Participants: Pr. John Lomacang
Series Code: ASHF
Program Code: ASHF000026
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00:21 Hello friends and welcome to A Sharper Focus, a Wednesday night 00:25 Bible study here coming to you live from the 3ABN Worship 00:28 Center located here in Thompsonville, Illinois. 00:31 Every time you hear that address you think what about West 00:33 Frankfort. Well that's right across the line, not too far 00:35 away from here. But thank you so much for tuning in. We always 00:38 encourage you to get your Bibles get your pens and invite your 00:42 family and your friends to join us in this study. We always walk 00:47 through the word of God together and as we know in the past 00:50 whenever we ask God to be here we will not be disappointed. Now 00:52 if you'd like to get a copy of the lesson tonight go to this 00:57 website. Remember don't put www. Put ASF.3ABN.ORG and download 01:02 lesson 008. That's the lesson that's going to be covering our 01:06 topic tonight as we hope to wind it up on How to Grow In 01:11 Christ. Say that with me again. How to grow who? In Christ. 01:15 That's our topic for tonight and we're going to do some review to 01:20 begin the lesson tonight but also we have just about nine 01:23 questions which will take up our time surprisingly enough. But 01:27 whatever you do get the word of God and join us for the study 01:30 and, as I said, you will not be disappointed. But tonight let's 01:33 pray before we go into the word of God and then we're going to 01:36 sing our theme song, which is Victory in Jesus. Let's pray. 01:40 first. Father in heaven, thank you so much that you challenge 01:44 us to study your word in this world that's rushing to and fro. 01:48 We pray that tonight Lord that this would not be seen as a show 01:53 or a program alone, but a time to study your word more deeply, 01:57 to be fed from that which never dies. And so Lord tonight send 02:01 your Holy Spirit to be our teacher and open our minds that 02:06 we may understand. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now join me 02:10 if you can in our theme song. We always enjoy this theme song. 02:15 It's Victory in Jesus and the words will appear on our screen, 02:18 but as you hear us singing, we hope that you'll join us. Let's 02:22 sing the song together. ¤ ¤ 02:31 ¤I've heard an old, old story how the Savior came from glory¤ 02:38 ¤How He gave His life on Calvary to save a wretch like me¤ 02:45 ¤I heard about his groaning, of his precious blood atoning¤ 02:53 ¤Then I repented of my sin and won the victory¤ 03:01 ¤O victory in Jesus My Savior forever¤ 03:08 ¤He sought me and bought me with his redeeming love¤ 03:15 ¤He loved me e're I knew Him And all my love is due Him¤ 03:23 ¤He plunged me to victory Beneath the cleansing flood¤ 03:31 ¤I heard about a mansion He has built for me in glory¤ 03:39 ¤And I heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea¤ 03:45 ¤About the angels singing and the old redemption story¤ 03:53 ¤And some sweet day I'll sing up there the song of victory¤ 04:01 Key change ¤O Victory in Jesus my Savior forever¤ 04:08 ¤He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood¤ 04:16 ¤He loved me e're I knew Him and all my love is due Him¤ 04:24 ¤He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood¤ 04:42 Can you say Amen? Tonight our topic is... 04:54 But tonight we're going to do something a little differently 04:57 that does not appear in your syllabus, that's in your lesson. 05:00 By the way, if you've just joined us you can download 05:06 a copy of this lesson at ASF.3ABN.ORG and download lesson 05:12 008. Whatever you do don't put www. Tonight we're going to 05:17 begin with a review. So I could entitle it reviewing growth. 05:21 We're going to be reviewing growth. Every one of us needs 05:25 to know what is important when it comes to growth. Can we say 05:30 Amen to that? Because if you have a plant and it's not 05:32 growing, something's wrong. If you have children and they're 05:36 not growing something's wrong. And if you're not growing, 05:41 something's wrong. Unlike the principle of neutrality, we are 05:47 either growing or we are what? Ohhh no, nobody grows backwards. 05:52 We are either growing or what's the opposite of growth? What's 05:56 the opposite of life? OK, so we are either growing or we are 06:01 what? Dying. We are dying spiritually. That's why Paul 06:06 said, it's important for us every day to die to self in 06:11 order for us to live in Christ. We are either growing or we are 06:16 what? Say that together. We are what? Dying. There's no yellow 06:21 line in Christianity. There's no neutral place that we pull off 06:24 the road to decide whether or not we're going to continue to 06:28 grow. We're either growing in Christ or we're dying. 06:30 And tonight what I want to do is point out four very essential 06:34 points that we talked about earlier in our study. Because 06:38 this is one of the longest studies, 29 questions, but in 06:41 the very beginning our first four questions establish the 06:45 foundation for the principles of growth. So if you have your 06:49 lesson, you can go back with me to the first four answers, the 06:52 scriptural answers, but I'm going to put them in a context 06:55 tonight of not a question but a statement. Statement number one 07:00 about the important principles of growth and here it is. Review 07:04 point number one... 07:23 The text that links us to that very truth is II Peter 3 and 07:26 verse 18. Here it is on the screen. The Bible says: 07:42 He's in essence saying that's the truth. Now get this. And I 07:45 want to emphasize this. This is so vitally important because one 07:48 of the first principles of becoming a Christian is you 07:51 have to understand what it means to grow in grace. We don't grow 07:56 into grace; we grow in grace. A fish doesn't swim into the sea; 08:00 a fish swims where? In the sea. A plant doesn't grow into the 08:05 pot, a plant grows where? In the pot. We are saved by grace 08:10 through faith. We are saved by what? Grace. Talk to me. We are 08:15 saved by what? Grace through faith. And it has nothing to do 08:19 with us. The grace that we are saved in or by is God's grace. 