You Said It, I Believe It

October 22, 2023

Morning Worship

Text: John 17:17

Subject: The Priority of God’s Word

Title: You Said It; I Believe It

In June of 1964 our family moved to the Troy area. My parents purchased a little country store along Highway 61 near Briscoe. Some of you long time residents might remember Read’s Grocery and Texaco. My stepdad had a garage and worked on mowers and chainsaws. Mom ran the store and us kids worked in the store and manned the gas pumps. My sister Linda and I celebrated our birthdays in June that year and each of us got a transistor radio. One of our responsibilities was the operation and overseeing of the fireworks booth in the parking lot from June 25 to July 10 and we would sit out in the booth waiting for customers until 10 each night., listening to our radios. (For those of you who may not be old enough to remember, these radios we hand held instruments that received radio signals sent through the air so you could listen to news or music...) Radios waves traveled a further distance at night and we listened to KAAY AM in Little Rock AR – the rock and roll station and WGN 720 in Chicago and WSM in Nashville – the home of the Grand Ole Opry. And I developed a love for music and later that summer made up my mind to learn how to play the guitar. My older brother, Bruce, had received a Harmony curved top guitar for his birthday 4 years earlier and it was lying there just calling my name and saying “Come Play Me” . So I bought some guitar strings and we had a neighbor who played a little and he put strings on for me and tuned it. And I had no idea what to do with it until I went to Delaloye’s music store on Main Street and bought a Mel Bay guitar chord book. I guess I had a little talent. I could sing a little. I had good timing. But it wasn’t until I had the Book that things began to change for me… and I practiced and practiced until my fingers bled and then I began to develop callouses on my fingers that I still have to this day. I sacrificed and accomplished what I had set out to do – to play the guitar. And I’ve said all that to get us to where I want to begin today. In John chapter 17, on the night Jesus was arrested, He spent time praying for Himself, and for His disciples , and ultimately for all of us who would become believers… and He said this, 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

Three things that we really want to look at in just this one verse.

1. God’s wants us sanctified…

2. It’s God’s truth that sanctifies us…

3. God’s Word defines what truth is…

Would you repeat these words with me?

I believe this is God’s Word…

I believe it is for me today…

I will accept it as mine…

And I will apply it to my life today…

In Jesus’ Name. Amen!

1. God’s wants us sanctified… “Sanctify” simply means “to set apart” or, “to be made holy”. This is not a one and done event… it is a process. The word Sanctify in the original Greek is in the progressive tense, meaning it is an ongoing process. We’ll never be totally sanctified until we see Jesus face to face.

Romans 12:1-2, Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

2Co 3:18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Wouldn’t it be great that if once we were saved we were just like Jesus? The truth is, we are like Him, but we are becoming more like Him as we progress through this life. And listen, I may be the only one here like this, but I find myself in a good place and moving in the right direction, getting closer to the Lord, and then ‘m not. I find myself relying on myself, thinking I’ve got it all figured out and I’m taking 2 steps forward, and one back. Until I realize what has happened and then I begin moving forward again. And maybe the next time it’s three steps forward and a smaller step back…