Daniel 4 True Faith: Faith Bears Fruit Pt. 2

Intro

What does a Christian look like?

How should someone who calls themselves a Christian live?

Its pretty simple. Be holy, for I am holy (1 Peter 1:16).

But here’s what’s ironic. When you start saying things like that, there is going to be immediate push back of “That’s legalism.”

You’re being religious. You’re being pharisee.

Don’t you know Jesus ate with sinners.

100%. Amen.

Every single one of us was a sinner. And in his grace Jesus brought us to the table to eat bread and wine and give us eternal life.

To eat His flesh and His blood by trusting in Him and His sinless life, sacrificial death, and bodily resurrection.

But what happens after dinner? Go and sin no more.

Be holy, for I am holy (1 Peter 1:16).

But how do you do that?

Here’s the problem. And Here’s what I’m hoping to answer in this sermon.

A lot of Christians don’t even know what it means to be holy.

All they have ever been taught is an incipient form of Antinomianism.

This idea that everything is grace, grace, grace, grace, grace, grace, grace.

And listen, I love grace. We’re Calvinists. That’s kind of our thing.

But what Antinomianism does is it says because God saved you by grace and because God will always forgive you by grace, you don’t really need to worry about holiness.

That’s for religious people. Self-righteous hypocrites. People that try to earn God’s love.

And here’s the dirty little secret. All that is is wanting to be loved by the world.

If we start talking about holiness the world will start to think we are judgmental, mean, or worse, weird.

And, without even realizing it, they start to join the world to trample the holiness of God all the while denying the gospel’s power to actually save sinners from their sin.

And because of that, how many Christians get left in the dust.

Stuck in spiritual infancy, wallowing in their sin, wanting to be free, but never actually learning how to be holy.

And here’s why that’s so sad.

They start to wonder if they’re the problem.

Wondering why God doesn’t just save them like it looks like He saves everybody else.

Maybe He doesn’t love them as much as other Christians.

Or maybe its them. Maybe they aren’t good enough or maybe they are just a really bad Christian and God is always disappointed with them.

Maybe that’s you. Maybe you want to be holy, but you feel like you just don’t know how.

Well I have good news. Christ has given every Christian the fullness of life. Its not a secret. Its not something that’s reserved for everybody else.

Its for you.

And hopefully today, by God’s grace, you will know that life and how you can have the fullness of joy in Christ.

What does it look like to live a godly life?

True Faith bears Fruit.

That’s not legalism. That’s discipleship.

We’re not saying that living a holy life will save you.

We are saved by grace not by works.

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

But what does verse 10 say?

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

True Faith bears Fruit.

And that fruit is a holy life.

The question is how? What does that look like?

Daniel 4 gives us an answer.

Of all people, Nebuchadnezzar gives us a picture of what true faith looks like.

Now, if you remember from last week, I personally think Nebuchadnezzar was saved in this chapter.

That he repented of His sin and trusted in God for grace and mercy.

But even if you don’t agree. Even if Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t personally saved, his redemption and restoration to his kingdom is clearly given to us a type of the salvation that God gives every sinner in Christ.

So over the next two weeks, we are going to look at 5 fruits of true, genuine, saving faith and the practical application of how you actually live those out.

How you can actually live a godly life in Christ, by the power of the Spirit to the glory of the Father.

And this morning we are going to look at three.

True Faith...

First... Worships God Alone.

Second...Repents of Sin.

And Third...Practices Righteousness.

Let’s start with Point number 1...

I. True Faith Worships God Alone

Daniel 4:34, 37 At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation...Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.

Last week we talked about how this was Nebuchadnezzar’s profession of faith and repentance.

Up until this point, Nebuchadnezzar worshiped himself.

His greatest fear was that his kingdom would be crushed to dust by Christ and the Kingdom of God.

He set up an idol representing the glory of himself and his kingdom and commanded everyone to worship it or else they’d be throne into a burning fiery furnace.

And two previous times, Nebuchadnezzar recognized God’s glory, he confessed it, but he never confessed it with a personal trusting faith.

