Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

The Living Word

Amen. His name is to be praised. He gives. He takes, blessed be the name of the Lord; amen? The giving and taking part that I like is that He takes my sins and gives me righteousness. Amen? Blessed be His name, praise God. Exciting to really be aware of the hour that we’re in. We look at all the different political things that are going today and hear everybody up in arms over the strategies of how to pull out of the conflicts that we are in; others are wanting to solve the problems in the Middle East. Good luck. I have no opinions on what’s going on in the Middle East. Christians are gathering together in Washington D.C. [John] Hagee wants to gather everybody together to support Israel. God’s supporting Israel; He has for a long time. He’s doing a good job. Amen? We realize that it’s not going to be by our strength, by any political systems. They’re [Israel] the apple of God’s eye as it pertains to the Abrahamic covenant, but they’re a people that need to be grafted into the true vine of Jesus Christ. A remnant, the Scripture says, shall be saved. Praise God. That’s what going to happen in the Middle East, so don’t worry about it.

What about us? How are we going to finish this course that we are in on? Regardless of what’s taking place in the Middle East, I think that each of us are having our own personal little war, aren’t we? Anybody in a battle right now? If you are alive, you’re at war, praise God, because there’s a conflict in our lives. The things that we want to do, we don’t always do; the things that we don’t want to do, we periodically find our selves doing. Anybody at war? Because in us, that is in our flesh, dwells no good thing. To will is in me. How to do it, how to perform this thing, I need revelation, I need understanding, and the Spirit of God says, "If you walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). Amen? How do we do that? How do we have lives that are successfully fulfilling the purpose of God? The finished work of Jesus that would allow you and me to live lives victoriously, to live lives for the glory of God? Because clearly the Scripture says in Romans, "Sin shall not have dominion over you" (Romans 6:14). Can you say amen to that? [Amen] How many of you have sinned somehow in the past year or ten minutes? Here’s this war, the dynamics that we are involved in on a daily basis, and we know that we are to walk in the spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death," Romans 8 tells us.

How do we do this? I think that many of us really have lost the basics because we’ve—so many of us lived in the kingdom of light, and whether we’d say so or not, think we learned how to do it. We think we know how to be a Christian. Some of us have established routines. Some us of us live off past accomplishments and reputations. Some of us are living off of knowledge. Some of us are living under the restraint of this community, the guidelines of this community. Other people are watching out for us and keeping pressure on us, and we need to come to that place where we momentarily are walking in the Spirit of God. "For if you walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). We’re at war, beloved, and the war for our souls rages and in a day that’s never been like this day. We’ve been called to be victorious. No one has ever faced, in the history of humanity, what you and I face today, especially in this nation. Not only is iniquity abounding, the Scripture says, and the love of many waxing cold. In the last days—the prophet said in the last days, knowledge will increase. Man would run to and fro.

I think back, and I was talking to [Pastor] Tony just before we came for prayer—I was talking to Tony. I said, "You know, we think back and we admire, rightfully, some of the great commentators of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; the hours that they poured over the Word of God." We talk about some of the great historical meetings that took place in those days. May I remind you there was nothing else to do? This was the entertainment of the day. You had certain of your different poets and playwrights. We find in antiquity as we go to Ephesus, as many of us did, the theaters that were there. For the church, beloved, there was nothing else, and true believers were never found at the theaters. They were never found partaking of the secular; yet the secular and the spiritual have been so intertwined in our day that we battle a war that those have gone before have never been faced with. Sin in their members? Yes. Temptations? Yes. Solicitations? Yes. Never minds—listen to me—being disciplined, trained, brainwashed for fragmented information rather than depths of knowledge. We all think we know because we can push a button on the Internet and all of the knowledge is at our fingertips. We get distracted; we run from this information to that information. We say, How many hits did Mickey Mantle get in July of 1961? We push a button and the information comes up, and that distracts us. We run down another rabbit trail. Just as we begin to find something out important, as how many hits Mickey Mantle got in July of 1961, we get three text messages. Now, what we really went into our study to do was to pray. What we really went in that room to do was to get alone with God and study the Word. The text messages started coming, and the thought of what happened in July came to our mind. I want to tell something, beloved. We need to pull down every evil imagination that exalts itself against the Word of God. Amen? We’re not talking about lusting against women, lusting after new automobiles. We’re talking about anything that is robbing you from the presence of God in the time that you’ve designated to feed your spirit man this Word. How distracted are you in this life? That’s the war that we are engaged in today. Jesus, in His parable of the sower sowing the word, made very clear we are attracted. We’re distracted by attraction is what the Greek word means. Distracted by attractions. Do you have that time when you will not talk to anybody, you will not be disturbed?

