Scripture

Spoken and Written Word of God

Good morning! I read a phrase this week that clicked with me. I have been living by this phrase for the year and that is “Consistency beats Intensity every single time.” This phrase has to be one of the most impactful phrases I have ever heard. Talk is cheap, you can all the time say I am going to do this or I am going to do that. However something changes when we put action to our words. Solomon the wisest man that ever lived said it like this in Proverbs 14:23 “In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.” Talk leads no where but action and work lead to the end goal. Today we are dealing with the word of God. We are looking at the purpose of His written word and His spoken word in our lives. We are continuing to dive into Foundations and it all begins with me. This is the beginning of our discipleship walk of faith into Prayer is our Priority and Missions is our Heartbeat. We have looked at our heart and our portion that we contribute to the call and mission of God, we have looked at the priority of prayer in our lives and today we looking at God’s word and the power that it has in our lives. We must be people of the Word. If its in the bible we believe it. The bible is our authorative rule of faith and conduct. It is the line by which we measure. I have heard people say the bible isnt for today or the culture has the final word. I love you but you are wrong. The bible is our line the bible is our guide. It is the thing we measure everything by. There are critics who would tell you that the bible contradicts itself. There are people who would tell you that there are grey areas of the bible that dont deal with life today. I would submit to you today that those people are not taking the bible as it is in its full power and picture but are taking piece by piece and deciding if its worth our time or not. The word of God is infallible meaning it has no errors and it can not fail. I want to give you some information about God’s word that I think will help develop the picture here that God’s word is powerful and active.

God’s word was compiled by 40 authors

It took them approximately 1600 years

Each word and teaching is inspired by the Holy Spirit

“but a word of God once spoken continues to be spoken, as a child once born continues to be alive, or a world once created continues to exist. And those are but imperfect illustrations, for children die and worlds burn out, but the Word of our God endureth forever.”

The concept of God’s word is not new. In fact it was God’s word that created the universe we now know. We see it in the beginning of time in Gen 1 :1

Genesis 1:1 ESV

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

We can take this scripture how did God do it? It was his spoken word

English Standard Version Chapter 1

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

God said! He said the Hebrew word for said literally means spoken or commanded. This is God speaking. So from the beginning of time God has been speaking. He has been giving us His word. He gave his word to Adam and Even, to Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Pharoah, Aaron, the prophets, the king, All of these people heard the voice of God and were intent on doing what He said. Abraham heard God obeyed God and it was counted to Him as righteousness.

Romans 4:3 ESV

For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

Numbers 23:19 ESV

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

The God of the universe is not a man that He should lie. He doesn't change His mind or not fulfill His promises. We can trust His spoken word. So if we can trust His spoken word what about his written word. Well lets look at it from this perspective. You have 40 people, and you tell them I want you to go to 3 different continents and write a story using your past life, or things that have happened to you. I want you to be inspired by your life. now lets bring them back together. I bet you have 3 different stories that don’t intersect. They are all different, all of them having a different style, conclusion and nothing the same.

We know that the bible was written by 40 different people, 1600 years 3 continents and 3 different languages and yet there is a weave through it all. It all points to Jesus, it all shows the goodness of the lord.

There are what we call in todays word cross refernces. You can begin to dive into God’s word and you see cross references from one thing to another from one verse to another in 2007 two guys begin by taking verse and creating a link between them. They find one verse in Genesis that is linked to a verse in exodus, and one in judges, and that same verse is linked in Matthew and John and Paul uses it in Ephesians and John uses it in Revelation. Its a link between all those features. I want to show you that image now

63,779 cross references

The bar chart that runs along the bottom represents all of the chapters in the Bible, starting with Genesis 1 on the left. Books alternate in color between light and dark gray, with the first book of the Old and New Testaments in white. The length of each bar denotes the number of verses in that chapter (for instance, the longest bar is the longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119). Each of the 63,779 cross references found in the Bible are depicted by a single arc - the color corresponds to the distance between the two chapters, creating a rainbow-like effect. They have developed new interactive maps where you can lick on a references and see the arc or you can take 2 books of the bible and see the links between them. So we know that there is a constant message weaved throughout the book. So now that we have established the spoken word of God true, and now we see the connection into the book. I want to pause here for a moment and explain something I think is vital for us to understand. We have two ways God speaks through is spoke and written. The written we know is the bible and the spoken is what He says. I want to make it abundantly clear that God still uses both things to communicate with His people. His written word as our authoritative rule of faith and conduct and his spoken in time word. Where God speaks to us. This may be audible, it may be spirit to spirit, but God still speaks to us today.

