The Word That Shapes a Life
Paul’s words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:10–17 remind us that the Christian life is shaped, sustained, and transformed by the Word of God. Paul points Timothy not to his own strength, but to the Scriptures that formed him from childhood and made him wise for salvation. Through stories of prisoners, evangelists, and everyday believers, this sermon highlights the living power of God’s Word to rescue, correct, restore, and equip. Scripture is not merely information; it is God‑breathed life. In a world filled with countless human voices, only God’s Word can anchor us, shape us, and sustain us through suffering, temptation, and daily discipleship. This message calls us to be people who not only know the Bible, but live it—letting its teaching, reproof, correction, and training continually form us into the likeness of Christ.
second Timothy chapter 3 verses 10 to 17. You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured. Yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus. All scripture is breathed, breathed out by God and profitable for teaching and for reproof for correction. and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Thank you, Pastor Matt. That was very exciting. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, waiting to be hit by one of the hails. I am worthy to not be hit by one of the hails. Isn't it great? Such a blessing. I have such a great job because I get to go around to all sorts of churches and all sorts of people and worship and fellowship with people from all sorts of denominations in all sorts of places. And the one thing that continues to be the source of the joy is God's Word and the centering around God's Word. And God's Word is is so important. It's so important to put the Bible into the hands of people. I'm going to talk to you today about why it's so important to put the Bible in the hands of people. One person who received a Bible last year, I'm going to call his name Peter, he received his Bible for the very first time. Peter is a prisoner in a correctional center in South Africa. South Africa has 164,000 prisoners. and 45,000 of them are without proper accommodation. Most have never owned a Bible and the spiritual support that they get is often the first step for transformation. So Peter is one of thousands of inmates who took part in a World Hope Ministries biblical discipleship course. This is one of the courses that we proudly support through the Bible Society. And before the... Isn't that amazing that God's Word brings transformation and healing and thanksgiving even while he is in prison. No matter who we are, no matter what background we have, no matter what circumstances we are in, God's Word is important. It brings transformation, it brings hope, it brings joy, it brings peace, it brings thanksgiving. It doesn't work. um Okay, next slide. I've got it on. Try again. I'm going for it. That way, that's right. It's not working. I've got it on. All right. Brother, come up here and let me be your servant and you can be my servant. And otherwise, I'll just say click and then we're going to the next slide. Look at that. We're going to the slide that looks like the right arrows. Look at that. Wonders of technology. God's Word is so important because in any circumstance we're in, wherever we find ourselves, it is, tells us about who Jesus is, it tells us about what Jesus has done for us, and it continues to help us to understand why we need to put our faith in Jesus, not just when we first starting to know Jesus and our journey in faith, but all throughout our whole life. The Word of God is crystal clear that eternal salvation only comes through Jesus Christ and God's plan as it is revealed in His Word. Now, I don't really know many of you. However, yesterday I was at Lifeline and we met Pamela. Is she here? There she is. Pamela at Vinny's. Sorry, it was not Lifeline, it was Vinny's. And I just found this so amazing. Pamela didn't know who we were, and she came up to my wife, and she was complimenting my wife on her hair, and she was encouraging my wife on just how wonderful she looked, which was so great that I didn't have to tell her that she looks good. Someone else was telling her she looks good. And I walked away from there, Pamela, and I went ... You are the spitting example of what I'm talking about today. Being the light and the life of Jesus wherever we are and wherever God has placed us. Because if the word of God is important to us, then it shouldn't be just us saying God's word is important to us. It should be seen. If I was to watch you for a day, which is a creepiest thought ever, but if I was to watch you for a day, would it become apparent that the Bible is important to you? We should be people who are prepared to be seen to be people who are living the Word of God. That's what Paul the apostle was prepared to do. I'm reading 2 Timothy 3, 10 to 13. We've read it before, so we'll just gloss over it really quickly. You, however, so this however, Paul is contrasting Timothy with the previous verses where he's been talking about people who are increasing in moral corruption and self-centeredness and a form of godliness that lacks real spiritual power. You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that helped me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra. which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." This is Paul's testimony of imitation. He's effectively saying, you can look at my life and you will see Jesus this godly life in Christ, you will see what a godly life in Christ looks like. Which sounds absolutely