WESTSIDE BAPTIST CHURCH
PASTOR: TERRY VAUGHAN
SERMON TITLE: THE WORKING OF THE WORD
?For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the only begotten Son of God.? John 3:16-18
TEXT VERSE: 1 Thessalonians 2:13 ?For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye 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 worketh also in you that believe.?
Thank God there?s always a cause for what we do. I remember in the Bible when David?s dad told him to take some food out to his brothers in the valley. He took it to them and they kind of rebuked him and said he only wanted to come and see the battle. They told David to go away and that stirred David?s heart and he said, is there not a cause why I?ve come? Thank God there?s a ?cause? in everything we do. The Lord is still in charge. Paul said to thank God without ceasing because when you 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 worketh also in you that believe. Now I want to preach to you on ?The working of the Word.?
There?s a lot of people in the world today that have tried a lot of other things than the Lord Jesus. We?re living in a world where it seems change is always on the boundaries and on the first and foremost portion of people?s lives. They always want change and they are always wanting something bigger and better. I want to tell you that there is nothing any bigger or any better than the precious word of God. I don?t know what we?d do today if we didn?t have the word of God to govern our lives. The reason why most Christians are living like they do is because they are lacking the word of God. One thing that will work when nothing else will is the word of God. I like to shout the victory just as much s anybody does but it?s not till the word of god comes on the scene that there?s a change that will make things better in your life. There?s nothing any more precious this side of heaven than the word of God. But there?s a lot of people today that are lacking in this sense. How long has the word been around? John 1 says that in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Before the foundation was formed, the word of God was around. When the word of God starts dealing with you on the inside...it will work. You Christians that don?t get the word of God today....Shame on you. Don?t you try to live a Christian life without the word of God. How can you get it? It only comes one way. It comes by Jesus.
In Isaiah 55:11 ?So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.?
What does it take for you to get saved? It took the preached word. What does it take for you to shout? It takes the word of God. What changes your life? The working of the word of God.
I?m going to be just as honest as I can be. It?s very easy for us to come into the house of God and sit on the pew and call our selves Christians. But is the word of God working in your life? It?s good to come and shout the victory. It?s good to praise God. It?s good to sing the songs of Zion but it?s takes a whole lot more than that...it takes the word of God working in you. Let me say this. I wonder how good the word of God is working in Christians. You don?t say Amen unless you?re doing what God says. The intent of the word is to change people?s lives. They?ll come in here and sit in the house of God and come time to take up the offering, they?ll stick a dollar or two in the offering plate and the house of God will suffer week after week. Yet they claim that the word of God is working in their life. I have news for you...it isn?t. You can jump up and shout when you start giving your offerings. This is serious business. The word of God has to work in peoples lives.
What does the word of God do? Let?s look at 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.?
The word of God is quick....When he gives it to you, he doesn?t give it to you with a delayed reaction. He doesn?t give it to you today and say it?s good to use it in 2005. He gives it to you to use right then.
The word of God is also powerful. It?ll teach you how to live like a Christian. There?s nothing any more powerful than the word of God. All the powers that be are ordained by God.
The word of God has to work in your life. Don?t sit there and tell me it is when I come to Sunday School and there?s only ten people here. The word of God isn?t working in somebody?s life. I have news for you....it?s not working for you. Why? We?ll cover that in a minute. Westside Baptist didn?t make me the Christian I am today. The Lord did. The word of God will work if you let it.
The word is also sharper than any two edged sword. It?s sharp. It?ll hit you right where you live at. It?ll let you know when you?re doing right and when you?re doing wrong. It?ll let you know what you need to do and what you don?t need to do. But there?s a lot of Christians in the world today doing things they shouldn?t do and they don?t even care. If the word of God isn?t working in you, you have a problem. You say well there are limitations in the word of God and that maybe in don?t work in every facet or every avenue of our lives. Maybe the word of God only works for Methodist and not Baptist. Maybe the word of God only works for the members of Westside Baptist and it doesn?t work for others. No, that?s not true.
