Sermon 9-9-07

Old Testament - Deuteronomy 6:4-9 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Epistle – Hebrews 4:12-13 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. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Gospel – John 4:39-42 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

Sermon

Last week, Labor Day weekend, we talked about two Greek words that can be translated as “rest”. The first type of “rest” that God talks about in the Ten Commandments is the Sabbath Day of Rest which stems from the fact that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day. He could rest from His work because all was accomplished. Hebrews Chapter 4 also talks about that. We rest from trying to earn our way into God’s good graces, from trying to earn forgiveness of sins and trying to earn our way into heaven. We can rest because Jesus Christ did all that was needed to get us on the good side of God. That’s why Ephesians 2 says it is by faith, not by works, that we are saved. The other aspect of “rest” is in Matthew 11:28 where Jesus says to people who are burdened by life, and have problems that are weighing them down, that He will give rest. Not rest in the sense of that He will clear up all your problems, although sometimes He does that, but that, in the midst of that burden, that problem, He will give you an intermission, a time of reflection, He’ll lift you up, and He’ll help you so that you can continue with the hard labor.

How do we get rest? Jesus says Matthew 11:28 “Come to me all you who labor and I will give you rest.” But then the question comes up, how do we go to Jesus? You can’t call His office and make an appointment, so how do you go to Him? We go to Him in the same way we would go to anyone. For example, if I want to go to another person, I need to walk over to them. But I have really only gone to them physically at this point; we’re now in the same proximity. We are always in the same proximity as Jesus; He said “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” To actually go to another person I have to speak to them and they need to speak to me. Then I have actually gone to them. We can do the same thing with Jesus. We speak to Jesus in prayer and He speaks to us through the Bible.

This is where the Big Deception of Life comes in. One of the devil’s big deceptions is that the Bible is outdated, it doesn’t speak to us, it’s too broad, it doesn’t pertain to us, and there’s no power in the Word. So let’s analyze the Bible. All the words in the Bible are simply made up of the letters of the alphabet rearranged into words. We look at them and ask “Just how much power is there in these letters?” If we just say the alphabet “A-B-C-D-E-F-G…” we don’t feel any power, it’s just symbols. And if we take the alphabet and rearrange the letters so that they become words, for example, the great motivational saying from Vince Lombardi, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”, we can feel some motivational power and we think, “O.K., I have to muster up my strength, and I’ve got to get going.” But that power is only human power, it’s what I can muster up in myself after hearing those words.

Another motivational saying, this time from the Bible, is Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” This sentence is also just the alphabet rearranged into words. What power is there in these words? There’s a human power where we think that we can do all things through Christ. But because it’s God Word, there is a power in those words that is not human, but a power that is from God! That’s what we need to keep in mind especially on those Sundays when we think “I guess I’ll just skip Bible Class and Church today.” We have to realize that there is power when we come into contact with God’s Word. All those people who are not worshiping today don’t see the power in God’s Word.

As an example, when you touch a battery you don’t feel any power, it actually feels worthless, and we wonder how there can be any power in something so small. And when I put the battery into a clock, nothing moves. Isn’t that what we think of God’s Word sometimes? But Isaiah 55:11 says “My word that goes out from my mouth (the Bible) will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and will achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” God tells us that there is power in His Words.

Hebrews Chapter 4 talks about “Sabbath-Rest” through faith in Christ. We don’t have to work to get our salvation; we don’t have to work to get forgiveness of sins, it’s already done through faith in Christ. Verse 11 says, “Therefore make every effort to enter that rest”. In other words, make every effort to have faith, faith in Jesus as Savior. Then it appears as though there are two unrelated thoughts. Verses 1-11 talk about having faith and verse 12 begins talking about God’s Word being living, alive, and active. These two seemingly unrelated thoughts are connected by the word “for” in verse 12. “For” connects having faith in verses 1-11 with God’s Word being living, alive, and active. It says “Therefore make every effort to enter that rest, to have faith, FOR the word of God is living, alive, active, and powerful.” “For” connects the two thoughts. It says “You can have faith FOR the word is God is living, alive, and active”. God’s Word will create faith. Think about what that means for our lives. You can have peace in your life despite your earthly circumstances FOR the word of God is living, alive, and active; it will give you peace. You can have faith, FOR the word of God is living, alive, and active; it will give you faith. You can have hope, FOR the word of God is living, alive, and active; it will give you hope. You can have joy, FOR the word of God is living, alive, and active; it will give you joy. The Word does what it says it is going to do because there is power in the Word. That’s what God is telling us in these verses.