08:24 So if we are saved by grace we have to grow in that grace. But 08:28 it's not just enough to grow in grace because if all we say is 08:31 well I'm saved by grace. I'm in, I'm locked in. I'm not going to 08:35 be lost. Then we are not really growing in the area that God 08:38 intends for us to grow. So we don't only grow in grace but we 08:41 also grow in, what' the other word that I used earlier. We 08:44 grow in what? Knowledge. We grow in grace and we also grow in 08:48 knowledge. So in order for us to grow in knowledge there is an 08:51 essential element in our lives that needs to be there. Now 08:55 every one of us, I hope you have your Bibles with you because the 08:58 Bible is what I refer to as the best equipment in the 09:04 Christian's backpack. Some people may think it's a song, 09:09 some people may think it's a really good church choir, some 09:13 people may think it's good community programs, but the best 09:17 equipment in the Christian's backpack is the Bible. Is the 09:20 what? The Bible. If you don't have a Bible in your backpack 09:24 you're in trouble. Because the only way that the Christian's 09:27 going to grow is by have a Bible in his or her backpack. So look 09:31 at the second point. I pointed out the first thing on how to 09:34 mature, we have to grow in grace and knowledge. But look at this 09:36 review point number two and we're going to go to our Bibles 09:38 in just a moment. But the review point number two. Read this with 09:42 me. It says, together... 09:51 Now this one I'm going to spend a little bit more time on 09:53 because if you don't have the Bible... Well let me just put it 09:58 this way. I've not purchased anything that doesn't come with 10:02 instructions. Even toothpaste comes with instructions. Why do 10:05 instructions for tooth paste? What are you going to do with 10:08 tooth paste. I have even picked up my clothes at the cleaners 10:12 and I'm surprised on the plastic bag that's covering my suit 10:15 there's a notice that says this is not to be used to cover your 10:19 head. Have you ever noticed that? Some of the simplest 10:22 things you do. Whatever possible use can I. OK. Good. I'm going 10:25 take this suit bag and give it to my toddler so he can cover 10:29 his head. Instructions. And there are certain things, 10:32 instructions for pencils and for crayons as if they could be used 10:36 for other things. In the very same way, the word of God is a 10:40 book of instructions and in order to put things together. 10:44 There are those individuals that buy a desk and I've in the past 10:49 been able to help individuals put certain things together. 10:53 For example, they'll buy a cabinet, or they will buy a book 10:56 shelf. And the book shelf looks nice on the outside of the box. 11:00 Doesn't it? Have you noticed that? But when you open the box 11:04 it come with like 600 pieces, (I'm exaggerating obviously) 11:08 but 50 pieces and then it comes with a pack of screws. Have you 11:12 noticed that? In the pack of screws you gotta pick the right 11:15 one because some screws are an inch-and-a-half, some screws are 11:19 an inch-and-three-quarters, some screws are two inches long, some 11:22 screws are wood screws, some screws are metal screws. Have 11:26 you noticed that? And if you get them mixed up you're in trouble. 11:29 And I learned that the hard way. One day... 'cause I'm the kind 11:32 of guy that don't always like to read instructions and so what I 11:37 did is I look at the picture on the outside of the box and I 11:40 decide as long as this book shelf looks like that when I'm 11:44 done I'm happy. Have you ever been there before? So but I 11:47 learned. So one day I was getting to the critical pieces 11:51 in the building of the book shelf and realized that these 11:56 screws just don't fit. And what did I have to do? Go back to 11:59 another piece that was held together. And you know it's hard 12:03 when you put the sides of the book shelf together and you get 12:05 that middle shelf you feel really good. But what had 12:09 happened is I had used the screws for that middle shelf 12:11 that should be someplace else, so I had to take all the middle 12:14 pieces out and when you take the middle pieces out what happens 12:16 to the book shelf? It falls apart. So I've learned, even 12:21 though I'm pretty savvy, I've learned that we all need to 12:25 follow instructions to experience the feeling of 12:29 getting it right. What's the feeling of getting it right. 12:33 Now that's a rewarding feeling. But I want you to notice this 12:37 text because this text really opens our eyes to the power of 12:40 understanding that the main ingredient for Christian living 12:44 in in the Bible. Here it is. Matthew 4:4. Read this with me. 12:48 It says: 12:59 So when you read instructions, how much of the instructions do 13:03 you need to read? All of it. When you follow directions 13:06 from where 13:07 you are to somebody else's house how much of the directions 13:10 should you follow? Huh? When you're following a GPS, at what 13:13 point in the GPS, if you're going someplace you don't know, 13:16 at what point do you say, I don't need any more directions? 13:21 You follow it from the beginning of the route to the end of the 13:25 route. But the reason why I want to emphasize this verse a little 13:28 bit more before we dive into our questions tonight is this. When 13:32 the Bible says man shall live by the word that proceeds from the 13:36 mouth of God, do you realize that the world was created by 13:39 the words that proceeded from the mouth of God? The Bible says 13:43 he spake and it was done, he commanded and it what? Stood 13:47 fast. So the word of God was good enough for man until the 13:52 entrance of sin. As a matter of fact, and the reason why this is 13:55 so vitally important is because the devil attacked Eve on the 13:58 basis of the word of God. He met her at the tree of the knowledge 14:01 of good and evil and he asked her the question about the word 14:05 of God. He says, has God said. So he questions whether or not 14:09 she was clear about what God had said. But if she was clear about 14:12 what God had said, he would not have found a way in but because 14:16 she was not clear about what God had said, his suggestions caused 14:20 her to question what God had said. What happened after that? 14:24 What did she do? She took of the fruit of the tree, she ate it 14:27 and then she gave it to her husband and he ate it. And from 14:32 that point on appetite has been perverted. Now follow me really 14:38 carefully. People today indulge in things that (I want to use 14:44 the right word here because the word of God tastes good to me). 