This Sermon and Series based upon a series by Nelson Searcy and the Journey Church
The New Testament Challenge
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This is an exciting time at Hickory Creek
God has done some amazing things last year and I am looking forward to some of the amazing things He is going to do this year.
One thing I am really excited about is the New Testament Challenge that we are beginning today.
Over the next 9 weeks we are going to
read through the entire New Testament,
learn about some of the primary teachings of the New Testament, and
become more familiar with the background and writing of the New Testament
and have God work in our lives in amazing ways.
I am excited to see what God is going to do in each one of our lives over the next 9 weeks.
Now, one of the things I want to do through this New Testament Challenge is just to get everyone familiar with what the New Testament is.
If you have every read the Bible you may have noticed that the Bible has 2 major parts to it.
The first is the Old Testament. That is the first 39 books of the Bible. It tells the story of Creation, man’s fall into sin, God’s covenants with Abraham and His covenant with Moses and the prophecies of the coming Messiah who would bring salvation to the world.
The New Testament is the second part of the Bible. This is where we will be focusing. It records the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, His birth, His life, His death and resurrection as well as the beginning of the church and many practicalities of living the Christian life, as well as prophecy concerning what is yet to come concerning Christ’s return to this earth.
Now, you will notice that the New Testament is not just one long book, but really a collection of books. Twenty seven (27) to be exact.
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Twenty seven books written by 9 different human authors during roughly the last half of the first century after Christ’s birth.
The men who were the human instruments recording the New Testament were all apostles or close associates of an apostle recording the teaching that the apostles had given.
Now perhaps you are thinking, “How could these books written by these men so long ago have any value for me?”
It has value for you and me and everyone, because while there were 9 different human authors, there is really only one Author and He is a Divine author.
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Ultimately it was God, Himself who was the author of the Bible, using these faithful men to record His word to us.
2 Peter 1:21 - 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.
Now it is more than I can do today to talk about the abundant amount of evidence that supports the fact that God is the ultimate author of the Bible, but if you would like to know more about how we know that, then I encourage you to come out to our Back to the Basics Seminar where we talk about the evidence that supports that claim in detail.
Now if you have ever read the New Testament, then you know that there are some different kinds of writing.
There are some books that tell a story.
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The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John ) tell the story of Jesus’ life, ministry, death and resurrection.
Acts tells the story of the early church
It focuses largely on Peter and then Paul
After the gospels and acts you have letters
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written by Paul and a few others to various churches and individuals.
These books are more proclamational, in that they tell you
what to do or what not to do,
how to live or how not to live,
what is true and what is not true.
And then finally, you have the book of Revelation
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that is apocalyptic in nature talking about things to come related to Jesus’ return and the kingdom of Heaven
God has communicated in all of these ways through these different men so we might be able to know Him and how we can be in relationship with Him and that we might live life well in a way that glorifies Him.
So that is a bit of background of the New Testament.
Tansition
Now while I am very excited about beginning this myself and the work God is going to be doing in my life, I still think that it is important, as with anything we begin, that we
Count the Cost of this Challenge
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The Bible says in Luke 14:28
28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?
When we begin a project or something that is going to challenge us, we want to know what we are getting involved in ahead of time so we aren’t caught off guard as to what is required or what it costs us.
So often misplaced expectations derail us in our journey.
I don’t want you to have misplaced expectations about what will be required in this challenge.
The New Testament Challenge is going to be challenging, it is going to cost you something.
It is going to cost you time, energy and focus.
But anything that is worthwhile is going to cost you something.
We have to determine if the cost is worth the result.
Many people at the beginning of the year make a resolution to get in better shape physically.
To do that though is going to mean that you must change something about what you are currently doing.
And you quickly find out that getting in shape costs you money, time, and energy.
It initially brings about pain and soreness that will make you want to quit as well.
But you know what a lot of people who are successful at getting back in shape have in common? They do it with someone else.
