[Note: I used gold panning pictures from the Internet for this lesson. They could not be included here due to issues of copyright. It is not difficult to find such pictures for temporary use using a search engine.]

Have any of you ever panned for gold?  

(Slide 1 - picture of gold pan)

We have a lot of areas around us where you can go out and look for gold. Most people do it with a gold pan like the one in this picture.

(Slide 2 - picture of man panning for gold)

Usually people panning for gold just find tiny flecks of it referred to as “color.” “Color” is like gold dust and it takes a lot of it to be worth much. 

(Slide 3 - picture of gold flecks in pan)

Once in awhile somebody finds a nugget of gold. Usually a nugget is pretty small.

(Slide 4 - picture of nugget)

But once in a great while someone finds a large nugget of gold, like the ones in this picture.  

(Slide 5 - picture of large nugget)

Do you know how much gold is worth? I checked on the Internet this morning and Gold is selling at $926 an ounce! That’s why people hunt for gold! I’m told that the gold nugget in the center of the picture is worth over $30,000 dollars. You could buy a brand new, high quality car or truck for $30,000.  

(Slide 6 - picture of new car)

The Bible says that wisdom is worth even more than gold. Proverbs 16:16 says, How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! 

God’s wisdom is found in the Bible.  

(Slide 7 - picture of Bible)

That means that if you learn the Bible and use it in your life, the words on its pages are worth more than gold nuggets! “Well,” you might think, “I’ll just go out and sell my Bible then!” 

No, that wouldn’t work because many people don’t recognize its extreme value right now. For many, they’ll only recognize the extreme value of God’s word after it is too late for them to get any use from it.

Many people are chasing after what I have in this next picture. 

(Slide 8 - picture of pyrite) 

How much do you think this nugget is worth? It’s even bigger than the ones in the earlier picture! Well, let me tell you how much that nugget is worth. It’s worth less than $10. That’s because it isn’t gold at all. It’s Pyrite – “Fool’s Gold. Pyrite resembles gold, but it isn’t gold. It’s like fake gold.  

A lot of the things people think are wisdom today are like this Pyrite. They’re fake. They’re phony. They’re worthless. They don’t come from our Great God. They come from puny men who don’t really have the right answers. 

My lesson for you today is for you to remember the great value of God’s word, the Bible.  

(Slide 9 - picture of Bible) 

Learn about it. Study it. Use it in your life. It’s better than gold. You’ll be a rich person in this life and the next because you will know the best way to live and you will have eternal life! Watch out for the fake gold - the Pyrite – the phony wisdom that might sound and look good, but it is really worthless. Go panning for God’s word and you won’t be disappointed!

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

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All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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