“The Power Of God’s Word”
January 24, 2016
C. We live in a day when we can see with our own eyes what a
culture shaped by the Bible looks like compared with other
cultures.
I. If the government did this, would it change your life?
D. Where did we get the values and philosophy that shaped
our culture? What was the dominant ‘feeder stream’?
II. When God wanted to reveal himself to us, what did he do?
E. A word to parents
III. What great people have said about God’s Word:
Why Is God’s Word So Powerful?
1. It awakens _________________ inside of us and reminds us of
what ____________________________.
A. You are more than an animal.
B. Scriptures that remind us of this
3. It helps me to ________________________ God and then to
_____________________ God.
A. What is ‘eternal life’ according to Jesus? Scriptures where
God invites us into a deeper relationship with him:
B. What are the 3 stages of growth that John describes in
1 John 2:12-13?
C. A secular life is ultimately empty
2. It ___________________________ me how to live my life.
A. Why did the Founding Fathers want the Bible taught
In schools?
B. A survey showed which were the most ‘honest nations’.
What else was true about those countries?
C. What is it that will help you grow from spiritual infancy into
childhood into adulthood into father or motherhood?
D. Jesus began his public ministry at the age of 30. What was
he doing all those years beforehand?
E. What about me?
“The Power Of God’s Word”
January 24, 2016
I. If the government did this, would it change your life?
Outlawed the possession and reading of Bibles.
II. When God wanted to reveal himself to us, what did he do?
If someone claims they saw Mary appear on a mountainside in
France, people by the thousands will flock there to get close to God.
If someone sees Jesus in a piece of toast, the world will go nuts for
awhile, thinking that God has ‘spoken to us’. Well, when God
thought to give the world a gift to reveal himself to us and draw us
closer to himself, and to show his great love for us, he didn’t leave
us with a monument, he didn’t etch his face on a mountain (or a
piece of toast), or shout at us from the heavens. It’s actually brilliant
what he did. (Brilliant because this is lasting, this is accessible to
everyone, this can be understood by everyone, it’s useful, it’s
powerful, it’s clear.) God put his words, his thoughts, his ideas in a
book that anyone can hold in their hands.
III. What great people have said about God’s Word:
Abraham Lincoln – “Take all that you can of this book on reason, the
rest on faith, and you will live and die a happier man.”
Robert E. Lee – “In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has
never failed to give me light and strength.”
Henry Ward Beecher – “The Word of God makes large-minded and
noble-hearted men.”
George Washington Carver – “What is the secret of my success? It is
simple. It is found in the Bible.”
Charles Spurgeon – “A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to
someone who’s not.”
Why Is God’s Word So Powerful?
1. It awakens faith inside of us and reminds us of what matters most.
A. You are more than an animal.
There’s a longing in your heart – maybe you can’t quite put your
finger on it. But it’s there. It’s a hunger to know why you are here,
and deeper yet, a longing to know who put you here. Well, your
Creator left you a love letter, and in reading it with simple faith, or
hearing it taught, your soul revives, your spirit awakens. Your
existence deepens and broadens.
B. Scriptures that remind us of this
3,400 years ago Moses wrote – “Man does not live by bread alone
but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” 2,900
years ago David wrote, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
2,700 years ago Isaiah asked, “Why spend money on what is not
bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?” (Isaiah 55:3) 2,000
years ago Jesus claimed that all these Scriptures pointed to him, and
said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger.”
C. A secular life is ultimately empty
If you drink the secular Koolaid, and think the life is only about just
what you see around you, the day is coming when the thrill of those
things will dry up, and you will feel your very insides, your very
heart drying up. And you’ll wonder what it is.
2. It teaches me how to live my life.
A. Why did the Founding Fathers want the Bible taught
in schools?
Not to turn them into Baptists or Congregationalists or Lutheran.
But to make them moral. Which the Bible does when people are
exposed to its stories and teachings. (It isn’t the government’s job to
make us believe a particular doctrine. That’s the churches’ job.) But
if simply hearing this book read makes a man or woman more
honest, more hard-working, more virtuous, more productive, more
giving, then this book that has shaped the very foundations of
western civilization, needs to be heard. In fact, it’s the only way
democracy could survive, our Founding Fathers said. Our second
president John Adams said: “Our Constitution was only made for a
moral and religious people.” In other words, if people aren’t good,
then a government of the people and by the people would quickly
fall apart.
