Why isn't reading the Bible changing me? It is one of the most honest, quietly frustrated questions a Christian can carry, and Pastor Brandon says it usually comes down to a simple confusion about what the Bible is even for. The goal was never just to inform you. The goal is to shape you.

This sermon wraps up an August teaching series at Alliance Church on how to read the Bible well. Pastor Brandon opens with a question a lot of us have never quite answered for ourselves. What is the point of reading the Bible? He points out that other books have obvious purposes. A cookbook makes food. A textbook gives you knowledge. The Bible is different. It is the one book you read so you can actually know the author and be transformed by him.

He anchors it in Colossians 3:12 through 17, where Paul describes what a person shaped by the word of Christ actually looks like. Compassionate. Patient. Kind. Gentle. Forgiving. Loving. Not the kind of Christian who has memorized verses. The kind people actually want to be near.

Then Pastor Brandon lays out the framework. There are three people you have to invite to the table if you want the Bible to transform you and not just inform you. You, the Holy Spirit, and the bride of Christ.

You bring a willingness, an eagerness really, to obey. Not I will keep what I like and ignore what I do not. But God, help me see the smallest place I am falling short and shape me there. Colossians 3:12 starts with identity (God's chosen, holy, dearly loved) and then moves to behavior. God does not shape us so we can be his people. He shapes us because we already are his people. Do not put the stinky socks back on.

The Holy Spirit brings power. Psalm 119:18, 34, and 36. Open my eyes. Give me understanding. Turn my heart. Pastor Brandon retells the Corrie Ten Boom moment when she stood face to face with her former concentration camp guard asking her forgiveness. She had none to give, until she prayed and Romans 5:5 came alive. The love of God poured through her into that man.

The bride of Christ brings you flesh and blood community. So many biblical commands (love one another, bear one another's burdens, forgive one another, weep with those who weep, husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church) cannot be obeyed in isolation. He tells the story of a couple who lost a baby and whose closest brother and sister in Christ met them around a kitchen island, cried with them, prayed with them, and let the word actually become flesh in the middle of grief.

If you have been reading the Bible and quietly wondering why it does not seem to be changing anything, this teaching from Pastor Brandon is the honest, pastoral answer you have been waiting for.