arrogant, doesn't it? It sounds like Paul's got tickets on himself. Especially when Paul says, I do not understand my actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate. That's Paul's testimony. And then there's another testimony, 1 Timothy 1.15, where he admits to Timothy that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst or the foremost. So here is a man who says, I am the foremost sinner and I have impulse sin control issues and yet I'm gonna turn around and say, look at me. and you will see how godly my life is in Christ. How can that be possible? How can it be that we can be both a sinner and someone who lives a godly life? And the reason we can do that, the reason that Paul can do it and the reason we can do it, it's because of the Scriptures. But as for you, continuing what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training and righteousness that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. Now notice that Paul doesn't say that scripture gives us information. He says scripture makes us wise for salvation. There's a very big difference between knowing the scriptures and trusting the scriptures. A big difference between knowledge and wisdom. I imagine out here, you fairly regularly get storms that would just come across the plains and can wreak havoc. Knowledge is... hearing that storm is coming and knowing the destructive power of those storms because you've seen them before. Wisdom is boarding up your windows and sandbagging the doors. There are many people who have knowledge about Jesus. They kind of know at Christmas, people kind of know the Jesus story, people kind of know the Easter story. People know that Jesus lived, people know that Jesus lived. There are people who can tell you stories from the Bible. They have knowledge. But that, if you don't move on from the knowledge to the confession that Jesus Christ is Lord, then we're not wise for salvation. It's exactly what happened in one man's life in Malawi. I'm gonna call him Chikondi. Chikondi. is a motorbike taxi operator who had once been a committed Christian, but over time, after an affair, his marriage broke down and his life spiraled downwards. He returned heavily to alcohol and he had this chain of destructive relationships. eventually his life became into this deeply broken place. And then one day while riding through a market, Chikondi noticed a group of evangelists that were preaching. And something nudged him to just stop and to listen. And it was part of a Jesus All About Life campaign, which is funded by Bible Society Australia to support the work of evangelism in Malawi. And as he listened, he remembered the faith that he once had. And Chikondi asked himself, what went wrong? How did I end up in this mess? And that very day, he recommitted his life to Christ. You see, he had the knowledge, but knowledge isn't enough until we confess our need for Jesus, our ongoing need for Jesus, and follow the wisdom that comes through his word. That process has to happen in... every single one of our lives. It happened in the life of Timothy. Verse 15 tells us that from childhood, Timothy has been acquainted with the sacred scriptures. Now Timothy is one of these very blessed people who was raised from childhood in a believing household, in a place where the scripture is read around the table and it's taught and it's prayed through. This is his house. A lot of people have that testimony, don't you? Maybe put up your hand if that's your testimony. I was born in a Christian household and raised in a Christian house. It was quite a few of us. It's a powerful testimony. Sometimes we think, oh, that's a boring testimony. It's actually a powerful testimony. Because the power of God's Word being passed on from one generation to the next generation. And in Timothy's case, He had these wonderful people in his life. He had Lois and he had Eunice, his grandmother and his mother. Living in a household where Timothy's father was probably not a believer, he was a Greek. I want you to think about that for a moment. Before Timothy was a church leader and before he traveled with Paul and before two New Testament books of the Scriptures were written to him. Timothy was a little boy at home listening to the Scriptures, becoming acquainted with Scripture, eventually becoming wise for salvation. I haven't got this in here, but I remember you guys are doing that, handing out Bibles to the community, the Bibles for Bubs program or whatever you're calling it. That's a powerful thing. to bring the Word of God into the community so that little people can hear the Word in their own home. Every Timothy starts with a Eunice and every Eunice starts with a Lois. Three generations of people gathered around the Word of God, reading Scripture, talking about Scripture, praying the Scriptures. Before the ministry, there was Scripture. Before there was leadership, there was access to God's Word. One of the verses of scripture that really speaks to me is Romans 10, 13, where it says that everyone, and it means everyone from every tribe and nation and people and language, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And then Paul asks a really important question. He says, but how? How can they call? Today, 1.5 billion people in the world, don't have a full Bible in their own language. I want you to imagine what that would be like. Imagine that you did not know John 3.16 in your own language. How hard would it be for you to come to faith in Jesus Christ? How hard would it be for you to call upon the name of the Lord? That's why the Bible Society, and thank you for that prayer, Pastor Matt, the