2 Timothy 2:9 says ?Wherein I suffer trouble as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.? In other words the word of God has no limitations. I?ve heard people say that they?ve gotten so far off that the Lord can?t get to them. You?re wrong. If he can?t get to you then nobody can. It doesn?t matter what you?ve done in the past...God still loves you today and he wants to change you. The word of God will change you. I preached a message one time on ?A full time God and part time Christians.? I believe that. But there?s a lot of Christians who aren?t being Christians on a full time basis and the word of God is not working for them. You ask, How long will the word of God last in my life? Matthew 24:35 says ?Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.? It doesn?t matter what valley you?re in or what mountain top you?re on...it doesn?t matter what trouble or trial you?re going through....the word of God is always there with you. The word of God will always last and last and last and last. You know why a lot of Christians aren?t lasting? Because the word of God is not working in their life. If you?re going to say Amen then don?t you be one of those Christians that isn?t here anymore. You better stay as close to the Lord as you can. You can come in the house of God and shout the victory all you want to but what are you going to be two years from now? I?m just preaching what God laid on my heart. There?s two reasons I found in the Bible why the word of God isn?t working in your life other than being lost. But if you?ve been saved, here are two reasons:
Number one: Mark 7:13 ?Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.?
I?m not looking at that in a group sense. He?s talking about each one of us as individuals. People get in these man made traditions and they start doing things their way and not God?s way and they leave him out. We?re not serving a traditional God. We?re serving a Sovereign God. He wants to transform your life. Traditions will keep the word of God from working in your life.
Number two: Hebrews 4:2 ?The word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith.?
People will sit in the house of God and they?ll come every Sunday and Wednesday and God will use the man of God and God will knock on their hearts and they?ll not move and they?ll go home in the same condition they came in. Or maybe they?ll hear it in one ear and let it go out the other ear and they come back the next week and they?ll still the same life. Why? Because they didn?t let the word of God be mixed with faith.
Without faith it is impossible to please God.
The Bible commands us to love the Lord thy God with all our hearts, souls and minds and our strength. The it says to love our neighbors as ourselves. These are the two greatest commandments in the Bible. Yet we get around Christians and they have a harder time getting along than lost people do. Those lost people will come together a group and you can?t get in there for nothing. But you can?t get enough Christians to come together for the Lord to save your life. That?s the day and time we?re living in. But still they say the word is working for them.
Now let me share three things that will help the word work in your life. Look at Colossians 3:16 ?Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.?
The key word here is ?LET?. Let the word work in your life. How can you stop the word from working? By getting in your flesh. The Bible says we?re not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from your vain conversation received from your fathers but by the precious blood of Christ. God?s in heaven and we?re on earth. He?s a heavenly God and we?re an earthly people. And any time we try to deal with him in the flesh...it won?t work. When you start resisting and rejecting the word...it?s not going to work for you.
Number two: 1 John 2:5 ?But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.?
The key word here is ?KEEPING?. Some people will hear the word of God and they?ll le the cares of this life take it away. God is watching everything that you do. A lot of people get the impression that he?s like a camera in a church. They feel as if he?s watching the church service and watching the congregation and he?s watching you sing and play the piano. I have news for you....he?s watching you every step of the way. He watches every where you go. He knows what you do, what you say and even what you think. he knows whether your thoughts are evil or good. The Bible says we have to keep the word of God. That means everywhere we go. The word of God is the only thing that will work in your life.
Number three: Matthew 4:4 ?It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.?
The key word here is ?LIVE?. We?ve got to live by the word of God. Christians will stick that Bible under their arm and go to the house of God and they?ll look at it and read a verse to you in Sunday school but when church service is over with, here?s what they do with it....(pastor laid his Bible on the pew) and you know what...they don?t pick it up again until Sunday rolls around again. Then they come in the house of God and hoop and holler and say they are some big Christian.....no you?re not! It?s the truth and I don?t care if you say amen or not. We?re not playing church. You?re looking for a Pastor that wants to play church then you better call somebody else. The word of God needs to work in your lives. You can talk about being soul winners all day long but when you ask them who they witnessed to this week they can?t answer you. The word of God isn?t working for you. Get where you need to be with God and it will work.
Let me share these five things real quick that the word of God will do for you when it starts working for you in your life.
