We talked
about on Sunday the importance of Building our lives on the Word of God. That
is the first step in integrating the Bible into our lives. Let’s take a look at
the second step.
#2--Live by the Word of God.
The Word of
God (Bible) is not only food for your soul, the Word of God is your standard of
living. It is the Word of God that sets
the standard by which you judge everything else of value in your life. It’s the standard by which you make decisions
for the things you are facing in life. We
build our lives on something. We base
those decisions on something. It comes
when we allow the Word of God to become the standard by which we live by.
The Bible
says in Psalm 1:1-2, Oh, the joys (other
translations say “Blessed are”) of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand
around with sinners, or join in with mockers. 2 But
they delight in the law of the Lord,
meditating on it day and night.
What does
that mean? It means if you want your
life to be blessed you don’t build your life on the counsel of the world, on
the way the world thinks. But you meditate, you build your life on the way that
God thinks. It means we find out what God has to say and His reality before we act or make a decision. We thing, mediate and trust His ways.
The counsel
of the ungodly, that’s the stuff we hear all the time – on television, in
movies, in print, and in media. It’s the
talk that goes on around the world around us.
It’s the values of the world. It is extremely popular! And
the Bible says if you want your life to be blessed you don’t build your life,
you don’t live your life by that kind of counsel; but live your life, build
your life, feed your life, on the Word of God.
It’s the Word
of God that will give you hope when you’re in crisis. It’s the Word of God that will give you comfort
when you are in despair. It’s the Word
of God that will give you strength when you are weak. It’s the Word of God that will give you
wisdom when you’re confused. It’s the Word
of God that will give you guidance when you’re looking for direction. And it’s the Word of God that will give you
strength to resist when you face temptation. These are all things we will have
to walk through in our lives.
Psalm 119:11 says “I’ve hidden your word in my heart so that I might not sin against you.” He says this is the reason I’ve hidden your
word in my heart. This is what
memorizing the Bible is about. It’s about
hiding it. Taking it into my heart. He says I’ve hidden your word in my heart not
so I can just be Super Christian. But it’s
so I will not sin against you. So I can live in such a way that honors You.
Remember in Matthew 4 when Jesus was tempted? There
were three times the devil came and tempted him. And all three times Jesus only used one
weapon to defend himself. He said “It’s
written…” When the devil would tempt him
again he says, “Yeah, but it’s written.”
It is written.” It is the only
weapon he used to defend himself.
If you have
the desire to follow Jesus and be like Jesus, then we learn from how He
defended Himself. Even Jesus used the weapon of Scripture to fight temptation.
So often,
when we most need the Bible is when we don’t have a Bible with us, when we’re talking
to a friend who’s in trouble, or when we’re tempted by something or someone. We don’t have our Bible with us. That’s why we have to hide the Word of God in
our hearts. God will bring the word back
to our minds. But he can’t bring it back
to our minds if we haven’t hidden it in our hearts yet. He’ll bring the word back to your mind for
yourself, for what you’re facing. And
he’ll bring it back to your mind for what some friend of yours is facing, some
challenge that they’re up against. You
can say, but here’s what God’s Word says.
And the verse that you’ve memorized will come back to you. And you’ll be able to share that to help them
as they build their life. To help them
in their walk with Jesus Christ.
That’s why
God wants us to remember the Word with our hearts, to put it in, to memorize it,
and then to let that be the standard by which we live our lives. By which we build our lives and fight the good
fight of faith.
It is very
much like the process of making tea. Coffee is more popular here Downriver
Detroit but many still like to drink tea. Once you have hot water you but the
tea bag in your mug. As it seeps, the water absorbs the color and the flavor
and the aroma and the character of the tea. But something else happens to the
water. It takes on a whole new identity. Because we no longer call it a glass of water. We now call it a glass of tea.
When you let
the Word of Christ dwell in you richly you absorb the nature of Christ, the
flavor and the aroma of Christ. But something
else happens to you. You take on a whole
new identity and you begin to become the man or the woman of God that he has always
wanted you to become. You begin to
become the man or woman of God that you have always wanted to be when you let the
word of Christ dwell in you richly. Not only
do you know what the Word of God says, you begin to become more and more like
the author.
As we build
out lives on the Bible and begin to follow through and live the Bible we find
ourselves become stronger and stronger. We find ourselves building our lives on
the rock!! In a world that is unstable and constantly changing, we can be standing strong!!!
Adapted from thoughts from Rick
Warren and 40 Days in the Word Campaign
PS. This Sunday we launch our
new series “STORIES.” It is going to be a fun, inspiring and motivation month as we
hear many peoples stories from our church and from around the state.
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