Bible Society is so committed to bringing the Word of God, opening the Bible to all people everywhere by all means possible. God's Word, it has to go out. God's Word, has to be put into the hands of as many people as possible because it is the word that makes people wise for salvation. Not just when people first come to faith, but also having the scriptures continually direct our lives. You see, every day we are surrounded by words, news reports, social media posts, advertisements, political speeches, commentators, podcasts, friends. family, experts, influences. There are thousands and thousands and thousands, millions of words every day. And some of these words are powerful and some of these words are harmful and some of them are wise and some of them are foolish. But every one of these words have something in common. They are all human words. Scripture is also speaking. It's a different kind of word. It's a scripture which is breathed out by God or the NIV says it is God breathed. It's through the scriptures that God reveals Himself. The God who created the universe, the God who knows the beginning from the end, the God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, the God who knows us better than we know ourselves. This is the God who speaks through His scriptures and that's what makes the scriptures The unique book. When we open the Bible, we're not just really merely reading an ancient religious literature. It is the very breath of God. The same breath that God used when he formed Adam from the dust and Adam came to life because God breathed into him. You see, God's breath is life. As we read the scriptures, as we read God's word, it gives life, eternal life, true life, transformational life. That's why Paul's life changed. That's why Timothy's life changed. That's why the life of Peter, the South African prisoner, his life changed. It's why Chikonde's life changed. And that's why our lives continue to change as well. It happens when we allow the word of God to keep speaking to us. allow the Word of God to keep giving us life. And just as breathing is not something we do once, the Christian life is not sustained by a single encounter with scripture. No one says, know what, I breathed last Sunday and that'll be enough for a month. Breathing is continual. Our life depends on it. And that's the same with our growth. in our Christian faith. Many people, many Christians understand that the Word of God brings transformation and brings them to faith. But also the Word of God comes to us because it sustains our faith every moment of every day. It gives us encouragement and life when we are discouraged. It tells us how to live when we are going through suffering. It gives us life when we are tempted. It gives us life... when we need direction for our daily needs. The God breathe, Word of God giving us daily sustaining. That's why Paul says to Timothy, I want you to continue in the Word of God. Imagine if you did this. Imagine if on the day of your wedding, you said your vows to your beautiful spouse and you talked to her and you said, yes, I love you and I'm going to be committed to you. And then from that day forward, you never spoke to her again. It's not a relationship, is it? Our ongoing relationship with the Lord is so powerful and so necessary. as we have, those of us who, I presume most of us who have committed our life to Jesus Christ, we know how important God's Word is, but we also want to know how important God's Word is in all of the challenges, in all of the difficulties, in all of the situations we find ourselves. I want to share one example from Slovenia. Slovenia has the highest rate in Europe, in the European Union, of suicide. There's a whole range of factors about that, historical factors, local factors. In Slovenia, 70 % of Slovenians identify themselves as Christians, but a large portion of them do not regularly attend church. So in partnership with Bible Society Slovenia, the Bible Society Australia gathers people into trauma healing groups which are based on God's Word. And so there's a woman we're going to call a catcher. She joined one of these healing from the Bible groups at a time when she was looking for a deeper encounter with God in the midst of her suffering and the trauma that she had gone through. And through seeing that God's word doesn't just speak in the moment of faith, but seeing that God's word brings continual transformation and continual true healing. Catcher found the freedom not just to speak, but to recognise that God actually allows these feelings. that God desires us to be honest and in that honesty she experienced the fact that Jesus weeps with her, that his loving gaze is towards her each and every day in the midst of the suffering, in the midst of the trauma, in the midst of the abuse. And that's just one testimony of a life that comes through God's breathed Word, Scripture, equipping on a daily basis in all circumstances. And all of us can have that testimony. All of us can have a testimony where we see God continuing to work, God continuing to change, God continuing to transform us because we recognise that all scripture is breathed out from God and is profitable for teaching, reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness. This is the daily ongoing aspect of God's Word. I want you to think back to when you learnt to drive. And then I realized that I was in the country. And probably a lot of you learned to drive on a farm. And then when you got your driving test, probably the policeman stood outside the police station, watched you drive to the end of the street, made you come back, and