Believe the Word - Part 1

Well, thank you for joining us today on "Enjoying Everyday Life". I'm talking this week about the importance of studying God's word. At least that's what I talked about yesterday, and I'm gonna be talking about it again today, and tomorrow. Today, I'm talking about believing God. But believing God is believing the word. Because when you study the word, you're really studying the nature and the character of God, and his heart for his people. And so, so many people say, "Read the Bible". And yes, it's great. Read the Bible. Any chance you get, read the Bible. But we need to go deeper than that. I think that reading the Bible is kind of like the surface, but studying the Bible, you go deeper. A lot of people think because they go to church on Sunday, that, that's, "Well, I hear the word". Well, that's good, too. But you need to invest time in studying the Word of God. Mark 4:24, in the Amplified Bible, says, "And he said to them, be careful what you're hearing. The measure [of thought and study] you give [to the truth that you hear] will be the measure [of virtue and knowledge] that comes back to you, and more [besides] will be given to you who hear". I love this. It's basically saying exactly what I'm trying to say. You hear the word, be careful that what you're hearing is accurate, coming from an accurate Bible teacher. And then, the measure of thought and study that you give to that truth that you hear, is the measure of virtue and knowledge, like real knowledge. Not just head knowledge, but revelation knowledge. You know, I always say, we don't need more information. We need more revelation. It needs to get from here to here. It needs to be incorporated into our lives. We don't just need to hear it, but we need to do the work.

In John chapter 13, Jesus washed his disciples' feet. And when you get to verse 17, he said, "Knowing these things, happy are you, if you do them". See, just knowing the word, won't add the joy to our life that God wants us to have. It's the doing it. And there's power in the word to help you do it, because the Holy Spirit works through the word, and he will give you the grace to do it. But sometimes, you may have to study it for a period of time. For example, if you need to forgive someone that's hurt you, well, you might hear somebody say, "You need to forgive your enemies". Well, you might think, "Well, I can't. It's just not fair. They don't deserve forgiveness. It's too hard. It's too hard". But if you study, yourself, and it takes time. But investing time in the Word of God is just that, it's investing. It's not wasting. It's investing. Now, you know, we all have the same amount of time, and it's really up to us, what we do with it. And, you, anybody who really wants to can carve out some of their time to study the word. And when you spend time in the word, you're spending time with God. And you're not doing it for him. It's not like an obligation, or something you owe God. But you're doing it for yourself, because you're learning how to live right, and how to recognize what's right from what's wrong. And you have an enemy, a spiritual enemy, Satan, the devil, and demonic power, evil forces. And the way that they gain access into our lives is through lies and deceptions. And the only way that you can ever recognize when the devil is lying to you, is if you know the truth of God's word. I've been studying the Word of God for 45 years. And I can tell you, that it has completely transformed me. And the Bible says that we are to be transformed, that means changed from the inside out, into the image of Jesus Christ.