How precious is the Word of God to you, the presence of God? Because those two things are synonymous. How valuable is that time? How valuable is this book [the Bible] to you? Turn to Deuteronomy for just a moment. We are going to take a few minutes—I was—on Friday, I took a little time and went down to Chic-fil-A was going to look at a few of the cars that were down there and was forced to have an Oreo milk shake. I was forced. I had to. I didn’t want to be rude. I was there minding my own business, Greer shows up, has the Oreo cookie milk shake, and I said, as in every situation, you just quote the Word, "Praise God, it is not good for man to be alone." As I was looking around at all the different vehicles, in pulls a ’65 red GTO, tri-power. You don’t see a lot of them around. It had everything that my car had except that it had black upholstery and I had white upholstery—mine was prettier. The moment that car pulled in, and I looked at it, I didn’t think about all the races that I had won. I had fun with that thing. You talk about having fun at seventeen years old. Just rejoicing, not in all those memories, but when that car pulled in, you know what came to my mind? The first thought that came my mind was not when my father gave me that car as a gift, but when my father rejected me for accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I had to move out of the home that I was living in into that automobile. Everything that I possessed fit in the back seat and the passenger seat. As that car pulled in, my mind began to flood all of these thoughts of living out of my automobile because no one of my natural family wanted anything to do with me. The ultimatum that came, and I’ve shared it with you many times. I can still hear the words from my father like he spoke them yesterday, "You choose between that Jesus or your family." I remember my words, "Dad, I love you guys, but it’s no choice; you didn’t die for my sins." I was on my own as a young man. I lost my scholarship. I lost my family.

I’ve told you the story, and I’m not going to spend a lot of time on it, but I want to talk this morning how valuable this Word is to us. All possible income at that time, I had to go look for a job. I was living on easy street. The university was paying all of my bills. I had a free ride. I had a three-bedroom home provided for me. I had the money I needed, and I had to leave it all. I am living in my car, and I had a twenty dollar bill. I had gotten saved about thirty-six hours ago, come to know the reality of the resurrected Jesus. I knew what it meant to have eternal life infused into me and old things pass away and all things become new. I shared with you what my conversation was like. That next morning, I’m telling you, the grass was greener, the birds sang better. I had one of those kind of conversions. I ran into Jesus on the road to Damascus and momentarily and instantaneously I was new. The preacher that was preaching the revival in that meeting was a teacher of the Word of God, and for the first time, I heard that Scripture, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). How can you have faith to live for God if you do not know His Word? That morning, I purposed the thing I was going to do. I went down that morning to the Bible bookstore, and I bought a Bible for $18.00. It is back in my study, in my case back there, as a memorial. I lived off of that Word of God day and night. I studied the Word of God. I memorized the Word of God. I prayed the Word of God. I would open that book and rejoice. At other times, I would weep broken and then would begin to learn that I wasn’t an orphan. I was a Son of God, an heir and a joint-heir with Jesus Christ, and I read promises that said I will never leave you or forsake you. "I will not leave you comfortless…" (John 14:18), and I read verses that said, He that has begun this work in you will do it. Praise God! "Faithful is he that called you, who also will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:24) praise God! "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13) praise God. I began to find the promises of God; they are life to those that find them. They are health to your flesh. I had no natural food. I had nowhere to sleep. I had nothing to eat but the Word of God. It reminds me of what Deuteronomy says here, look with me, and we’re going to go through some verses here. Deuteronomy, Chapter 8, as we go into the study for this morning, I want to ask you a question. "What’s changed?" What’s changed in life since the Garden of Eden? What in this spiritual warfare that you and I are engaged in has changed? The Scripture makes it clear concerning Satan; we are not ignorant of his devices. Amen? Isn’t that what the Scripture says? What are his devices? Question God. Question the Word of God. Listen, beloved, here’s Satan’s only tactic: "Has God said?"

