Matt 4:4 - Jesus: "It is written: ’Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’"
People need more than bread for their life; we must feed on every Word of God.
The truth transforms us.
Imagine the Power of God’s Word - in Genesis, things come into being - not by His hands, but His spoken Word. He speaks, and there was light!
There is POWER in the Word - power to change lives.
When God creates, He just SPEAKS forth. Jesus needs only to say, BE HEALED... and things change. When we read, believe and act on God’s Word, we experience a CHANGE.
EXPOSURE TO THE WORD CHANGES YOU - opposite of Superman - stone ciptymite
The Word of God has never been expressed as KNOWLEDGE.
LIFE Jesus - "...the words that I have spoken to you are life." (John 6:63 NAS).
BREAD Job - "I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread." (Job 23:12).
Jesus - "It is written: `Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’" (Matt 4:4)
MILK 1 Pet 2:2 "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation..."
SOLID FOOD 1 Cor 3:1-2 "Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly-mere infants in Christ. 2I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready."
SWEET DESSERT Ps 119:103 "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth."
Like a 4-course meal - God’s menu for our SPIRITUAL strength and nourishment.
· Are you a person easily discouraged?
· When you are down, are you one that stays DOWN and find it very difficult to GET UP again?
· Like a sick man - no strength; depressed; everything looks gloomy...
There are symptoms of the LACK OF NOURISHMENT - the Word.
Spiritual malnutrition shows up when a CRISIS hits...
When you LOST THE SENSE OF HIS PRESENCE, HIS CARE, THAT HE IS IN CONTROL
The FEEDING ON THE WORD is not good.
(1) Not eating regularly Devotion
(2) Not eating well (digestion) Too much of something... No balance diet...
(3) Not eating right (knowledge) BIBLE TRIVIA, Bible=Literature
Table Manners At God’s Table:
* Accept the seating.
* Read the menu. Know what God has prepared.
* Do your own chewing
* Finish the meal. Don’t just read the Gospel stories all your life
* Count the fruit. You’re not bearing fruit means you’re not eating well.
MINDSET (1) I Must APPREHEND ITS AUTHOR
Understand the PERSON behind the WORD - Fall in Love with the Person who wrote.
Goal is not KNOWLEDGE of the Word but RELATIONSHIP with the PERSON
John 1:1-5 1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
The WORD has never been expressed to us as KNOWLEDGE, but a PERSON
In Him was LIFE - the WORD is not just a doctrinal guidebook, literature...
It generates life - the Word transforms us - and that’s why it is always pictured as FOOD.
God uses His WORD to make us like the Son of God.
The more you look at Him, the more you reflect His image.
Jesus says, "The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life." (John 6:63)
WORSHIP flows from my understanding of Him - anchored upon the WORD.
The more I know Him, the more I can worship Him.
Privilege of being a PASTOR - prepare sermon, read and study... as a vocation!
· EXPOSURE TO THE WORD changes me. My attitudes. My treatment of pp.
· Read and Study - moved to tears...
A Bible in your hand is worthless. We can still be spiritually dead with a bible in hand.
We must take it in. HOW? Rick Warren’s says we must ASSIMILATE ITS TRUTH
Receive - Read - Research - Remember - Reflect
Parable of the Sower: Jesus identifies 3 unreceptive attitudes:
- a closed mind (hard path), a superficial mind (rocky), a distracted mind (weeds)
- Consider how you listen - RECEPTIVE heart
Receive - Read - Research - Remember - Reflect
Daily reading means tuning to His frequency, keeping us in range of God’s voice.
Receive - Read - Research - Remember - Reflect
Receive - Read - Research - Remember - Reflect
Receive - Read - Research - Remember - Reflect
MINDSET (2) I Must ACCEPT ITS AUTHORITY
Believe in its AUTHORITY and POWER for life, then I’ll treat it as
· Compass - seek direction
· Benchmark - evaluate everything
· Guidebook - good counsel, make wise decisions
If I don’t have this MINDSET - I’ll see ALTERNATIVES...
· Culture - everyone is doing it
· Tradition - we’ve always been doing it that way
· Reason - I think this is logical
· Emotion - it just felt right
All these are flawed by the Fall. What we need is a PERFECT STANDARD that will never lead us in the wrong direction. Only GOD"S WORD meets that need.
In the darkest part of the night, a warship was going through the very foggy night. With straining eyes, the captain noticed a bright light straight ahead. It appeared to be a vessel on a collision course with his ship. To avert disaster he quickly radioed the oncoming vessel.
"This is the Commander of US Navy speaking," his voiced crackled over the radio. "Please alter your course 10 degrees south! Over."
To the Commander’s surprise, the foggy image did not move. He radioed again. No movement. Then he heard back on the radio, "Commander. This is Private Johnson. Please alter your course 10 degrees north! Over."
Shocked at the audacity of the message, the Commander shouted back over the radio, "Private Johnson, this is the Commander of US Navy, and I order you to immediately alter your course 10 degrees south! Over."
