April 11, 2014

"They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Hosanna in the highest!” Matthew 21:7-9

God's Word is powerful because of the power of the Trinity that operates through the divinely inspired message.

The Word is powerful because of the power of truth that flows from the character of the Godhead and permeates every word of Scripture.

Because of the power of the Trinity and the power of the truth, God's Word transforms!

I have one more element of the Word's power to share with you!

God's Word is powerful because of it's triumph!

As we look forward to Palm Sunday, let's consider what was triumphant about the Triumphal Entry which we will celebrate Sunday.

What appears to be triumphant at first view, the "hallelujahs" and "hosannas" were misguided tributes. Those lining the road that day were excited about a "showdown" with the might Romans who were oppressing them. Most of the cheering throng were expecting a "gunfight at OK corral".

Obviously they were wrong. They totally misunderstood and high expectations do not go down easily. Within a matter of hours their cheers would turn to jeers and their fervent cries would become fevered condemnation.

I am not sure about you, but I don't think misguided enthusiasm qualifies as triumphant. In hindsight, their hollow praise at such a vital and vulnerable moment in Jesus' life was actually cruel.

The triumphant part of the the Triumphant Entry was the obedience displayed by Jesus! He rode into Jerusalem, enduring the faint praise, knowing He was facing extreme suffering and injustice. Yet He mounted the colt and rode.

Therein is the triumphant power of the Word - which is obedience. As powerful as the Word is with the Trinity involved and the truth inherent and the transformation initiated - only obedience makes it triumphant. All the powerful potential contained with the Word can only be unleashed by obedience.

The power of His Word depends on the permission of your will!

Will you obey His Word today?

April 10, 2014

I read an interesting story about an old miner who had lived the life of a hermit deep in the mountains of Colorado. When he died, some of his distant relatives came to collect his valuables.

They arrived to find a miner's shack with an outhouse behind it. Inside the shack, there was an old cooking pot, some mining equipment, and a cracked table with a three-legged chair that stood next to a tiny window. A well-used kerosene lamp stood as the centerpiece on the table.

As the relatives gathered up the miner's possessions, loaded them in a truck, and got ready to drive away, the miner's old friend came walking up. He called out to them, "Do y'all mind if I take what is left in that old shack?"

"Oh, no," they said. "Take it. We have all the valuable stuff. You can have whatever is there." The man thanked them, and off they went.

He walked over to his friend's shack, went in, and looked around for a little bit. Then he reached under the table and lifted up one of the floorboards. Little by little, he lifted out all of the gold his friend had discovered over the previous decades - millions of dollars' worth of gold.

Apparently, the old miner had died with only his true friend knowing his actual worth.

In the same way, our friend, Jesus Christ, wants to make Himself known to us, but we can be like a distant relative sometimes. Yet, if we would get to know Him better, we would discover the riches that He has for us.

And where are these riches? They are in His Word!

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discern-er of the thoughts and intents of the heart."  Hebrews 4:12

The power of the Word is the power of the Trinity, it is the power of the truth AND it is the power of transformation!

What is the transforming power of the Word of God?

God's Word is the scalpel of the Holy Spirit that He uses to do soul surgery on you.

Only God's Word has the power to change your heart, soul, and spirit to become more like His.

As the Word takes up residence in your heart and mind it adds His value to you at the same time is removing your impurities!

His Word can make you good as gold but only if you dig deeply into it on a daily basis.

April 9, 2014

"They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth." John 17:16-17

God's Word is powerful because all the omnipotence of the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are active through the Word! The Trinity gives power to the Word!

A second source of power from God's Word is His Truth!

What is the power of God's Truth?

Obviously, God's Truth is powerful because it is the expression of His character. It shows you Who He is.

Life is without meaning or substance until you fully know Who He is and surrender to Him in faith.

It is also powerful because it shows you who you are!

The truth of God's Word convicts you of your sin and points you to your Savior. There is no other reliable source of exposing your sinful nature apart from the Holy Word of God.

God's Word reveals the truth of what you can become in Christ!

In Christ, through obedience to His Word, you can be sanctified or "set apart" unto God and made holy. 

Studying and obeying the Word of God can keep you from being "of the world" while you are "in the world".

The Word is powerful because truth is powerful!

April 8, 2014

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made"  John 1:1-3

During the 40 days of Lent FredWes folks have been reading through the New Testament and I have been preaching about the Word on Sundays.

Topics covered have been, proof of the Word, the person of the Word, the purpose of the Word, the purity of the Word and finally, the power of the Word.

So, what is the power of the word?

That is the topic for this final message in this sermon series "WORD!"

First, the power of the Word is in the Trinity!

The Word of God is the word from - God - the Heavenly Father.

Featured in your Bible is the Way of God, His nature and His character. If you read the Word you will get to know Who God is in His core.

Also contained in your Bible is the Will of God! What is it that He wants to happen in this world and in the world to come? You will find those answers in the pages of His Word.

Along with the will of God and the way of God, the Bible reveals the Word of God. By reading and studying His Word you will learn God's instructions, interests and intentions for His people.

You cannot know God, your Father, apart from His Word.

But in addition to the Father, the Word of God has the power of the Son of God!

