My youngest has been tearing up his Bible! I walked out into the dining room the other day and there he was, not only reading it, but he had several pens, pencils, markers, maybe even some crayons, I don’t know, but he was underlining, and I noticed more than one color in his Bible.
A couple questions: How many of you would say you prefer an old-fashioned written version of the Bible to read rather than a digital version like on your phone? How many of you had a mom or dad, grandpa or grandma you have mental pictures of who underlined in their old Bible? How many of you tear up your Bible by really getting into it by underlining or highlighting verses?
I can remember when I read my first NIV Bible.
Jesus attended synagogue where the word was read. One time, he was even called upon to read it and give an interpretation. The WORD is referred to as BREAD, a metaphor for what you live on, what you need to survive, what you need for sustenance.
Do you remember the story, when Jesus was being tempted by the devil in the wilderness, and in one of those tempting moments, the devil said “turn some stones into bread, Jesus” -and he had been fasting - do you remember how many days? So you’d think he’d be pretty hungry after six weeks! Both Matthew and Luke write about this, interestingly enough, both are in chapter 4 and both verses are v4.
Matt 4:4- Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’
Luke 4:4 - Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’
But where is it written? How did they both know this? From the fifth book of Moses - Deuteronomy 8:3 (1-3)
Have you ever been hungry? REALLY hungry? We need to develop a hunger for the WORD from God, crave the word, have hunger pangs for it - as Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2:2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
The word of God is powerful! Heb 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. So the WORD gets into us in places nothing else can–in those inner and invisible real and raw places we try to keep hidden.
And the WORD provides all of what we need, as Paul told Timothy, 2 Tim 4:14-17
So the WORD of GOD is bread, it is a sword, it is God-breathed and profitable – for when we use it in our teaching, and preaching, when we listen to its rebuke, and correction, we can be trained by it in what are the right activities to please God!
Is there anybody here who wants to please God? Can I get a witness today?!
So we are still observing the veiled Jesus today, reminded how the word “apokalypse” means unveiling.
The message today is for the church #3 to be built by “Word-Filled Overcomers.”
NIV Rev 2:12-17
To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna (it is sort of like instant mashed potatoes I think). I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it. The hidden manna is Jesus himself, who said to his disciples that he was the manna that came down from heaven. But there’s this white stone [put it on the pulpit]. More on that later.
This church was being warned and encouraged at the same time to be a group of people who EAT THE WORD of God! And how many of you here today were thankful for a momma who ate the WORD?! Eating food can make you feel good, but eating doesn’t satisfy us Spiritually. That inner hunger. The God-shaped void everyone has been created with. Jesus had food to eat his disciples didn’t know about - and what kind of food was that? An inner, spiritual manna from God - His Word fills you–let HIM fill you today!
John chapter 4, we don’t want to leave his FOURTH chapter out, so he has just had that great discussion with the Samaritan woman at the well.
John 4:27-41. Are you hearing and seeing what Jesus is saying here? Open your eyes! He told his disciples and at that exact moment what did they see? The people coming from town who heard the testimony of the woman about Jesus were coming toward Jesus!! That’s FOOD! That’s the harvest!!
Your faith inside is like popcorn, and when a church turns up the heat, and heats up a song, then a testimony, then some preaching of the word, the next thing you know you start moving because your FAITH gets fired up and starts popping! For it by grace you have been saved through FAITH!
AND THAT is the food everyone of you needs to own inside yourself! As I said last week about being a Full-believing Overcomers, you have to know Jesus for yourself!
But this FAITH you have within yourself comes from FEASTING ON THE WORDS OF JESUS …FOR YOURSELF!
When you come to church, are you hearing the words being read and sang and preached and are you understanding them to be the words of God in your heart, are being fed, the word is changing your life, changing your heart toward people.
But we have a Dragon in the vision of revelation –Where does a Dragon, the enemy first make an appearance?
The Genesis account of our enemy the Dragon.
God = brought ORDER into the CHAOS
Wherever the enemy is, there is chaos!
Chaos is darknes, without form, a void, as deep as many waters
So many people are living life
–in darkness - Do you remember those days?
–without the voice of God speaking into their lives!
–and only know chaos and the world where the Dragon reigns.
But then God showed up on the scene in Genesis
God spoke and there was light = Light
God separated the waters from the Land = Order!
God spoke and Life was given.
BUT John wrote about the beginning too and his 1:1 said the WORD was in the beginning. And the WORD was the light and the life for all mankind. But did people love the light? John writes in CH 3:19 MEN LOVED DARKNESS rather than the light - they loved their own words rather than the words that would bring light and life and order and purpose into their lives.
The Enemy’s tactics are to LURE you BACK into chaos and darkness and keep you BLIND from the love and the truth of GOD and from worshipping HIM.
He uses many tactics to do this = all of them to focus your minds and hearts on “the drama of the temporary”
What we need is that manna, that good WORD, that food from heaven, that WORD from our God that can feed us deeply inside and spiritually! What we need are MOMMAS who love God’s word and hold it forth as the WORD OF LIFE!
When my father died, my mom began carrying my dad’s Bible to church each Sunday. It was her way of remembering my dad as well as relying on her heavenly Father through that time!
The Deceiver wants to BLIND you from God - to keep you in darkness and chaos or to pull you back into it. Think of the 10 commandments:
1) How many gods are there? Not to the enemy. More = better.
