God’s Word Has Power to Change Lives
Hebrews 4:12-13
2 Timothy 3:16
God’s Word has power to change lives because it message is about Jesus the World and Person Changer.
How important is the Word of God to you? Is it something you take for granted? Is it something you can do without and all you need to get from the Bible you can get on Sunday? I pray that through the teaching of this message today that if you are not regularly reading and studying the Word of God you will began to make God’s Word a regular diet for your life.
All who take God at His Word find power in His Word.
## Isaac a Lambadi tribesman lay paralyzed on his left side. Isaac had prayed countless prayers to Hindu gods asking for healing. But nothing happened. So the Lambadi tribesman in central India began reading a Lambadi Gospel of Mark, the only Scripture translated into his native language. His heart quickened with hope as he read that Jesus healed the paralytic who was lowered through the roof. (Mark 2)
“Jesus,” he prayed, “you healed that paralyzed man. Please heal me.”
Time passed, and Isaac continued to pray. First he noticed feeling in his limbs. Then he could move his hand, then his entire arm. Within a few weeks, he got out of bed and walked out of his house!
“The Hindu gods healed you!” astounded townspeople exclaimed.
“No, it was the God of this book,” Isaac answered, holding up the Gospel of Mark. “He is the one true God.”
Using that one book of Scripture, Isaac began to lead his people to the Lord. Today, through the power of the Scripture he loves, he pastors a growing church of more than 250 Lambadi believers.
The Bible is authored by God through the Holy Spirit’s inspiration. The Bible is the only book in the history of the written word that contains a message that can redeem the sinful human heart and transform the human mind to become more like Christ’s! Only through this power, divinely revealed to us from God, can we find forgiveness of sins through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Turn to Ezra 7:6-10 in your Bibles. Ezra is in the Old Testament and follows I & II Kings and I & II Chronicles and comes just before Nehemiah. Ezra was a priest of the Lord who took the Word of the Lord seriously. When 50,000 Jews returned from exile in Babylon back to Jerusalem, Ezra served as their pastor and teacher. The 1,500 mile journey took four months and eleven days.
From the life of Ezra we are reminded of several truths about the Word of God.
I. God’s Word is Powerful
God’s Word is powerful because it is inspired by God. Holy men of God wrote His Word as they were moved and carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21)
“All Scripture is God-breathed (inspired) and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16)
• God’s Word is alive and powerful. (Hebrews 4:12) “For the Word of God is living 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.”
• God’s Word will not return void or empty. (Isaiah 55:10-11), “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out of my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
• God’s Word is Power of salvation to all who believe. (Romans 1:16) the Apostle Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew, then for the Gentiles.”
• God’s Word is Powerful in overcoming temptation. When Jesus was tempted by the Devil Jesus used the Scriptures to defeat the Devil’s temptations. With every temptation Jesus answered Satan, “It is written and quoted Old Testament Scripture.” (Matthew 4:1-11)
• God’s Word serves as motivation for outreach. (Romans 10:14), “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”
Missionaries tell stories that some nonbelievers even have more respect for the Bible.
## For many years Samuel Desimone has ministered to men incarcerated in prisons in and around Buenos Aires, Argentina. But one night even he was surprised at the power of God’s Word.
When he got off the bus in downtown Buenos Aires, two nearby men immediately split up. One moved in front of him; one circled behind him, like a shark preparing to attack.
“This is a holdup!” one shouted. “Give us your money!”
“I have only about one peso,” Samuel answered.
“Then give us what you have in your bag,” the robber said indignantly. Both men then pushed Samuel against a wall and put a knife to his chest.
“I have only my Bible in this bag,” Samuel whispered, fearing for his life.
“You have a Bible?” one of the men asked sheepishly. “I am so sorry.” He shook Samuel’s hand politely, then darted off with the other man into the darkness.
In Jeremiah 23:29, we also read that God’s Word is like “a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces.” There’s a lot of force exerted when a hammer breaks a rock into smaller pieces. God’s Word is powerful! Through it, God provides guidance and wisdom, confronts sin, offers a way out of temptation, gives us the promise of heaven and reminders of the coming judgment, and so much more.
Whether or not a person believes in the power of the Word of God—God’s Word is powerful. The productivity of the Word is not dependent upon one’s acceptance of the Word, but entirely on the authority of God’s Word. Isaiah 55:10-11
II. God’s Word Has Power to Impact a Person’s Life
God’s Word has transforming power to radically change a person’s life.
Jesus told his disciples that they would know the truth and the truth would set them free. John 8:32
There is only one way for the Word of God to impact your life. That one way is through reading and study you personally know God through His Word.
Ezra took God at his word and became a student of the Word. Ezra 7:10, “For Ezra devoted himself to the study and observance of the law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.”
• Like Ezra we need to be devoted to God’s Word. We need to prepare our heart for truth.
• Like Ezra we need to study God’s Word. We are not only to study but to pursue truth from the Word of God.
• Like Ezra we need to obey God’s Word and act on the truth and live it. Knowledge without obedience is mockery.
• To know Jesus is to have a desire and passion to know the Word. John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” To commit your life to Jesus is to have a desire to know the Word of God.
o When you marry someone you love you want to learn as much as possible about your husband or wife. You want to spend as much time as possible with your husband or wife. Even so if you love Jesus you will want to learn as much about Him as possible through His Word.
## Some time ago, a little boy named Joey who was nine years old, went to his Sunday School class and heard his teacher talk about how Israel escaped the clutches of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. When Joey got home, he was asked by his mother what he had learned that morning.