So, we look in the word, and we see Jesus all through it. "This is what he would do. This is what he wouldn't do". And then, as we study that, we become transformed. Well, if I really wanna forgive somebody but I'm having a hard time doing it, I don't need to just say, "Well, I can't, it's too hard," or, "I've tried and it doesn't work". I need to just keep studying those scriptures. Keep meditating on those scriptures. Keep thinking about those scriptures until I'm able to follow through and do what the word tells me to do. One of the best decisions that you can never make, for yourself, is to stop hating people and stop being mad at them. What's the point in hating somebody that's out having a good time, and couldn't care less if you're mad. Maybe they don't deserve your forgiveness, but you do deserve peace and joy. And so, you do yourself a favor, and forgive. Now, the word "Believe", Jesus said, "You believe in God, believe also in me". You can believe or you can doubt, it's up to you. And I just wanna start by saying if... You have to make a decision that you're gonna believe what the word says, because the word says it, not because you think it's right, or you feel it's right. This is not about head knowledge. It's about revelation knowledge. You can't figure everything out. There's a lot of things that God tells us to do that just, plain, don't make any sense. Like, if you wanna have more money, you gotta give away some of what you've got. Well, anybody will think, "Well, that makes no sense. If I give away some of what I got, I'm gonna have less". Well, in the world, that's the way that works. But not in God's kingdom. In God's kingdom, you give first, and then, you receive actually, more back than you gave. He says, "The first will be last and the last will be first". Well, that doesn't make much sense either. "Forgive people who have hurt you, who have abused you, and treated you unjustly". The Bible says that when we do that, that, "God is a God of justice and he will bring justice into our life. He will be our vindicator". Why spend your life trying to get somebody back that hurt you? When, if you turn the whole situation over to God, he can take care of it, and you can be happy and enjoying your life in the meantime. But I have several scriptures here, all that talk about just believing, and I want you to listen to these. "Then Jesus said to the centurion", Matthew 8:13: "'go. And let it be done just as you believed it would be'". Wow. So, he says, "You're gonna get what you believe". "Be it unto you even as you have believed". Wow, think about that. Well, sometimes, it wouldn't be surprising, what you ended up with, if you looked at what you believe. You say, "Well, I can't help it". Yes, you can. You can believe the word, or you can doubt the word, it's up to you. "And his servant was healed at that very moment". "Be it unto you even, as you believe". You know, if you're a negative person, that's always finding something to grumble and complain about, never happy. You're a doubter, and you're gonna have a miserable life. But if you say, "Yes, I've got problems. There's problems everywhere. Problems everywhere you look. But God is greater. I believe that God is greater. And I believe that God is for me, and not against me.

I believe the Word of God, and I believe that God will take everything that happens to me and make it work out for my good," if you believe those kinda things and you're full of hope, then you're gonna have good things happen to you. If you don't, then you're gonna also get what you believe and just keep having problems, after problems, after problems. I had, had so many bad things happen to me, in the younger years of my life, that I actually, got to the point where I expected bad things to happen. And that's exactly what I got. And I had to learn how to believe the Word of God, and believe the promises of God. There's over 7000 promises in the Word of God. Surely, you can find a whole bunch of them that you can get in agreement with, and believe. Mark 9:23, "Everything is possible for the one who believes". Now, I added in here, "Everything the word promises, is possible for those who believe". "Be it unto you, even as you believe". Well, that has to be within God's will. I'm not gonna become a multi-billionaire just because I decide to believe that I'm gonna be one. God has a will for us. And he has promised to meet our needs, and I can believe that. I can say, "God's gonna meet my needs, according to his riches, in glory by Christ," because he promises that he will in Philippians 4:19. But even that promise is made to those who are giving into kingdom work. So, if you study the word, and you see what God is promising, and you get into agreement with that, and you believe that, and you keep believing it, and you keep believing it, and you keep believing it, then you will get it. "Therefore", Mark 11:24: "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer". Here again, it has to be according to God's will. "Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it", which this is so interesting. You believe you have received it, even though you can't see it, and you will get it. Well, see, we walk by faith, not by sight or feelings. So, we pray for something in God's will, and we believe that we've received it, in the spiritual realm. And then, while I'm waiting to get it, which is a testing time, I keep believing it, and I keep believing it, and I keep believing it. My father, who abused me, was born again at the age of 80. And Dave and I got to baptize him. And I saw him really changed. You know that I prayed for that man's salvation on and off, for a good thirty years. You believe, and you keep on believing. You ask, and you keep on asking. Mark 16:16, "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved". Believes what? Believes that Jesus is the Christ. That he bore your sins. That he died on the cross for you. That he paid the penalty that you owed. He balanced your account with God. And if you believe in him, you repent of your sins, you'll be saved. Romans 15:13, I love. Now, "May the God of hope", he is a God of hope. Not a God of hopelessness, but a God of hope. "Fill you with all joy and peace in believing". It's all over the place. "In believing". One time, I'd gotten all down, and was feeling depressed, and had lost my joy, and didn't know why. God led me to this scripture, in Romans 15:13. He said, "Well, you feel the way you feel because you stopped believing".