14:48 People today indulge in junk food rather than nourishing food 14:53 I mean the junk food industry is a large industry, is it not? 14:58 Tell me now, let's get some confession. Is it not? Now we 15:03 must all confess that somebody in this group has some junk food 15:06 in his or her house. Maybe potato chips or some kind of 15:11 soda or cake. We all at some point or another introduce into 15:17 our diet junk food, do we not? Can we confess to that? What has 15:22 happened is when man sinned God's original appetite was 15:29 attacked. I want you to follow this. This text talks about us 15:33 returning to the original appetite. So get this. You have 15:38 a man, a sinful human being, that's who we are with 15:43 tendencies that always lean toward sin and then we're asking 15:48 ourselves to naturally desire the word of God. You can't 15:52 naturally desire the word of God The spiritual diet has to be 15:56 desired by the spiritual individual. Spiritual things are 16:00 what? Spiritually discerned. Also those spiritual things are 16:04 spiritually desired. If there's no spiritual desire then you're 16:07 not going to desire something that's out of harmony with your 16:11 natural appetite. What happened is the Bible, the study of God's 16:15 word restores the spiritual diet. It restores the diet that 16:20 God intended for us to have. Now before Adam and Eve fell, 16:24 was God's word good enough? Talk to me. Do you think they trusted 16:29 what God said? Did they have any reason not to trust what God 16:34 said? After man fell in sin, one of the reasons today why there 16:40 is such a diversity of Christian movements with a plethora of 16:45 different beliefs, some that really disrupt the way that 16:48 Jesus is presented, some that really disrupt the truth about 16:51 God, is because man's appetite has been perverted. And also 16:55 sometimes when you try to introduce it to somebody's life 16:58 the truth about God's word, their appetites are so perverted 17:02 that they don't even want to have that which is spiritual. 17:06 In other words, I don't want to go too far because my next point 17:09 brings this out as to what I'm talking about. So what happens 17:12 is when you desire the bread of life, that's why it says man 17:15 shall not live by bread alone but every word that proceeds 17:17 from the mouth of God. In other words our diet is not just 17:20 physical, our diet in order for us to be sustained and 17:24 grow should be 17:25 spiritual, right? Now let's go to the next point because I 17:27 don't want to jump ahead of myself. This next point makes it 17:30 really significant. Here's the third review point... 17:38 And I based that on this particular text: By the way this 17:44 is just review. We haven't gotten yet to the place where 17:50 we begin the answer in. Review third one. Let's read this text 17:54 together. I Peter 2 verses 2 and 3. It's on the screen. Are you 17:57 ready? Here we go... 18:13 or as the King James Version says, I like that one, it says 18:16 taste and see that the Lord is good. Gracious is nice, but good 18:18 is better that gracious. They both go together in the real 18:24 content. Here's the point of this one. Until we desire God's 18:28 word we will not experience the goodness of God. Now I want you 18:32 to notice there's a word at the end of the first line. What is 18:35 that word? Pure. What is the next word right after pure? 18:40 Now let me ask you the question. Where was God leading the 18:44 children of Israel, to what land? The land of what? The land 18:50 of milk and honey. That was the earthly Canaan. Did you not know 18:53 that one of the reasons why this text is in the New Testament is 18:58 because Peter draws off of the analogy that the Lord was 19:02 leading the Israelites to a land of milk and honey. What kind of 19:05 milk would have been in that land? It's on the screen. Pure 19:09 milk. So saying in essence the word of God is what kind of 19:14 milk? Pure milk. Now those of you who are mothers who've ever 19:17 fed your babies, you know that when you have a newborn babe you 19:20 want to make sure that there's nothing wrong with the milk. 19:24 Am I right? Because you want your baby to do what? To grow 19:28 thereby or grow through the ingestion of that milk. The word 19:33 of God is pure milk. If we're not drinking pure milk, what 19:37 kind of milk are we drinking? No, just give me the real word. 19:40 Spoiled milk. 'Cause there are only two types of milk, am I 19:47 right? Have you ever had spoiled milk in your refrigerator. Even 19:51 if it's rice milk, it can spoil. I learned that the hard way. 19:56 We have been doing so much traveling this summer that we 19:59 came home and I thought you know rice milk doesn't spoil. It's 20:03 not real milk. It's rice milk, forgetting that rice does spoil. 20:08 And I poured this rice milk on the last bit of cereal left in 20:13 the box, the last bit. And my wife you know she has an almond 20:19 you almond chunks, I forget what it's called. Anyway, 20:25 but almonds and cherries and all that stuff and it was really 20:28 nice. And I'm wanting a bowl of cereal because we just got back 20:32 home and there's nothing in the house to eat. You know, and I go 20:35 don't want to buy anything before we go. We don't want 20:37 anything to spoil. So there's nothing to eat. So I find in the 20:40 bottom of the cereal box this last bit of cereal and I got my 20:48 milk. Pour the milk on good cereal. First bite. You know you 20:56 talk through that bite, Oh no, no, no. I talked through that 21:01 Honey, what am I doing wrong? What's wrong with the milk? 21:06 And she said, I bought a new one. I said, ahh, I wish you had 21:10 told me. Now there's no more cereal. And for those of us who 21:14 live out here, it's 20 miles plus round trip, Walmart. You 21:19 just don't get cereal just that quickly. And I'm looking through 21:23 the cabinet, no bread, no cereal I'm thinking ahh. And I, with 21:28 disgust, go to the bathroom and just dump the cereal and I see 21:32 the nice new milk. Here's the point I want to make. If you're 21:38 feeding on spoiled milk you're feeding on the word of man. If 21:42 you're feeding on pure milk you're feeding on the word of 21:46 God. The word of God will never be spoiled milk. Can somebody 21:50 say amen to that? But the key element in this passage is, as 21:55 newborn babes, what's the next word after babes? Desire. If 21:59 your desire is not for God's word, you'll never partake of 22:03 God's word. You'll never know what it means to have pure milk. 22:06 Everybody likes to open a brand new container of milk because 22:10 you know