God's Word Series

INTRODUCTION

• MACHINE GUN PREACHER CLIP PC VIDEO

• SLIDE #1

• Another use for the Word of God.

• A story from Religion News Service reports that if someone could gather up all the Bibles either being used or gathering dust in American homes, the stack would be 29 million feet tall -- a tower that would rise more than 5,400 miles. For comparative purposes, the International Space Station's orbit is only 278 miles at its highest point. (http://www.baptiststoday.org/cartledge-blog/2010/10/22/how-many-bibles-do-you-own.html)

• According to Barna Research in a study done on behalf of the American Bible Society, On average, 85 percent of U.S. households own a Bible; the average number of Bibles per household is 4.3. (Read more: Religion News: 85 percent of U.S. households own a Bible - Foxborough, MA - Wicked Local Foxborough http://www.wickedlocal.com/foxborough/archive/x1783275328/Religion-News-85-percent-of-U-S-households-own-a-Bible#ixzz2EK8LFHx5)

• The annual sales figures for the Bible are so high, averaging between $425m and $650m, repeatedly – year after year – that it dwarfs the sales of all other books. The best any other book can hope for is second place and a very distant second place at that. (http://nowthinkaboutit.com/2012/06/why-the-bible-is-the-true-best-seller/)

• In our country access to a bible is so easy and many folks have so many of them in their home that it is easy to take God’s Word for granted.

• One of the troubling aspects of all the statistics on Bible sales and ownership in the United States is why are we seemingly drifting so far from God as a nation?

• One of the reasons the nation is drifting is because individuals are drifting.

• This tells us something about what we are not doing with all those bibles in our homes.

• God’s Word is another one of those abundant blessings that many times gets lost in the speed of life. God’s Word is another thankful blessing that we possess!

• God’s Word can do things that no other book can do. The Holy Spirit works through the Word. Next week we will examine that blessing!

• Today we are going to examine so reasons why we are truly blessed to possess God’s Word.

• Turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter 1:22-25, we will start in verse 22!

• SLIDE #2

• 1 Peter 1:22 (ESV) Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

We are blessed to have God’s Word because…

I. Obedience to God’s Word purifies our souls.

• God has called us to do a lot of things; one of the most difficult is to love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

• If the heart is not pure, the love will be non-existent or the love will not be pure.

• The word EARNESTLY means to STRETCH OUT WITH ALL INTENSITY, WITH FULL EFFORT.

• We are called to love one another BECAUSE we are brothers and sisters in God’s family; we are not to love others AS brothers.

• Before we can carry out this important command from God, our hearts need to be purified.

• Before we can really live for Jesus something wonderful needs to happen.

• Here is why!

• We are made up of three parts, the body, spirit, and soul.

• SLIDE #4

• 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (ESV) Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• When we sin our spirit ceases to function, we are like a car without a driver, then Satan can come in and stir up our unchecked passions.

• The body and soul are intact.

• SLIDE #5

• John 3:6 (ESV) That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

• Jesus explains the need for being born again to Nicodemus. We will spend more time on this in the next observation.

• Once the spirit is rendered useless or dead, we then become what the Bible calls being of the FLESH or WORLDLY.

• SLIDE #6

• Romans 13:14 (ESV) But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

• Now when a person dies PHYSICALLY, we cannot bring them back, their time on earth is over, even if we can revive them for a time, they will in time die.

• WE can be thankful for the Word of God because when we are obedient to the truth (OR WORD OF GOD), the gospel, our hearts are purified!

• This purification process allows our regenerated spirit, guided by the Holy Spirit to then exhibit and practice the same type of love God has for us.