In Daniel 2 Nebuchadnezzar said “Daniel, truly your God is God of gods and Lord of kings,” but in his heart Nebuchadnezzar did not repent (Daniel 2:47).

He saw the stone not cut with human hands that would destroy the kingdoms of men and grow to be a mountain that fills the whole earth.

He knew Jesus was King. He just didn’t want him to be his King.

In chapter 3, he saw Christ save Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the burning fiery furnace.

He knew Jesus saves, but he still didn’t repent. Instead he just said Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who has sent his angel and delivered his servants (Daniel 3:28).

But all that changed in chapter 4. God judged Nebuchadnezzar for his pride.

God poured out insanity on Nebuchadnezzar and drove him from his kingdom to live like an ox with the beasts of the field.

And when God redeemed him, Nebuchadnezzar finally repented of glorifying himself and gave glory to God.

Daniel 4:2 I want to show you the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. Look how God saved me!

And verse 37, I praise and extol and honor the King of heaven. He’s the King. His heavenly Kingdom is over my earthly kingdom.

True faith worships Christ as Savior and King.

He alone saves us from our sin, and He alone is the Lord of our life.

To Him belongs all the glory.

That’s what it means to worship God alone. We stop living for ourselves, and start living for Him.

The alone part we’ve covered throughout the book of Daniel.

There can be no other gods.

Whether that’s idols of our own hearts or the gods of the world, we cannot bow down to them no matter how much our flesh or the world rages at us to do so.

But what does it mean to worship? That’s a funny question isn’t it? How do we worship God?

We know what we can’t do, but what do we actually do?

Would you know how to answer that?

If someone came up to you and asked you, “How do I worship God?” What would you say?

I think this is one of the biggest bonfires burning the American church down today.

Christians don’t know how to actually worship God.

They think worshiping God is just going to church or doing x, y, z religious thing.

And listen, worshiping God does include those things, but its not just those things.

Isn’t all of your life suppose to be a life of worship?

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (Romans 12:1).

How do we worship God?

Its amazing that worshiping God is our highest calling and greatest purpose as the church, and most churches don’t even know what it means.

That just shows us how far we have fallen and how much we have bent the knee to the world.

The reason why the church is lukewarm is because our worship is ice cold.

The sad state of the church today, and why our witness is so weak in the world is because we don’t know what it means to worship God.

And here’s the thing. That’s not their fault.

And if you’re sitting here today wondering what it means to worship God, that’s not your fault.

That’s on pastors. Its our job to disciple you and and shepherd the people of God to worship God.

To preach the glory of our great so that our worship would be great.

So let me show you.

Go to John 4:23

John 4:23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

When Jesus said that true worshipers will worship the Father, the force of the verb is a little bit stronger than that.

Its more like true worshipers will and must worship.

So its not just talking about the kind of worship God prefers. This is talking about the only kind of worship God accepts.

So if you want to worship God alone, you must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

We’ve heard that verse. Its familiar to us. But what does it actually mean?

Spirit

Let’s start with spirit.

The word spirit is not talking about the Holy Spirit. Now its true. We worship God through Christ in the Spirit.

But what Jesus is talking about here is the inward person.

True worship is not just going through a bunch of religious rituals and exercises.

God doesn’t want us to just be religious. To just go through the motions. The Pharisees had that for miles, and Jesus called them white washed tombs.

In other words, they looked clean on the outside, but they were dead on the inside.

God wants our heart.

Quoting Isaiah Jesus said, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me (Matthew 15:8-9).

Spiritual worship, true worshipers, worship God from the heart.

And then out of the heart, the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45).

When our heart is right, our worship is right.

Its not that religious rituals are bad as we are going to see.

You should go to church. You should take the Lord’s Supper. You should sing to God.

But if all that religion is disconnected from a heart that truly loves and honors God, its all for nothing.

Its hypocrisy. Its all for show.

But if we practice those things with a true heart, those rituals become white water rapids where the overflow of our heart and love for God bursts forth.

