My Way Or The High Way Series

MY WAY OR THE HIGH WAY

I Thessalonians 2:13

S: Bible

Th: Seeing the Unseen Christ: How His Presence Transforms Life

Pr: WE ARE TO SURRENDER TO THE TRUTH OF GOD’S WORD (AND BE CHANGED).

?: How?

KW: terms

TS: We will find in our study five ways to accomplish our surrender so that we can be changed by the Word of God.

The _____ way we can accomplish our surrender is to…

I. LISTEN (I Samuel 3:10)

II. MEDITATE (Psalm 119:97)

III. MEMORIZE (Deuteronomy 11:8a)

IV. STUDY (Ezra 7:10)

V. DO (James 1:22)

RMBC 3/25/01 AM

INTRODUCTION:

DRAMA: “Trends”

1. Have you ever noticed that people have a disconnect with the truth?

It is something that we are seeing more and more of in our culture today.

As the drama humorously proposed to us today, especially at the end, standards of truth are not evenly applied.

In fact, as truth loses its absolute status, we find that people can say whatever they want, when they want, to get what they want, and still rationalize that they are being rational.

For example…

ILL Truth (aquarium)

The aquarium shop where Dave Billington worked had been in business for more than 20 years. One Sunday a customer called wanting to buy a larger aquarium. "And by the way, I’ve spent a lot of money at your store over the years," he said. "I think I should get a discount." "Only our owner can give a discount," Billington explained, "and he won’t be in until tomorrow." When the customer said that he’d come in the next day, I asked him if there was anything else I could help him with. "Sure," he said. "Where is your store located?"

Now there was an obvious disconnect, right?

Yet, it wasn’t to the person.

How does that happen?

Well, we are finding more and more that…

2. Truth is too often a casualty.

We need to recognize out there and in here (both in us as a group and in us individually), the heart is deceitfully wicked.

That is the testimony of Scripture.

Now, that may be hard for us to hear, but it is a reality that we must come to grips with.

Just as we often hear what we want to hear, we also tend to believe what we want to believe.

TRANSITION:

But along with this, I have to believe this.

That…

1. If Christ were bodily present with us today, we would hang on His every word.

Don’t you think so?

If He were to step up to this spot here, we would eagerly listen to everything He had to say.

We would be delighted that He cared so much about us that He came to tell us the things we needed to know in person.

That would be marvelous, wouldn’t it?

But you know…

2. If we are willing, we can hear what God wants us to hear.

When we use our imagination about what it would be like if Jesus were standing here, this is not so much a dream, as reality.

Jesus is here!

He’s here literally.

He’s in this sanctuary right now.

And though you can not see Him with your physical eyes, your eyes of faith are seeing His true presence more clearly.

And with those eyes of faith, you are realizing that Jesus is speaking.

He is speaking to us through His Word, which He has blessed us with.

He did this because He wanted us to know what He has to say about life.

Yet, how many of us have a casual attitude toward this book.

Our attempts to hear what it says are done in a hit-and-miss fashion.

But, if we consistently approach it as Jesus’ words to us, something happens to us.

3. The Word produces positive results in our lives (I Thessalonians 2:13).

And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.

I want to key into this last phrase especially this morning, that if you believe, the word of God is at work in you.

The word is full of energy.

It is effective.

It is efficient.

It is productive.

When we welcome God’s Word into our lives with obedient faith, God’s power goes to work.

So, if you came today with a prepared heart as our journal directs us to, God is ready to go at work in you.

Because with a prepared heart, you are searching and listening attentively for His Word to you.

And you have been willing to pray, “God, I want to hear what You have to say to me.”