then gave you your license. I think some of you got your license that way. I've heard about that in the country. So we're gonna talk about the poor city folk when they learn to drive. And when you learn to drive in the city, now it's actually a requirement that you have lessons with a driving instructor. And the driving instructor... will start with teaching. And so you'll learn the road rules and you'll learn the responsibilities and you'll learn the right way to drive. And bit by bit you get this teaching of information so that you have enough of that teaching to pass the driving test. And that's what scripture does. Scripture continues to teach. When we come to faith, we don't know everything about the Scriptures. What we know is sufficient for salvation. But we don't know everything that God wants to teach us. We don't know everything about the transformation that we need. And as we read the Scriptures, God, bit by bit, He teaches us through His Word. And the wonderful thing about the God who teaches us is this is the God who knows everything. He knows the beginning from the end. He doesn't have a small part of the picture, you know, just enough of the picture to get us to pass a spiritual test, maybe, know, catechism or whatever. He knows it all. And the reality is, is we will never be able to understand everything God has to teach us, but He will continue to teach us and we will continue to grow. And so when the Bible teaches us, when the scripture teaches us, it comes from this place of perfect authority. That God is teaching us through His Word and because He knows everything, we can trust the scriptures. The scriptures are sufficient for salvation, but also sufficient for daily life. And so it will teach us how to live as a faithful family, it would teach us how to live in our marriages, it would teach us how to raise our kids and how to handle money and how to respond to suffering and how to forgive and how to persevere and how to go out daily and do our tasks that the Lord is calling us to do. It teaches us all of these things and so much more. But teaching is not the only form of equipping. Back to our driving instructor. Sometimes driving instructors say things like, missed the stop sign. You are speeding. That was dangerous. Break. Break. BREAK! Okay, that's reproof. Most people don't enjoy being told that they're wrong. But one of the greatest gifts that God actually gives us is reproof. You see, through the Scriptures, God exposes the bitterness and the pride, the materialism, the immorality, the selfishness. He doesn't do that because God delights in condemning us. He does that because He delights in restoring us. Notice the flow of 1 John chapter 1. we say we have no sin, we deceive ourself and the truth is not in us. That's the reproof. Don't pretend you're something that you're not. If you say without sin, you deceive yourself. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And that's not talking about the first time you come to faith. This is the ongoing journey. I'm in faith. I love the Lord. I love Jesus. Yeah, but I've got to be realistic. I struggle with sin. And I can admit that or I can pretend. And Jesus comes along and says, but I want a real relationship. Let's be honest. And so it's through reproof that God exposes our sins so that we can deal with our sin, so we continue to be transformed. And then that naturally goes to the final two purposes, which is correcting and training in righteousness. You see, learning to drive constantly involves correction. There are people who have been driving for 30 or 40 years who still need correction. And if you're a person like me, you're actually happy to tell them. If you're not gonna do 100, move into the left lane. Let's go, the light is green. A blinker would be helpful. You see, there's many people around me who don't know how to drive and I know that my correction will help them, even though they can't hear a word that I'm saying. It's an ongoing process, isn't it? And correction and training and righteousness for us is really two sides of the same coin, which is an ongoing process. Correction is about getting us after reproof, getting us back onto the right path. And training is about staying there, developing discipleship habits, continuing to transform and actually seeing growth. where a certain temptation doesn't get us as much. Going back to the story of Peter the South African prisoner, the World Hope Ministries Bible discipleship course has been running for many years. And they have seen a very significant difference between the prisoners who do this course, this Bible-based course in prison, and those who don't. Because those who do, the scripture transforms these prisoners into kingdom citizens who are corrected and continually being trained into righteousness. And most of those prisoners never see the inside of a jail cell again because God's Word has transformed them so much. You see, that's what God's Word does, isn't it? It's not simply to tear us down, it's to build us up. It's not simply to expose our sin, it's to teach holiness. It's not simply to reprove, it's to correct and train. Scripture corrects us to show us the path that God wants us to walk. Scripture trains us so that we can develop habits and attitudes and character that reflect Christ. And as we read and as we study and as we obey God's Word, we become the people that God calls us to be. Scripture is such an incredible gift. Its importance is beyond question. The real question is, will we allow the breath of God in His word to shape us every day? You see, my friends, we're not short on access to the