2) Why not make an image to Worship; one? Why not make two? You can make your own god and just leave it at home when you go out–it will still be there when you get back;
3) Don’t worry about spending your life on what God has told you to–that’s vain; spend it on whatever you think is right;
4) Don’t remember God, don’t honor a day for Him, don’t think about Him at all, 5) And definitely don’t honor those people in your life who represent God to you, your father and mother!
6) If someone gets in your way, kill them verbally, psychologicly or physically. 7) If you desire something or someone, take her, take it! It doesn’t hurt anybody else. You only live once! Dominate while you can! Lie if you must, 8) Steal it if you have to, 9) if you are called as a witness in court, just lie about what they did; nobody is going to know and 10) If they have more than you, it is only because you are not as proud as they are.
My pride is why I want to dominate, to look the best to everyone else, to feel the best inside, to get all I can and take it if I have to, and if you resist me I will bury you, and rid you from the earth as an opponent, a rival, an adversary.
Those mottos are what the serpent, the Dragon, the devil, the Satan wants you live by.
He wants you to live by false manna, a false word, an empty word, and he uses false prophets to do spread it. The false manna feels good and right to the flesh, but leaves the spirit empty.
The way of the flesh is the way of this Babylon in Revelation–a world that lives by the flesh and not by the Holy Spirit. The enemy wants to exploit our weaknesses– Paul gives a list of the spiritual tactics and their results
NIV Gal 5:16-24
Jesus was conceived. Jesus lived inside the amniotic fluid and inside a placenta as a fetus. He was not placed there as a 9-month old child. Jesus was born through the birth canal. Unlike Adam, he had a belly button.
Jesus lived and then Jesus died. Jesus was buried. Jesus was in the belly of the earth, a tomb. He was hidden and unseen. And then he arose from the dead a conqueror! And all of the tactics of the enemy were paraded as ineffective as losers, as fallen methods and for the believer who is a Word-Filled Overcomer he and she will have the victory over this Satan controlled part of our world!
But Jesus says to this church Rev 2:14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. 15 Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
Listen, we cannot GROW as a church if we people here are not teaching what the Bible says! We have to believe the Bible! We have to follow the Bible! And that goes for people who are living CONTRARY to what the Bible teaches! We won’t grow and become a light in this community if we allow people to teach things contrary to the Word of God!
Grace does not cover that! Jesus says RIGHT HERE what the answer is!
Rev 2:16 Repent! Turn! Remove it! Get out of it! Stop it! Turn the other way! Don’t go that way any longer!
God doesn’t give us grace so we can keep on sinning! He gives us grace so we can stop sinning and be free from its chains and then grace to lead others to freedom in Christ!
Otherwise, JESUS SAYS! I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of MY mouth.
REV 2:17 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give:
First, Some of the hidden manna - a reference to Himself
–The miraculous bread-like substance that God provided to the Israelites during their journey through the desert. It symbolizes God's provision and care for his people
2nd, A white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.
Anyone here ever summoned for jury duty? In Pergamum, there was a unique way of casting votes as a part of the jury - they used white stones for innocent and guilty stones were black. White stones were also used as tickets to enter events.
So what I hear Jesus saying, is that to those who overcome, He is going to give his very self, an never-expiring pass into the kingdom of New Jerusalem, and the verdict of INNOCENT with all the secrets of your name kept just between the two of you.
I pulled from Matthew, Luke, and John chapter 4. I just can’t leave MARK out 4:13 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14 The farmer sows THE WORD. 15 Some people are like seed along the PATH, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others, like seed sown on ROCKY places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the WORD, they quickly fall away. 18 Still others, like seed sown among THORNS, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the WORD, making it unfruitful. Mark 4: 20 Others, like seed sown on GOOD soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”
I hope you are a part of the good soil today. I hope you had a mom in your life who loved the WORD OF GOD. Thank God for moms who did!
The WORD OF GOD is powerful and alive. I hope it remains so in your hearts every day!
So as we look back at these three messages to the churches, –we are halfway through.
Do we want to be a church that has forgotten her first love? What if we are?
Are we a church that doubts the Lord’s voice and doesn’t fully believe him? What if we are?
Are we a church that doesn’t hunger for his word, hold fast to his word, not being changed by his word? What if we are?
What happens when a church leaves Jesus out of things?
What happens when a church or family doesn’t pray their way to what God has next for them?
What is going to happen if we just blindly do what we’ve always done before–what WE believe is right?
What if instead of allowing fear to lead Christ’s church we let the Holy Spirit? What if when the WORD of God has been preached, the people just don’t nod YES with their heads, but YES with their hands and feet too?
I don’t want you to agree or disagree. I want you to ask God if that’s how you have been. Haven’t you allowed it to go on and done nothing for too long. I want us all to REPENT and change and seek GOD together and MOVE with God together and to PLAN with the end in mind that we are going to listen HARD to what the SPIRIT is saying to this church BECAUSE WE MUST
Let’s seek God with our hearts open to His love and mercy.
And we are going to seek God with our hearts fully trusting in him and get rid of anything that competes.
And we are going to seek God with our hearts and hunger fully for his WORD and get rid of anything that stands up against it.
What kind of church do we want to be?
Have you been helping to build that kind of Church?
Are you totally sold out to Jesus?
Let’s pray.
