Get On The Cutting Edge Of Life! Series

GET ON THE CUTTING EDGE OF LIFE!

HEBREWS 4:11-13

JUNE 22, 2008

PASTOR JIM BOHRER

What sets your life course for you determines where you will end up! And whether you have thought about this or not, what you are doing right now, what you are contemplating is the culmination of words that you have heard and believed throughout your life. What you value and have chosen to invest your time and energy is the direct sum of what you have heard and chosen to believe in. And you may think in your mind right now, Oh, I am in total control of my life, I make my own decisions. Yes, you do, but you are making those choices based on words you have heard and chose to believe or not believe. And most often you have not really evaluated what the end of those decisions you are making will lead to. Proverbs 14:12.

Just this week I had a conversation with a man I will call him J. He and I began talking about life and the world and he got to the issue of responsibility. He stated that no one wants to take responsibility for his or her own actions and that people just get divorced because they are not willing to make it work. As I listened and asked questions, it turned out that he was divorced and now remarried. As I allowed him to talk, he slowly began to stop blaming the world and started taking responsibility himself. He revealed that he had put too much time into work and career and not enough time into his wife and children. The result was divorce and heartbreaks, too many to list right now.

After listening to his story for some 20 minutes he said, “You know if I had to do it all over, I would have spent less time at work and more time with my family. I really do not have much to show for all the overtime I worked do I?” The answer was obvious. Yet, whether he knew it or not, he simply followed the words and the mantra that our materialistic culture tells men and now young women (as both parents are entering the workforce en mass and hoping that the family survives), “If you work a bunch, you’ll get a lot of money, and you’ll have a lot of stuff, you’ll feel like you are Somebody and your family will love you because you gave them a bunch of stuff. Now, whenever you feel a twinge of guilt or uncertainty or conviction. You make sure you brush it off and if you have to yell at your kids and your spouse because in the END, they will understand. Hey, even though you are not there for them, it will all work out in the end, because they will look back in admiration at all you gave to them.” Well my friend found out the hard way. He found out the truth and he can’t go back and change it. Some of you here today have all the warning signs, and you are making course corrections. Some of you are here today and God is yelling to you stop and get back on the right track. But today, you will determine whether you will listen to God’s Word or follow the World’s path.

I want you to consider the power of words today:

We need to understand the power of words and consequently the power of God’s Word in our lives. We can understand something of this if we think of the tremendous effect of words in history. A leader coins a phrase and it becomes a trumpet-call which kindles men to crusades or to crimes. Some great man sends forth a manifesto and it produces action which can make or destroy nations. Over and over again in history the spoken word of some leader or thinker has gone out and done things. If that be so of the words of men, how much more is it so of the word of God.

Isaiah 55:

10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. 12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD’s renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed."