my field cause I'm looking for a harvest for my God is real. Welcome our friends and partners to spiritual impact. This morning we're going to be studying the Word of God and I'm again I'm Associate Pastor Steve Rose and I'm here with my pastor Tim Parton. It's good to be with you today and we're excited as always about getting into the Word of God.
We're just excited about God period. I mean when you think about the God that we serve who knows us by name the great creator of the universe. How could you not be excited being a child of God? You know and today's a lesson that we're going to be studying on.
I'm excited about that because there's so many ways that we can go into it and God's given us all a job and you don't have to try to figure out what that job is. He's going to let you know. I usually try to tell people you know there's something we're all good at something. God does not leave anybody out.
So you have a gift. You have a skill. You have something that God can use. You say well I really can't do anything.
Well Moses you know what he had a stick. He had a stick and God changed that stick that staff into the rod of God. Boy that would preach all day long. So Pastor Steve I'm excited about today's lesson.
I was going to talk to you about a word and if I said this word application what pops into your head and it's probably something like this right here. An application. I was looking at these applications. I'm sitting here and going ask your name your address and your phone number so security position applied for it says are eligible to work in the USA.
You ever worked for a company? You ever been convicted for felony and when you look at these things look at education, employment history and oh references. Oh yeah. Ain't you glad that the Lord don't ask for applications when he saves you're so like that because you know there's something else on there usually they say desired salary.
So a lot of times when you're applying for job you have no idea or what they're going to pay. You know what thing about God? His word is full of the benefits and what you can expect to receive. You know what I like that.
And again but that application this application we're talking about is not this type of application today but you know when we're talking about the word of God when we talk about application we're preaching a message and teaching the word application sometimes is the hardest thing because you're looking at well this means this it says this but now how do we apply that to our lives today and that's one of the big things and I'm hoping we can get through today and talk to people about. But I was looking at the definition of what an application is it says it's a former request and authority for something. You know that's basically what this is too but you know I'm glad I'm not praying to the Lord and Savior. I'm praying to the authority.
How will they do that? He saved me by the other most by the blood. He also talks about the action of putting something into operation and guess what he did when he saved me? He put me into operation.
You know when you're applying for a job you're basically what you're trying to sell your skill set above somebody else that's applying for the same job. The beauty in God is that we're not in competition with somebody else because he only called us one person to do a specific thing nobody can be you except you. You know when you talk about that I remember the question I used to ask you on an application is now why should we pick you? That's me and you're there.
Why should we pick you over to him? But you know when you look at the word of God he says we're supposed to esteem others better than ourselves when you look at what the word of God says but that's just the difference between the application in the physical world we live in the application of the spiritual realm which we're talking about today. I like something else the word tells us that to present your body a living sacrifice wholly and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. It ain't a complicated issue.
You know if you're applying for a job most of the time they're looking for somebody with experience. God's looking for commitment and dedication. He'll train us. He'll show us what we need to do.
You know music was always something that come very easily to me. Being a pastor was totally I'll tell a little story real quick when God called us to start the church and I was praying about somebody for my associate pastor. He only gave me one name and that was yours Steve. That was yours.
So I knew that was the right one but we had talked back and forth and we were getting ready to have our first service was coming up in a week or two and you called me one night at the house and you called me pastor. So that's the first time I'd ever been calling it. You talking about that said on me like he was like a ton of bricks and I'm thinking and I'm walking around my house saying you know what God I've got to do I've got to and he stopped and he said Tim you only have to obey me. And see a lot of times we make the applications of our life so complicated but God said everything is so simple salvation and everything God does in our life that a child can understand.
God is not complicated in what he wants to do in our life. Now he's vast in himself but in the things that he wants to do in our life and everything that he wants to apply it's very simple. And so I start thinking about that when you talk about application how do you apply something to your life that you don't understand and that's why when we get in here we want to teach you the word and one of the things I pray for when we teach you the word of God is we teach it with simplicity because if we don't understand it it ain't going to do us any good. And the thing is when I look at it you know he says you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free but what he means by that only the truth you know.