Our only defense, you’d better know what God said; amen? How many of us know what God said? When I say, "know," I don’t mean quote a verse you learned in Discipleship Training. One [verse] that you heard some preacher on the radio, some of the teachings you hear here. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about what is burning in your spirit right now? What has God said to you this morning—this moment? What is your life built on? "For this word is alive and it is powerful and it’s sharper than a two-edged sword," the Scripture says. It is a weapon of mass destruction to principalities and powers. It is the force that when you resist Satan with it, he will flee. Amen? If the devil isn’t fleeing, you’ve got the wrong weapon. You’re looking for empathy, sympathy, human support systems, but God’s Word doesn’t fail. You see—this Word, and we’ve studied this before, this Word is like the manna. It doesn’t last until tomorrow in your spirit. In your head, when we memorize the Scripture, it’s there for us. What have you done today to partake of the Word of God? This manna, this bread that’s come down from above, the Word of God, the living Word of God—Jesus?

What’s the instructions you have for today? Because every day in this Christian life is present eternity, conscious eternity, momentary glimpses of eternity. We find the Scriptures speaking this, of course, Jesus quoting this. You remember Jesus and His temptation when the devil came to try Him? Isn’t it interesting? When does Satan come in some his greatest attacks in our life? When we’re weak. When we’re tired. When we’re beat down. Some of us are almost surprised by that. We’re like, "Lord, this isn’t fair, I’m really tired and things are really bad and they seem to be getting worse." Welcome to the battle. Thank God for His grace and mercy when He lets us be on furlough. Amen? How many of you enjoy the divine furloughs? You remember in Vietnam, you’d get to go spend those couple of weeks in Hawaii. That was nice stuff, but the war was continuing. God’s grace pulls us out, lays us on Waikiki for a while, turns us over—you got to get tanned on both sides. Then the morning comes when you board the plane back to Saigon, back to the realty of life.

How ready are we? Satan comes to Jesus at his weakest moment, [Jesus] having fasted for forty days, and [Satan] said, "If thou be the son of God." Surely, God will meet all of your needs. Surely, God will not allow you to endure more than you are able to stand, and with every temptation, he makes an escape when you think it should happen. How you think it should happen. He [Satan] applies that parenthetical statement, doesn’t he? God’s forsaken you. If God hadn’t forsaken you—look at His promises—you would have been out by now because you can’t take any more of this. Beloved, you will not be tempted past that which you are able to stand. Amen? Is that what you said to Satan last? How many of you’ve been feeling that pressure? Any of you felt that pressure? What did you say? What we are going to talk about in this study, what did you say? What did you have to say? Do you have in your arsenal, the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God? Are your weapons mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds? It’s not going to have to do with how much Scripture you’ve memorized though we are going to talk about the need to memorize Scripture. How much Scripture do you have stored in your memory banks? It’s amazing what we have in our memory isn’t it? I won’t do it right now, but commercials, "Twoall-beefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheese, picklesonionsonasesameseedbun." [I hate the stuff]. "Come listen to a story about a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed…"[Huh?] "Three hour tour, the weather started getting rough, tiny ship was tossed…" "What’s in yours…?"