Number one: The word of God will provide for you. Luke 5:5 ?And Simon answering said unto him (Jesus), Master, we have toiled all night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.?
Peter and the disciples were professional fishermen. That?s how they made their living. They went out on these boats, they dropped their nets, they caught fish and they sold them. But in this verse they fished all night long and didn?t catch anything. They knew how to fish but they caught nothing. But Jesus told them to cast their net on the right side and they?d catch some fish. And Simon answered him saying they had fished all night and caught nothing but NEVERTHELESS AT THY WORD, I will let down the net.
Quit doing things your way and start doing things God?s way. You aren?t a professional Christian but you?re serving a professional God. Simon Peter had a little faith. The Bible says they caught multitudes of fish and they couldn?t hardly get it ashore.
Number two: The word of God will prosper you. 1 Peter 2:2 ?As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.?
No wonder he said that. He?s the one that cast his net on the right side. We get so wrapped up in trying to be good Christians and trying to be good church members and trying to be good brothers and sisters in Christ that a lot of the times we forget about the word and how it?s working in our life. If I?m not a good Christian to myself, how can I be a good Christian to somebody else? The word helps you to grow. There?s a lot of Christians who are going backwards instead of growing forwards. They?re backsliders. They don?t have enough of the word of God to grow and they automatically fall behind. They fall back and back and back. Isn?t that what happened to Jonah? God told Jonah to preach to the people in Ninevah and instead he went DOWN to Jopah. Got on a ship going DOWN to Tarsus. Then when he got on the ship he went DOWN into the hinder part of the ship. He kept going DOWN AND DOWN AND DOWN. God spoke to him a second time and he made a change in his life and he said he had to do what God said. Then God prospered his life.
Number three: The word of God will preserve you. Psalm 119:11 ?Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.?
Did you know that the more you have the word of God and the closer you get to God...the less you?ll sin.
Christians wonder why there?s so much sin in their life. The word of God is not working in them. What else is there in this life? Jesus came to save us from our sin. What did Paul say in Romans 8? Sin shall not have dominion over you. You know why he said that? Because you have to have the word of God working in your life. If you have the word of God...Sin will not have dominion over you.
Number four: The word of God will protect you. Ephesians 16 Paul said to put on the whole armour of God that you might be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. In verse 17 he said to take the sword which is the word of God. You need the sword (the word of God) to protect you. There?s a lot of Christians that you can tell them anything and they?ll believe it. Proverbs says the simple believe every word but the righteous man looketh well on his going. You can tell me what you want but if God doesn?t convict me with his Holy Spirit and I can?t prove it in the word of God...I?m not going to believe it.
Number five: The word of God will prepare you. Why do we need to pray? Why do we need to be better Christians? God is preparing us. He?s molding us and making us into that which he wants us to be so that we can win lost souls down here and he?s preparing us for that city to come. The older we get, the more deteriated our natural bodies become. But the more regenerated our spiritual body becomes. My body and health is going down hill but my spirit starts going up hill. I?ll never forget the day the Lord saved me. We?ve followed him and one day we?ll be going home. He?s preparing us...John 8:31 ?If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.? he?s preparing us as disciples down here but one day we?re going to be right there with him in that Holy City.
How is the word of God working in your life? Is it really working in your life? I heard a story one time about a Deacon that had been in a church fifteen years and during a revival meeting last year this deacon got saved. All the while he sat on the pews and everyone recognized him as a Deacon, but God didn?t recognize him as a Deacon. You can?t get saved until the Holy Spirit convicts you. I don?t care what church you go to. I remember Shane the first day he came to church here. He said before he came into church that he felt God talking to him right here (pointing to his heart). I told him I would pray for him and the following Sunday he turned his life over to God. it wasn?t nothing we did. It?s what God did. The word of God starting working in his life. We need the word of God to work right now. There?s people dying and going to hell right now.
LET US PRAY: Father, The word has not been working in my life and I want it to. I pray you would give me what I stand in need of to make it work. I pray that when I hear the word and your Spirit speaks to me that I would receive the word and apply it to my life. In Jesus name. Amen