Well, Mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea, he had his engineers build a pontoon bridge, and all the people walked across safely. He used his walkie-talkie to radio headquarters and call in an air strike when the Egyptians were closing in on them. They sent in bombers to blow up the bridge and destroy the enemy, and all the Israelites were saved.
"Now, Joey, is that REALLY what your teacher taught you?" his mother asked.
"Well, no, Mom, but if I told it the way the teacher did, you’d never believe it!"
God’s Word is believable because it is the revealed Word of God. Scriptures are not the words of the best of human thinking. It is God’s Word. I Thessalonians 2:13, The Apostle Paul declared to the Christians in Thessalonica: “And we also thank God continually because, when you received the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believer.”
God’s Word is eternal. When everything else has passed away, the Word of God still stands. Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” Jesus said in Mark 13:31, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”
Here is a suggestion if you have trouble making Bible study a priority in you life. Find someone to keep you accountable. Have them ask you every week. How faithful this week were you in taking time to read your Bible and reflecting on God’s Word.? Three days out of seven, four out of seven, five out of seven, six out of seven or seven out of seven?
III. God’s Word Has Power to Impact a Nation
God honored Ezra and Ezra received authority from King Artaxeres of Persia to lead the Jews back to Israel. The Jews had been in exile in Babylon for 128 years. At the time of their captivity only the high classes of people were taken to Babylon. The rest were left in their own land to suffer.
Not all the Jews were willing to return to their homeland. Many had build homes in Babylon and were comfortable and content to stay there. They did not care to face the dangers of traveling across the desert and arriving back in a broken and battered city. Only those who loved the Lord and put Him first in their lives were ready to make the journey. God provided through the Kings of Persia supplies to rebuild the temple plus gave them traveling expense and authority to preach the Gospel.
God’s Word brought spiritual renewal and revival to the people of Jerusalem and Israel.
The early church in Acts demonstrated the power of God’s Word as they witnessed to a world that rejected the ministry of Jesus and his death and resurrection. In fact the Christians were a danger to their society. Acts 17 the traveling evangelistic team of Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke traveled to Thessalonica and as their custom went to the local synagogue to preach the good news about Jesus Christ. Some of the Jesus and a large number of Gentiles and a few prominent women became believers.
Jews in the city became jealous and stirred up some bad characters to start a riot. To keep the missionary band safe the Thessalonica Christians sent them away when it was dark to Berea. Acts 17:11, “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”
My prayer is that every family and person in the Willow Vale Church and School will be like the Bereans – “received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what we preach is true.”
Ezra 7:10, “For Ezra devoted himself to the study and observance of the law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.”
God’s Word is Powerful
God’s Word has power to change a person’s life
God’s Word has power to impact a nation
Conclusion
The key to finding power in God’s Word is to apply it to your life.
• Are we willing to immerse ourselves in the Word of God so that is affects every area of our lives?
• Are we involved in passing the truths of God on to the next generation?
• Do we believe that the Word of God has the power to change everyone?
A New Start
##Neglect and abuse, not to mention heavy drug addiction, teen pregnancy, rape, prostitution, incarceration and cancer, had brought Brenda McIntyre to deep despair. The only solace, the only god she knew, was her “rock”—the crack cocaine she smoked.
One day in 1995, she sat in the corner, her shoulders stooped, head on her chest, eyes bleary. A low-watt light pierced the living room’s curtain-drawn darkness. A gray, hazy fog—created from smoldering cigarette ashes and exhaled smoke—floated effortlessly in its beam of light. With each draw from the crack pipe, Brenda waited for the pain and sense of helplessness to become more distant. But the ever-growing emptiness engulfing her battered soul did not lift. Streams of salty tears stung her face as she swallowed more wine and took more hits on the crack pipe.
Why isn’t this working this time? she thought. I need for it to work. Even her cocaine had failed her.
Hours passed. Brenda’s dilated eyes scanned the room. It was 4:00 a.m.—18 hours since she began smoking. Everything was out of focus, but she noticed the Bible on the table across the room. With great effort she walked toward it as if drawn by a power outside of her will. As she lifted up the Bible, her broken spirit stirred. “Speak to me . . . please,” she whispered in a raspy voice. With eyes shut, she opened the Bible and pointed, then looked at the words of Deuteronomy 32:31 by her finger: “For their rock is not like our Rock. . . .” She went on to read, a few verses later, “See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me.” (Deut. 32:39)
Brenda describes what happened next:
“When I first read that passage of Scripture, God spoke to my heart, right where I was. He assured me I could change my life because He would change my spirit. I fell to my knees, but this time I was seeking help from the only One who could provide it. I cried out to God, and I heard Him tell me that in my weakness He would be made strong. Immediately, I knew I was a new person. I had been restored—and not just for that day, but for all of eternity.”
Since that day when God delivered her from a life of abuse and addiction, Brenda has earned a diploma in Computer Applications for Business and defeated breast cancer. She works with The Salvation Army and volunteers with a Christian outreach to street prostitutes. She shares her story with women who work the same districts she once worked.
Brenda has written out the Deuteronomy 32 passage and posted it in her office. “For those struggling with cocaine addiction who see it,” she says, “the connection is immediate. They know, and they understand. So I use it as an opening to talk about how God seeks us, how He initiated a relationship with me through His living Word.”
John Wesley said, "I want to know one thing—the way to Heaven; how to land safely on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way: For this very end he came from Heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God. I have it: Here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be a man of one book."
A good way to begin regular bible study is to use the Daily Bread devotional booklet. Every three months we put out a supply of the booklets. There is a Bible reading and devotional reading for every day of the year. Chapters of the Bible are also listed if you want to read the Bible through in a year.
Find someone to hold you accountable. Ask them to check up on your weekly to see how you are doing.
