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God Breathed: Reclaiming Scripture’s Authority | Orpheus Heyward · Real Life Theology Podcast

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  Welcome back everyone to the Real Life Theology Podcast. This episode features Orpheus Hayward,
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  who talks about the Word of God and how important it is for our lives. Hope you guys enjoy this
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  episode.
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  I'm certainly grateful to be here with you and to share in this protracted event and
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  thankful to God for this awesome opportunity to, to explicate and to explain scripture
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  in a way that I hope will be encouraging to each and every one of us. I'm grateful to
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  Bobby for the invitation and those who have orchestrated this particular meeting. And
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  I'm thankful to all of the gifted speakers and certainly grateful for the launch of Real
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  Life Theology and thankful to have been a part of that project.
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  Also good to see some of the great colleagues that are here that I am familiar with, those
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  who are a part of the Solomon Foundation. I'm grateful to Brother Doug Crozier who leads
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  that effort and has come alongside many churches. Great to see the Solomon Foundation who was
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  also helpful in the construction of our facility in Atlanta, Georgia at the Renaissance Church
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  of Christ.
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  I'm here to speak to you about God's Word, which is one of the books in the 13 book series
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  and the text that I'd like to just put on your heart on this morning is in 2 Timothy
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  3.16. It's a verse that we're all familiar with and just give me just a moment to read
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  it to you and then just talk to you briefly about why this verse is so important and why
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  it's impactful. It's a verse that states, all scripture is inspired by God and profitable
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  for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness so that the
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  man of God might be adequate and equipped for every good work. Then chapter four starts
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  with the phrase, I solemnly charge you therefore in the presence of God, God's Word.
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  We're living in an interesting time where even within the context of the church, there
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  are questions about the authority of scripture. In other words, the Bible has in many cases
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  been reduced to being a book that gives us great information, but there are some questions
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  as to whether or not it is in fact God's Word. Some would go as far as to suggest that it
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  contains God's Word, but maybe it is not God's Word in totality. It has resulted in a great
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  deal of questions from a younger generation and even from generations at large as to how
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  should we treat the Bible and how should it factor within the context of our ministries
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  in church development.
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  I'm still a wholehearted believer that the scriptures should be a centerpiece in the
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  development of the local church. I believe wholeheartedly that the Bible is the authority
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  that is to be placed within the context of the Christian's development in which we have
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  to be very careful not to make the church about meeting people's wants, but ensuring
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  that we are giving people what they need. In order to do that, we have to make sure
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  that we are dedicated to the spiritual development of the child of God through the authority
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  of God's Word.
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  Interestingly enough, when you read what is commonly called the pastoral epistles, 1 Timothy,
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  2 Timothy, and Titus, in the 1800s they were deemed to be called pastoral epistles, although
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  they are written to those who occupy the role of evangelist. Interestingly enough, when
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  you read this document, it is Paul's encouragement to Timothy. He's already written the first
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  letter. The second letter is designed to encourage him to be faithful in the ministry regardless
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  of the difficulties that he will experience. Paul is toward ostensibly the end of his life
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  and he's headed toward death and writes this letter to Timothy to encourage him in the
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  ministry.
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  Part of his encouragement as he would do ministry in Ephesus was to remember that from a child
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  he has known the Holy Scriptures that are able to make him wise to salvation. Then Paul
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  gives the great declaration and he says, all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God.
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  I'd like you to see about three things and hopefully this will whet your appetite to
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  get the book and to make sure you dive into understanding the place of God's Word.
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  He wants to be clear that Scripture is inspired. The word inspired in this text, many of you
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  know, is proverbially the meaning God-breathed. Interestingly enough, the word functions adjectivally
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  in this text in which it is descriptive of Scripture. The Bible is God-breathed. Another
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  way of saying it is to call it God-breathed Scripture, meaning that breathed out is an
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  adjective that's describing Scripture. In other words, I would have you to understand
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  when we say that Scripture is God-breathed, it is a figurative way of saying that God
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  is the source of Scripture. We ought to understand that as we look at the idea of Scripture being
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  God-breathed, it is Paul's way of describing Scripture as that which is sourced by God.
