Expecting God To Work Through His Word

Expecting God To Work Through His Word

For our guests, this series called Expect God. The atmosphere of God's people should be expectancy - The bible calls it faith - in God. This series is to encourage and nourish a faith-filled expectancy in God in our lives. This morning is the first in a two part message on the word of God.

1 Thessalonians 2:13

Paul says that when the Thessalonians received God's word - that is, when the Word of God was preached to them - they accepted it, not as man's word, but as God's Word. That is ultimately how each of us became Christians - not just because we heard God's word - but because we accepted it as God's word. Though God's word is objectively powerful, it doesn't begin its redemptive work in a person's life until that person hears the word with a faith that believes that it is the very word of God - as if God Himself were speaking that to me directly. It's not enough the hear God's Word - you need to hear God's Word!

Different kinds of hearing

Not all hearing is the same. In the parable of the four soils, Jesus said at the end of it, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." What's he mean? There is a great crowd around him - everyone's got ears, Jesus. Except for a few deaf people, all of them can hear.

In fact, everyone in the parable hears the Word. The first person, second person...they all hear. The first person hears and forgets immediately and their seed is stolen. The second hears and has no depth of faith, when persecution comes they fall away. The third hears but the cares and concerns of the world choke out the fruit of the seed. The fourth hears and "accepts" - this is the same root word that Paul uses about the Thessalonians.

A person doesn't hear God's Word in a way that saves until they accept it by faith as the very word of God. We hear gospel of Jesus and believe it - God's word. God is the one who opens our ears and hearts. Faith is the gift of God.

But hearing God's word and accepting it as God's word doesn't begin and end at conversion. To hear and to accept needs to be the ongoing practice of Christian. Paul says that God's Word is at work - energeo - effectively, powerfully, at work in those who believe. It didn't stop working when you got saved - it is still working in believers. In other words, keep your ears open! Keep hearing and reading and meditating and accepting God's word as the very words of God - for that is what they are.

The danger for many Christians is that we grow familiar with the Word of God and we grow apathetic to it. Something I hear a lot from honest believers is this: I don't read the Bible as much as I should. Or, and this happens to me a lot, when I read it, I am distracted with other thoughts - my eyes are passing over words, but I really am not absorbing much of it, and (again if I'm honest) on a day to day basis it is not really having as much effect on my life as I know it should. My ears grow dull. I fail to hear the Word as very words of God.

God's word is powerful. Effective. At work. Power is released when we accept - and that's ongoing. We need to come to God's word with the expectation that God will work through His word. Expect God in His word.

I. Expect God to reveal Himself as God through His Word
The Bible is not primarily about man. Its not about how to succeed or raise a family or how to love yourself. The Bible is about God. He reveals Himself and exalts Himself in His Word. And a high view of God is so good for our souls. The air we breath is so full of man - often our air is so full of ourselves - and its toxic to our souls. We need to be pointed to something higher and greater and more glorious. God.

There is a book out there with title, "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat". It's not a funny book - there is a real psychological disorder called visual agnosia. People see things but cannot make the connection between what they see and the meaning of what they see. A man really thought his wife was a hat rack. I've haven't read the book so I don't what he thought the hat rack was...

But we all have spiritual agnosia - one of the effects of the fall is that we do not understand Who God is. The greatest insanity of sin is that we think God is no big deal. If people believe in Him at all, they often think of Him as irrelevant to real issues of life. Or less important than my personal happiness or desires. For many it's not that they don't believe in God - just that the God they believe in is imminently ignorable. Even in the church there is a reduced vision of God - as Michael Card once said, Jesus is no longer stumbled over, he's just stepped over. We need to go back to the Bible for a greater vision of who God is.

When we hear God say things like Isa. 45, "I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides Me there is no other God...I form the light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things" (Isa 45:5;7) it is meant to clear our vision so that we see a glimpse of God for who He is - and see ourselves for who we are - small. There words are meant to crush and humble our hearts with His infinite power and glory so that we "tremble at His word". That is good for us!

a. Glory of God in creation

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. PS 19:1

All of creation declares stuff about God. When we walk on a beautiful summer day with birds singing and sun shining and clouds billowing, we see God reflected in His handiwork. He is glorious. Majestic. Beautiful.

One day I realized the opposite is true too. When a category five hurricane slams into the coastland, devastating buildings, whipping up waves of 20 or 30 feet - we see a frightening display of the power and destruction of God reflected in a small way in creation.

And it's more than just that He is over creation - He is the very power that holds creation together.

Sometime this month physicists will fire up an underground loop that will send opposing streams of subatomic particles at nearly the speed of light in the hopes that as they crash and explode a theoretical particle, never detected but long believed in, will be revealed. That particle is sometimes called the "God particle" because it is physicist's attempt to explain how particles without mass can amount to bodies with mass such as stars and mountains and people. It is theorized that the "God particle" produces a field that sticks particles together - literally providing the glue that holds particles together and lends mass to massless particles.