The Scriptures makes it very clear, beloved, that the flesh is lusting against the spirit and spirit against the flesh. These two are contrary to one another so that you cannot do, and He is speaking to the professed believer who wants to do righteousness, which you would. What is being said there by the Spirit of God, and we are going to look at it in just a moment, is this. If you don’t understand the dynamic, the conflict, and you don’t understand the need to feed the spiritual man—to put this in a concise statement, it says this, "Whichever part of your being you feed the most will win. Not what you would want, not what you would like to do, not what you’re saying inwardly I am a Christian in my heart is to do." You are not going to do what heart is desiring to do. You are going to do what you feed either your flesh or you spirit most dominantly. Not only with information, but the real strength is after having infusing your spirit man with the Word of God, for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The Word of God is alive and powerful, the Scripture says. It’s not static. This word is alive, it’s not paper and ink. This thing is spiritual. The truths that are here are life to those that find them and health to all their flesh. Amen? Do you love this [the Word of God], as we are going to see in the Scripture verses, more than your necessary food? I’ll try not to look at anybody. Some of us could do a little better by laying off a little bit of our necessary food and spending more time—it’s called fasting. Those of us that are in shape, I’m not talking about myself personally. Those of us who are in shape and are disciplined, maybe you ought to spend less time in the gym and spend more time—I can get all us if we go on long enough and make the list. Are you winning every war? Are you winning every skirmish? If we’re not, we’re getting scarred, we’re getting wounded. People around us are being hurt. We are at war, and our weapons are not carnal. What would you think if we took survey right now of our arsenal as a community? What do we have to fight with?

We have community; we have a unity here that is very strong. Its come through the Word of God and through our choices. It’s not the unity that we can trust in, beloved. It’s our obedience to God that brings the unity—Amen?—and that only comes by the Word. When we choose against ourselves, when we choose to prefer others above ourselves, that comes by the Spirit of God. That comes by waiting on God, and seeing the revelation in the Word of God, because it’s contrary to natural man. When Jesus was tempted by the devil after not having eaten for forty days and saying, "Surely, God wants you refreshed. Surely, God is God is through with the trial in your life right now. God won’t not allow you to be tempted by that which you are able to stand. Go to the Word of God, find a promise, speak it into existence, praise God. Command that these stones be turned to bread." Could Jesus have done that? Of course, but instead His response was What? "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." The question that I want to ask this morning, do we believe that? Our life is the Word of God. Number one primary source of life. It’s not the government; it’s not your employer. It’s whether or not we believe when we pray, "Our Father which art in heaven, [holy] hallowed, sacred, distinct, is your name. Feed me. Help me. No, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these other things will be added to you. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now give us this day our daily bread.

The Word of God keeps all of our priorities in line. It’s the kingdom first. It’s my relationship with God first. It’s not my ease; it’s not even the specific, momentary trial that I am in. It’s the basic principle of man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. It is written. We see in Deuteronomy, of course, Jesus quoting this passage of Scripture. In Deuteronomy 8:3, the Lord brought you into this trial, into this wilderness, and He humbled you. God did that, and He suffered you to hunger. God did that and He fed you with manna, not filet mignon. Manna. Like when you go to McDonald’s. "What is it" is what manna means. What is this? There’s a purpose for that, not just that small wafer that had never been seen before that was called angel’s food. It was sustenance that nobody knew how it worked, and it was sufficient. I would have done good with manna, because for me, it is not about variety. I would have done good. Every morning, George sends down his delivery guy—manna. What is it? Faith doesn’t understand God’s methods or provisions, but it trusts in His promises, in His Word. It doesn’t look like it’s going to—let’s see, little tiny wafer…filet mignon. Don’t get me wrong, I like filet mignon, but I want God to be the source and this says that for the moment. The filet mignon came later. The blessings came later. The living in houses that they didn’t build. Drinking from wells that they didn’t dig. Every place that they put their foot God gave to them. Every thing their hand touched, the Scripture says, prospered. That came later. The stuff that many of us are being distracted by comes later when you first seek the kingdom, then God adds these things to us according to His divine promises.

Are we living constantly satisfied with His presence, the treasure of His Word? He says, "God brought us into this condition." I’m getting behind a little bit; I want to move on. That He me might make you to know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord, does He live. Look at it, we’ve memorized it, look at it. Are you experiencing some kind of trials? God is trying to teach you. I don’t care what trial you’re in this morning, God is trying to teach you one basic truth: live by the Word of God. Take the situation you are in, and let it drive you back to the Word of God. Why? The Scripture says about the Word of God, it’s a mirror. We hold it when we are confused; when we are in trials, when we’re distracted; we hold it up so that we don’t forget what manner of man that we are. The Word of God reveals our heart’s condition to us. What is the Word of God? It is a lamp unto my feet. It orders my steps now. I lay aside all of my agenda, all my preconceived plans. I say, "God, what are You saying to me at this moment?"

