Under The Oakes

If you were to ever look at a chart of the most sold books in any given timeline, month, quarter, year, decade, etc, you would be surprised to learn that the list you are looking at is actually lying to you…. You see, that list, no matter who it is published through almost always leaves off the actual best selling book…This book has been the best selling book since it’s inception..… The great record keepers at the Guinness World Records report that there has been 6,000,000,000 (That’s billion, if you’re too lazy to count the zeroes) of these books sold since they started keeping track of this stat in 1995. So for 30 years, that would mean that 38 copies of this book has sold every minute! That also means that if you read this article in the next 5 minutes, another 190 copies of this book will be sold! What book you might ask? The Bible!

The complete Bible (all 66 books) has been translated into over 700 languages, whereas the New Testament alone has been translated into an additional 1,500 languages. On top of that, there are portions of the Bible that have been additionally translated into another 3,500 languages. That is a lot of translating! We read these numbers & think, “How great that this is happening, & it’s so wonderful that the Bible is getting to the unreached parts of the world”! That is only the half of it though! I’m excited to tell you that Bible sales in the US are at an all time high! Bible sales in the U.S. have almost DOUBLED since 2019… In 2019, 9.7 million Bibles were sold within the U.S.. Just last year, 2025, the Bible sales were at a record 18 million Bibles sold in the United States. If that were to keep up, that would mean in 30 years, over 540,000,000 Bibles would be sold in the U.S. alone! I heard this stat in a sermon this week & I was so encouraged to hear of so many Bibles being bought by people who want to hear from God.

As encouraging as that statistic is, while Bible sales have doubled since 2019, church growth & attendance has not doubled. Why is that? Why are we selling so many Bibles, but not seeing all those Bible buyers in church? I know what you’re thinking, that some of this is because of those quirky Bible collectors, & those who have multiple Bibles. (I am guilty of being one of those people). As a Bible teacher, I love to find different versions/ways to read God’s Word. On the shelf in my school classroom I have close to 2 dozen different Bibles (with more at home as well….) So I do know that many people will have different translations/versions in their house, which is good! But you can’t tell me all that growth is strictly from Bible collectors… 

I want to take us to Matthew chapter 7 today. Matthew 7 is right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. The greatest sermon, by the greatest preacher who ever lived, Jesus. Matthew chapters 6-8 is all dedicated to the words of Christ from his wonderful sermon. I want us to look at Matthew 7:24-27 today. I have put those verses below so you don’t have to leave this screen (you’re welcome)…  “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 5:24-27 ESV)

We read this passage from Christ & there are a few takeaways here for us. The first thing for us to see here is that both the foolish man & the wise man heard the same words. Jesus doesn’t say that only the wise hear the words, nor does He say that the foolish are incapable of hearing His words. He says that EVERYONE hears His words…. However there is a difference between the foolish man & the wise man. What is that difference? The difference is that the wise man takes action! The wise man DOES the words of Christ! The foolish man heard the SAME words as the wise man, but there’s no action in them! You just read for yourself just a moment ago what will happen if we are foolish. The house will fall, & fall greatly!

Lately there have been some rapid coastal erosion & powerful surging storms happening on the coast of North Carolina. The results have been that the ocean can swallow up these beautiful homes right on the coastline. You can look up videos on social media of these big houses falling off their stilts and being swept away into the ocean. (Warning, it is an addicting black hole of the internet that I myself fell down a few nights ago….) When I saw those videos I couldn’t help but think of Matthew 7. Now please don’t mishear me, I am not calling North Carolinians fools… I personally, am not a beach person, but I get why some people want a home right on the beach. However, the reality is that sand is not the foundation you want to build your house on, right? I can only imagine when Jesus issued this warning some 2,000 years ago, they thought he was crazy for saying this, but here we’re watching His words come into fruition!

Going back to the text, we see that there is a huge difference between information & implementation. It is all well & good to be well educated & know things, but it is pointless if we don’t do something with that information. We need to use that information ESPECIALLY when we are talking about biblical knowledge & wisdom. James 1:22 tells us, “But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” We are commanded to be doers of the Word, not to just sit & listen. In all reality, we can’t be a doer, unless we have been a hearer (& a reader) & we know what the Bible says. We need to make sure that we are in God’s Word for ourselves first & foremost before we can be active. 

When you go to church, how are you viewing that time with the Lord? Do you see yourself as part of the audience? If so, I want to tell you friend, that you have the wrong view of church. We are not called to sit & watch, we are called to do & interact! We are not going there to be entertained, we are going there to get spiritually fed. With that, we are to get the “milk”, when we are baby christians, but as mature christians, it’s time for the “meat & potatoes”! That is where you are actively studying God’s Word, pen in hand! Remember, you are not going to a church, but rather as a body of believers, you ARE the church! I will close with this quick story. This past Sunday I finished leading worship in my local church & went to make sure the livestream was on in our nursery for any young parents/families in there with children. I came back in to sit with my family & as I walked through the sanctuary, I was pleasantly surprised to see how many brothers & sisters were reading the Bible with their pen in hand, studying God’s Word as they listened to the sermon! It was so exciting to see so many people sitting & soaking in the Word as the preaching was happening. God desires to be with each one of us, & His Word is alive & active & He speaks to us when we read it. So if you have a Bible close by, dust it off & open it each & every day. The enemy wants to fight against that & he will send EVERY.DISTRACTION.AVAILABLE… Don’t let him win! Remember, you don’t fight FOR victory, you fight FROM victory. God has already won the war, we are just in the battle! Pursue Him, honor Him, glorify Him, in ALL you do! Be blessed!