B. A survey showed which were the most ‘honest nations’.
What else was true about those countries?
The most honest nations according to this study were Australia, the
US, Canada and Great Britain. These are nations which not too long
ago were saturated by a worldview shaped and influenced by the
Bible. The words of the Bible are in the DNA of these cultures.
C. We live in a day when we can see with our own eyes what a
culture shaped by the Bible looks like compared with other
cultures.
For those with eyes to see it and a heart to learn, all cultures are not
the same. All religions are not the same. They’re learning that in
Germany and Sweden and France and England as we speak. We live
in frightening times, no question about it. But I believe that God has
allowed this epidemic of evil in the name of Islam to spread across
the earth for a reason. And the reason is to draw more people to the
beauty and truth of Jesus. How? By forcing the world to see with
their own eyes the difference Christianity when compared to Islam.
We’re seeing with our own eyes what a culture built on Islamic
doctrine looks like. How a man steeped in Islamic thought treats a
woman. What a leader or politician motivated by Islamic thought
thinks of freedom of thought and freedom of religion.
D. Where did we get the values and philosophy that shaped
our culture? What was the dominant ‘feeder stream’?
There were many influences, no question. Enlightenment
philosophy. Greek and Roman writers. But there is no question in
my mind where we came from – what the largest feeder stream was
for our culture, what the largest spring was from which the founders
of our nation drank. Biblical Christianity.
E. A word to parents
Do you want your child to grow up and have a good and noble
heart, or a selfish and scoundrel’s heart? Then you better start
feeding them, teaching them, reading to them from the Bible. You
better make sure you get them to church and youth groups. You
better take advantage of every opportunity you have left available
before it’s too late. They grow up very fast, you know. And the other
things around them drawing them away from God and from a godly
life are so incredibly strong.
3. It helps me to know about God and then to know God.
A. What is ‘eternal life’ according to Jesus? Scriptures where
God invites us into a deeper relationship with him:
John 17:3 – “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
Micah 6:8 – “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what
does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to
walk humbly with your God.”
Jeremiah 9:23 – “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, or the
strong man boast of his strength, or the rich man boast of his riches,
but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and
knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and
righteousness on earth for in these I delight.”
Jeremiah 31:31-34 – “They will all know me from the least of them
to the greatest.”
B. What are the 3 stages of growth that John describes in
1 John 2:12-13?
1 John 2:12 – “I write to you dear children because your sins have
been forgiven on account of his name.” That’s level one. Children. A
brand new Christian finally sees that Jesus is real and Jesus died for
them and forgiveness and new life is found in him alone. They fall
before Jesus, give him their life, the journey begins. But outside of
knowing that they are forgiven, and they love God, that’s about as
deep as it goes. They’re infants, needing to learn how to walk in
faith.
John then says in 1 John 2:13, “I write to you young men because
you have overcome the evil one.” What’s happening? They’re
growing up. Learning. Getting stronger. They’ve learned how to
walk. Now they’re learning how to run.
And in time they reach the third stage of Christian growth. “I write
to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the
beginning.” No longer do they just know about God. They’ve
reached a place in their journey of faith where they can say they
know God.
C. What is it that will help you grow from spiritual infancy into
childhood into adulthood into father or motherhood?
It’s the time you spend with the words that come from God. The
condition Jesus laid down as the prerequisite for living a fruitful life
where your prayers are answered and love and joy and peace are
filling you, and you’re obeying him the way you want and hope, the
condition is this, John 15:7 – “If you remain in me and my words
remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given you.”
D. Jesus began his public ministry at the age of 30. What was
he doing all those years beforehand?
Growing in his knowledge of the Word of God. Learning about God.
And coming to know God. His knowledge of the Word, and his
knowledge of God is what kept him safe during his wilderness
temptation shortly after his public ministry began.
E. What about me?