it's going to be good, at least for the most part. 22:14 There was one church member we had that was, you know, she 22:18 wanted to bless our hearts and this was many years ago when we 22:22 lived in California. She was an older lady and we were just 22:24 really new in the ministry and didn't have a whole lot of food 22:27 in our house. So she wanted to kind of give us a bag of food to 22:30 take home and she gave us all this stuff and she gave us a 22:34 small can of condensed milk, condensed milk, right? What's 22:37 condensed; it's really thick. You just don't pour condensed 22:41 milk. You just like... and look at your watch and it will come 22:45 eventually. We opened this can of condensed milk and I've never 22:49 seen dark brown condensed milk before. And I looked on the date 22:53 This thing had expired like eight years earlier. And I 22:58 didn't tell her about it. But the reason I'm making this 23:03 illustration is if you're not feeding on the pure milk of the 23:09 word, you're feeding on expired milk. If you're not digesting 23:14 the pure milk of God's word, your appetite is filled with 23:19 spoiled milk or old milk, because the word of men comes 23:23 and goes as new books come out. But the word of God stands fast 23:28 for how long? Ever and ever and ever. Amen to that? And our last 23:31 review point, then we're going to dive right into the lesson, 23:33 make sure that the word of God is in your life every day and 23:36 you get the nourishment that it intends because it's pure and 23:39 then it says you'll grow. If you got pure milk in our life, if 23:42 you got the pure word of God in your life you will grow. Now the 23:46 devotional books, those are good but don't just replace the study 23:50 of God's word with devotional books. Because if somebody wants 23:54 to give you pure gold and somebody says man here this is 24:00 two carat gold. You didn't get that. Two carat gold! That's 24:05 gold dust. But if somebody says ah God is not going to build 24:09 heaven out of two carat gold. He's going to build it out of 24:13 what kind of gold? Pure. So God never gives you anything that's 24:17 less in value, less in strength, less in property. Always make 24:20 sure that when you study the word of God, even if you have 24:23 your devotion, if you have a devotional book, it's good to 24:27 have, but also have a study life in the word of God so you can 24:30 really get the power that you need. Last review point, very 24:32 quickly and it says: 24:40 What's that word potent mean? Strong or powerful. Have you 24:45 ever had something strong like medicine. I have a lot of 24:48 lessons that I've learned as I've grown up. Sometimes I find 24:52 that after I put it in my mouth that I should have diluted it. 24:56 The word of God is potent. Here's what the Bible says 25:00 very carefully. Hebrews 4 verses 12-13: 25:31 Emphasizing the earlier part of that. If the word of God is 25:35 living, that means the word of God never dies. The word of God 25:39 what? Never dies. I've got books in my library, matter of fact, 25:42 I have books from when I went to school and I was taking 25:45 electronics in school and I look back on those principles and I 25:50 must say, the principles in that book are so old that it couldn't 25:56 apply to anything. Now truly the principles of electricity 25:58 and current are the same but some of the ways that it 26:02 recommended to do certain procedures, if I would use that 26:05 today, I would be out of step. One of the reasons why doctors 26:08 continue to practice is because the things that they did 15 26:12 years ago may be not as relevant or as good as the new findings 26:16 are today. Every time you read the word of man, there's always 26:20 something that is subject to change. But the word of God is 26:23 living, it's powerful, it's quick, it never changes. Can you 26:26 say amen to that? So you got to have the word of God in your 26:29 life. In fact, without the word of God in your life, there is no 26:33 power in your life because the word of God is living and 26:36 powerful. You want power in your life? Do we need power in our 26:40 lives. Does the Christian need power to overcome temptation? 26:44 Overcome sin. Overcome struggles with attitude and habits. Do we 26:48 need that power? You cannot sin while you're reading the word of 26:53 God. Either sin will keep you from God's word or the word of 26:57 God will protect you from sin. But you have to have the living 27:00 and powerful word of God in your life. Now question number 21 27:03 which is where we're going to go to our syllabus if you have 27:06 that syllabus. Question number 21 is where we're going now. 27:09 Just a quick review to bring you up to date. Now we're going to 27:13 fly. Are you ready New Yorkers? We're going to fly like we do in 27:16 New York. Question number 21: 27:22 If you have your syllabus, we're going to turn to this text: 27:27 II Timothy 3:15: To what extent can the word of God impact our 27:32 lives? OK. The answer is found in II Timothy chapter 3 and 27:38 verse 15. You know sometimes people say OK they ask questions 27:43 like to what extent whatever the context may be. To what extent? 27:48 In other words, how far will this benefit me? How far will 27:51 this benefit take me? How far will this vehicle take me? 27:54 To what extent will my life be enhanced? Here's the answer. 27:58 II Timothy 3 and verse 15 and it's funny that it has the word 28:02 child. We have a young man who is named Timothy and he's a 28:06 child. So this fits. It says: 28:23 So to what extent, to what extent can the word of God 28:27 impact our lives? What's the key word in this text. Ah. Say that 28:35 again. It makes you wise. I don't know how many of you have 28:39 ever taken the time to read the books of Proverbs and 28:42 Ecclesiastes. If you want short little nuggets that are 28:46 concentrated. I mean, when I say potent, little nuggets. If you 28:51 a thought for the day, open the book of proverbs and just grab a 28:55 proverb. Isn't that true? You walk out of the house feeling 28:58 like a man of intellect and wisdom. Matter of fact, you 29:01 ready, let 'em come. I'm ready. I got my wisdom. The word of God 29:05 is a book of wisdom. And not only wisdom that's temporal, 29:09 but because Paul talks about the wisdom of man is earthly, but 29:13 the wisdom that God gives you is able to make you wise to 29:17 to salvation. It says for salvation, same thing but is 29:20 able to make you wise to salvation. One of the things 