Whether discover the "God particle" or not, Word of God tells us:

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Col. 1:17 (ESV)
More than just relevant to our lives - holds our lives together. If stopped - we'd cease!

b. The glory of God in Christ

In gospel we see a far greater glimpse of God's glory. In Christ and His cross we see the glory of God from a different angle. He is a compassionate and merciful God. The One who created all things humbled Himself and became a man. Subjected Himself to be hated and mocked and crucified for our sins so that we might never need to know the fury of God's wrath. Out of love, Jesus faced the category 5 hurricane in our place!

The thessalonians saw this:

You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. 1 Thess. 1:9-10

Here's the work that God does in us as we grow in our knowledge of the greatness and glory of God: our strength and confidence when we read promises like these also grows:

The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalm 18:2 (ESV)

GOD IS OUR REFUGE AND STRENGTH,
A VERY PRESENT HELP IN TROUBLE.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Psalm 46:1-3 (ESV)

It's good to have an exalted view of God - to realize how small we are. It's good for our soul. You need to expect God to reveal Himself as God to you - and it does a work in us that is good.

II. Expect God to guide us through His truth

Over and over God's word claims to be the truth.

• Teach me your way O Lord that I may walk in Your truth - Ps. 86:11
• The sum of your word is truth and every one of your righteous rules endures forever. Ps. 119:160

Truth is precious. Prov. 23:23 implores us to buy truth and do not sell it. Truth doesn't bend. Truth doesn't compromise. Truth doesn't hold up the finger to test the winds of popular opinion. Truth is truth whether or not the majority believe it - it crushes those who try to contradict it. It guides those who try to learn from it.

a. truth slices us open

This past week, Reverend Jesse Jackson was embarrassed when he was caught saying derogatory things about Obama on an open mic. He apologized and they worked it out, but I must admit I find it amusing to hear how these politicians backpedal: I misspoke, I erred in judgment, what I said doesn't reflect my truest and deepest held values. Hogwash. What you said then probably reflects your values more accurately than any written speech ever given! Don't you wish they'd just stand up and say, I didn't realize the mic was hot, but I meant every word!

We live with illusion that we can PR through life. Bible says that God's word is the open mic in our lives:

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. 13And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Hebrews 4:12-13 (ESV)

One day every thought and motive will be broadcast - no dancing around the truth. But good news is that God's word can slice us open now and reveal our sin and convict us so that we can be changed and set free from sin. Cuts us open, not to kill us, but like surgeon opens up a cancer victim to remove cancer, God's word does surgery to remove cancer of sin and falsehood from us.

Work of God in lives through truth doesn't hurt or bind us - it sets us free:

• So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Jn 8:31-32

When the Jews protest that they have never been slaves, Jesus counters that everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. Sin makes slaves of its followers. Greatest bondage is bondage to sin. Jesus sets his followers free from that horrible bondage.

First by being set free from the penalty of sin: eternal death. His death on the cross took that penalty for us so that we never have to face the penalty for our sin before a righteous God. Set free forever.

There is also a progressive experience of freedom from slavery to sin as we fill our heart and minds with God's word. Truth begins to shift our thinking so it aligns with truth. And that has tremendous power to set us free. God urges us to read and to think. Thinking is hard work - it's why we'd rather read the newspaper than Bible. Nothing guides our lives more powerfully than how we think.

The primary power of truth isn't how it makes us feel - it's how it makes us think.

There seems to be a tendency among Christians to invest a lot of power in how they feel. In fact we often define power in how it makes us feel. Was it a powerful meeting? Let me evaluate how it made me feel. Reason why we think that feelings are so powerful - because of how they make us feel!

Feelings make a lousy compass. There are many people who live their lives by compass of their feelings. The problem is that our feelings are fallen. They are not reliable gauges. They lead us into swamplands because often what feels good or right or true simply isn't.

God works through the truth of His word as we accept word as very word of God and thinking aligns with His truth. Clarity and strength comes with truth. It is the compass that guides us through fog and protects us from reefs.
Truth forges convictions - which are not strong feelings, but strong resolutions built on what we believe is true. Convictions don't act based on how it makes me feel. Convictions are willing to pay a price - to be laughed at or stand alone or suffer loss, not because feels good - doesn't - because it's right. What we believe is true.

Conclusion:

When we fail to spend time in God's word - reading, chewing, meditating, thinking about it, we gut every other aspect of our Christian life of its power. Our prayers become foggy, our desire to be led by the Spirit becomes a dangerous life of living by impressions and promptings. Our thoughts become thick with our own thoughts rather than God's thoughts.

Through His word, God is at work powerfully and effectively in our lives. Let's come to His word daily, consistently, undistractedly, so that we can hear the very word of God. Let's expect God to work in us through His word.

Ask yourself:

In your quiet time - do you come expecting God to speak. Do you have a heart that listens, even trembles?
Do you study - I felt months ago I wanted to do a study of Leviticus and then Hebrews cause they are related. BUt I got busy and failed to do that. We need to carve time out to do that - not because of a message series or because study applies to something I'm going through - because it's God's Word and it is good to study and hear.

Don't feel need to begin with massive scholarly effort. Take smaller but consistent steps to learn and study and meditate and think about God's Word.

Than watch the work God will do in your life! Expect it!