So God’s word does God’s word ever talk about his word?

Hebrews 4:12 ESV

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Lets beak this down Gods word both is spoken and written word

Living: To be alive, to be alive you must have breath. The breath of God is what makes his words come alive. So God’s word both written and spoken are alive. They have breath they are always living.

Active: effective, capable of doing, powerful.

So God’s word is alive and breathing and able to do its powerful its active its going its doing. It truly is Is55:11

Isaiah 55:11 ESV

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

There is a discernable difference between someone that has taken God’s word at is value and others who pick and choose through God’s word. When we as a foundation of who we are take God’s word in our lives it will change us. It will give us new understandings, It will allow us to see different things. There are times in my own life when I have read a passage of scripture and it meant nothing to me then there are times when i have read that same passage it blew me away. Why because his word is alive and active. Its always breathing and bringing life and its always judging my life. So we cant talk about God’s word without talking about a few things. 1 God’s word deals with hot button topics…social unrest, sexuality, gender dysphoria, race just to name a few. 2.) God’s word does not change. 3.) God’s word does not contradict itself.

1.) God’s word is not only a transcript of Gods talking but the story of God’s love and generosity. It is the redemptive work of Jesus to bring man back into relationship with God. The hot button topics we are dealing with today are not new. They have been around for centuries or Millenia but we just have lost sight of God’s word and what it says about these things. For instance the topic of social injustice. Gods word talks about the orphans widows and foreigners

Jeremiah 7:5–7 ESV

“For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, If you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

When it comes to sexuality and gender issues, God’s word has a basis of accountability and a truth to it. We know that God doesn’t lie so his word wont lie, it does not change and it never will why because God doesn't change

Hebrews 13:8 ESV

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

The word of God doesn’t change.

God’s word bring us freedom from sin, the power of truth, and the ability to stand on His word and build our life, a firm foundation. We won’t stop we can’t stop!

I have learned to take God at His word. If He said it I believe it. If His word said it then I believe it. There is no compromise. There is no guiding anything else. The truth is this. If we dive into God’s Word in our lives we will truly be finding out the direction of our lives. God’s word is not just a story or a collection of stories but its the ever enduring words of the alimighty. There are a ton of things that we could go into regarding translations and paraphrases, we could argue till we were blue in the face about what is right and good. I would stick with readable and ease as you are beginning. NLT, NIV. Don’t begin with the KIng James unless you enjoy Shakespeare. However the important concept is not the translation but the transformation God’s word has on you. It will transform you. His word doesn’t just sit in us and make us bloated. His word is meant to be lived out. You don’t get a new car and park it in the garage under cover and go drive your old jallopy and wish you were driving the nice new one. NO you park the old Jallopy and drive the nice one why because you have a new car show it off. WE tend to do the same thing with our scripture reading. We tuck it away as to say when i need it it will be there are we live according to our ideas and our professional opinions. I’ll be honest I don’t need professional opinions I need the opinion of the one who was hung on the tree. I want the word of the Lord to be my guide. I want the word of the lord to be my light in my life. I want to keep His word at the forefront of my life and keep pushing. There is a level of accountability when we read GOd’s word. Because of its ability to be living and active it will transform us. Now let me pause here and say that there is nothing wrong with bible devotions. A small passage of scripture to injest and maul over. However something happens when we actually sit down and read God’s word not blurred by someone else’s ideas but ask the Spirit of God to reveal the concepts hidden in the word and allow them to transform us. There is a level of accountability because it will change you. There is a level of transformation in every word on every page. WE must ask God to show us and change us. You want to get real honest and real truthful for a moment. The reason some of us are ok with status quo and not wanting it to change is because you are ok with the things in your life and you enjoy them. You know that GOd would ask you to remove them or give them up and you don’t want to. You will never enter the KIngdom of God on your own. You may say Pastor that’s not nice and to be honest. I don’t care. Sin is sin and you can’t work your way into heaven. You can not work your way in the KIngdom of God you can’t buy your way into the kingdom of God. You can’t talk your way into the kingdom of God. You are called to be transformed. He will clean your heart and clean your spirit. You say pastor I messed up every time I try. Have you ever taken a step of faith. It feels as if you are stepping onto nothing. Your brain says no your spirit says yes…YOu step and see what happens. I believe that today will be a day of breakthrough for some. You will give up things you have held onto for years and you will never go back because you are transformed by God’s word. You will not stop in the middle. You will stand your ground and you will obey the voice of the Lord in your life. Some God may be asking to give up friends, or keep your mouth shut when you want to run it. Others may be dealing with gossip and the sins of self. Some may be dealing with affairs and sexuality. Today God wants to deliver you. Today God wants to free you. His word will transform us. Your purpose is not just survive, your purpose is not just to get by. God wants to activate in this place a faith that is unshakable. A faith that says God said it so I believe it. A faith that keeps going when everything says to stop. You may say if everything says to stop we should stop. NO I trust God as the one who leads not me. I trust his guidance. If He says stop we stop. If says to we go. If he says to speak we speak. If he says be silent we are silent. Our goal is not to be rigid or unhappy but my goal is to be transformed and full of grace and truth just as Jesus was. You see He is my example. He is the one who speaks into my life. There are things today that you think are dead or have died a long time ago that GOd wants to bring life to today. There are things that seem as if they are not passable that GOd wants to provide for. He wants to make a way where there is none. The direction of your life will be deteremined by your direction this morning. If you are willing to commit and willing to dive it. I promise you there will be a new trajectory on your life. The place some of you ahve been longing to God will take you today. The place that some of you have been longing to go or preparing to go God will change your direction. Some of you have been taking the way of the easy path, you have engaged as far as you hope, you have created loopholes and outs that were never meant to be. You have created a space that seems only to benefit you. Today GOd’s asking that you turn and see the ways and take the one He is asking you to take.