29:23 that I always pray for, my wife talks about this sometimes and 29:26 people say wow. And I'm not glorifying me, I'm glorifying 29:30 God, but when I sit down and counsel people or deal with 29:36 issues in the church I always pray for wisdom because what's 29:40 coming to my table are issues that I've not previously heard 29:45 about. Sometimes people will say pastor I've got this issue and 29:48 I don't know what to do. And I say how old are you? In some 29:52 cases they're older than I am. I'm thinking if age and wisdom 29:56 are connected then what am I going to tell you. But brethren 30:00 age and wisdom are not synonymous. Say Amen to that. 30:03 Studying the word 30:04 of God and wisdom are synonymous. Now I must say this. 30:11 There are certain things you learn in life as you get older 30:14 that you would not do again. Like some people say, if I knew 30:17 this when I was younger, boy, I wouldn't have done that. That's 30:20 the wisdom that we get from life's experiences. But when it 30:23 comes to handling people's lives you gotta pray for wisdom and 30:26 one of the best places to get wisdom is the word of God. 30:29 Remember that story when the king was faced with a decision 30:33 about whose child is whose child Remember the king's name? 30:37 OK. What did he do? Prayed for wisdom and God led him. OK since 30:42 it's not your child let's go ahead and kill him. No! give the 30:47 child to the other just to spare the life of the child. 30:52 So whenever you study the word of god you will leave your house 30:57 with more wisdom than you woke up with. When you study God's 31:01 word you'll find, this is something I've experienced also, 31:04 is when you study God's word you'll discover that through 31:07 God's going to bring you in touch with somebody that you can 31:12 share the very thing that you studied that morning. You'll 31:17 God's word and you'll say you know this morning I'll study 31:20 things out of my devotion. And they'll say what did you read? 31:23 And then all of a sudden you share with them that particular 31:26 It's amazing how that happens. God never gives you that day 31:30 what you're not going to use through that day. So when the 31:34 example of prayer was given by Jesus he said What was the 31:39 prayer? Give us this day our daily bread. When you feed on 31:45 the bread of God it is going to make you wise. And it's the Holy 31:49 Scriptures that make you wise. So here's the answer. To what 31:53 extent can the word of God affect our lives? Makes us wise. 31:57 Put that down as your answer. Increases our wisdom, increases 32:01 our wisdom. As a matter of fact, you'll also discover for those 32:06 who come out of one kind of life and want to prepare themselves 32:10 for the spiritual life, they have to have a large diet of the 32:13 word of God. You know why? Because the word of God is kind 32:16 of like a... Well our minds are like a large glass of water or a 32:22 large glass of Kool Aid or a large glass of anything. If you 32:28 have a large glass of purple Kool-Aid and you cannot pour that 32:33 Kool aid out to empty the glass and you say now empty the glass 32:36 but you can't pick it up and pour it out and you can't drink 32:41 it, what do you do? You fill it up with a different liquid all 32:45 together. And you'll notice that if you just stand under the 32:48 faucet and fill up that purple glass of Kool-Aid with pure water 32:53 what happens after a time? What happens? Somebody tell me. The 32:57 purple starts to vanish have you noticed? It eventually gets to 33:01 gray and then before you know it if you stand there long enough, 33:05 what happens. It's clear. You've got to think of that 33:08 illustration when it comes to studying the word of God. If you 33:11 want to declutter your mind, the more of the word of God you put 33:14 in you'll discover those things that were dark, those things 33:17 that were hard to get rid of, those things that you couldn't 33:21 dump, because you can't dump your mind. You can't dump your 33:24 thoughts. But you have to continue to pour into your mind 33:26 that which is pure and fresh and as time comes on, as time goes, 33:31 you'll discover that which was dark is gray and then all of a 33:34 sudden it gets light and then all of a sudden before you know 33:38 it it's not even there anymore. That's how people grow and they 33:42 get stronger. And I can guarantee you those who become 33:44 strong Christians are those who are spending time filling their 33:48 with the pure word of God. It's not just pure milk, but he's the 33:52 water of life and when the water of life is being poured into 33:55 your life, there's not going to be room enough for those dark 33:59 things. But I also want to caution you. While you're 34:05 studying the word of God don't mix the study of the word of God 34:08 with a life of dark things. Because just continue that 34:14 illustration. So you have a pure glass of water and you stood 34:17 there with a dropper that had purple Kool Aid in it how much 34:21 how many drops does it take to start changing that water? 34:24 One drop. If your life is a life that, well I'll study God's word 34:32 today and tomorrow that old nature begins to desire the 34:37 things that are carnal. The thing that was in your mind that 34:40 was pure all of a sudden becomes tainted when your life goes in a 34:43 different direction. When you begin to fill your mind with 34:45 those things that do not elevate and do not purify. So be careful 34:49 Keep with that illustration. When you pick up God's word I'm 34:52 going to keep the water pure. I want to keep my thoughts pure. 34:55 But when the world begins to come in into that dropper one 34:59 drop and all of a sudden that pure water is tainted. Go to the 35:03 next one. Number 22... 35:13 You know we don't want to be immature, but the Bible does 35:15 that there's those who are immature. And there's a reason 35:19 why, there a reason why. OK. Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 13 35:23 is where you're turning. And if you have your syllabus, we'll 35:28 fill this in also. Hebrews 5 and verse 13. OK. Here's the answer 35:33 on the screen and it's coming up for those of you who are 35:36 watching and if your listening it's Hebrews 5 verse 13. 35:53 Now a moment ago I said to you desire the pure milk of the word 35:57 but what was the context of our desire for the pure milk of the 36:01 word? Somebody tell me. That we may grow in wisdom. What else? 36:09 Did you guys miss it? As newborn babes. That was the context. 