What is the course that you have for my life? What is this Word? It’s the wisdom of God. This Word is holy, just, and true. It sets all of my judgments. I make all my judgments, I set all of my standards, by it. How much are we using the Word of God to try to give credibility or divine energy to our plans, our wisdom, our judgments? How much time are we able to quietly get before God and say, "I do not know how to go out or come in, I need your Word. I need You to speak to me, give me momentary wisdom, judgment and peace." Not just a verse that you have memorized. The cell phones are off. The computer is off. No calls. All of the people that you like hanging with, Don’t bother me." This is the most important moment of the day. I’m entering through the veil of the body of Jesus Christ, into the holy of holies, and you’re going to take a cell phone call? There are people right here, the veil is right there. The blood of Jesus from heaven to earth, the thing splits. God says, "Come in." You go [beep], "Wait a moment." Pavlov’s dogs. Jerked around by society with no discipline to get quiet and alone with God and hear what the Spirit of God has to say.

How about the next time a bunch of young adults are getting ready to go to a movie? How about somebody standing up and saying instead of going [to the movies]—there are times that you can go and it’s fine—How about somebody standing up and saying, "You know what we ought to do? Why don’t we go back to the fellowship hall. There’s these Scriptures that have been going over in my heart that pertain to where we are right now. Why don’t we go back and memorize these together and quiz one another and then set a course based upon these things? When I text you, I’m going to text the first three words; you text the next three of this Scripture." Let’s let the Word of God begin to dominate our thoughts and hearts, for it is the sword of the spirit. It is the weapons that are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. What place do we give the Word of God in our lives today? How preeminent is it? As we continue in the Scriptures, it’s very important in seeing the love that we have for it. Look at Psalm 119 and listen to what the psalmist says. Let’s really be truthful with ourselves as much as we can, and I know that many of us think we know our hearts, but the Scripture says no man knows his heart entirely. I’ve shared with you before. I think probably I spend more time personally—one of the greatest things that I emphasize in my life, in my prayer and in my study more than anything else I do and meditate upon, is trying to know my own heart because I’m messed up. I know most of you don’t have those problems, but if I get out from under the Word of God, I’m dangerous. I know what I am capable of doing without Jesus’ lordship in my life. I’m frightened to be out from under his lordship and care because it’s death. I’ve been there.

I know what it is to possess everything that you think that you want as a young man and be in torment, fear, and miserable. Then on February 5, 1967, I found the source of life, and I ate it. It became the joy and the rejoicing of my heart. I forsook everything to purchase this, and no man is stealing my crown. Since I have made that decision, life has been easy. Everything has gone smooth for me, praise God. No one has ever given me a hard time; I’ve never had any trials or losses. It’s just been straight up. [Humor] What does the Scripture say, Psalm 119, verse 72, let’s start with a hard one. The psalmist said in verse 47, he said that, "I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved." They are my delight. It’s what makes me happy. What makes you happy? Do you like you job? Do you like your new house? Do you like you new car? Is it your children? Is it your spouse? None of those things are sufficient. Don’t put your trust in any of those things. If God has blessed you with these things, then rejoice and be thankful, but our delight is in the law of God. The constant source of knowing the purpose of life, a fulfilling the call on our lives is revealed in the Word of God. He [the psalmist] goes on in verse 72 and says this—I just want you to grab it because it really speaks to the generation that we are living in. "The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver." That’s not bad if you read it real fast. Now, let’s make it practical. Does our vocation, does our desire to progress in whatever our status in, distract us ever from the Word of God? Do you know what he is saying right here? I won’t sell the word of God for any amount of money you have. Let’s step back and look a little bit further because we are living lives of ease in this country.

My mind goes back. We’ve heard the testimony of some of those during the persecutions of Christians in communist China—during the Idi Amin régime. Somebody would have one little portion a page—got a lot of my pages taped back together here, but I could take some tape off and get a little—and it was the greatest treasure some of these people ever had, and they would memorize it. They would pass it on to somebody else imprisoned. They were being beaten, and they were being killed and counting it joy that they were worthy to suffer for His namesake, death for possessing this book [Bible]. That would be a good reason to memorize it. It’s not about the book. "Thy word have I hide in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee," (Psalm 119:11) Amen and "…out of the abundance of the heart, [what happens?], the mouth speaketh" (Matthew 12:34). How can help but speak the things that I have seen and heard? The question that we’re asking this morning really is, "How precious is this thing to you?" More valuable than all the silver and gold that you could imagine? Amen, yes, praise God, I really believe that. Text message: "Want to go watch Dork Goes to Gainesville?" [Reply] "Okay, I was going to do my devotions but yeah let’s go watch Dorks go to Gainesville."

How easily are you distracted from this thing? How, [buzzing noise] so-and-so is on the phone, and you can get up and walk way from the presence of God to take a phone call? To respond to a text message? To pursue a random thought of how many hits—I haven’t done this by the way—how many hits Mickey Mantle got in July of 1961? How easily distracted, if it’s that valuable, what is your mindset when it is your hand? When it’s before your eyes? When you’ve gotten away with your lover and it’s just the two of you. How satisfying is it? What else do you need in life? I don’t know about you, I never want to leave those moments. That’s what life’s about. We can say, "Oh yes, praise God, your Word is more precious to me than thousands of gold and silver," and we don’t even know what we are talking about. We work our tails off for a few bucks an hour and want more. We know that He is the only thing that satisfies. He goes on and makes some statements to us. Scriptures that I want to get into your eyes and into our thinking.

As you read down a couple of verses in verse 140. He says, "Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it." Do you love the Word of God? The word pure there is not just talking about a moral purity. It’s talking about that it is not tainted with anything that’s secular. It’s spiritual food. It’s absolute total pure nutrition to our spirit man. It is profitable for all the doctrine that we need in our lives. It brings reproof. It brings instruction to righteousness that the man of God may be perfect and thoroughly furnished unto every work," Paul says in Timothy. Do we see it as that? He goes on, the Psalmist in verse 97 and says, "O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day." We know what the word meditation means. It doesn’t just mean to think on something, it means to be able to—one of the Hebrew words literally means to mutter or to speak back the understanding. It’s become revelation; we comprehend it. We’ve spoke and we are reiterating it to ourselves. How many of you know that the most factual words, the most powerful words that you ever hear, come out of your own mouth? That is why when I am counseling people a lot of the times, I will ask people, "What has God said to you?" Now, I’m giving it away because some of you the next time that you talk to me, "What has God said to you?" You’ll say, "God said this..." The next time that you come back to me, you know what I’m going to say, "What did you say God said?" I’m not going to tell, "What do you think, Pastor, I should do?" I’m going to ask you, "What did you say that God said to you?" That’s powerful. When we speak what God said to us. We’ve done studies years ago and we’ve talked. We know the perversion a lot of the faith movement has done with them but we know the power of words spoken in faith. They are creative to regurgitate the Word of God. The Word of God does not return void. It accomplishes that where unto He sent, as He speaks into our hearts, as we fellowship with Him and it creates life.

God’s word is creative and we reiterate what God said. Not we what we said, not something we found in a concordance. What God spoke to us, the Rhema, the very Word of God, is spoken out of our hearts in faith. We reiterate what God has spoken. That’s faith. That’s what you can rest on whether you ever see it come to pass or not. That’s proof, praise God, and God watches over His Word and performs it. Question: When was the last time you had Rhema in your life and not just drawing information out of your memory banks? The concordance that we all carry around in here called memory? We can download by memory, or we can have infused into our spirit the newness of life of the Word of God. Once God has infused the life and given us the course, the memory draws down the pieces to put together the course and plan, the commandment, the life. The decision is initiated by God. We see then, as He is speaking these things to us, that we have to ask ourselves a question. Really, if our weapons are not carnal, they’re mighty through God. The Word of God is the sword of the spirit. What place do we give it in our lives? How much do we really love it? The classic Scripture that we are all very familiar with Jeremiah 15—turn over there for a moment. Verse 16, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts." As we get ready to finish for this morning, let me ask you, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). I found your words and I ate them. I meditate. I mutter on your word, I speak it back. I declare it. It’s the confession of my heart.