A second time the oncoming light did not budge. "With all due respect, Sir," came the private’s voice again, "I order you to alter your course immediately 10 degrees north! Over."
Angered and frustrated that this sailor would endanger the lives of his men and crew, the Commander growled back over the radio, "Private Johnson. I can have you court-marshalled for this! For the last time, I command you to alter your course 10 degrees to the south! I am a battleship!"
The private’s final transmission was chilling: "Commander, sir. With all due respect, alter your course 10 degrees to the north now! I am a lighthouse!"
Edited from Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks by Wayne Rice. Copyright 1994 by Youth Specialties, Inc.
Many of us in today’s world have little respect for authority. We operate as if rules can be (or should be) changed to fit our personal needs and desires. Commercials: "Have it your way."
In reality, we can’t always have it our way. We have to conform our lives to a higher truth, a higher authority. Truth is not going to change to accommodate us. We are the ones who must change to conform our lives to what’s true.
If we don’t accept its authority as final - we’ll probably drift off on our own ways, for a period, then return. Just like pp of Israel in the wilderness.
I don’t know what you’re struggling today - habitual sin, hatred, unforgiveness, pride, dishonesty, etc. Align our ways back to the truth - blessings can only flow when the alignment is made. Like 2 connecting tubes, once misaligned the water will spill all over.
The important decision you can make today is to settle this issue of what will be the ultimate authority for your life. Rick Warren’s
· Decide that regardless of culture, tradition, reason or emotion, you choose the Bible as your final authority.
· Determine to first ask, "What does the Bible say?" when making decisions.
· Resolve that when God says to do something, you will trust God’s Word and do it whether or not it makes sense or you feel like doing it.
The building of house upon the rock... Building upon sand means little efforts, little time spent... Building upon the rock takes efforts and time, but you’re STRONG.
When crisis hits, you stand. To see how strong you are, wait till a crisis hits.
(3) I Must APPLY ITS PRINCIPLES
APPLICATION - Doer of the Word, not just hearers only.
A wise man and a soap maker (a Christian) went for a walk together. The soap maker said, "What good is religion? Look at all the trouble and misery of the world! Still there, even after years thousands of years - of teaching about goodness and truth and peace. Still there, even after all the prayers, sermons and teachings. If religion is good and true, why should this be?"
The wise man said nothing. They continued walking until he noticed a child playing in the gutter.
Then the wise man said, "Look at that child. You say that soap makes people clean, but see the dirt on that youngster. Of what good is soap? With all the soap in the world, over all these years, the child is still filthy. I wonder how effective soap is, after all!"
The soap maker protested. "But, wise man, soap cannot do any good unless it is used!"
"Aha... That’s correct!" replied the wise man.
"I’ve a problem at work? Quarrel with my colleagues? Some problem at home? How can the Word of God solve these?"
From Craig Brian Larson, editor, PreachingToday.com; Source: Reader’s Digest (Dec 2002), p. 186
How do you solve a personal problem? Let’s say you have a fondness for gossip, or problem like unforgiveness, pride... How do you stop? How do you get free from this bondage?
Sometimes the answer is something that seems totally unrelated
For example, in the middle of winter when your feet are cold, you may try putting on thicker socks or a blanket. Still your feet may be icy. One secret to warm feet is to stop focusing on your feet and look at your head. That’s right, go to the other end of your body and put a hat on.
Although your neck and head have only 10% of your body surface, in the cold that’s where you lose a whopping 30% of your body heat. Having nothing on your head is like opening a window in your house in the dead of winter. If you keep that heat in your body with a hat, your blood will carry it down to your toes.
In the same way, when we have problems, the way to solve it may not be to harbour around it but to get back to God. We have to get back to reading the Bible, pray and do what says. These seemingly unrelated things bring grace to help overcome problems.
Relationship with God affects your relationship with people.
When Jacob de Shazer went as one of Jimmy Doolittle’s raiders on Japan the day of April 18, 1942, he was an atheist. He was captured and imprisoned by the Japanese. He saw two of his companions shot by a firing squad. He saw another die of slow starvation.
During the long months he pondered the question of why the Japanese hated him and why he hated them. He began to recall some of the thing he had heard about Christianity. Boldly he asked his jailers if they could get him a Bible. At first the laughed boisterously, as at a good joke, and grew ugly and warned him to stop making a nuisance of himself. But he kept asking.
A year and a half later - May 1944 a guard brought him a Bible, flung it at him, and said, "Three weeks you have. Three week, then I take away."
True to his word, in three weeks the guard took the Bible away, and de Shazer never saw it again.
In 1948 de Shazer, his wife, and infant son were on their way back to Japan as missionaries, all because he asked for a Bible and a Japanese guard gave him one for three weeks.
GOD FIRST changed our HEARTS - and everything else falls into place.
CONCLUSION Action steps - (1) Personal,
(2) Practical (something you can do),
(3) Provable (with a deadline to do it.)
John 8:31-32 "If ye continue in my Word, then are you my disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
LET’S RETURN TO THE WORD
Consider: What has God already told me in His Word that I haven’t started doing yet?
