Today we begin talking about the value and function of God’s Word. The Bible has many, many uses but I believe that it has a clear purpose and to truly value something we have to be sure that in all of its uses we are staying true to its purpose. This series is going to be a bit different for us in that instead of studying a Scripture we are going to be talking about the Scriptures as a whole, asking for the Holy Spirit to teach us not just how to rightly divide or interpret the Word of Truth but how to rightly hold and value the Word of God. Through these next few weeks I am going to share some things that are on my heart and while I don’t believe I will say anything offensive I do believe that I may share some things that are initially difficult to hear because they may sound to be at odds with what we have thought and believed up until now. I’m going to ask you to trust me enough to hear me, to give thought and most importantly to give prayer to what we are talking about and see if the Spirit and the Word itself will confirm what I am sharing. The first of these statements is where we will start this series: The Word of God is not about us it is for us. The Scripture is not the story of man it is the revelation of God, of His heart, His character, His ways and His will, as I have said often, the written Word is the revelation of the Living Word. This does not mean that you will never find yourself in Scripture, it doesn’t mean that the Bible won’t teach us how to live and not live, or give us wisdom for particular issues and decisions, but what it means is that while the Bible has many uses we have to always be sure that we are conscious of and devoted to its purpose. Jesus told the Pharisees in John 5:39 “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these (the Scriptures) are they that testify of Me.” Jesus clearly reveals the purpose of the Scriptures in this verse, the purpose of the Bible is to reveal Jesus, “the image of the invisible God”. The Pharisees read the Scriptures to see what they could and could not do, how to be blessed and not to be cursed, how to get to the destination of paradise and live a life that met their expectations and yet, they deceived themselves because when the One whom all the Scriptures testified of stood in front of them, they did not recognize Him and then they rejected Him, they used the Scriptures but they did not understand the Scripture’s purpose. I want to ask you to do something with me today, I want us to view the Bible as a book written about the Author for His children. It is not a book of expectation, a book of rules and regulations or even a record of the history of mankind, it is in its truest sense God’s record of Himself written down so that His children could know Him, come to Him, enjoy Him and become like Him. This morning I want to begin our conversation about our value of God’s Word by discussing the importance of God’s Words, the revelation of God’s heart and our desperate need for an experience with the Author of Scripture.