Are you a coffee table Christian?
Hebrews 4:12
2 Timothy 3:16
Good Morning Church! it is good to be in the house of the Lord!
Are you a Coffee table Christian? One that looks good, out where everyone can see you but usually only looked at while you are waiting to do something else!
Last week we looked at ourlife in the Spirit. Life as the Holy Spirit of God reveals and leads a believer in their everyday life.
Who’s in charge? You or the Lord?
We saw conviction draws us close to God and condemnation pushes us away from God.
We saw that we are in a battle and we are drawn closer or farther away from the Lord by who we are listening too in our ears.
We saw that God condemns sin and if we live in our sins and do not ask God to forgive us of our sins and live a life for him that we ourselves choose to be separated from God. It is not God’s fault that we choose poorly.
It is not God’s intention or desire that we be separated from him.
Romans 8:6 showed us “The mindset governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not summit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.”
Prayer-
This week there was revival at one of our Nazarene churches in the area- it was a 4 day revival with one of our denominations longtime evangelist Dr. Steven Manley. He was years ago a professor of evangelism at one of our Nazarene colleges. I wish he was one of my professors! He taught from Matthew 4 where Jesus was in the wilderness right after the “Son of man” receives the Holy Spirit. Son of man in all his humanity being empowered by the Spirit of God to face 40 days of intense battle with Satan himself. I will never look at this passage the same way as he shared from that text.
Jesus being tempted while weak and without food and nourishment, tempted while going through life, and the Devil with only one objective, to stop Jesus from fulfilling His task as being the Son of God who comes as the Son of man.
When Jesus was tempted those three times… each time he was tempted in a different way,
He looked at the Devil and said it is written! Spoke God’s word to the Devil in response to the temptation He was going through.
Sermon title… Are you a coffee table Christian?
Do you know the Bible well enough to quote Scripture that you will stand on?
Do you know where to look for the answers of life that keep you up at night?
Or …does your bible set on the coffee table and grow dust?
You having a bible is not enough.
The Bible is the most published and purchased book ever written.
Most homes have several in their homes, but also is probably the most unread book.
Our egos fuel our life- we get some success, we make a few good decisions amongst a lot of bad decisions and we feel pretty good about ourselves.
Regi Campbell says… “Just like there’s only one steering wheel in a car, there’s only one CEO in our lives. When were going for what we want, irrespective of what God wants, our ego is in charge, and we edge God out.”
If you own several of the most written books ever published but you are not reading it to know what is in it, are you letting your ego get in front of what God is wanting to tell you through His Word?
Telling the truth is a mark of your character, there are over 50 verses in the bible that talk about lying- “Lying lips” proverbs 12:22- “The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.”
Lying lips is bold face lying and saying something that we know is not true. (Repeat)
We have all been guilty of that. But there is another side of lying. When we know that we hear something that is not true and we do nothing about it!
Staying silent in the presence of a lie is a lie!
So…if we profess to be Christians but we do not do what a Christian should be doing, are we lying to ourselves and to others?
If you do not grab anything else this morning, please grab this, just having a bible setting on your coffee table does not make you a Christian, anymore than sleeping in the garage makes you a car.
People feel good about themselves when they do the right thing, correct a mistake, clear up a confusion. There is a burden lifted from us when we move into the right direction. When we open up the bibles and begin to read God’s word for direction in our lives it will change our lives.
Two Scriptures we look at today- there are many-
Hebrews 4:12
“For the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
God’s word is alive! It is written by an eternal God that is and always will be. He is not a dead God in a grave. He is not a God that has to answer to anything or anybody because everything exists because of Him.
God’s word is our sword-
We treat God’s Word as if it was just a good book recommended to us. It is so much more than a good book, or a book of poetry, or a book of history, or an autobiography of different people. While it is all those things, it is the written and recorded word of almighty God. It is the living word that comes from a living God that brings life with the words that He speaks to us from that word.