That is why I am so excited about doing this New Testament Challenge. We will be doing this together. We can encourage one another. You will know others are doing the same thing.
And I want to tell you it is worth it.
I would venture to guess that over half of the people here today have never read the entire New Testament.
If we expect God in our life through His word then we have to read it.
Now I understand that just reading it doesn’t guarantee that things will be different, but I do guarantee not reading God’s word will never change anything in your life.
Before changes take place, we have got to begin applying biblical principles.
Before we can apply it, we have got to know it.
Before we know it, we have got to read it or hear it.
Romans 10:17 tells us that “faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”
Taking the New Testament Challenge puts us on the path to opening us up to more of the word of God so that we can experience greater faith and radical life transformation that God wants to do in our life.
So that is the end result we are expecting.
Keep the cost in perspective
And while it is going to cost us, I want us to keep this cost in perspective.
Over the next 9 weeks, you would be challenged to read about 4 or 5 chapters per day.
That will take you about 20 to 25 minutes per day.
Now some of you may say, I can’t squeeze another 20 to 25 minutes a day into my schedule.
22.5 minutes per day is about 1.5% of the time you have each day.
If I told you that you could invest 1.5% of what you make every day for the next 9 weeks and you would be different in a positive way for the rest of your life, would you think that is a good investment?
Would the benefit be worth the cost?
As we see that this investment is worth it, how can we actually do it?
How can we be successful in this challenge so that we continue to make this investment each day over the next 9 weeks?
That is what Hickory Creek is here to help you with today.
We want you to be able to sign the commitment card that is in your bulletin and be successful in completing this New Testament Challenge.
The commitment is
1. I will strive to read and/or listen to the New Testament over these next 9 weeks.
2. I will strive to attend each Sunday service over the next 9 weeks
3. I will allow God to speak into my life through His word and the messages.
4. I will seek to take any steps, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that the Lord reveals to me over these next 9 weeks.
That is the New Testament challenge
That is what we are asking the whole church to commit to and that is what the church is going to strive to help each of you be successful in fulfilling.
Now we have counted the cost and know what will be expected, here is what we need to do to be successful.
To be successful in the New Testament Challenge, you need to
Commit the Challenge to God
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Proverbs 16:3 - Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
You need to commit this to the Lord, that He would use this in your life to accomplish His purpose in your life.
Now there may be some here today who have never cracked open the Bible and who maybe don’t even see the value of the Bible.
I am asking you to be approach this Challenge with an open mind and no matter what you believe about God, or if you believe in Him at all, be open and say God, I don’t even know if you are real, but I am going to attempt this challenge and I commit it to You. I am open to you working in my life through this.
What do you really have to lose?
If you read for 22.5 minutes per day and attended service each week for the next 9 weeks, that would be about 2.2% of your life over the next 9 weeks.
I will guarantee that you waste more than that much time doing nothing over the next 9 weeks.
Why not give this a shot.
And for those here who maybe have read the New Testament several times, I am asking you to Commit this challenge to God.
Say Lord, I am going to commit this challenge to You.
I am going to trust You to work through this in my life.
I trust you to grow me and draw me close and I will testify to others about what you have done.
Glorify Yourself in me through this Challenge.
So, to be successful you need to commit this challenge to the Lord.
You also need to
Complete the Bible Readings
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Now the reason that this challenge can have a radical transforming effect on your life is not because you get to come and hear some dynamic speaker or sit in a nice worship center.
It is because of the Word of God having an effect upon your life.
You see the Bible is unlike any other book that you have read.
Hebrews 4:12
12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (from New International Version)
So whether you have never read it, or you have read it 100 times, it can continue to have life changing effects upon your life.
It is a book that never gets old, never wears out, never loses its value to cut to the heart, to convict, to judge the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
This is the very word of God that you will be reading so it is important that you complete the readings.
Now some of you over time, may be fearful of falling behind and not being able to catch up.
Ways to help stay on track
The readings start tomorrow…Begin tonight.