36:14 As newborn babes. Now let's... You got to get this picture. 36:20 You're 15 year old come home from school. She walks over to 36:24 the frig, takes out a baby bottle, warms it up and sits at 36:31 the dinner table sucking on a baby bottle. Are you OK? I'm 36:38 fine mom. Can you see it? Can you see it? I mean hilarious at 36:44 the least. You'll turn to your husband and say honey there's 36:50 something wrong with your daughter. Did you ever notice 36:53 how we disconnect ourselves from bad things. Your daughter is 36:57 going through something. And she says the next day, now you think 37:00 it's just a joke, for that evening, but the next day, mom 37:04 did you pack my lunch? I forgot to pack... That's OK and she 37:06 in the frig, she takes out a baby bottle, puts it in her 37:10 backpack. Are you, are, are you going to eat that at school? 37:15 Yeah, I'm going to have this for lunch. Don't let anybody in 37:20 school see you drinking from a baby bottle. My point is very 37:25 clear. If you are a growing Christian you got to get past 37:30 the simple things of God's word to the deeper things of God's 37:35 word. Because if you read this Paul, who I believe is the 37:40 writer of Hebrews, he compares the milk with the meat. He says 37:45 that after so long you are just still... and the only text that 37:52 you can quote is John 3:16. Can you quote any other verses? Man 37:58 alive, you're locked into the babe syndrome. And there are 38:01 some Christians that never mature because they don't spend 38:04 time in the word of God. They're content that they have the label 38:08 Christian. But if you notice what the Bible says in Isaiah 4 38:11 and verse 1 what's going to happen there will be those who 38:15 will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel. Only let us be 38:19 called by your name to take away our reproach. And Amos also 38:22 points out that in the last days there's going to be a famine for 38:25 the hearing of the word of God. So here's the point, for those 38:28 who are not feeding on the word of God, they're going to be 38:31 unskilled and would you send as soldiers into the battlefield 38:35 those who are unskilled? Would you want that person on your 38:39 team in a battle debate or in a Bible study. Nothing is more 38:45 embarrassing to the Lord, and I hope this kind of agitates us a 38:50 little bit here and those of you who are listening. If you find 38:54 after being a Christian many, many, many years still saying I 38:59 know it's somewhere in the Bible uh and you find yourself in that 39:03 valley all the time, I would suggest to you you need to 39:07 study God's word more. Because unless you have a mental issue, 39:10 unless there's a block there try not to put yourself where you're 39:13 always guessing. The somebody will say well what does the word 39:17 of God say? Well uh. What is the reason for your faith? Well uh. 39:21 How come you believe the Sabbath Well uh. If you're at that place 39:24 where you can't even share and defend your faith then you need 39:28 more time studying the word of God. You should intelligently be 39:32 able to say well you know what, and if it's not in your mind say 39:35 you know let's get together and study that in the word of God. 39:38 And put yourself in a position where you both can break and 39:41 open and look in the word of God together. But try not to 39:44 communicate to another person that you are so immature that 39:47 you've been a Christian for many many years. We should be 39:50 Christians that are growing in Christ, growing in his word and 39:54 growing in his grace. Amen to that? Paul is saying everyone 39:57 who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word. There are 40:00 those people that only study their Bibles enough to get the 40:05 answers to the Sabbath School lesson. I know that for a fact. 40:09 Because there were some people like that that used to be in my 40:12 school. They would only read their textbook to get the 40:16 answers. But what I was told by somebody that said, read the 40:20 whole story in your history book and you'll get more than just 40:23 the answer to the question. If you read the whole story in the 40:27 Bible you'll get more than just the answer to the question. 40:30 Right? You'll get the whole picture and we need the whole 40:34 picture because the picture represents Christ. So what is 40:38 the answer to number 22- What does the Bible tell us is the 40:41 reason for spiritual immaturity? What would you put down? Lack of 40:49 study. There it is. Lack of study. Because their just stuck 40:52 in the milk. They heard these things, they studied the 27 40:56 fundamentals, the 28 fundamentals as we have now. 40:58 They did enough just to get ready for baptism. They got 41:01 baptized and they've forgotten what the baptismal certificate 41:04 says. They stuck it on the shelf All the got is the signature of 41:07 the church that they belong to but they don't know a thing 41:09 about that baptismal vow. That's not what God has called us to be 41:14 He calls us to be workman that need not to be ashamed rightly 41:19 dividing the word of truth. We cannot be unskilled, not in this 41:24 battle. Because Satan was successful in getting Eve to 41:27 fall because she was not clear what God had said. But when 41:31 Satan came to Jesus, what did Jesus say, what did he say? 41:35 It is written. That's our defense. Not my church teaches 41:39 that, not I think. Jesus didn't say I think. He said it is 41:43 written. That's our greatest defense, that's our greatest 41:47 weapon. Number 23: 42:00 Huh. Ah. There you go. Now let's look at this though. Just see 42:05 what happens though. Let's see what happens. I kind of went 42:09 ahead of myself a little bit there. He does talk about that. 42:13 Lack of faith. But here's the answer in I Corinthians chapter 42:18 3 verses 1 and 2. The answer's on the screen by the way. But 42:21 let's turn there and I'll go to the screen and we can begin to 42:25 read this together. This is an amazing one here because 42:30 sometimes people sit down on the sermon and the preacher's doing 42:32 his job, but it just never sticks. You know why? Because 42:36 the people have not properly prepared their minds for what 42:39 the preacher is saying to make any sense to them. Do you know 42:42 that you can't just hear a sermon but you have to prepare 42:45 yourself to receive the message. Just like when you go to a 42:49 restaurant you sit down at the table, you got