live the abundant life that God promises for all of you, for me, for everybody around us when we believe. It's so you can know how to raise your kids. The Bible is so that you know the type of leader you need to be. The leader he placed on the inside of you and you have to know the Bible is to be trusted so you can defend your faith. In order to do that, you have to know the facts of the Bible, the fruit it produces and actually you need to know that it takes faith to believe the Bible.

Did you get it? There's facts, fruit and faith. Say it with me, facts, fruit and faith. When you understand that those three components are what make the Bible believable and make it something you can build your life on, it changes everything in your life. Over these next five classes, we are going to dive into what we believe to be true about the Bible. I was raised in church. I've probably seen the Bible more than any book in my entire life. But there are always things about the Bible that I didn't understand until I decided to learn it for myself. Today, I want to let you know that this is one of the greatest things you can do in your life. Actually, open the Bible and learn what God says about you for yourself. Not based on what your mom said, your pastor said, your friend said, or scripture you saw tattooed on your big cousin. I'm talking about learning scripture in context and understanding what it means for you today. If you've never heard it said like this before, the Bible is more than a book. So let's set the record straight. The first thing I want to let you know

is the Bible is inspired. That means it is God breathed, God given, and God made. Second Timothy chapter three, verse 16 and 17 says, all scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant, that's me and you, of God could be thoroughly equipped for every good work. That phrase God breathed means scripture originates from God. It may have been communicated through a human author, but the source of it is divine. Have you ever seen a book turned into a movie? As a matter of fact, I recently had my first book relationship goals turned into a movie. I was the author of the book, but when it was time to make it into a movie, please trust and believe there were tons of writers that came in to help. What I'm saying is just because it originated from me did not mean that there weren't others that were used to help bring it to life. the writings within the Bible but using other people to be able to communicate the truth. Let me give you a few fun facts. That's why I put my glasses on today for this one. Did you know that there are 63,779 cross references throughout the Bible? What that means is the Bible is connected. These are connections between passages, themes, prophecies, people, and ideas woven from Genesis all the way to Revelation. What makes that remarkable is this. The Bible wasn't written by one author sitting down at one moment in history. It was actually written across roughly. Listen to this, 1500 years by around 40 different human authors in multiple languages across different countries.

Think about it. Though different literary styles were in place, cultures were there, and historical periods were experienced. When you think about the interconnected nature of God's word, this is something that can take your breath away. Now think about how much God had to be intricately involved in every one of those moments for it all to make sense. What I'm really saying is the Bible tells one unified story. God redeemed humanity through Jesus Christ, but it was told over a great span of time. The Bible isn't just a random collection of religious books. It's unified. It's a unified story of redemption unfolding across generations. We've got to read it, study it, and live it. What do we need to do with the Bible? Read it, study it, and live it. One more time for the people in the back. We have to read it, study it, and live it. One of my friends says it like this. He says, "We don't just read the Bible. We read the Bible." Let me add to that. When you read the Bible, the Bible reads you. Because when you read it, we're not just reading human thoughts or opinions. We're getting the mind of God. We're encountering God's revealed truth about himself, his plan, his invitation for all of us to be a part of his grand design. Let me prove it to you real quick. Second Peter, chapter 1, verse 20 says, "Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet's own understanding." I love the Bible. Or from human initiative. No. Those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit and they spoke from God. What I'm trying to say to you is God was using the literal vulnerability and willingness of humans to speak to them and to author his message into the world. When I first became a pastor, I was just trying to figure this thing out. One major lesson I had to learn about leadership along the way is that we can get much farther when you're not the only one doing everything. I'm the lead pastor at Transformation Church or the lead servant like I like to say. But I know that this vision only happens and is continued to build because of the teams and the staff and the people that believe in this vision. We all have different personalities, different speaking styles, different flavors and ethnicities, but we all have the same message from God to represent God to the lost and found for transformation in

