New Habits for a New Year
Part 1: A Daily Diet of God’s Word
Psalm 19:7-14
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - Jan. 18, 2009
*Does anyone here today have any bad habits? Oh yeah. Are there any bad habits you would like to put behind you? Are there any good habits you would like to add to your life?
*I want you to know that by the grace of God we can change!
-Jesus Christ has always been in the business of changing lives.
-Peter, Paul, the Samaritan woman at the well, and once crooked Zacchaeus could all tell you that. -- So could millions of other Christians who have seen their lives transformed in wonderful ways.
*Right now is a great time to start new habits for a new year, and we will start with the single most important habit you need to add to your life: A daily diet of God’s Word. We need to start feeding on the Word of God every day, and David shows us why.
1. First: Start reading the Bible every day because it can change you.
*God’s Word can change us! We see this in vs. 7, where David said, “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.”
*God’s Word turns foolish people into wise people. Psalm 111:10 tells us that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” And this Book is the only place where we can find the wisdom of salvation, because this book is the true testimony of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In both the Old Testament and the New you will find the testimony of the Lord Jesus:
-Testimony that Jesus is God, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
-Testimony that Jesus loves us beyond our understanding.
-Testimony that Jesus was born as a man to die on the cross for our sins.
-Testimony that Jesus will forgive our sins and give us eternal life -- if we will turn our hearts to Him and receive Him as Savior and Lord.
*Jesus Christ is the great “I Am,” Lord God Jehovah of both the Old Testament and the New. As the pre-incarnate Christ, He is the One who spoke to Moses in the burning bush and said, “My name is ‘I Am’”
*Almost 1,500 years later God the Son humbled Himself to become a man. And here is part of the testimony Jesus gave us in the Gospel of John:
-“I am the bread of life.”
-“I am the light of the world.”
-“I am the door”
-“I am the Good Shepherd.”
-“I am the Resurrection and the Life.”
-“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”
-“I am the true Vine.”
*In John 3:31-36, John the Baptist talked about the testimony of the Lord. John was talking about Jesus when he said:
31. “He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.
32. And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony.” (That is, no one receives it without the work of the Holy Spirit in His heart.)
33. “He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true.
34. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure.
35. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand.
36. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
*When you really believe in God’s testimony about Jesus Christ, He gives you a brand new life that will last forever. “The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” God’s Word can change us!
*In 1995, Christianity Today told the wonderful story of some Christian natives in the Amazon region of Peru. These tribal groups of the Bora people have only known Christ for one generation. Just one generation ago they were fearful, aggressive, demon worshippers. All of their contacts with outsiders were marked by violence. But now many of the Bora have been transformed by Jesus Christ. The men treat their wives and children much better. Yes, these believers have problems like Christians anywhere, but more than most people, they can appreciate the difference Jesus has made.
*A few years ago, an anthropologist visited the Bora people and started criticizing the missionaries. He said, “Christianity is for the white man. You people should go back to your old religion and your old ways.”
*An indignant Bora church leader, who remembered the old days, looked at him and replied, “Yes, and if we did -- you’d be the first one in the pot!” (1)
*But that anthropologist wasn’t thrown in the pot, because God’s Word can change us! “The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple”
*You say, “I’ve been a Christian for 20 years and I still need a lot of changes.”
-Well the first part of vs. 7 is for you, and for me too: “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” The NIV says it revives the soul, and that is the meaning. It helps to know that this is the same word David used in the 23rd Psalm when he said, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. . .”
*“He restores my soul.” So back in Psalm 19:7, we could say, “The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring and reviving my soul.”
-Believers, we need that! I need that. And the Bible is the place to get it. It’s like God’s spiritual health food store to give us all the revival and renewal we need!
*Start feeding on God’s Word every day because it can change you.
2. And because it can cheer you up.
*As we see in vs. 8, “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.”
-Hey church: It’s not the grumpy news. It’s the good news!
*But if you have been feeling and acting like it’s the grumpy news, let me ask you: Are you getting a daily diet of God’s Word? That may be part of the problem, because “the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.”
*Sometimes people get down when they compare themselves to other people, somebody richer, smarter, or better looking. Is that you? Maybe you think of yourself as a little nobody.
*President William Howard Taft’s great granddaughter was asked to write her autobiography when she was in the third grade. And this is what she wrote:
-“My great-grandfather was President of the United Sates. My grandfather was a United States Senator. My father is an ambassador. -- And I am a Brownie.” (2)
*You may not feel like much compared to the people around you, but cheer up Christian! Think of all you are in Jesus Christ. Here’s just part of who we are from the Word of God.
-If we have received Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we can say:
-I am God’s child. - John 1:12
-I am a friend of Jesus Christ. - John 15:15
-I have been justified. - Rom 5:1
-I have been bought with a price, and I belong to God. - 1 Corin 6:19-20
-I am a part of Christ’s body. - 1 Corin 12:27
-I have been chosen by God and adopted as His child. - Eph 1:4-5
-I am accepted. - Eph 1:6
-I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins. - Col 1:13-14
-I have direct access to God’s throne through Jesus Christ. - Heb 4:14-16
-I am free from condemnation. - Rom 8:1-2
-And I am confident that God will complete the good work He started in me. - Phil 1:6 (3)
*That’s not grumpy news. -- It’s good news! And that is why the Word of God can rejoice your heart.
-Start feeding on God’s Word every day because it can cheer you up.
3. And because it can clear your vision.
*The Word of God can open your spiritual eyes. As David said in vs. 8, “The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.”
-The Word of God can open our eyes to see the things that are good and true.
-It will show us things that are important and have true value.