I had started doubting. You know, Satan will tempt you to doubt. He'll lie to you. And he'll put every negative thing in front of you, that he can come up with, that's ever happened to you. "See, there. If God loved you, that wouldn't of happened". "Now, just look at how long you've been waiting for that to happen. And look, everybody else is getting that, but you're not getting it". You have to remember to say, "Devil, you're a liar, and I believe that God's word is true". James 2:23, "And the scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness'". Wow, what did Abraham believe? Something that made absolutely no sense. God told him to leave his home, "And go to a place that I will show you, and I will make you the father of many nations". And he told him that he'd become wealthy and have many children. And all these promises, it just, I mean, imagine God saying, "Leave where you're at and go to a place I will show you". He didn't even know where he was going. But he believed God, he believed that God would guide him, and would lead him, and that God would give him a child. Well, you know, by the time he got his child, he and his wife were both long past the childbearing age. But it says, "All hope being gone, he hoped on, in faith". He kept believing God, and sure enough, he eventually had his child. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. What makes us right with God? Believing. Hebrews 11:6: what must we do to please God? "We must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him". I believe that. I believe that God is in this very room, right now. I believe he lives in me. I believe he lives in every believer. And I believe that God has got so many wonderful things planned for you, but you gotta get in agreement with him. Start agreeing with God, and stop agreeing with the enemy. Acts 16:31: "They replied, 'believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved'". And I love Hebrews 4:3. "Now, we who have believed do enter the rest of God". Oh, now, this is a big one, because the world is full of people who are just stressed out, and burned out, and they're weary, and they're worn out from worrying, and they don't... Entering the rest of God is not like, I'm not talking about laying down and taking a nap. It's an internal rest. Actually, when you study the word in the original language, it's not a rest from work but a rest in work. You see, I'm working right now. Believe it or not, this is hard work. But I'm at rest while I'm doing it. You know, why? Because I'm not worried about whether, or not, you're going to like it. I'm not worried about whether, or not, you're going to like me. I did my part. I studied. Now, I walked up here trusting God, that he would do the rest. You can enter the rest of God. It's the most wonderful place to be. Now, let's talk about our position in Christ. And I want to start by saying that, as believers, we actually, live in two places. God lives in two places, he lives in you, but he also, has a throne in heaven. "Our father, who art in heaven". And then, there's other scriptures that says, "I will come and dwell in you, and you will be my home". Well, my feet are on this platform, but I'm going to show you a scripture, in a few minutes that says, "I'm seated in heavenly places, with Christ Jesus". So, how can I be here and be there. Well, I'm here, physically, but spiritually, my heart is already in heaven. I know where I'm gonna go when it's time for me to leave this earth. And I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid of the things that are going on in the world today, because I believe that God has a timing for each one of us, and that he will take care of us if we put our trust in him.

So many people live their whole lives in fear. Ephesians 1:17-23, and I'll explain some of these I go through. "I keep asking", Paul said, "I keep asking", I like that. "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you might know him better". Well, you know what? I think we pray for a lot of wrong stuff, or we pray for things that aren't nearly as important. How many of you been praying for wisdom and revelation and to know God better? Probably not nearly as many, as have been praying to get married, or for their spouse to change, or to get a different job, or to make more money, or all the different kinds of things that we pray for. And it's okay to pray for those things. But if we have more wisdom, we'll end up knowing how to do those things and we won't even have to be praying about it. If we know God better, we're gonna quickly recognize, when the enemy's working in our lives, and when God is working in our lives. I'll give you an example. God is always gonna give you time to think about something, and make a right decision. The devil tries to push us to make quick decisions. So, even like, all this stuff that you hear on TV, "If you call in the next three minutes, you'll get this free along with your order. But you have to call in the next three minutes". Well, I don't have to do anything in three minutes. I'd rather turn down something supposedly, free, than make a mistake and put money into something, I don't need to be putting it into, because somebody told me I have to do it in three minutes. I've been through that when I've been out shopping. "Now, we've gotta sale on this, and the store is closing in 45 minutes, and if you don't get it tonight, then you're gonna miss the sale". "Well, then, I'll