I remember I used to preach the word a lot of times and I'd get back to the door and they'd come out and say that's a great sermon that you just preach and sit there and go okay tell me about it and they go well there's a good sermon and you know exactly I want to get something out of the word but I want to understand the word of God because then when you understand it then you can start to apply it to your life. Do you think a good way in studying the word pastor's eve is to actually when you take a verse put yourself in that verse absolutely and see and that's one way that I begin how does this apply to my life and suddenly you know a lot of times you'll find that that verse takes on a whole new meeting when you look at it that way absolutely. How do I apply this? What is God saying to me not just I'm not worried about the next what is he saying to me and how does this apply to what God wants in my life and when we look at that way then it becomes so much simpler to understand what the word is saying and like we said earlier it's so simple that a child can understand we know when God wants us to do something and a lot of times you know it's a willingness but if we'll be a willing and obedient, the Bible says then we eat the good land.
You don't get a paycheck till you work. They don't pay upfront and then trust you to come in and do the job. I used to work with a guy and we would get paid on Fridays every other Friday but they would pay us early and he worked the second shift and if he came in and picked up his check you could rest assured he was calling in sick on Friday evening and that's the way a lot of church people are. We call in on God a lot.
It's easy to forget that we've asked that application to our life and God expects us to be faithful in all that stuff but we make excuses. We'll find every excuse possible to not be obedient to God and what happens it's like a child. He chases those that he loves and we wonder why is this going on in my life? What we need to always look at self.
Have I been obedient? Have I been doing what God expects me to do? And God knows life is so fast paced anymore and there's so much that's going on. People look around the world and they see all the turmoil and things like that and it's easy to get distraught.
It's easy to get upset. It's easy to get into worry and have fear but we need to find a rest in God. And like you said if we've been in this word and we've been applying this word and things begin to happen in our life and say you know what what does God say about this? And I go here and I say you know what?
He said even though things are going on around me this word says that I'm blessed. That I'm blessed in the field. I'm blessed in the city. I'm blessed coming in.
I'm blessed going out. I'm blessed. He's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all but I can even ask or think. And when I'm beginning to look at those kind of scriptures then that excitement will be able to realize who I serve.
I serve the God, the only God, the living God. Amen. And you know you brought up in the original point where a lot of times we don't teach people about how to study the Word of God. A lot of times I'll sit down and I've heard people tell you they're getting into the daily reading of the Bible which is really good.
They get on a plan. And a lot of times they'll say oh I read three chapters today and I'll stop and I'll ask and tell me something about it. I read three chapters and you're going but you need to get something out of the word. A lot of times I'll sit down and ask myself questions.
Who is it talking to? What's it talking about? And really begin to get in there and begin to what I call savor the word of God. Begin to really break it down and say okay now I know what it says.
Now understand what it says. But now how do I apply that to my life? That's a good point. That's a good point.
And that's one way because I've heard you talk about this many many times at the church. And it's easy. You get the reading the word of God and then excitement that joy. A lot of times I'll read multiple chapters just because I get a joy.
But that's one thing I focus on that you know make sure that if say I read three chapters I want to get something even if it's one thought out of each chapter that I read that I can apply to my life so that I can be a better child, a better servant of God understanding more what he wants for my life. But in order to know what he wants for me I have to understand how he wants to perform that within me. Absolutely. And again that is a good point of the lesson I've already read that chapter before and after.
And again especially the verses. If I'm finding something I'm going to teach on, I'm going to preach on. I'm going to make sure that I read the verses before and after to make sure I'm the right what they call context. And I really understand what I'm getting ready to teach because sometimes we just take one verse we may be completely out of context not know exactly what we're talking about here.
But you know I want to go and share some of the word this morning and I thought let's get to one where we have here and we can go into the Word of God and look at it and I think it's kind of easy to tell you how to apply it to your life. And we find this in Matthew the seventh chapter in verse 24 through 27. The Word of God says therefore who so ever hears these things of mine and does them. How do you go?
I will lock in him into a wise man which will his house upon a rock and the rain descended in the flood's cane and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it failed not for it was founded upon a rock. And it gets in there and says and everyone that hears these things of mine and does them not shall be locking into a foolish man which built his house upon the sand and the rain descended the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it failed and great was the fall of it. Now when I look at that it tells you the application in the verses he says the ones that hear my word and does it is a wise person. He who hears that word of mine and does it not he says to him he is a foolish person.
So if you want to apply the word he says listen do it. It's not the hearer of the word that's blessed but the doer of the word. You know if you go to the doctor maybe you've got an ailment and he gives you a prescription. The prescription usually comes with the recommended dosage and the times instructions and directions and if you follow those it's designed for that medicine to be the most effective.