True worshipers worship God in spirit. Not only that, they worship God in Truth.

Truth

Now this involves worshiping God in the ways He has commanded us to worship.

In other words, that we don’t get worship God in whatever way we feel like it and call it worship.

That there are things that God has commanded.

Prayer.

Obeying Him.

Honoring His Word.

Singing Psalms, Hymns, and spiritual songs.

Celebrating Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Sure, you can worship God while you bake cookies or go out to the woods.

But we cannot substitute those things for what God has actually commanded and fool ourselves into thinking we are worshiping God.

We worship God as He has commanded because doing so says He is Holy and our worship is meant to serve Him, not ourselves.

But I want to focus on worshiping God in Truth as worshiping God for who He has revealed Himself to be in Christ.

Colossians says He is the image of invisible God and in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily (Col. 1:15, 2:9).

So first and foremost, worshiping God in truth means we must worship God through Jesus Christ.

Jesus said John 14:6 I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

You cannot worship God or draw near to His throne unless you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ because no sinner may see God’s face and live.

You must be forgiven through faith in the gospel that Jesus died in your place for your sins and rose again from the grave three days later.

But Jesus is the Word incarnate. The Word made flesh.

And here’s why that’s significance. You’ll get people today that say, Well I like Jesus but I don’t like the rest of what the Bible says. I’m a red letter Christian.

The only problem with that is that the Incarnate Word does not contradict the written Word.

All Scripture is breathed out by God (2 Tim. 3:16).

What that means is that we don’t get to pick and chose who we want God to be.

We worship Him as He has revealed Himself to be.

But what you’ll get is Churches that will try to soften who God is according to His Word to make Him more appealing to the world.

They will emphasize his love, grace, and mercy while completely ignoring His righteousness, holiness, and wrath against sin.

Dear Christian, that is called idolatry. God said you shall not make any graven image, and that includes imagining a God that suits our own fancies.

When we pick and choose from Scripture the God we worship, all we are doing is taking off our golden jewelry to make a golden calf.

Our God has made Himself known and who He is is Holy, Just, Righteous, and Good.

Our job, our call, our command, is to worship Him in truth.

To see who He truly is, and give Him all glory for it.

So if we want to worship God, must worship God in spirit and in truth.

And that means we must worship Him 1. From the heart

2. In the ways He has commanded

3. As He has revealed Himself to be in all of His glory

4. Through Jesus Christ.

True Faith worships God alone.

Next, point number 2...

II. True Faith Repents of Sin

Daniel 4:27 Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.

This is Daniel speaking to Nebuchadnezzar after interpreting his dream that prophesied Nebuchadnezzar would be driven from the kingdom to live like an ox.

And his point was, Nebuchadnezzar repent. Break off your sins. Cast them away. Throw them as far from you as you can!

And that’s such a great image of what God commands us to do with our sin.

True faith throws it away, and doesn’t go back to pick it up.

But how many of us, myself included, stubbornly hold on to our sins afraid of what our life might look like if we let them go.

And that’s the lie isn’t it?

That our sin is giving us something?

When we are tempted, all our sin is really saying is whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again (John 4:14), and I am here to give you life and give it abundantly (John 10:10).

Our sin is a lie. Its a broken cistern that promises to satisfy our all of our thirst, but fills our mouth with sand.

True Faith repents.

When Martin Luther posted the 95 theses and sparked the reformation, the very first thing on that list to Reform the Church was all of a Christian’s life is one of repentance.

You’re going down a road. You’re on a path. Heading towards sin, death and destruction.

And repentance is, by God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, turning around and going the opposite direction.

But how do you do that?

A lot of Christians feel stuck in their sin because no one has ever discipled them how to repent.

How do you put your sin to death? How do you really break it off?

Conviction

It all starts with the difference between godly grief and worldly grief.

2 Corinthians 7:10-11 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment!

What we are talking about here is how we respond to conviction.

The Holy Spirit lives in us and He convicts us of sin, whether that’s sin we’ve done or sin we are being tempted with.