The day can’t go by, when you’ve been in the presence of God and meditated on a Scripture, everybody you meet that day is probably going to hear something about that. Guess what God spoke to me today? The Lord gave me this verse. Are you excited about the Word? It’s more valuable to you than gold and silver? It’s more precious than your necessary food? How many of you can’t wait to get to lunch? We’re going to lunch in just a minute. Some are you are going, "Tell me about it!" I know some of you are like me as the day goes on and it starts getting closer to six o’clock and seven o’clock. I can’t wait to get into here [the sanctuary] to pray, regardless of what’s been going on. You may be out just doing some manual work. You might be at work and having to go through the normal processes of the day. You may have been in meetings all day. You’ve had your morning devotions, but you eat. Most of us do eat anyway, more than once a day, right? I had my morning devotions; you had your Cheerios too. What are you doing at Outback? [Huh?] You had your Cheerios. "You don’t expect me live all day off Cheerios, do you?" No. I don’t expect you to live all day off your morning devotions. I meditate upon Your Word…day and night, praise God. Do you ever get up for a midnight snack? I push my Bible off the floor and put it up there on the nightstand. I don’t want to ruin the cover, I paid like seventy-five bucks for this thing, I don’t want to stain it with Cheerios. How about pushing the Cheerios off on the floor and having a midnight snack? God speaks—I wish you could have heard the teaching that I taught this morning at six. You would all have come into my bedroom. It was good. The greatest teachings I have ever done have been when I am falling asleep and waking up. It’s cool. You’re just laying there. You’re in the spirit, the Word is going over, and all of the things that we as a fellowship need. Scripture is just pouring through and application of it. You wake up, your brain kicks in, and you are back to normalcy. You get fragments. You guys get fragments, but I just get blessed, praise God. Why, because you are in that place that I’m talking about. You’re in the spirit, where all the cares and all the natural processes are sedated, but you and God. You take those times to be in His presence and meditate upon His Word day and night and to love His commandments more than our necessary food. "I found your Word and ate it and it became the joy and the rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by thy name."

How much do we love this Word? What would you give in exchange for it or take in exchange for? I gave up my natural family for it. I gave up my pursuit of professional baseball and football for it. I gave up all my lifetime adolescent friends. I gave up control of my life and said, "Not my will; thy will be done." I sang a song as a young person and meant it, "I’ll go where you want me to go; I’ll do what you want me to do, for I am no longer my own, I am bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus." I believe that to whom you yield your members instruments to obey, his servants you are. I chose to be a slave to these promises, these commandments. Because of that, I don’t fear men’s faces, and I don’t worry what people have to think. I’m going to do the Word of God, and if everybody else chooses a different path, I’ve already made my decision. How valuable is this? I’ve already paid everything for it. I’ve made the decision. I’ve bankrupt myself to get this pearl of great price, and since I have, nothing else satisfies. I’ve experienced a lot of things in the periphery and at different junctures; God has blessed us as we have tried to seek first the kingdom of God, and blessings in many ways have comes to us over the years and none of them satisfy. None of them take the place of just a moment in His presence. What do you think? No, I’d never give it up for silver or gold. You gave it up for that text message. You gave it up for Doofus goes to Detroit.

Are we lying to ourselves or does this still have the same place in our life that it once did? Maybe it never has, and that is why you can’t get victory. It’s in your head, but you have never made a decision to infuse your spirit and make it your necessary food. It is life to those that find it and wholeness to your flesh. If you don’t feed yourself a consistent diet through obedience, not understanding, not knowledge, not memorization. Obedience. If you are a hearer and not a doer, you’ve deceived yourself, choosing to put down the physical man, the carnal man, choosing against what the flesh desires, then you’ve never know true regeneration, and we’ll be talking about that in one of our next sessions. What does it mean? I think that some that are battling in different areas. We are going to go into this battling back and forth. You’ve never been regenerated. You’ve got to get saved. You’ve got all the tools, you’ve got all the information, all the formulas, and you haven’t died yet and it is frustrating to live a life like that. Some of us that have been regenerated, that are in the process of sanctification, find ourselves actually being in a place we are weaker that we have been at times. The choice is yours today. How do I get back, Pastor? Very simple. Put everything else aside and begin to feed the spirit man. Start fasting the secular. Feed the spiritual. Press towards the mark, the prize, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. What does the Scripture say? As soldiers, as athletes, we become temperate in all things but one, that we might win that prize.