Bible. We have the Bible easily available in digital form on our phones. We have Bibles that sit on our shelves. We can come to church. They're sitting in the back of the pews. There's actually over 50 different English translations, full Bibles, 50 different versions that you can read. The issue is not availability. The issue is, will you allow the Word of God to shape you? shaping us so that our lives can be godly examples to others that they follow. Parents modeling faith for children. grandparents modeling faith to grandchildren, church members modeling faith to one another, older Christians modeling and helping younger Christians to see what it's like to follow Jesus, the church here modeling their faith to their community, people who are thoroughly equipped by scriptures becoming equipped to becoming people who help equip others. It's not just about being an example to imitate. Because Paul, when he says, you can imitate me, he's not saying, look at me. He's saying, look at what God is doing through me, through the Word. Lois and Eunice, they were doing the same. Putting the Bible into the hands of people, that's what brings transformation. This church, and I want to sincerely thank you for this, this church, along with other individuals in the community in Chinchilla, has been supporting the Bible Society for many, years, and faithfully so. And we want to really thank you for your ongoing support and even this year, your deep support for us. That support... is making a real difference. Last year, Bible Society Australia, in connection with your help and others, distributed over a million Bibles in various places around the world. And that's just one part of our story. The translation projects, the Bible-based literacy programs, the Bible-based trauma healing ministries, we are helping millions more people gain access to God's Word in all sorts of ways. This 40 international projects and 15 local projects here in Australia. This is about putting the hands of the Word of God into the hands of people. But there's just so many hands still waiting. I know you're supportive, but if you would like to know more about how you can support or increase your support for the Bible Society Australia, come and talk to us when we're having morning tea together in the stand out the back there. And I'd love to talk to you more or hear your journey even about how God has uh used His Word to bring transformation in your life. If you want to know more about the work of Bible Society, come and talk to me as well, just out with the little flyers that you had. there's a little flyer from us as well. You can fill in the details, you can actually tell us about what your favorite Bible verse is at the moment, how God is speaking to you. Another huge help for us is word of mouth. people like yourself advocating on our behalf and telling how the Bible Society is doing a great work and letting people know about that. There's all sorts of things that you can do. But even without doing any of those things, can I encourage you to do one thing? I want to encourage you to be the person who puts the Bible into the hands of someone else. Because all the stories I've told you today all have the same truth, that someone had a Bible and they put that Bible into the hands of someone else. Someone had a Bible and they gave access to the Bible. Before Peter in prison, and he found Jesus, there was scripture. Before Chikonde returned to Christ, there was scripture. Before Katcha could find healing from trauma, there was scripture. Before Timothy became a faithful servant and a preacher, there was scripture. Before any of us came to know Christ, there was scripture. There are so many waiting hands. For some of you, those hands are right in your own house or in your own family. or at your workplace, or at the school. There are so many waiting hands here in this community. So many hands that need access to the scriptures. So many who need to become acquainted with the scriptures. And we can all do that. We can all be people who put the Bible into the hands of someone who is waiting. So that through the scriptures, those who are not yet believers will be made wise for salvation through faith in Christ. Because together, we are doing all we can to open the Bible everywhere to all people by all means possible. Let me pray for us. Thank you Lord God that we can be together as your people. Thank you for your grace and your love and your mercy that makes it possible. Thank you for this wonderful faith community here. Lord your spirit is here, your word is here, your people are here and you have given the Chinchilla Church of Christ a great opportunity to bring the word uh into this community. Lord, thank you for all that they are doing and I continue to pray for their work. I want to pray for the Bible going out into the homes program to the young people. Lord, really bless that as people get to know about the scriptures, get to know about that program. I pray for each one of us Lord that wherever we are, that we are looking for opportunities to share your Word because we know it is the power of salvation and transformation. Lord God, thank you that no matter where we are, no matter what background we have, no matter what nation we come from, Lord that when we have your word as central. Lord, you are bringing transformation in all of us. And so may we as your people spread across the globe, continue to be the light, continue to be worthy of imitation and continue to have a heart that says we need to get God's word to those who are around us. We pray these things in Jesus name and all God's people say, amen.