If you are going on in your life and you come to a head, a point where you know what you want to do in your flesh and immediately this pressure that you know that’s the wrong path to take, that’s the Spirit.

He is warning you of sin through your conscience and right there in that moment is the opportunity to turn back. To stop going that way, and run towards Christ.

And sometimes we don’t listen and we sin. And we know we did wrong. The Spirit convicts us on the back end that we did something we shouldn’t have done, that we violated God’s Law and we need to repent and put it to death.

The question that determines our repentance is how will we respond to that conviction?

Worldly grief produces death.

Worldly grief feels bad about the sin, doesn’t like the sin, but doesn’t hate the sin.

It hates the problems sin causes. It hates the feeling guilty or all the trouble it causes in our life with the people around us.

If you’re sinning against your spouse its probably going to lead to some hard times.

Worldly grief says I’m sorry and just wants to move on without actually dealing with the sin or putting it to death.

Godly grief on the other hand, hates the sin, not just the effects of sin.

The key there is that it produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret.

There is no wishing we could still have that sin with godly grief.

There is only a burning desire to be rid of that sin once and for all because it offends the God who has loved us so much and sent His Son to die for sins just like that one.

Listen to this picture of godly grief from Psalm 38.

Psalm 38:2-8 For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness, I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning. For my sides are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

And that kind of grief, in the heart of a Christian produces an earnestness in us to put that sin to death. An indignation, fear, longing, and zeal to be rid of it once and for all.

So the question is, how do you hate your sin?

Do you have godly grief or do you have worldly grief?

If you have worldly grief, the answer isn’t just to be comfortable with your sin until the Spirit truly convicts you.

Just because conviction is a work of the Spirit’s grace, doesn’t mean we just passively accept our sin.

Pray to God and ask him to change your heart about that sin, that one that you just keep falling into and can’t seem to let go, to make you hate it with godly grief.

And once you have godly grief, you confess.

Confession

Confession is a lost art in the church today.

Because being authentic in community has been peddled for years and years, we’ve replaced confession with just feeling bad about your sin. Worldly grief.

But what is true confession. Its not just telling God and the person you sinned against “Sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.”

It is that, but its much more than that.

True confession is agreeing with God about your sin. God what I did was evil, wicked, rebellious, sinful. I need forgiveness. I don’t need a God that just says, “That’s Ok.” I need a God who will pay for my sin in Christ, and give me grace.

And here’s why that’s so important. How did you get into that sin in the first place?

We don’t fall into sin, we slide there.

We make compromise after compromise after compromise either ignoring the sin, or telling ourselves its no big deal.

We deceive ourselves.

So when we confess, we are undoing all that deception.

We are saying that every compromise that got us there was a lie, and we don’t want to go down that road again.

And here’s the beauty of the gospel.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

God is faithful. He will always forgive us.

He will never cast you out or forsake you because He is also just.

That means when you confess your sins, you aren’t having to twist God’s arm to forgive you.

Christ blood really was sufficient to pay for all of your sins. And it is only when we confess our sin that we can actually say that.

And when we confess, God cleanses us.

But confession isn’t the end of the road. Its the start. We need to move from confession to Go and sin no more, and that’s where repentance comes in.

Repentance

Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

True repentance puts sin to death. Breaks it off. Throws it as far away as possible.

The Bible says you put off the old self and put on the new.

When temptation comes you say, I’ve died to that sin. That’s not who I am in Christ, anymore.

I’m not my own, I was bought with a price. I live for Him.

But here’s the secret. You’ll never get there by white knuckling it.

A lot of Christians assume its all on them to live a holy life.

But Paul says O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?…Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (Galatians 3:1, 3).

Your salvation from beginning to end is a work of God’s grace.

That means your sanctification is a work of the Holy Spirit in you.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Phil. 2:12).

We work out what God works in.

He works in us the desire to put our sin to death, and the power to do so.

We simply live it out. Walk by the Spirit.

If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body.

So what does that look like?

When we confess, we ask God to change our hearts. Make us Hate our sin like He hates our sin.

And then, as we live, and move, and have our being, and temptation comes, we don’t try to will ourselves to obedience.

We run to the throne of grace by the Spirit.

We stop right then and there, and we pray. Holy Spirit, help me to conquer this temptation. To put this sin to death.

Unless you work a miracle in me, I will fall. God I need your help.

And you stay there. Praying to God, until He answers you.

Say you pray, temptation goes away, 30 seconds later it comes back, pray again.

We rely on the Spirit. We run to Christ in prayer. We believe God’s promise, The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still (Exodus 14:14).

And what happens. Day by day. Victory by victory. God gets all the glory.

Because when you are finally free from that sin, you will not say it was because you God your life together.

You got wiser. You got stronger.

You will only say, God was gracious to me.

That’s repentance, and...

True Faith Repents of Sin.

Point number 3...

III. True Faith Practices Righteousness

Daniel 4:27 Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.

This is the flip side of the coin of repentance.

Before Christ we were slaves of sin. But through faith and repentance, we become slaves of righteousness.

Our lives become all about obeying God and glorifying Him. That’s what true freedom is.

Well what defines righteousness?

Contrary to popular belief, righteousness is not just another word for holiness.

To be sure. If you are righteous, you are holy. And if you are holy you will walk in righteousness.

But righteousness, properly understood, is perfect moral standing against a perfect moral standard.

And that standard is God’s Law.

So righteousness means living according to all of God’s commands given to us in the Law of God which is summarized in the 10 commandments and broken down one step further in Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Love God. Love others. On these two commands all the Law and the Prophets rest.

This is why we say Christ is our righteous.

Because of sin, we are all unrighteous. We are all guilty according to the Law of God.

But Jesus came to fulfill the Law on our behalf. He lived a perfect and sinless life and then died on the cross to pay the punishment we deserved for breaking God’s Law, because the wages of sin is death.

And because Jesus didn’t have any sin of His own to die for, He became a substitutionary sacrifice for us to satisfy the wrath of God.

To take our death and give us life. He died in our place for our sins.

And through faith in Him, we are now clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

And because of that Gospel truth, what does Paul say?

Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

True faith practices righteousness.

We obey God’s Law. Not to be saved but because we have been saved.

The Law of God is not irrelevant for the Christian.

Yes, we are not under the Law but under grace. But that doesn’t mean we don’t follow the Law as the rule and standard for a holy life.

It means that we aren’t under the condemnation of the Law. God has saved us by His grace.

And immediately you’ll hear people start to say, well that’s legalism.

According to you we can’t eat pork and we all of our clothes have to be made of a single fabric.

Listen, that’s just people that don’t understand the Law.

Listen the Law is summarized by 1. Love God and 2. Love others.

And those two commands are summaries of the 10 commandments. The first four: 1. Have no other gods 2. Make no idols 3. Do not take the Lord’s name in vain, 4. Keep the Sabbath. Those are all how we love God.

The last 6: Honor your mother and Father. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal, lie or covet. That’s how we love others.

And then all the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament, all the Laws dealing with clean and unclean, sacrifices, keeping the Sabbath, we keep those laws in Christ because He fulfilled those laws.

He makes us clean. He is our sacrifice. He is our Sabbath rest.

The rest of the laws. All the judicial laws. Those are case laws. Applications of how we love our neighbor.

So we don’t keep those laws to the letter. We are not Old Covenant Israel. We are New Covenant Israel.

But we still take the principles of those laws and follow them because that’s righteousness.

We don’t convict anyone with out the testimony of two to three witnesses.

We don’t muzzle the ox while it treads out the grain by paying people that work for us a fair wage.

And the whole thing about wearing a shirt of multiple fabrics wasn’t to keep you from wearing polyester.

God gave that law to be a daily reminder, every time they put on a shirt, to say we are a holy people. We aren’t supposed to look like or partner with pagan nations.

So should Christians keep the Law, yes. We keep the Great Commandment, we keep the 10 commandments, and we live out the general equity, spiritual principles of everything else.

