Want To Hear God - Open His Book! Series

Title: Want to Hear God - Open His Book!

Scripture: Psalm 119:169-176; 2 Timothy 3:10-17

Continuation of a Lenten Season on Being Able to Hear God – through His Holy Word.

INTRO:

Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

Have you ever been denied admission or permission?

Have you ever been denied the right of entry to a certain building or into a gated community?

Have you ever had some difficulty accessing your emails, your Facebook page or perhaps your Netflix or Hulu account?

Have you ever been locked out of your ATM or Amazon Prime account?

I am sure some of here this morning have encountered such aggravation and inconveniences. It can happen when you use your phone, your Roku account or even your bank card.

You put in what you think is all the correct information and suddenly the screen pops up and you read some words that go like this –

+Access denied +“Further Verification required”

+Sorry, you do not have permission to access this account

+Forget your password?

Have you ever been in line at the store or somewhere else and suddenly cannot remember the pin number to your card? There you are with a line of people behind you and you simply cannot remember your pin number. People begin looking at you like either you are losing it or you have stolen someone’s card.

We live in a world in which more and more we need a special key, word or a code. After all, who doesn't like punching in those 16 digit codes on the back of a gift card to find out how much money is still available? All you have to do is to put in one wrong number and you have to start all over again. At times, we may wish that could just hack into the system and not have to worry about having the right login name, password or code.

In Psalms 119, our writer’s deepest desire is to have access to the heart of the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. Most Bible scholars believe that King David is the author of Psalm 119.

In the section we read this morning (the last section of the Psalm; the Taw section), we see that David is desperately seeking access to the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. He has spent 168 verses sharing with us all kinds of lessons, praises and blessings. And now as he closes this psalm, his heart is crying out for God to hear him and to grant him wisdom, knowledge and supernatural insight. David wants to do what is right and the only way he knows to do that is for God to show him the correct path.

For the past few weeks we have been looking at some different ways that we can better hear God. We have looked at the lives of Joshua, Abraham and Ruth and how each one of them was able to distinctively hear God and obey His directions.

+For Joshua, it was through lingering with God; taking the time to just rest in God’s Presence.

+For Abraham, it was being open to however God wanted to talk to him and purposely and progressively getting rid of any distractions.

+For Ruth, it was paying attention to God’s little nudges.

This morning, I want us to look at what many believe is the best way to hear God and that is through His Word – the Bible.

I. God’s Holy Word

I believe outside of Full Salvation, the greatest gift God has ever given to humankind is His Word/His Holy Word.

Let me say that again – I believe that outside of Full Salvation, the greatest gift that God has given to humankind is the Word of God/Bible.

I wonder this morning, if we fully appreciate the wonder of what we have the ability to hold in our hands, to read, to study and to enjoy. I wonder if we understand the power, the majesty and the splendor of being able to read God’s Holy Word.

John Wesley believed that the Church stood on four major tenets:

+ Scripture (God's Word) +Tradition

+Reason + Experience

Now, Wesley did not see all of those four things as equal – He believed that we needed tradition, we needed reason and we needed experience but more than those things we needed God’s Holy Word. God’s Holy Word in Wesley’s mind was tantamount. In other words, for Wesley - God’s Holy Word is Supreme.

God’s Holy Word reveals to us the greatest message of all – a message that can be wrapped up in these words (see Richard Foster) –

“I am with you”

That is the message what we discover as we read God’s Word.

The Bible reveals to us who God is – His Character, His Heart, His Will.