The student ministry leaders and I not only desire to challenge your teen to seek a real relationship with the real God, but we also desire to equip them to do so. In an effort to give practical answers to the question, "How do we get to know God?" we spoke about a real, honest prayer life last week (which included encouragement to attend the churchwide prayer service that Sunday night). This week we discussed how God reveals Himself – speaks to us – in scripture...we can get to know God though His Word. God's Word is yet another gift to us.

"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire." ~ 2 Peter 1:3-4

We speak to God in prayer. We speak to one another. We build relationships around communication. We also have a God who speaks.

Revelation is the means by which God has chosen to reveal Himself; it is how He speaks to us. In just the first few pages of Genesis we read "God said" no less than ten times. The God of the Bible is a God who speaks, and He continues to be a God who speaks. We need revelation. The distance between us and God is great, and unless God practiced self-disclosure - speaking to us...revealing Himself - we would be left with only speculation.

Speculation is the weak human effort to guess at the character of God, what God wants us to believe, or how God wants us to behave. Speculation includes philosophy, spirituality, and religion, as well as various forms of social science; not all of these are necessarily bad or evil, but it is all under the rubric of speculation - human efforts to make a ventured guess as to who God is and what He's like. But we don't have to speculate – God has clearly revealed Himself, His character, His mercy and grace, and how we are to live our lives in His Holy Word. So what are you doing if you aren't reading God's Word? You are voluntarily speculating when the revelation is right there.

Revelation is far more reliable and helpful than speculation because revelation isn't us guessing, it is God speaking. And with God speaking, He tells us who He is. He tells us what He desires. He tells us how to have a relationship with Him. He speaks to us and then invites us in prayer to also speak to Him.

Also, we read that the Bible is all that we truly need to know God; again, the sufficiency of Scripture. Look at Luke 16:19-31. This describes a man who died, and he didn't know the Lord or love the Lord, and he was suffering. And he said, "'send [Lazarus] to my father's house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.' But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets [meaning the scriptures]; let them hear them.' And he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.'" The Bible is sufficient to know God.

"And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." ~ Colossians 1:9-10

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What is revelation? Why is it so important?

• Note To Parents: Revelation is the means by which God has chosen to reveal Himself; it is how He speaks to us. It is important because the God of the Bible is a God who speaks, and He continues to be a God who speaks. We need revelation. The distance between us and God is great, and unless God revealed Himself, we would be left with only speculation.

2. What happens without revelation?

• Note To Parents: We are left to speculation. Speculation is the weak human effort to guess at the character of God, what God wants us to believe, or how God wants us to behave. But we don't have to speculate – God has clearly revealed Himself, His character, His mercy and grace, and how we are to live our lives in His Holy Word. Revelation is far more reliable and helpful than speculation because revelation isn't us guessing, it is God speaking. And with God speaking, He tells us who He is. He tells us what He desires. He tells us how to have a relationship with Him.

3. What does the story in Luke 16:19-31 reveal about the Bible?

• Note To Parents: The Bible is sufficient to know God.