-It will also help us see the things that last forever -- things like David mentioned in vs. 9&10:
9. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
10. More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
*“The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.”
-God’s Word enables us to see things the world cannot see.
-I love what Hebrews 2:9-10 says about believers seeing Jesus with our spiritual eyes:
9. We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.
10. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
*God wants us to see so much! -- But we will miss it, if we neglect our daily diet of God’s Word. Someone put it this way:
-We mutter and sputter,
-We fume and we spurt,
-We mumble and grumble,
-Our feelings get hurt.
-We can’t understand things,
-Our vision grows dim,
-When all that we need
-Is a moment with Him. (4)
*“The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.”
-Start feeding on God’s Word every day because it can clear your vision.
4. And because it can convict you of sin.
*As David said in vs. 11, “Moreover by them Your servant is warned.”
-Lord, your servant is warned by your commandments, testimonies, judgments and laws. God’s Word is filled with warnings for us. I could give you hundreds of examples. Listen to the warning in Proverbs 3:5-8.
5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
6. in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
7. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil.
8. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones.
*In Galatians 6:7-8, Paul warns us, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”
-This Book can convict us of our sins. It will warn us when we are heading in the wrong direction.
*Zig Ziglar tells the story of a young couple, lost on a road way out in the country. They spotted an old farmer, so they stopped the car and asked, “Sir, could you tell us where this road will take us?”
*Without a moment’s hesitation the old farmer wisely replied, “Son, this road will take you anywhere in the world you want to go, -- if you are moving in the right direction.” (5)
*God’s Word will warn us when we are heading in the wrong direction. It will surely convict us of our sins. But the Bible cannot convict us, if we neglect it.
-Start feeding on God’s Word every day because it can convict you of sin.
5. And because it can cleanse you.
*David speaks of this cleansing in vs. 12-14, as he goes to the Lord in prayer:
12. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.
13. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
14. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.
*In John 15:3, Jesus told His followers, “Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”
-And when Paul was talking to Christian husbands in Eph 5:25-26, he said, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.”
*Christians: We are washed and made clean by the Word of God.
-Nothing can change our lives like this book!
-It can change us for the better. It can change us forever!
*When Howard Rutledge’s plane was shot down over Vietnam, he parachuted into a little village and was immediately attacked. Howard was captured, stripped, and imprisoned. For the next seven years he endured brutal treatment. Howard’s food was little more than a bowl of rotting soup with a glob of pig fat -- skin, hair, and all. Rats the size of cats and spiders as big as fists scurried around him. He was frequently cold, alone, and tortured. He was sometimes shackled in excruciating positions and left for days in his own waste with carnivorous insects boring through his oozing sores. How did he keep his sanity?
*Howard tells us in the book he wrote titled, “In the Presence of Mine Enemies.” Listen to this part of his testimony:
*Now the sights and sounds and smells of death were all around me. My hunger for spiritual food soon outdid my hunger for a steak. Now I wanted to know about that part of me that will never die. Now I wanted to talk about God and Christ and the church. But in Heartbreak solitary confinement there was no pastor, no Sunday-school teacher, no Bible, no hymnbook, no community of believers to guide and sustain me.
*I had completely neglected the spiritual dimension of my life. It took prison to show me how empty life is without God, and so I had to go back in my memory to those Sunday-school days in Tulsa, Oklahoma. If I couldn’t have a Bible and hymnbook, I would try to rebuild them in my mind. I tried desperately to recall snatches of Scripture, sermons, gospel choruses from childhood, and hymns we sang in church. . .
*Everyone knew the Lord’s Prayer and the 23rd Psalm, but the camp favorite verse that everyone recalled first and quoted most often was John 3:16. -- With Harry’s help, I even reconstructed the 17th & 18th verses. . .
16. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
*How I struggled to recall those Scriptures and hymns! I had spent my first 18 years in a Southern Baptist Sunday school, and I was amazed at how much I could recall. Regrettably, I had not seen then the importance of memorizing verses from the Bible, or learning gospel songs. . .
*I never dreamed that I would spend almost 7 years (5 of them in solitary confinement) in a prison in North Vietnam. -- I never dreamed that thinking about one memorized verse could have made the whole day bearable. (6)
*Howard Rutledge found out that the Word of God could get him through the greatest trial of his life. -- And the Bible will never fail you.
-But you must take some time everyday to feed on God’s Word.
*How about spending 15 minutes with the Father? -- 15 minutes every day, together with God in Bible study and prayer. That’s a great new habit for the new year. And I am asking you to make this commitment. I guarantee you that it will make a difference in your life!
*Make the commitment right now to start feeding on the Word of God every day. Make the commitment right now to start spending 15 minutes with the Father every day -- 15 minutes together with God in Bible study and prayer.
*You can make that commitment right now, as we go to God in prayer. And if you don’t know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, now is the time you can call on Jesus to save you. He loves you. He died on the cross for you. He rose again from the dead. And He will save you if you will put your trust in Him. Let’s pray.
1. Christianity Today Oct 2 ’95 p29 (SermonCentral illustration contributed by Harold Miller) (www.ctlibrary.com/ct/1995/october2/5tb026.html)
2. (Moorpark Presbyterian Church - What Jesus Most Wants For You - Dave Wilkinson - John 17:21-26, 1 John 4:17 - March 10, 2002) http://www.mppres.org/sermons/2002/031002.htm
3. http://www.christiangoth.com/whoyouareprinterversion.htm
4. Found in SermonCentral sermon “The Race of Life” by Steve Shepherd - Hebrews 12:1-3
5. See You at the Top by Zig Ziglar, Copyright August 30, 2000, Pelican Publishing Company
6. Adapted from Robert J. Morgan, Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 2000