Christ. This is the same concept. What God does with the Bible is he's the visionary, but he lets his vision come through others. So remember, the Bible is inspired. But that's just the beginning. The Bible is not just inspired, catch this. The Bible is also interconnected. That means the Bible has many books, but it points to one main character, Jesus. Even Jesus himself said scripture, all scriptures point to him. And honestly, what a flex. Because Jesus wasn't just teaching good principles. He was revealing that the entire story had always been about him. There's always been one story pointing to our Savior. Let me prove it to you. Adam represented humanity in the Garden of Eden. You can go find that in Genesis. Through Adam's disobedience, sin entered the world. His choice brought sin, separation from God and death. That's why Romans 5, 12 says sin entered the world through one man, Adam. And truthfully, I just want to say thanks, Adam. You really did us a favor right there. But then the Bible tells us that salvation came through one man, Jesus. Jesus represents the second Adam. Because he reverses what Adam did. Adam was disobedient. Jesus was obedient all the way to the cross. Jesus came as a new representation for humanity. When Adam disobeyed God, and eternal life. Jesus is the fulfillment of every single scripture. That's why John 539 says it like this. You search the scriptures because you think the scriptures give you eternal life, but the scriptures point to me. What a gangster scripture for God to literally say this is the whole reason I gave you scriptures to give you proof that Jesus is the fulfillment of everything and in him you can have eternal life. The scriptures point to him and I want you to understand that if he took our place all we have to do is believe in him and that's what gives us eternal life, not the number of scriptures that you know. We want you to know the Bible but we want you to know the point of the Bible is Jesus and once you understand that it takes away the religious ideas that come to separate us when the whole point is that this whole thing is about us being interconnected. So growing up I was one of five boys in the Todd household. That's right. I have four other brothers and my mama is a strong woman. Shout out to mama bee. Growing up with brothers there were oftentimes I wouldn't, how do you say put the blame on somebody else knowing that I was

the one who did something wrong. You know there were many times my parents would try to find out who broke this or who did that and I would just sit there wide out and look at somebody else and maybe stay quiet enough. Maybe it was fi. It was brentum. It was this and sometimes I would say nothing but the truth of the matter is when somebody else took the blame there was something inside of me that knew it was actually my fault. Have you ever heard of a scapegoat? What I was doing was making my brothers a scapegoat for something that I did and this is not a new term. This is actually something we find in the Bible. The scapegoat is a person who is blamed for something even though they were completely innocent. What if I told you that Jesus became our scapegoat? Let me show you this in the Bible. In Leviticus chapter 16 there's something called the day of atonement. Two goats were brought before the priest. One goat would be sacrificed for the sins of the people and the other goat would become a scapegoat. The priest would lay his hands on it, confess the sins of all the people over it and release it into the wilderness carrying the sins far away. Now watch this. Both goats point to Jesus because he is the goat, the greatest of all time. But did you see it? Jesus became the sacrifice for our sins and the one who carried our sins away forever. Do you understand what this means? There could be no other goal because he is the one who went to the cross and was sacrificed for us as well as he took our sins away from us. The Bible says as far as the east is from the west. This is what you don't know about Jesus. He is the main character. He is living in main character energy. Everywhere in the Bible there is someone or something that is pointing back to him. He is the fulfillment of every scripture. And that's why you have to understand that the Bible is interconnected. In Numbers he is the pillar of the cloud by day and the pillar of the fire by night. In Isaiah Jesus is the prince of peace. In Daniel he is the fourth man in the fiery furnace. In Matthew he is the king of the Jews. In John he is the son of God. In Acts Jesus he is the savior of the world and in Revelation he is our soon coming king. He is the point of the Bible. It is Jesus. And let me give you one more example. When Jesus was on trial with another man his name was Barabbas and his name meant son of the father. So think about this. We know Jesus is the son of the father and this man actually named Jesus Barabbas. He is a son of the father. One son of the father was guilty and one son of the father was sinless. One walks free Barabbas and one takes the punishment. Jesus. There was only one who could be the sacrifice and the scapegoat. For all of our sins it was Jesus. That is what the gospels all about. That is the good news. Jesus took our place so we could be free. All we have to do is receive him and all we have

to do is believe the truth in this Bible. This is why the Bible is so powerful. It is a constant reminder of God's redemptive power and it is all connected from Genesis to Revelation. the story keeps pointing back to Jesus. In Genesis 3, 15, In John 1-1, the Word became flesh. The promise now has a name. And can you say it with me? Jesus. And in Revelations 21-5, God says, "Behold, I am making all things new." That the whole story, creation, fall, redemption, restoration, and the repeating of it all points to one man. His name is Jesus, and somehow across thousands of years, different authors, cultures, generations, and the message never breaks. Why? Because the Bible wasn't just preserved by people. It was sustained by God. These aren't just random stories stitched together. This is one unified story pointing to our Savior, Jesus. And it hasn't missed yet. And let me tell you, it never will. Now, I know I'm giving you a lot of scripture, but I want you to fall in love with the Bible. See, because the Bible is not just inspired, and the Bible is not just interconnected. The Bible is infallible. Now, I know this is a word you don't use often, but it's simple meaning. It means it contains no error. It's perfect.

It has no mess-ups. Everything's in place on purpose. Scholars, theologians, and historians have found that out of all the thousands of biblical manuscripts as they are compared together, the text of scripture has been preserved with an overwhelming amount of accuracy. In fact, the vast majority of the differences found are minor spelling or grammatical variations that don't change the actual meaning or the message of the Bible. See, because everything in the Word of God is consistent. It doesn't change because God doesn't change. And that's good news for me and you, because that means God doesn't change like man. And that also means that God can't get better 'cause he's always the best. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's good because his Word never changes. The Bible says the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of God remains the same. Why? Because without something being the same, you can't have a standard. And until you have a standard, you have nothing to measure up against. And you can't do math if two plus two doesn't always equal four. And this is why we can't trust culture because sometimes two plus two equals 98. Come on, let's be honest.

You can't go off of your feeling. You have to have a standard and scripture is our standard. When the scripture is your standard, then you can be able to build and measure your life off of the standard. Thank God he doesn't change. That's why Malachi 3.6 says, "For I am the Lord." Guess what, I do not change. The reason that you can call the Bible the truth is because it has always been the truth. Before you had an opinion, it was the truth. Before we had a podcast, it was the truth. Before you were inundated with all of the learnings, it still was the truth. And when you see the Bible remain consistent through history, through governments, through kingdoms, its evidence of the consistency of God. Psalms 119, 160 says, "The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever." What the writer is saying here is if you boil the entire Bible down to this core essence from Genesis to Revelation, the consistent theme would be truth. I've been married to my wife Natalie for almost 16 years, and we have four beautiful kids. Shout out to Ava, Bella, MJ, and Gia. And I've known her for something like 24, 25 years, my high school sweetheart. And one of the things that she will tell you

is I'm probably one of the most intentional people that she's ever met. And I'm gonna go ahead and give myself a pat on the back for that because I give gifts intentionally. I remember things that she says. I remember the things she touches in the store and picks up and fragrances that she likes, and I'll go back around and get them. Like, I pay attention to the details and the intentionality I want her to feel because I love her as intentional as I am. It is not even a fraction of how intentional God was with pulling the principles of all of these moments in his heart together and authored them through imperfect men but perfectly craft them together in time so that he could give us this one book as a love letter and a pattern to follow. This is why we can trust the Bible because it is infallible. It doesn't miss Isaiah 46-9. It tells us something so powerful about God. God is so dope that he declares the end from the beginning. That means he was standing at the beginning and he said this is how it's gonna end. "This is how it's gonna begin." That's why we can call him Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. In other words, God is not limited by time, the way we are. He exists outside of time,

but he's so loving that he created time. Just for us, my friend Charles says it like this. God was outside of time, and then he created time, and he placed us in time so that at the right time, we would be on time for his appointed time. You might need to run that back, but the truth of the matter is God is literally giving us his word in this moment that would speak to us for every moment that we would have so that we could know what he wants us to do as we go forward in this life. Nothing catches God by surprise, and nothing is outside of his knowledge or his authority. It just makes sense that the Bible carries such a consistency across the generations. Even though scripture was written over thousands of years by different people in different places and cultures, it all points to Jesus. And we can trust the perfection of this book and the one who authored it. Remember, the Bible is infallible, which means there's no error. Let me give you one last thing that I need you to know about the Bible. The Bible is not just inspired, the Bible is not just interconnected, and the Bible is not just infallible. It is all of those things, but one of my favorite things about the Bible is the Bible is illumination.