Hebrews gives us imagery describing the vital, penetrating and discerning power of God’s word for our lives.
He says that it is living and that it is active in the Greek “powerful” God’s word will not fail to accomplish all that God says it will accomplish for His purpose. He says that it won’t return to Him void.
His word is personified as being a double-edged sword meaning that it cut in both directions moving forward and backward. It is a extremely precision tool when put into the hands of an experienced warrior.
The ruling part of our soul is our heart and God is able to cut out with precision what is needed in our lives.
I like the new song out by Micah Tyler called different. God’s word will make us different than we are now and move us toward being who the Lord wants us to be.
Different/ Micah Tyler
I don't wanna hear anymore
Teach me to listen
I don't wanna see anymore
Give me a vision
That You could move this heart
To be set apart
I don't need to recognize
The man in the mirror
And I don't wanna trade Your plan
For something familiar
I can't waste a day
I can't stay the same
I wanna be different
I wanna be changed
Til all of me is gone
And all that remains
Is a fire so bright
The whole world can see
That there's something different
So come and be different
In me
You cannot read this book as just a book, it is alive and it will change your life if you will let it because God’s Word has the power to do that.
The Hebrew preacher expresses transparency and emphatically says that nothing in God’s creation is hidden from God and we must lay our lives bare to the Lord and He is given an opportunity to change us that He will and it will be for our good and have His blessing upon our lives.
God’s word will never pass away. It is not tainted because of corruption but is incorruptible because God said it and God inspired it with numerous writers under the inspiration of Almighty God.
People better be careful what they say about what God has blessed and what God has said and recorded of His word.
One preacher has said read the owner’s manual so the car won’t break down!
God’s word brings understanding- some say the bible is hard to understand, I say that before you pick that book up to read it to be asking the author to give you interpretation of His Word. He wrote it for us and He wants us to understand it.
You can pick it up as a skeptic and put it down a believer but you cannot pick it up to mock him and think that He won’t have something to say about that-
Everytime you pick it up. Bow your head and ask the Lord to show you by His Holy Spirit the understanding of His truth written- He will give you the answers you were looking for!
God word is our inspiration
God’s word is our inspiration because it is inspired by God.
2 Timothy 3:16- “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Not some of Scripture but all scripture is God-breathed! Don’t rush that- Those writers under the anointing power of the Holy Spirit wrote the words God gave them.
He breathed life changing words for mankind into them- I didn’t say it God said it- what God breathes into becomes life- God breathed into the nostrils of Adam and He had life-
That why God’s word is life! God’s words bring life and that is why you can’t read it as just a book because His words are life to us and we let it change our lives.
His words not ours are useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness! His righteousness (16) so that the servant may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Peter 1:20- 21
“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophets own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
It came from God, it don’t have errors! God protected His Word! If it had errors, you would be able to pick and choose and you are not God!
You will not judge this book because you are not God but you can bet the farm that this book will judge you and the words contained in it because God said it!
Where ever the breath of God is blowing, I want to be in front of him and receive what He has for Me! God breathe on me! God fill me with your word and let your word change my life forever!
May I open your book and receive with gladness your words that bring life and bring the power of God into our lives by His Holy Spirit active and working in his people.
God’s word must be applied
James 1:22- “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks in the mirror and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”
2Timothy 2:15
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”
Colossians 3:16
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Close
The Lord gives us invitation for application. I believe the Lord that all things work for our good as we are called to his glory and His purpose.
We must take what we know and be diligent to apply it to our lives so that we are not coffee table Christians- those that look good but not any depth to our relationship with Him.
Question- Are you picking up and reading His word? He cannot do amazing things from His word if you are not reading His word-
Application, Application, application!
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path!
Jesus make your word come alive in me!
May it start by me reading your word and asking you to give me understanding and allow the word to change me from the inside out and may what is inside be what the people around me see for your honor and glory and may their lives be changed by what they see in me because I am in your image! Amen.
If you believe that let’s pray-