your napkin, you 42:52 got your fork, you got your spoon. You got everything you 42:55 need to receive the food that's coming. You got to prepare 42:57 yourself spiritually so that when the message goes forth it 43:01 can find it's intended target. Look at what Paul says. He says 43:24 Now how would you feel. Go back to that 15-year-old girl with 43:32 the bottle of milk. You'll have a discussion with her before she 43:38 goes to bed wouldn't you? Now honey I know that you may like 43:45 milk but mommy made some solid food and open your mouth. See 43:50 those teeth. Once teeth start showing up it's time to get rid 43:55 of the bottle, remember? Yes mommy. Nothing is more 44:03 concerning to you as a parent that your child who's 15, 16, 17 44:07 years old to begin to display properties and characteristics 44:12 that were present when they were a toddler. That's exactly what 44:16 Paul is saying. The displaying of characteristics that were 44:21 there when we were toddlers as Christians should not be there 44:25 if we claim to be mature Christians. So if somebody said 44:29 you know I got baptized 15 years ago but I'm still struggling 44:34 with... And the question is is your sin greater than your God? 44:40 Is Satan's ability to get you in sin greater than God's ability 44:45 to deliver you from sin? I'm still struggling. And Paul says 44:49 well I can't really tell you as much as I'd like to tell you 44:53 because you're still a babe. I've talked to you about this 44:55 before. This is like a counseling session. I've talked 44:58 to you about this before but here we are again and I still 45:02 can't talk to you other than as a babe. This is not sinking in 45:05 and it's not going to stick. The word of God is not going to make 45:08 a difference in your life if you're not conditioning your 45:11 mind. Good preachers like C.D. Brooks and M.E. Wright and Mark 45:14 Finley and the lists goes on and on. They may get there and 45:16 they're digging into the word of God. They've divided the word of 45:20 God and you sit there and you go like this. You know why? 45:25 Because that's what a baby does. A baby sleeps. But somebody else 45:31 will say oh that message was powerful and somebody else will 45:36 say I didn't get a thing out of it. That what happens; most 45:41 babes don't get anything out of sermons. They cry and they 45:45 sleep and they drink milk. And the church members that are 45:51 crying over spilled milk and sleeping and just desiring milk 45:56 that's why today if you look at Christianity, Christianity is 46:01 undernourished. Christianity has substitutes introduced where 46:06 God is saying the study of the word of God should be. 46:09 Christianity is entertainment based. I wish I had the time to 46:12 show you this. I can't do it because this program doesn't 46:14 give me the platform to do it but I'll show you after we go 46:17 off the air. Would that be OK? I got to show you something that 46:20 will really blow you away. I went to the internet and there's 46:23 a push, there's a push right now underway in America to really 46:26 get everybody back to church on Sunday and in this particular 46:30 push the church pastors, I can just describe it to you. It's on 46:34 a website kind of called back to church Sunday and there's a 46:37 four-minute video of different ministers of different 46:42 denominations wrapping to hip- hop music. I'm going back to 46:45 church on Sunday (in rap). Can you imagine. They're using 46:49 the world to get people to come to church. And that's why we 46:53 find that what the world needs is not for the church to come 46:57 down to the world, but the world to come up to the church. And it 47:00 never happens if people are being fed by things that they 47:04 are borrowing from the world to try to activate spiritual, 47:08 uh, uh, what's the word, spiritual desires. You cannot 47:13 get bitter water and nourish somebody who can only be 47:18 nourished by pure water. It blew me away and I said honey now get 47:23 past what you're hearing, but look at who's doing it. 47:26 Preachers with robes on. Clergy of every description, every race 47:31 every class, every creed. And they're hip-hopping, banging and 47:37 rapping. (Rap) And I'm thinking has the church become that 47:41 impotent that we have to use the world to try to get people 47:44 to come back to the church. I'm saying here the reason for the 47:48 study of how to grow in Christ is if people were feeding more 47:52 on the word of God there'd be more strong Christianity than 47:57 there is today. But it's impotent because it's based on 48:00 music and style, seminars and all these things that are not 48:04 bad in and of themselves, but they are substitutes when you 48:08 only are being fed by milk. I look at some of these television 48:13 programs, large auditoriums, mega auditoriums, great. But I'm 48:18 going to hear a sermon from Jeremiah or Isaiah or Nahum or 48:23 Zephaniah. I never hear solid sermons. How to expand your 48:29 portfolio. Milk. It's amazing. Let's go to the next one. 48:35 I don't want to preach, I want to teach. Here we go, number 24. 48:38 So the answer to number 23, how does Paul the apostle describe 48:42 the effect of a lack of spiritual study? How does he 48:46 describe it? You never mature. You never mature. Immaturity. 48:52 Number 24... 49:01 OK. We're going to II Peter 1 and verse 19. II Peter 1 and 49:07 verse 19. What assurance do we have that we can trust in God's 49:15 word? II Peter 1 and verse 19 and here's the answer on the 49:23 screen... 49:50 So what kind of word do we have? It's confirmed. The assurance 49:56 that we receive. According to the question, what assurance do 50:00 we have that we can trust the word of God? It's confirmed. 50:05 It's sure. Who do you think confirms the word of God? 50:09 Who is the confirmer of the word of God? Huh? Jesus confirms it. 50:15 He's the living word. You can say the Father, you can say the 50:19 Son, you can say the Holy Spirit It is empowered by the Holy 50:24 Spirit. It is God-breathed, God inspired and the life of Christ 50:30 He's the living word. It's sure. It's confirmed. Now whenever 50:36 you buy an airline ticket make sure that your seat is confirmed 50:42 Right? My wife and I have done this a few times. I must blame 50:47 myself because I got so excited. We got on a plane coming back 50:53 from, was it Australia? I just glanced at the seat. It was in 50:57 same row as we sat on the way going but on the way going we 51:01 were in E and F. On the way back we were in A and B. And I looked 51:05 at it, it says 53. I said honey we're in the same seats that we 51:08 were sitting in when we left. And I ran to 53 E and F. And 51:15 somebody came and said you're in my seat. And later on when they 51:20 announced over the loud speaker make sure that the seat you're 51:24 sitting in is confirmed seating. And I said to myself, I didn't 51:28 pay attention to the small details. The small details. 