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  That means when we look at Scripture, Scripture is not just what we should understand. I'll
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  say it this way. The Bible does not just contain the Word, but the Bible is the Word of God.
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  It is proverbially that which God-breathed out. God is the source of Scripture to which
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  it is the very thing that provides us with our conviction, our character, and our commission.
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  What do you mean by our conviction? It is profitable. Because it is God-breathed, it
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  is profitable for teaching. The church in its primary function must make sure it's dedicated
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  to teaching. Everything else is teaching our people. Everything else is teaching this culture.
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  The church must offset the teaching of the world with the teaching of God-breathed Scripture.
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  We now understand that it is profitable for teaching, which means it provides us with
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  the right content. Now, when Scripture teaches, it ought to lead us to this next thing in
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  the Scripture called reproof. Reproof means that when I read Scripture, it exposes me
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  for where I am in error. If you read Scripture and you always feel good after you read it,
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  you need to read it again, because every now and then it hurts when you read Scripture
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  because it exposes me for where I am off the rails. It's important to see that as God-breathed
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  Scripture it will expose me for where I'm in error. But thank God the next thing it
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  does is it corrects me. I'm glad that God doesn't cut me without helping me to heal
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  that wound. God will expose me and then correct me. Then not only does he correct me, he provides
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  us with instruction in righteousness. We find that the Bible does not only provide us with
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  our conviction teaching, but God is dedicated to the development of my character.
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  I've always told people many times that God doesn't care much about your comfort. He cares
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  more about your character. Every now and then God will allow you to be uncomfortable
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  to develop your character. We find that Scripture is designed to help me with my teaching, that
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  is my convictions, but then help me to get exposed reproof and then move me into correction,
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  and then he moves me into instruction in righteousness. Then he has this interesting phrase that the
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  man of God might be thoroughly furnished unto every good work.
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  Now in its original context, I have to admit to you that Paul's writing this to encourage
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  Timothy about how he's to do ministry, and the phrase man of God, I know while it looks
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  generic was an interesting historical phrase that would have been descriptive of an Old
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  Testament prophet. And so it is that Timothy as a preacher is to function in the spirit
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  of the prophets. He is to be not only one who is developing the church, but he must
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  be God's mouthpiece. I want to say a word to every church leader and preacher. When
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  you open your mouth, God's word ought to come out. And sometimes when we are opening our
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  mouths, we're using everything else but God's word and our churches are malnutrition. And
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  what is most unfortunate is we interpret numbers to mean church health. Sometimes you can have
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  numbers and have quantitative growth without qualitative growth, and qualitative growth
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  will never be reality if the Scripture is not sitting at the heart of the congregation.
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  And so we have to be mindful that as we read this, he says that the man of God, that you
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  Timothy as God's man, as God's mouthpiece, Scripture is making you fully equipped. Now
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  how do you know that's talking about that role in the immediate context? Because the
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  next chapter he says, I charge you therefore. Timothy, I'm charging you. You charging me
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  based on what? Based on the fact that all Scripture has been given to you that you might
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  be fully equipped for every good work. I charge you therefore. He tells him in 1 Timothy 6.11,
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  he says, flee these things, old man of God. Man of God was an interesting phrase in which
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  Moses was the first one in the Old Testament to be phrased man of God. So the phrase man
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  of God has interesting history that the moment a person opens his mouth as God's preacher,
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  he does not have the right or the prerogative to speak what he wants to speak. He's got
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  to speak what God said. The word preacher comes from a Greek word that translates the
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  word herald. A herald had an interesting job because when a herald would go into a city,
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  he would go into that city on behalf of the king. And his job was to ensure that whatever
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  he spoke, he did not add or take away from the king's message. And when he got to the
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  city, one of his climactic messages would be at some point the king is coming. What
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  does a preacher do? A preacher is to make sure when he opens his mouth, number one,
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  don't add or take away from the king's message. Number two, make sure when you get into the
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  city and you talk to the people of God, announce to them at some point a king is coming. And
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  so we ought to function as God's herald and every child of God in the wider application
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  or to make sure that we're using scripture for our own character development and make
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  sure we use that scripture to be commissioned for his mission.