just have to miss the sale because I gotta think about it". The only way that we're gonna make right decisions, is if we think about it. But if you don't know God better, you won't know that. Paul said, "My determined purpose is to know him and the power of his resurrection". We need to know God's character. We need to know how to recognize when God's at work and when the enemy's at work. He said, "I pray that the eyes of your heart might be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you". Man, one thing that you can always have, if you have Jesus, is hope. Things may not be working out in your life, right now, but you can have hope. And hope means the expectation of something good. I say this every morning, "Something good is going to happen to me today, and something good is going to happen through me today". I refuse to be an old, negative, grouch who just, is always got a glass half empty, and see everything from the negative standpoint. And I used to be that way. "I pray that your eyes will be opened that you would know the hope to which he's called you, and the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people". You have an inheritance, you're a joint heir with Christ. And the Bible, teaches us that everything that Jesus has been given, from God, is also ours. "And that you might know his incomparable great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places". If the same power that raised him from the dead, dwells in you, it will quicken your mortal body. Can you believe what I'm saying here? The same power that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you. Dwells in me. So, why do we need to go around saying, "I can't do that. It's just too hard. I'm too weak. It's too hard"? No, we can do anything that God tells us to do. But we have to know what his word tells us to do. "He raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand, in the heavenly realms". When he had accomplished our cleansing of sin, and the riddance of our guilt, he sat down. You know, when God created the world, he created it in six days, and when he was finished with his work, he rested. Well, God didn't rest, because he was tired. He rested as an example to us. And we need to take one day out of seven and rest. Rest our physical bodies. Rest our souls. And Jesus, when his work was finished, he ascended on high. And the Bible, says, "He sat down". And there's significance in that, that he sat down. He entered rest. He had finished his job. But the better news is, is the Bible says that "We are seated in him". So, if he's seated, we're seated. In Romans 6, it says, "When he died to sin, we died to sin. When he was raised. We were raised". Everything that Jesus gets we get because we're in him and he is in us. You know, if you just think about that for a long time, that's enough to just get you as happy as you can possibly be. I started thinking, the other day, about Colossians, chapter one that says, "The mystery of the ages is Christ in me, the hope of glory". And I thought, "My goodness. Not only am I in Christ, but he lives in me. How wonderful is that"? That'll bring you a closeness with the Lord, that maybe you've never experienced before. You know, I want all of you to enter the rest of God. And the Bible says that "We enter the rest of God, through believing". The Israelites, in the wilderness, never entered the rest of God because they were disobedient. And they were disobedient because they didn't believe. When you believe right, then you'll live right. If you believe wrong, then you're gonna live wrong. It's a rest not from work, but in work. Hebrews 3:18, it says: "To whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if it was not to those who disobeyed"? So, we see that they were not able to enter because of their unbelief. See, if you have a problem, whatever it is, you lost your job, you don't know what you're gonna do. Well, the first temptation is to worry. I understand that. Sometimes, I have a problem with worry. The only way I know to battle that is to get out my Bible and look up scriptures about how God's promised to take care of me, and that I don't have to worry. And there's so much power in the Word of God that it will begin to dissipate that fear that's trying to take hold of me. And so, you can either multiply the problem by thinking about it, and thinking about it, and thinking about, "Well, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? How am I gonna get another job? What am I gonna do? We're gonna drown in debt, we're gonna lose our house," and all the ugly lies that the devil tries to tell you. Or you can say, "No, I'm gonna believe God, that he's gonna take care of me. He's gonna meet my needs. And he's gonna help me find a job. And not only any job, but he's gonna help me find a better job than the one that I had". Well, when you believe that, then you can enter God's rest. So, instead of worrying about it all the time, and saying all kinds of negative things, to all kinds of people, you can enter the rest of God. God will work on your problem. And you can, of course, look for a job. Pray for a job. Do your part, do everything that you're supposed to do. But trust God, when you go for interviews, to give you favor. Don't let the devil ruin your life with worry and stress. Put yourself in God's hands and believe the promises in the Word of God. But you won't know what those promises are, if you don't study the word.