So how can we looking at prayer as our priority and missions as our heartbeat and knowing that it all begins with me deal with God’s word. It is impossible to eat an elephant in one bite. So we must learn to take God’s word in bite size moments. How do we do that, We intentionally spend time in God’s word. So I have 3 phrases I have adopted into my life and into the life of the church. These 3 phrases will be our guiding factor as we dive further into Missions as our heartbeat and prayer as our priority. Those phrases are this

1.) Consistency beats Intentionality EVERY single time!

Water on a rock explanation!

2.) Start small but START NOW!

a small growing plant

3.) Be BOLD Don’t STOP!

in a lion in pit on a snowy day

So today we are going to issue a challenge to you. This challenge is for the next 30 days to commit to 5 days a week 15 minutes a day of reading God’s word. I’m not looking for you to ingest 6 chapters a day and 3 books and 4 hours in prayer. NO I am asking for consistency 15 min a day 5 days a week. If you do not want to know more about Jesus then don’t step up and take the challenge. If you want to stay status quo then don’t take the challenge. You want to find out more about God then take the challenge, you want to allow God’s Spirit to guide you then take the challenge. AM i saying that if you don’t take the challenge those things wont happen no but consistency beats intensity every single time.

Start small 15 min a day 5 days a week. Start now. Don’t wait don’t wait till its perfect timing but start

Be bold… don’t stop. 30 days goes quick but it also is a grind….don’t stop be bold ask God to reveal things to you Ask God to reveal his word….

If prayer is our priority….Mission is our heartbeat our guiding principles consistent beats intensity start small start now and be bold don’t stop!

So today’s altar is simple.

The worship team is going to begin to play

#1 Salvation God is savior of my life

#2 Dedication God is Lord of my life

#3 Pursuit God is the one I want more than anything

#4 sign the challenge paper as you feel the Lord leading you. This is between you and God not me and you not your spouse and you but you and God. You must choose if you are up to the challenge.

The words of God which you receive by your ear, hold fast in your heart. For the Word of God is the food of the soul.

Saint Gregory I

If you believe what you like in the Bible, and reject what you like, it is not the Bible you believe but yourself.

Saint Augustine of Hippo

697 The Bible does not thrill, the Bible nourishes. Give time to the reading of the Bible, and the recreating effect is as real as that of fresh air physically.

Oswald Chambers (Lecturer and Missionary)

I know the Bible is inspired because it inspires me.

Dwight Lyman Moody (Evangelist)

The Bible is not antique, or modern. It is eternal.

Martin Luther (Founder of the German Reformation)

Psalm 119:105 declares, 'Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.' Imagine walking in a dark forest, unsure of where to step next, and suddenly a beam of light illuminates your way. That's what God's Word does in our lives—it dispels darkness and provides clarity when we face uncertainty. Many can testify to how a single verse conveyed exactly what they needed at the right moment, turning confusion into peace.