Do it with your family after dinner several nights a week.
If you are falling behind, download the audio and listen to it while you are in your car or working out. (we have it available on our website broken down by individual chapters)
If you are home, open it with windows media player and you can listen to and read it right on your screen.
We are serious about trying to help everyone succeed in this challenge so we not only want to give you the spiritual tools you need, but the practical tools you need as well.
If you don’t have an internet connection, we do have some cd’s with the mp3 files on them that you can load onto your computer to listen to or transfer to your ipod.
Those are available for $2 at the resource table or for free on line.
So we need to complete the readings to be successful in this challenge.
To really be successful, you not only need to complete the readings, but you need to
Contemplate what you Read
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James 1:22-25
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does.
We need to be reading and thinking about what God is saying to us for our lives and applying it to our lives.
To do that we need to be thinking about what we are reading.
How does this apply to my life?
What should I be doing in light of what I am reading?
We want to help you do this as well.
We have a couple of small groups meeting on Wednesday’s that will be discussing the things you will be reading during the week.
If you are unable to do a group, we have available on our website some questions to help you contemplate some of the things you are reading during the week.
Go to our website and click the link for New Testament Challenge Resources and find the questions for the week you are reading, week 1 all the way through week 9.
If you lose your reading plan that you received today, you will find another on the website that you can download and print out and we will have copies available every week at our resource table for free.
We want you to get the most out of this challenge so we want to help you contemplate what you read.
Finally, the last thing that will help you be successful in taking the New Testament Challenge will be for you to
Continue attending each Sunday
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By continuing to attend each Sunday, 2 things will happen.
First, you will begin to start meeting and knowing some others at Hickory Creek and we will all be doing the same thing. When a bunch of people are doing this together, it gives us the encouragement to keep going.
It is like working out. It is a lot easier to work out with at least another person or a group than it is to alone. You will receive encouragement each week to keep going in this challenge.
Second, you will be hearing messages on some of the primary teachings of the New Testament.
Over the next 9 weeks we are going to be talking about what the new Testament says about
Love
Generosity
Perseverance
Servanthood
Forgiveness
Godliness
Obedience
And Eternity
So by the time this new Testament Challenge ends, you will have
read the entire New Testament,
Learned some of the primary teachings of the New Testament,
contemplated what God is teaching you and
taken steps to follow after Him, and
most of all, you will know Him better and because you know Him better, you will experience life better.
Now, even if you know right now that you are going to miss a week and not be here, all were asking for is that you strive to be here.
If you do miss a week, you can get the audio of the message online, but remember that being here is essential for encouragement and to be building relationships.
So, Are you ready to step out in faith and take the New Testament Challenge?
Inside your bulletins is a commitment card that says,
I accept the New Testament Challenge.
1. I will strive to read and/or listen to the New Testament over these next 9 weeks.
2. I will strive to attend each Sunday service over the next 9 weeks
3. I will allow God to speak into my life through His word and the messages.
4. I will seek to take any steps, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that the Lord reveals to me over these next 9 weeks.
And there is a place for your signature and the date.
If you would like to see God work powerfully over your life over the next 9 weeks, I encourage you to sign that commitment card and as we close in Word of God speak, to come up here and place it before the cross.
I want you to know that this is not something you are committing to in your own strength. This is something you are committing to trust the Lord in working in your life through.
And there is a whole church that will be doing this together to be an encouragement to you.
Commitment cards are to help you
These commitment cards are not to beat you over the head with, but to be a help to you to keep going and not give up, because I will guarantee you that Satan will be coming into your life to discourage you from following through. But this card will be a help to you to not give up.
It will be a reminder that you need to rely on the Lord and on the strength of the body of Christ the Lord works through.
It will be used as a testimony so that you know you are not alone.
So sign those commitments, keep the bookmark in your Bible that has the commitment on as well so you are reminded of it, bring your commitment card up to the altar and let’s begin the New Testament Challenge together.
Word of God Speak