We see that power again when we look at the gospel lesson. It’s incredible. Jesus meets the Samaritan woman and begins talking to her. She goes back and tells the people in the town and the people in the town believe because of the Word. That’s not surprising, FOR the Word of God is living, alive, and active. The Word created faith in her, she told the townspeople and they believed, FOR Word of God is living, alive, and active. And the Word spread out and many more became believers, FOR Word of God is living alive and active.

Our Old Testament reading, Deuteronomy 6:4-9 says, “These commandments (God’s word that the people had in the book of Deuteronomy) that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down, when you get up.” Why are we to do this? FOR Word of God is living, alive, and active. It will help you in your job as a parent. And it says you are not only to spread it to your kids, but you are to talk about it in your life. Why? FOR Word of God is living, alive, and active. It’s the greatest thing in the world. God’s Word is living, alive, and active; it accomplishes what God desires.

The most important thing you, as a parent, can do for your kids is to make sure God’s Word is there when they rise up and when they lie down; make sure it’s a part of their daily life. Why is this so beneficial? FOR the word of God is living, alive and active. If you want help training your kids, you have help, FOR the Word of God is living alive and active.

If you’re just squeaking by yourself and life is a burden, if you need strength, hope, and peace you have the power you need in God’s Word, FOR the Word of God is living, alive, and active. Everything you need is right there in God’s Word, FOR the Word of God is living, alive, and active. It doesn’t seem like there would be a lot of power in those words, they’re just made up of the letters of the alphabet, but these words are not of human power, they’re God’s power; FOR His Word is living, alive, and active!

Do you recall the time on the clock when I put the battery in? The hands were right at 12 Noon. Now the hands have moved six minutes, the clock reads six minutes after twelve. There didn’t seem to be much power in that battery, it’s just a little thing, we felt it and didn’t seem like much, but there was power there. And that’s the big deception that the devil tells this world – the Bible was just written by men, there’s no power in it, the Bible is no big deal. But God says baloney to that! FOR His Word is living, it’s alive, and it’s active; it accomplishes what God desires!

And we see that all the time. This summer a lady who has a lot of difficulties in her life, her life is very hectic caring for a sick husband, told me that her neighbor, who is not a Believer, said to her “I don’t know how you survive; I don’t know how you go on day after day.” But we know how she gets the strength to do it. Because she is in two Bible Studies a week and she’s in Church every Sunday. We know how she does it - FOR the Word of God is living, alive, and active. And those of you here, on a morning like this it’s easy to sleep in, but you didn’t do it, you couldn’t do it - FOR the Word of God is living, alive, and active and drew you here. That’s tremendous power, that’s the power of God’s Word.

No matter what you need, you have those promises in the Bible. Do you need hope? FOR the Word of God is living, alive, and active and will give you hope. Do you need peace? FOR the Word of God is living, alive, and active and will give you peace. Do you need the power to forgive someone, the power to put whatever has happened behind you? You have it - FOR the Word of God is living, alive, and active. That’s the power you have, the power that’s flowing right now from God and will flow in Sunday School, in Bible Class and in the Bible Studies, the power flowing to you.

What an evangelism opportunity! When people ask you, “How do you get by? Life is difficult and you still have a smile on your face, life is difficult and you still go to church and worship God” you can say, “Here’s how I do it. FOR the Word of God is living, alive and active. It’s a source of incredible power!”

Home Page News Contact Us