THE WORD!
A couple of weeks ago, we had vacation bible school here at the church. If you were here, you know how hungry these kids were for the Word of God. For those of you who weren’t here, about 3 of those nights I spent time under a barrage of fire from every question imaginable. Those kids asked questions that I honestly don’t remember answering for anyone EVER. And please understand, this is not me trying to toot my own horn. The answers I gave came straight through remembrance from the Holy Spirit. That is a particular point that I will cover again in a few minutes. No, this is just to make a point of how hungry these kids were for answers from the Word! Do, I remember every book and verse location for each answer I gave?? Absolutely not! Were there more qualified people here to answer those questions?? Absolutely yes! But guess who was there and who got the job of answering them?? Me. Finally, towards the end of Thursday night’s questioning, one of the kids asked me, “How do you know the answers to all of these questions??” That was actually the easiest question I had answered the whole time. Do you know what my answer was???
Because that’s what the Bible says!
Today, I want to start off by asking some questions.
Ok, how many of you Love Jesus? Easy right??
How many of you daily read the bible? Ooo….thats a little harder. How about at least the “verse of the day”? That makes it at least a little easier.
Now……… How many of you are as hungry for the word as those kids were last week???
I can honestly answer: Yes, Most of the time, Almost every day, and I try to be.
But let that line of questions and answers simmer for a minute!
Wow! Sometimes? Most of the time? I try???
Ya, sometimes…….. and when I started preparing for this week, ………. that hurt. That cut deeper than I was comfortable admitting. It made me think and change some of my focus, and that is exactly what we are going to talk about today!
There are 783,137 words in the King James Version of this WORD. (Here’s a quick freebie, that is a prime number, which means that it is divisible by nothing, nothing except 1 and itself). That’s a lot of words and most of us have never read all of them.
So, Let’s start talking about THE WORD with the first verse that came to my mind. Oddly enough this verse was confined to me by the Holy Spirit last Sunday, because this was the VERSE OF THE DAY in the Bible app. Now, Turn with me to this verse we should all be familiar with …… John 1:1-3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
So, what is the word? Its not a WHAT at all, It’s a WHO, and HE IS Jesus Christ Himself!
We even get a great follow-up/similarity of this verse by Paul later on in Colossians 1:16-18
16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or [a]principalities or [b]powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
So, there we have it! The WORD who is Jesus Christ was in the beginning with God and made absolutely everything we know in existence! ……………
And we can’t spend some time with that person each day???
WOW!!!!!
Now let me tell you how hard that hit me!
Where in that verse do I find my Sometimes, Most of the time, and I try???? Its not there!!!!
Think about this…..
God loves us sooooo much that before there was a beginning, He gave us His WORD. That Jesus Christ was with Him. The bible also says that Jesus THE WORD is the “Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8)
Where did we go wrong church? Where did we lose sight of what is important????
Want to know why the world doesn’t act the way God told us to act, know the laws of God, and continually breaks them????
Want to know Why we as a society are spinning down a toilet flush straight into the lake of fire? …………..
We don’t know the answers ourselves ½ the time because WE haven’t been in THE WORD, Learning the WORD, talking with and then speaking THE WORD!
And PLEASE understand…..I AM JUST AS GUIILTY!!!!!!! I tell all the officers at chaplain time frequently. “I got taught this first!!!”
So, now we are going to have our invitation. Everyone get down here with me and repent. We are praying thru lunch! JUST KIDDING!
Do I at least have your attention now???????????????
I want to talk about the WORD now. And maybe, just maybe, I can convince us all that we need to be IN the Word more, spending time with the Word more, and speaking the Word more.
1. Being in the Word
Matthew 4:4 - Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God.
How many of you like food?? I’m very obviously a fan! You all don’t even have to think about that do you? How many of us get hungry when we don’t have food?
There are a few of you sitting there right now thinking, “I sure wish he would wrap this up, because I’m beyond ready for lunch.”
Ok seriously, why are we not THAT hungry for THE WORD??
Didn’t we just read a verse that says we are not supposed to live by bread alone?? I think something we have very seriously missed from this verse is this.
Now listen close here! God wants us to HUNGER for the WORD more than food! More than any kind of “physical satisfaction” we can think up. Did that click with anyone else like it clicked with me????? I know that’s a hard word coming at us early on a Sunday morning, but it’s the truth!
Do you plan your day around the WORD? Or do you plan your day around your “bread”? Do you look forward to getting into the word the same way that you look forward to taco tuesdays???? Now who is thinking about lunch?? Haha!
Let’s take this a step further and move into the next part.
2. Spending more time with THE WORD.
What was the very first question I asked??
Do you love Jesus?
I think that is a pretty easy question to answer. And 100 times out of 100 I will answer YES without hesitation. But do my actions support it? We’ve got plenty of examples of people who tell us one thing and then do another. And you all know the first “group” that comes to mind. I don’t want us to get deplatformed, so I’m gonna leave that alone, because we are talking about US today. If we answer yes to that question, then do we show it?
DO WE WANT TO SPEND TIME WITH HIM?
If you love someone, don’t you want to spend time with them??? Husbands you better be saying YES right there loud enough that at least your wife can hear it!!! Otherwise bread may not be an option later today!
But do we really seek to spend time with the WORD? The only one who is actually worthy.