But if you say well I'll take one here I'll do this so it becomes less effective because you've not followed the letter. And you know that's an interesting point too to bring up. You know there's been times that people come to you and they'll talk to you and they'll say hey I want to do this and you'll say well you know God says this won't work. I don't want to hear what God says.
You're saying they're going wait a minute I save you a lot of trouble a lot of heartache when you're sitting here and you're going but God says and they'll say I know but. Now the Bible also says there's a way that sings right to man but the end there are the ways of death. See we've got to do what God says and he's worded if he says the end of that is evil the end of that's failure don't do it. End duty we're blessed out of duty which is out of his will which has to us and I don't know about you but the chastisement of God you don't forget those.
If you're wise you don't forget those when I was growing up and my dad corrected me I knew not to do that again because I knew what the results would end up in. You know it's foolishness to try to do the same thing knowing it's going to fail but the good thing about the word of God his word is alive. See these are just not words written down in a book. His word is alive it's the living word this represents Christ and he is the living word.
One of these programs we're going to talk about the word. But you know what when we apply everything that he says in here do we still going to have struggles sure because there's an enemy out there that wants to kill still and destroy. But Jesus said he come to give us life and that we might have life more abundantly but how do we get that we have to apply everything that Jesus said in his word everything that God tells us to do and that's true and just the simplest things in life. If we're working a job there's ways if you're on an assembly line there's a way that they make the product and just because you have a different idea you can't just do it on your own you're going to have to get permission you're going to have to sell that idea.
You know what God knows best always always always that's it. It's not you know gray areas it's black and white. I mean he tells you yes no but when you talk about that the living word when we talk about the living word right there have you ever been in there and just friends and partners at least right now. Have you ever read the Bible and you've read it for years and years and all of a sudden when you get in here you're reading the Word of God and all of a sudden something off that scripture.
You've read it over and over again that's talking about that living word how at the right moment God speaks to your spirit and says look this is what the Word of God says and it gives you that what we call the nuggets that's in there. There's treasures we can search this for a lifetime and we'll never find all the treasures in this but we need to be searching for them each and every day. I look at it is estate grapes when you plant a grapevine you don't expect to get one grape off of it do you know I mean there's there's clusters and clusters and I look at the Word of God like that when he places that within our heart and life he just continually grows and sprouts and branches out and there's things that I thought I knew ten years ago five years ago that God has just revealed so much more I've even been and I know you have to up preaching in the pulpit and be preaching on something that I've preached about many times before and all of a sudden God just drops a brand new nugget and while you're preaching you're thinking God that was good. I think you should put you in that that's really good I really like that and yeah so many times when we're obedient to the to the Word of God and what he's trying to tell us we find the blessing and we find the ability to apply this to our lives and when I'm sitting here and I'm thinking about the Word and you know doing it he says listen we've got to know the Word we've got to do the Word I think that goes back to a matter of trust and so yeah I think that's where we lack some time in the trust of God you know when we look at a kid it's so simple that child can understand it when we talk about trust because when you tell a child something they believe it and they don't doubt if you told him you could fly off the house they believe you could fly off the house they can't see it but see then as we grow older and we grow into our adulthood then we start seeing how the world works we start seeing things that are evil we start seeing things that you know people tell us and they're not honest with us a lot of times we'll start seeing things that begins to make us doubt but you know when we have the Word of God it says he is not like man that he should lie it says that we can believe what he tells us in the Word because when God speaks whatever he is speaking immediately becomes reality because he's God his words are creating and that's one thing that we need to concentrate on is being careful how we speak because we're speaking words that become seeds in our life and we don't realize that a lot of times that's why the enemy wants to keep you sidetracked if he can keep your focus off the Word then he just starts throwing around the words I mean look how easily he deceived Eve in the garden he only changed the Word yeah and when we're looking at this I want to bring up a point you know when it's talking about this right here the foundation a lot of times we do we talk about doing the word or not doing the word we forget about what they're building on and it's very important we understand the foundation what foundation are we building on today as a Christian I think we find that first Corinthians 3 9 through 11 and this is a new living testament it says for we are both God's workers and you are God's field you are God's building says because of God's grace to me I've laid the foundation like an expert builder now others are building on it but whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful for no man or for no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have