51:31 I was on the opposite side of the plane, the right row but 51:34 but I was in the wrong seat. When you study the word of 51:37 God it will never lead you to the wrong place. It will always 51:41 lead you to a place that has been confirmed of God. In other 51:44 words, if you think about this, you get this picture of the word 51:47 of God as it is being God- breathed through these holy men 51:50 that wrote it down the Lord, the Holy Spirit, made sure that what 51:54 these men penned were inspired by God, directed by the Holy 51:57 Spirit. So therefore, before they wrote it down, God said 52:02 that's what needs to be there. He inspired that. So don't let 52:05 anybody ever say to you that the words that are in the Bible 52:09 came from man, because they are inspired by God, communicated 52:14 through the experiences of men but they have a divine origin. 52:18 Always beginning from God, breathed through the Spirit, 52:22 penned by man under the inspiration of the Spirit of God 52:27 The word of God is confirmed. Amen? Look at the next one, 52:30 number 25. I think we may get through the questions tonight. 52:34 It's just shocking me but I think I'm on tap to finish this 52:39 tonight. Number 25. And by the way if you answered number 24, 52:44 the answer you want to put there is the word of God is sure, the 52:49 word of God is confirmed. It's been checked and rechecked 52:52 before. Men were inspired to write it down. And that's the 52:56 human picture, but God didn't have to check His words. God 52:59 didn't have to say would somebody edit this before it's 53:02 sent down. God is never wrong. All right I want to make sure 53:05 you understand that. Number 25.. 53:12 I like this because I tell you we have experiences that we can 53:15 share with you about how God's word kept us in times of trial. 53:18 You got to have something to anchor you. You cannot have 53:21 have just past experiences. You got to have something that's 53:24 fresh and living and the word of God is something that does that 53:27 every time. All right. Now we're going to Psalm 119 and verse 50. 53:31 Psalm 119 and verse 50. And I like the words used in this 53:34 particular verse. Here it is. It says: 53:47 When you are in affliction, when you are going through trials 53:49 you need comfort in your affliction and where do you get 53:52 that comfort from; the word of God. I don't know if you've ever 53:56 had this experience, but whenever you go through trials, 53:59 if you go back to the word of God you know what happens? 54:01 All of a sudden there's a bright light that shines through the 54:05 dark clouds of your present circumstances. But if you're not 54:09 in the word of God, you're sitting there trembling and 54:10 crying and you're nervous. You need a word that's sure, you 54:13 need a word that's going to give you life, because trials will 54:15 sap the life out of you. David is saying here this is my 54:19 comfort in my affliction for Your word has given me life. 54:23 If you're going to be sustained in times of difficulty, you got 54:27 to study the word of God and if you haven't a good time to start 54:31 is now before the trials come. Because I've discovered that 54:34 those who know where to find God before the trials don't have 54:37 a question where God is when the trials come. He never changes 54:41 address. So the answer is on number 25, what is God's word 54:45 able to do for us in times of trial, what? Comfort us and 54:50 renew our life. Comfort us and sustain our life. Surely we find 54:55 comfort in those times. That's number 25. All right, you ready 54:59 to go? You ready? Here we go. The next one. We may try to get 55:06 it. If we don't, we'll finish it next time. Number 26... 55:13 I'm giving you all these because this is where we all live. We 55:17 live in trials and affliction. That's the life of humanity. 55:21 Going very quickly to Psalm 119 verse 107. Here's the answer. 55:25 Psalm 119, verse 107. David says 55:39 The word of God does not just bring us comfort and give us 55:42 life but it does what friends? Revive us. Have you every 55:46 splashed cold water on your face on a hot day? What does it do? 55:51 Have you every dived into a pool on a hot day. What does it do? 55:55 Revive. Have you taken a cold shower on a hot day. Even a hot 56:00 shower on a cold day will revive you. The word of God-nothing 56:04 revives like the word of God does. Amen to that? So write 56:08 that down. Revives you. You need a revival. Revivals are not 56:11 sustained by music. Revivals are not sustained by seminars. 56:15 Revivals are sustained by the study of God's word. Number 27. 56:28 In our points of decisions. Once again in Psalm 119 and we're 56:37 looking at verse 133. Here it is. David once again says... 56:42 You know what he's in essence saying. If I don't follow your 56:45 word I'm going to fall into iniquity. If I don't let your 56:48 word direct me, I'm going to make the wrong turn and there 56:52 will I find myself in iniquity. But he said Lord direct me 56:55 according to your word. Young man, young woman, if you want 56:58 direction in your life to keep you from iniquity, the word of 57:01 God is just like the map that you need. He will direct us and 57:04 keep us from iniquity. Can you say amen to that? Number 28. 57:08 I think we can do it... 57:13 What are we told about how reliable God's leading is? 57:16 OK. I may have to end on this one. Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6. 57:34 You know how you acknowledge God? You acknowledge God by 57:38 studying His word. You say I need advice. You may call your 57:41 friend and you get no answer. But if you pick up the word of 57:44 God you'll always get answers. Am I right to that? And friends 57:47 as you can see here at Sharper Focus we believe strongly in 57:50 studying the word of God. There is no book that's more powerful 57:53 and more potent. So here's my advice. Study God's word and 57:58 you'll find that a foggy life, a cloudy life, will come into a 58:02 Sharper Focus. God bless you. Let's pray. |
Revised 2017-06-07