Jesus, is the Word and He became a flesh and blood man to demonstrate the love of God and illustrate the life of God. Through the Bible Jesus is revealed as the Son of God and the second person of the Trinity. He often identified Himself as the Son of God and is recorded in the Word as "I am the Way,the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father but by me."

The power of the Word is the power of the Father and the power of His obedient Son!

However, the power of the Word is also the power of the Holy Spirit! 

Who was it that inspired the written Word of God?

It was the Holy Spirit!

Who was it that Jesus promised would guide believers in the truth of God's Word? It was the Holy Spirit!

So, all three members of the Godhead are resident in and active through the power of God's Word! God's Word is triple true and threefold powerful! When you interact with the Word you are becoming involved with all three members of the Trinity!

Think about it! Those are three REALLY good reasons for studying the Word of God!

April 7, 2014

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." Ephesians 3:16-17

This incredible prayer becomes even more impressive when you realize that the man who is praying to encourage the Ephesian Christians was imprisoned and chained to a guard. The very one who should have been seeking encouragement was sending this prayer to encourage them. As we saw yesterday, he was concerned that they would become discouraged because of his suffering. We conceded that suffering does get discouraging and prayer is supposed to be a resource for encouragement.

How is it that we discover prayer works?

By being prayed for and having that prayer answered.

Likewise, we discover God's glorious riches by declaring our poverty and we discover His strength by confessing our weakness. And we get both of those by receiving Christ.

How can you have His strength without having Him? You can't! He IS your strength! Until you have Him you are weak. No matter how strong you think you are you are weak until you receive Him.

And how do you receive Him?

By faith.

What does it mean to receive Him by faith?

It means you confess your sinfulness, your renounce your independence and rely totally upon His righteousness and grace for your spiritual well-being.

That is what the Apostle Paul did and it radically transformed his life! His radically transformed life changed the world. It has altered my world. But it only happened because I was honest about my own weakness and spiritual poverty.

It is precisely what Jesus meant when He said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall see God."

Here is the kernel of truth that you can wrap your heart and mind around - you get as much of God as you desire!

Pain and poverty are terrible things. I have been to the inner city of Chicago and Los Angeles and been overwhelmed by the unimaginable pain and poverty there. I have been to the cities and villages of Africa and seen the devastation of poverty there. When you look into the eyes of helpless, hopeless people you never get over it. But there is something about pain and poverty that clarifies the value of faith. The powerless quickly recognize their need for His power.

Paul's prayer for his beloved brothers and sisters in Ephesus was that they would realize just how spiritually weak and powerless they are so they would receive the rich and powerful measure of God's Spirit. He realized it through his suffering and prayed that they would, too.

How much of God do you desire? It depends on how much spiritual weakness and poverty you are willing to confess. How much of your impotence are you willing to exchange for His power? 

That is the only way you will receive it and receiving it is the only way you will know it.

April 6, 2014

"If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." John 14:3

How can you find peace of mind in a world filled with danger, turmoil and strife?

Jesus' answer is, "Let not your heart be troubled......"

Then Jesus told gave some reasons why you don't need to be troubled.

He cares!

He prepares!

The third reason is what I want to focus on today - He is there!

Jesus said, if I go then I will come again.

We know that He went so we must conclude that He will come to us as He promised.

Make no mistake, I believe in the personal, powerful, glorious return of Jesus at the end of the age. But I also remember His last words to His disciples were, "And lo, I am with you to the end of the age!"

We serve a God Who can be THERE in heaven preparing for us and also be THERE with us caring in our time of need!

By nature He is omnipresent. That means He is a Spirit Who can be everywhere at once! And since He is also omnipotent (all powerful) when He shows up, He comes with full power!

Isn't it great to serve a God Who can be there where He needs to be and also be there when we need Him to be!

That is our God!

Fear not!

Let not your heart be troubled!

Be anxious for nothing!

Your God cares!

Your God prepares!

And your God is there!

April 5, 2014

“I go to prepare a place for you…..” John 14:2

Knowing that I can trust God to care for me helps you find peace from fear and anxiety. With the way He cares you can choose not to let your heart be troubled.

But, good news! Here is another reason to have peace!

Not only does He care but He prepares!

He prepared a planet!

If you want to know how good God is at preparing things, think about creation! He prepared the earth and sky and seas and animals and stars and universe in just SIX days by just the power of His word!

He prepared a plan!

A second way to know you can trust God's trustworthiness is not only His creation but His Christ! Christ is the way to overcome the sin that spoiled the original creation and made possible a new creation. That new creation is a spiritual transformation made possible by Christ's death on the cross to atone for sin.

The new creation is even more beautiful and powerful than the original creation!

He is preparing a place!

One great cause for anxiety is uncertainty about what awaits after death. Jesus assures you that He is preparing for that as well!

Something in the human psyche needs the security of a place! A place to live, a place to belong, a place to work, a place to worship, et al. So Jesus promised He is preparing a place for you! He is preparing an eternal place where you can belong and be loved and find safety forever!

Here's a few things that will be great about that place He is preparing. First, HE IS THERE! And second, he has been preparing it for 2,000 years! Third, He is preparing it especially for you - your own eternal custom-built home!

When you think of how He cares and when you ponder on how He prepares - what do you have to be anxious about?

Here's how the ancient shepherd/poet/king expressed it:

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23

Don't let your heart be troubled - He cares!

Don't let your heart be troubled - He prepares!