Father, we thank You for the words this morning, and we just ask that by Your Spirit, that You would touch hearts that are among us. There’s no hope for any of us in here in the age that we live. We thank You for grace. We thank You for salvation, by grace through faith, that it’s not through our works lest any man shall boast. A perilous time, the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. These two contrary the one to the another. Who do you chose to win this morning? What are you going to feed today? Don’t, "Well, for the next two months, I’m going to…" Two months, nothing! Today is the day of salvation. What are you going to do today to change your course, to change the input to the Spirit man that He might be dominant? To whom you yield your members, instruments to obey, Romans tells us, that’s who you are slave to. If it is the secular, if it’s playtime, if it’s sports, if it’s vocation, if it’s companions, you’re their slaves. You’re the slaves of the world, and you’re not just unfortunate that things are not going well, you are the enemy of God. To be a friend of the world, to choose the world, makes you the enemy of God. You’re for Him or against Him. Does that sound foreign to you? That’s because you don’t know this Word that I’m talking about. That is the clearest teaching in all of the Word of God. You love me or you hate me. You’re for me or you’re against me. It’s light, it’s darkness and the humanistic, existentialistic thought patterns that humanism has introduced are the greatest enemy of biblical Christianity. We are not ignorant of his [Satan’s] devices.

Let’s stand before the Lord this morning. If Katie will come, and we’re going to take just a moment in the presence of the Lord. Allow Him to minister His grace to you. It’s a choice that each of us has this morning. Choose this day who you’re going to serve, the Scripture says. All the time we spend soliciting—networking. We call it networking. We network on the job. We are network in our social relationships. Where’s Jesus in all this networking? How’s He orchestrating the priorities of our life? I wonder who He’s going to put His hand on to become jealous for the Word of God—and when I talk about that, beloved, I’m not talking about getting together and everybody pulling out commentaries, and we’re going to answer the great mystery. Give me a break. Do you want to know what your studies will reveal to you? "The greatest commandment is this, love the Lord your God with all your heart." Let’s work on that for about a hundred years, and then we can worry about some of the other stuff. The second [commandment] is like unto Him, love your neighbor like yourself. Amen? That will keep you busy, and if you will study those two subjects, you’ll stay out of trouble with a lot of the periphery. How can we love God more? How can we honor Him as we serve one another, as we go out, unashamedly, and proclaim this gospel? I am not ashamed of the gospel. What I heard in secret, I’m going to shout it from the housetops. You want to know why most of us don’t witness? We have nothing to say. Nothing fresh to say, but I can’t help but speak the things that I have seen and heard. I want to tell you something: If you encounter Jesus in your devotions in the morning, you’re going to share with somebody. Nobody wants to hear about your dull devotions, but I tell you what, people want to hear about your encounter with the resurrected Jesus. Make that real to us we ask, Father, for Your glory.

As Katie plays, let’s take a moment and let the Lord speak to you. Just ask yourself, How have I approached the Word of God recently? Have I been relying more on my memory? When I’m reading, am I trying to get through the devotions or is my heart crying for an encounter that I’d never be the same? Let me see Your glory. Let’s sing it together and just worship Him, "Lord you are so precious to me…" Hallelujah, we worship You, Lord. Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Jesus! We thank you, Lord, for Your love and Your mercy to us. You’ve given us Your Word that we might grow through the sincere milk of the Word as we study to show ourselves approved unto you, workers that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing this Word of truth, cutting straight through to life-changing principles. Oh, how I love Thy law! Make it real again, Father, we ask, in Jesus’ name, amen. Amen. Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "The Word’s alive, praise God." Hallelujah! Go in peace, God’s love go with you.

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