Before we had Jesus, “God who became flesh”, here on earth, THE WORD was already with us. I think the Old Testament is so awesome in how it pre-ordained so much of what Jesus confirmed!!
Look with me at Joshua 1:8 - Study this book of instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. ONLY THEN will you prosper and succeed in all you do.
The book of Joshua has this written almost 3500 years ago. Joshua was written somewhere around 1400BC. That’s a long time ago!! But that’s not the important part. Look at what it tells us. ….. study this book, day and night. What does the last part say????? What does the Bible say???
ONLY THEN will you prosper and succeed.
Are any of you struggling? Are any of you not succeeding? Anyone having a tough time? I know I can answer yes to that. But what does that tell me? It tells me that I need to be back in The WORD. This word right here! Gods love letter to us. The Word is God!
Remember I said earlier that this message got preached to me first!!
Now for my last point. Yes, lunch is coming y’all!
3. Speaking the Word
1 Thessalonians 2:13 - For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when received the word of God which ye heard of us , ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually workers also in you that believe.
And also:
Hebrews 4:12 - For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
God’s WORD is TRUTH!!!
It’s not just true when it’s convenient. It’s not just true when it “fits the narrative”. It’s not just true when it gets you some votes.
Church……. People of God…… Saints…… future kings and priests unto the most high God!! …..
It is time to SPEAK TRUTH!!!
If you haven’t noticed after our series on Revelation. There’s not a whole lot of time left on this spinning rock! It’s time the church…. THE BRIDE to THE WORD, JESUS CHRIST starts speaking the truth of the word!!
Not just when it’s convenient.
Not just when it fits the narrative.
Not just when we are “comfortable” with it!
Listen to this verse closely church!!!
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
??II Timothy? ?3?:?16?-?17? ?NKJV??
Ok stop the Facebook live here. We will start it back in just a minute. Not because I’m scared of telling the truth, but because this is not MY platform, it is the church’s. I don’t want to get us deplatformed because we are going to hand out some TRUTH FOR A MINUTE!
It’s time to tell some TRUTH.
THE WORD SAYS:
Lust is wrong
Homosexuality is wrong
Taking the Lord’s name in Vain is wrong
Killing is wrong
Gossiping is wrong
Lying is wrong
Greed is wrong
Abuse of all kinds is wrong
What does that list sound like?????
Daily headlines!!!!!!!
This world is LOST and ONLY the truth….. THE WORD can set it free!
Ok fire back up the Facebook live.
The TRUTH that is in this book says that we are to be in the world but NOT OF THE WORLD.
It time for the church to get back to SPEAKING the word.
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.”
??James? ?1?:?22?-?24? ?NKJV??
Does that mean we get all hateful and yell and scream and pitch a fit like all the “woke” crowd does? No!!!
Ephesians 4:15 says that we are to speak the TRUTH in Love!
I tell my daughter all the time. When we see things we know are wrong going on with our friends and those around us, We are to Love them and show them by OUR actions that there is a better way. Christ was the perfect example of this. When He met the woman at the well, He had every right to destroy her. On the spot!! Just like He has every right to do the same to you and me. But instead …. He talked with her lovingly and spoke calmly about her actions and helped her realize that she was not where God wanted her to be in her life. She went away with her life changed in Love!
But it is time that we stand for the TRUTH. Stop bending to what the world wants us to conform to. A popular and very underrated statement from Alexander Hamilton states, “Those who stand for nothing, fall for anything.”
Look at society and the church in the same frame there. What has happened to us. Are we standing? Or falling?
Romans 12:2 - “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
??
How do we accomplish this? By knowing THE WORD!
It all comes back to THE WORD!!!
Speak the WORD church! Speak the TRUTH! They are the SAME!!!
Now I know I’ve been all over the Bible this morning with you, but that was exactly the point!! THE WORD, THE WHOLE WORD, needs to be where we live and breathe. We need to want to be in the Word!
Church, it’s time for us to get back to THE WORD.
When I first started this morning, I told you about how those kids were so hungry for what THE WORD said, and what the answers to their questions were.
Are we that eager to know God’s Word? Are we that excited about our upcoming time in the word. Just like our bread? Do we, as the Bride of Christ, want to spend time with our husband? And do we speak the Word, the Truth, in Love so that the world is changed by our witness???
This week I challenge us all. That includes me!!! To be so specific about our intentions to be in the word, that we look forward to it more than our meals. That we have so much of The Word in us, that it spills out, and people around us finally hear some TRUTH in this lying and crazy world. Then maybe, just maybe, lives will be changed before it’s forever too late.
If you are here today and you don’t know this Truth that Ive been talking about. His name is Jesus Christ. He is the perfect lamb of God that came to die as a sacrifice for our sins. He has taken the place of punishment for us …. IF…. You accept this free gift.
If you want to accept this free and awesome gift today it is sooo very easy. First, Admit that you are a sinner and that there is no way for you to make yourself righteous on your own. Second, Believe that Jesus is the Truth, THE WORD of God and that no man can come to the father but through Him. Believe that He took our punishment unto death and was resurrected and now stands at the right hand of God the father waiting for the day that He gets to come back for His bride. Then lastly, confess that. Tell someone here that you want to know THE WORD! That you want Jesus to come into your heart and save you! Then tell others about Christ! Time is short!
Pray with me church!