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  And so as we look at this man of God mission, he says, I want you to use these scriptures,
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  why? Because it is God-breathed. They are adjectivally, that is scripture is described
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  as God's word. So much so that 2 Peter 1 says, holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy
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  Spirit. That means as the Holy Spirit moved them, they were the passive instrument. And
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  as the passive instrument, as the Holy Spirit moved them, they spake forth God's word. How
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  many of you have ever considered every time you open a Bible and read it, God is talking to you?
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  Because what you're reading was God-breathed. And as I leave you with this thought, I'm certainly
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  not used to preaching for 15 minutes. That's normally an introduction for an African-American
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  preacher. It takes me that long to clear my throat. In the African-American context, we preach
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  a long time. And maybe they structured it this way because they knew I was going to be here.
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  I'm not sure. Let me leave you with this, that one of the things I hate to do is fly
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  planes. I hate to fly on planes. I am claustrophobic and have always had a fear
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  of flying. Although this career does not allow you not to fly. I have to fly quite often,
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  but I don't like flying. And one time I got into a plane and the turbulence was horrible.
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  There was a young boy sitting next to me who kept jumping around.
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  And he'd take his seatbelt off and jump, but the turbulence is horrific.
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  And it wasn't that he didn't have a seatbelt on, it bothered me. It bothered me that he wasn't
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  nervous. And so I was a little frustrated at his attitude of jubilance in this moment of imminent
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  death. And so he kept jumping and jumping and jumping. And I said, why are you jumping so much?
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  I said, you need to calm down. Then I stopped and the lady next to me talked to the kid,
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  said, stop it, stop it. And we're all scared. He's not, he's just jumping around.
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  And I said, why are you jumping around so much? I said, you got to relax. Listen,
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  this is a tough time. And so when the lady spoke to him, the lady said, listen, be quiet.
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  We are in a tough place. We don't need all that. And the kid said, oh,
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  don't worry about it. My daddy's flying this plane.
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  The reason he felt so confident was because his biological father was the one flying the plane.
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  When you learn how to put your trust in Scripture, then when turbulence hits your life,
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  you can still have joy because you know God is the one flying this plane in our lives.
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  I want you to know this as I close, I got a minute and 30 seconds.
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  The thing I learned about the power of Scripture is that Scripture has helped me
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  to be less dependent on human wisdom and more dependent on God. Because if God leaves it to me,
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  then I'm going to come up with my own plan and do things my own way.
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  But what Scripture does is it helped me to learn a couple of things that I learned from a pilot.
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  When that pilot land that plane, I asked him, I said, how, when you're flying like that in clouds
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  and it's dark, how do you know what to do? He said, I want you to understand, sir,
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  that this plane is always in communication with a tower and the tower can see what I can't see.
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  So when I'm flying through the clouds and it's dark, and I don't know up from down and left from
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  right, I've got to let the tower tell me which way to go because I cannot see my way through a
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  dark space and through clouds that's blinding my vision. He said, so I have to learn to trust
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  whatever the tower is telling me. And when the tower is telling me to go left, I move the plane
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  left. When the tower is telling me to go right, I move the plane right. When the tower is telling
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  me to remain steady, I remain steady because I've got to trust the word of the man that's in the
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  tower. I need you to know that when you read scripture, I'm trusting the man that's in the
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  tower. I'm trusting God to give me guidance when I don't know left from right and up from down.
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  Has everybody been? Have you been in a point in your life when you didn't know which way to go,
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  whether it was up or down or left or right? I've come to tell everyone in this place,
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  the scripture is what you must trust when you get in a dark space in your life,
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  because sometimes I just can't see. And so my encouragement to you is get the book.
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  Thank you guys for listening to this episode on the Real Life Theology Podcast. Please stay tuned
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  with us for more great content down the road. Comment, like, subscribe. We'd love to hear from
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  you guys. Please share it with people you feel like would be interested in this conversation
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  and join us at Renew.org for more great content on disciple making.