Jesus Christ he has to be the foundation of what we're building on we're talking about that what are you building your life on today you know their self-help books out there you have it you know the self-help book you need really is the one we neglect and it's this one here the word of the living God we need to be reading and studying find out what God says in it and you know then we'll find the blessings of life I don't say that it'll always be easy because he said in this world we shall have tribulation but he did say be of good cheer for I have overcome the world you know he he told the disciples and he told all of us you know that they're going to be persecuted the world persecuted me because I'm in you they're going to persecute you as well but he also said take a heart for I have overcome the world so it doesn't matter what's going on in our life God is still in control and that's the thing that should keep us comforted even though on the ship when the disciples Jesus was down in the bottom of the ship he was asleep and the disciples were there and they thought they were going to die we're going to perish and he's down our sleep and they don't even care that we're about to die here what's going on they should have realized who it was they were talking about so when we get discouraged and we get overwhelmed stop begin to think on God begin to think about who you serve who you know people say is God has the last word God has the only word and the old saying you know Jesus is my copilot he's wrong seat you know he needs to be the one that's guiding your life there was no friend of mine when I told me he said you know what if he ain't driving he ain't riding and that's pretty good like that and but God is in control and it doesn't matter what our eyes see or the circumstances God's peace that's your own peace that passes all understanding and people can look at you and they know you're going through a storm but they just see that calmness and that peace it's because we know who's on board I mean we know in whom we trust we know who is the captain the pilot of that ship and it's never going to go down you know we can always put our faith in our trust in God and I know people are watching today and I you know we have look at Facebook and you see that there's so many people posting problems needs of prayer and things like that and maybe today you're going through a struggle in your life maybe there's sickness in your home maybe there's some addiction in your home maybe there's just trouble in general you know what the good news is is Jesus Christ is alive and well and whatever you're facing whatever you're going through he is the answer there's not a problem in this world that you can't find the solution of right here in this book we've said before he is the living word God John said in beginning was the word was with God the word was God and the word was made flesh and well among us you know what there's victory in Jesus like the old song we sing many many times in church today let God truly be the God in your life that he wants to be to many times pastor Steve people hold God in arms length take the barriers down completely trust him as pastor Steve takes us to the Lord in prayer give everything to God today and you will be blessed and you will be delivered one thing I want to do friends and partners out there maybe somebody watching another Lord at all when we're talking about the Lord here I'm talking about Jesus Christ without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin it means there's no forgiveness without the forgiveness of Jesus Christ but today the word of God says that we have all fallen short of the glory of God that means pastor myself we all fall short of the glory of God but we have trusted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior but the word of God says we must confess the confess means you tell the Lord what you've done and you're saying why can't do that he already knows he's waiting for us to confess that to him to ask him to forgive us it talks about repentance means you're tired of doing what you're doing what you're going to do is do something different you're going to turn to him and follow him I want you to pray this prayer right now Father Lord I confess my sins yes Father they are many but Father I thank you that the word says that Jesus died on the cross for me that he shed his blood and paid my price for sin Father thank you today that he is not dead Jesus is alive and sitting at your right hand Father I ask you to forgive me right now and the mighty name of Jesus amen amen that's how simple it is to call upon him and when you call upon him he answers today go out there and find you a good Bible believing and teaching church get in there's very important that you learn the word of God but this is a new adventure for you but the thing is today the good news is not what the gospel means the good news is today Jesus still saves hallelujah and glory be to God we praise God that you've made that commitment today share it with somebody today tell them about what the Lord has done in your life amen amen we're thankful that you stopped by today and joined us here on spiritual impact we trust and pray that today's program was an encouragement that we gave you some good word that will help you in situations that maybe you're facing today tell your friends to tune in weekly and you know let us know if you enjoy the program we're only here to lift up Jesus he's what it's all about but this is pastor Tim along with pastor Steve saying God bless you we love you and until next week we'll see you again right here on spiritual impact be blessed my friend hello everybody this is pastor Tim Parton of abundant life worship center for those of you that live in the cerebral area or maybe you just visit from time to time we'd like to take a moment and invite you to come visit us at the church we're located at 923 Dolly Parton Parkway right here in cerebral our service times are Sunday morning at 11 a.m.
Wednesday evening at 630 we just love sharing the word of God we're just a family church so we invite you to come grow with us God bless