This is why we can say with the Psalmist, Oh how I love your Law.

It all ultimately points to Christ and the freedom He has given us through His gospel.

Its not legalism to call and expect Christians to obey God’s commands.

Because we are clearly saying doing so doesn’t save you.

Galatians 2:16 a person is not justified [that is declared righteous] by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.

Works of the Law will never save you.

But if you are saved, then works of the Law will be your life out of thankfulness to Christ for His salvation.

This is why James does not contradict Paul when he says this in James 2.

James 2:14, 17, 24 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?...So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead....You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

True faith, always, always, produces good works.

Faith by itself if it does not have works is dead.

Did not Jesus say if you love me you will keep my commands (John 14:15).

What is so sad, is that many Christians approach God’s commands as burdens they wish they could get out of.

Always looking for a loophole, always trying to justify one thing or another.

When the truth is obeying God is a joy. It is absolute freedom because it is actually living the way God created us to live.

Do you want to see someone with a living faith? Look at the fruit of their life.

Do you want to see if you are living by faith? Look at the fruit of your life.

True repentance is turning from sin to a holy life.

And that holy life doesn’t just stay bottled up in here.

Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed (Daniel 4:27).

James says, Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world James 1:27.

Righteousness has an effect on how we live in the world.

And why God says that taking care of the least of these is “true religion” is because it says we understand who God is.

The gospel shows us that we are the widow and the orphan and God did not leave us or forsake us but showed us mercy.

And when we do that for others, we are showing just how thankful for the gospel really are, and if that is our heart then righteousness, by the power of the Holy Spirit through the gospel of Jesus Christ will be the defining mark of every single area of our life.

True Faith Bears fruit. And True Faith Practices Righteousness.

Conclusion

This is what it looks like to be a Christian. This is how you live a Christian life.

We worship God alone, repent of sin, and practice righteousness because...

True Faith bears fruit.

Well this begs the question. How do you grow in your faith.

How do you grow in faith so that you can bear more and more fruit.

The Word of God.

The Necessity of the Word

Paul says Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17).

He said the Righteous shall live by faith.

And Jesus said Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).

If you want to live a faith filled holy life, you must feed on the word.

You must read it. Study it. Listen to it. Pray it. Do everything you can to bring the Word of God to bear on every area of your life.

What does God say for this, and this, and this, and then you follow it.

That’s the life of the Christian.

Being transformed by the renewal of your mind through the Word so that you can know the will of God (Romans 12:2).

After all. How can you worship God if you don’t know who He is?

How can you repent of sin if you don’t know what sins are?

And how can you practice righteousness if you don’t know what God tells us to do?

The Word of God is fundamental to the Christian life.

You can’t just eat twice a week. Once on Sundays and once in small group. You need three meals a day.

You need to constantly be meditating on the Word. Praying the Word. Living the Word.

And that can look like a lot of things. It doesn’t have to look like an hour long quiet time with a candle and some soft music.

Its not a date.

Just get in the Word. Read it for five minutes. Remember one verse or theological truth and actually pray through it. Pray it over your life.

Listen to a sermon or a podcast. Audio book or just straight up Scripture.

Sit at the dinner table and talk about what God is teaching you. Spur one another on towards Christ and encourage each other with the Word.

Whatever you do, find ways to get in the Word and bring it to bear on your life.

And I know, its hard to find time. Especially in a church of young families with kids making chaos in the house. Sometimes its all you can do to just get through the day.

But I promise you, if you took stock of your day, you would find time.

5 minutes here, ten minutes there. How much time do you get on social media? Watch TV?

Surely there is some time in the day we can find to eat our true bread and feed on Christ.

Do we hunger for the Word?

How we answer that question shows us where our priorities lie.

I know life’s busy. But as your pastor, I love you enough to tell you...

If you want to consecrate your life to the Lord you need to consecrate your time to the Word.

There is no other way to grow in your faith.

And there is no other way to glorify God, and there is no other way to bear the fruit of true faith.

Like Jesus said If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (John 8:31-32)

Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.