We Have Heard The Word Of God... Now What?

We have heard the word of God…. Now what?

8/28/2004

Introduction… Well, didn’t we have a fantastic series of revival services this past week…

These last few weeks have been somewhat difficult for our family on a personal level… as with many of you. We all go through our own trials and difficulties in life.

But on a spiritual level, I have been completely overwhelmed by the love of God…

Between the week long cottage prayer meetings a few weeks ago, then going with a group to the prison one evening the following week and speaking to and preaching to men who were truly hungry for a touch from God…

Then six days of messages from God brought to us through ---------… it has just been overwhelming….

Haven’t we heard from God this week?

Haven’t we had our lives touched by the spirit of God this week?

We have… we have heard from GOD we have been touched by God…we have heard God’s word proclaimed…..

NOW WHAT?

It has been such a meaningful time…. But where do we go from here?

Take your Bibles if you would and turn to the book of James and chapter one with me if you would.

Read James 1:19-27

Illustration… I heard a story about a man who walked into a church service one day near the very end of the service…

When he walked in he saw an usher who was greeted the man and offered to help him.

The man looked at the usher and asked…“is the sermon already done?”

To which the wise usher replied…

“Sir, the sermon has been preached… but it has yet to be done…..”

Friends, in our country today and with the advancement of computers and the Internet, there is so much information out there.

I have somewhere around two hundred electronic books loaded on one biblical program on my computer… and if I want to spend the money, there are over 3500 books available for that program…

But with the advancement in technology, the company that makes this program has reported that soon, they hope to have tens of thousands of electronic books available for that one program…..

Today friends, there are so many books, there are so many lectures, there are so many sermons, there are so many conferences there is so much studying we can do about the word of God and celebrating the Word of God… that it seems like we don’t spend any time applying Gods word to our lives…..

The debates are raging….

The devil himself is laughing as we fight and argue over King James, vs NIV, vs New American Standard, vs New King James, vs Holeman Christian Standard….

I personally study out of at least 23 different translations of the Bible including original Hebrew and Greek Bibles…

You see, I have to answer to God for the messages I present…

And to the best of my knowledge and ability, I will always do what I can to present to you an accurate representation of Gods word…

But we say there is a reason for the argument and debate…

We say that, as evangelical Christians it is our duty to DEMAND BIBLICAL teachings…. And then listen to that teaching….

and this is true...

But, as we sit here together this morning, the statistics tell us that divorce rates are just as high among Born-again Christians as they are among the rest of the population.

Other studies show that our moral standards are not much higher, if at all higher, than the rest of the world.

I am afraid friends, that Christians in America have become hearers of the word…. and not doers.

I want you to know, that I really like tinkering with computers….

I can swap basic components in computers, I like to mess around and see what different programs do…

I don’t want to just use them, I want to know HOW THEY WORK.. you know what I mean?

I read a lot of stuff about computers…

Now, If I were to purchase the brand new, latest and best available model computer that is out there for home use… It would cost about 4 to 5 thousand dollars… to get the newest and best…

If I were to do that, it would come with books and pamphlets on how to use that computer…

And friends, I could spend hours and hours studying and engrossing myself in those books and pamphlets that tell me what that new computer does and how the programs work…

But listen, if I were to spend hours and hours studying about that new computer and studying how to use that new computer but I never pushed a button and turned on that new 5 thousand dollar computer, you would think that I didn’t have much since wouldn’t you….