It's a light. Everything we've been talking about is great, but if you live in darkness, it's just a lot of information. We need light and the word of God is light. If you find yourself in a dark situation, even as you're watching this, I wanna encourage you to open up your Bible. This reminds me of a moment I did an example in church, and I wanna just show you a piece of it to show you how the word can light up your life. God's word is a what lamp until my feet and a light until my path. Has anybody ever been in darkness in your life? Now right now as I am in complete and total darkness, I hold the word of God in my hand. At this moment, I wanna give you a picture that I hope you never forget. That when you are in a moment of darkness and nothing can be seen, if you would just open the word of God, if you would just put your mind to what he has already said, this will light up everything that is around me. Whoa, it then presents a way. It says the word of God is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Now I know which way to walk. Now I know how to deal with hurt. Now I know how to go through and forgive

because I found it in his word. The Bible doesn't just give us information, it gives us direction. When you see light, you can walk in the area that leads to life. That's why Psalms 119-105 says it like this. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. God's word helps us know how to live, respond, lead, forgive, and make wise decisions. Let me be honest, without it, we can easily live based on emotions, culture, family, cycles, or even opinions. But scripture brings clarity and reveals God's best for our life. Now I don't know if you know this, but I live in Oklahoma, okay, LA, H-O-M-A. You understand what I'm saying? And yes, there are African Americans in Oklahoma. You probably know we get tornadoes. For some reason, that's what we have been branded for. And I've been here for almost 40 years and only been in one, so calm down. You can come to Tulsa. But listen, when the power goes out at my house or somebody else's house, let me tell you, there's nothing crazier than a tornado siren going off when you have four kids and a wife, and everything goes blank. If we didn't have flashlights, if we didn't have cell phones,

if we didn't have little mini toys that light up all over our house, we wouldn't be able to see in front of us. We wouldn't know where to put one foot in front of the other because we were in darkness. When you were in darkness, you need light. Even in the middle of your dark situation. and we don't know which way to go. Open this Bible because it brings illumination. It gives us illumination that allows us to see what's in front of us. And this is what light does. Light gives you revelation. See, revelation is just called revealed truth. It's something that's there that you couldn't see before. That's why when the light comes on, you're like, "Oh, there's my keys." When the lights come on, you're like, "Oh, there are my glasses. Why?" It was there the whole time, but until there's light, you don't see what the truth was about the situation. That's why Hebrews 4-12 says this. The word of God is living and active. It changes your environment. It changes your mindset. It changes your life. And the Bible is unlike any other book because it's alive. As we read it, God reveals Himself to us personally. Sometimes a verse you read or read before suddenly speaks directly to the situation that you find yourself in. Has that ever happened to you? Because it happens to me all the time. You know what that is? It's illumination. The Bible acts like a spiritual x-ray. It exposes what's hidden in our hearts. Maybe fear, pride, unbelief, jealousy, unhealthy motives. It's not just for shame. Honestly, it's never for shame. It's for healing and transformation. And that's why I want you to know that this light, the life that's in the Bible, it's to help you live your life. This light leads to life. This light leads to life. It will help you have a light and know how to deal with finances, give you light in your relationships. It's light for anxiety. It's light for your job. The Bible illuminates every area of your life. And God wants the light that He has given us to light you up so that you can be a light like a city on a hill. Never hidden. You can be so full of this that you go out and you're glowing your life, your marriage, your situation is changing somebody else because you have so much of the light of God or His Bible, His Word on the inside of you. What I want to do today is just set the record straight. The Bible is not something to be

endured. This is something that is eternal that will transform your life. Maybe it was a punishment for you to read the Bible. Maybe it seems like a chore. What you're really missing out on is your power source. Today we talked about all of these things because I want you to fall in love with the Bible because the Bible is inspired. The Bible is interconnected. The Bible is infallible. The Bible is illumination. And this is the last thing I want to say. The Bible is yours. At any moment you can pick this thing up in the middle of depression, in the middle of a battle, in the middle of hurt, in the middle of pain, in the middle of rejoicing. And it will be and give answers that come straight from God. This is what I want to challenge us to do as an action step. Today I want everybody to make a decision to start a Bible plan. Now I know you say, I'll read my Bible 10 minutes a day by myself. I'll read it for an hour a day. Hey, let's have some accountability with that. We have tons of Bible plans that are right now available on the Bible app. You can literally download the Bible app and you can search Transformation Church. And we will literally pray with you and give you scriptures to read every day in the Bible. And I'm just saying, do one of them. And if you finish that one with a streak, do another one. And if you finish that one with a streak, do another one. And I'm telling you, watch this. Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes permanent. When you begin to read the Bible, it becomes a permanent fixture in your life. And when you allow God to speak to you through this word, it becomes principles that you can live your life on. Today, I just wanted to set the record straight and let you know that God truly has made the Bible so you can trust it. This is my gift to you. Representing the Bible so that you can live your life and represent. I cannot wait for you to do the rest of these classes because it's going to change your life. Get ready to live a transformed life. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]