The Transforming Power of God's Word (Psalm 119, John Lasken)

I do want to say, okay, so yesterday I was refereeing basketball and I would go up to the stands and I'd point to one at a time, no, no, no, that's an Eagles fan, no, no. I see some Eagles green out here, I want to give you guys your props.

I saw the screen up there, the score in scriptures was Eagles mentioned 33 times, Patriots nothing. Don't know what that means. The Article 2, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution of the United States states, the President shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend for their consideration such members as he shall judge necessary and expedient.

That's in the Constitution. George Washington, our first President, he served from actually April of 1789 to March of 1797. January 8th of 1790, he provided the first State of the Union, it was actually a speech.

We move on from Washington to Adams to Jefferson, Jefferson felt that this was too monarchial, it was too much like a king making his proclamation, so he changed that to a written form. And so under Thomas Jefferson, the address in accordance with the Constitution was written as a report and provided to Congress for their consideration.

Woodrow Wilson began a tradition then later of it becoming oral, so he broke the written and he turned it back into an oral address. Franklin Roosevelt was actually the first one to call it the State of the Union.

In his address he used that phrase and then later President Harry Truman officially made that presentation to be called the State of the Union. And so this past week we had the State of the Union address given to the nation.

The anticipation for this proclamation was high. You could not escape it, whether you were on the internet listening to the radio, I don't know if anybody actually gets newspapers anymore, I think I see some out there, but you couldn't get away from the thought that the President was about to make the proclamation of the State of the Union.

TV was filled with it, internet was filled, this was a worldwide event coming up. And so on Tuesday President Trump spoke for an hour and 20 minutes. They didn't expect it to go that long, but he spoke for an hour and 20 minutes.

The reactions were amazing as to be expected. In fact, I was talking to my friend Rick and Rick, good to see you this morning. In anticipation of the Super Bowl coming today, are there more comments being made in media about the Super Bowl as opposed to after the State of the Union comments about the State of the Union?

It's pretty close.

But people reacted to it, depending on which side of the aisle, people reacted to it. In fact, right after the State of the Union was the Democratic State of the Union, as Joe Kennedy III gave his proclamation.

I also understand, although I didn't watch this, that some celebrities gave their State of the Union, yikes. So there you have it. The proclamation of what has transpired and what will be given, the words that were communicated.

You cannot deny the influential power of the word. The President gave his State of the Union and it was what he believed to be important, truthful, necessary to be communicated. And so we've dissected it.

We've accepted it or rejected it. But there it is, the word. Compare that with scripture. According to 2 Timothy, all scripture is breathed out by God. This is according to the ESV version. Breathed out by God.

It's profitable for doctrine, for correction, for training in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly complete. Hebrews 4 .12 says that the word of God is living and active, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

We're talking about power. We're talking about true, true power. Proverbs 2 says that the Lord gives wisdom. So what we get from the word becomes life-changing. It gives us knowledge and understanding.

Psalm 19 says that the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. There's been a lot of debate as to whether the State of the Union address was perfect. And in fact, there's a lot of debate whether scripture is perfect.

But there is no denying that all scripture is inspired by God and it is perfect, making wise the simple. The word of the Lord proves true according to Psalm 18. Isaiah 40 says the grass withers, the flower fades.

But the word of God will stand forever. What George Washington had to say in 1719 had its influence. What was written thousands of years ago stands forever. Deuteronomy says that man does not live by bread alone, but by the very word of God.

Throughout history, man has had the opportunity to be interacting with God with his word. If you go all the way back to the garden in Genesis 2 and 3, Adam and Eve were able to hear the word unfiltered, directly from God.

Initially, they were in this amazingly close fellowship. They were just challenged to walk in obedience to him. The command was so simple, but yet the deceit was so subtle and so effective that there was a fall and it was devastating.

And so the ability for man to get direct communication through to God was hurt. Now Mark, you were up top before we ever came in with Hope and Dave, and you were practicing, and the words that you wanted to communicate, and how it was, how are we going to do this verse?

How are we going to?

It was important, because if not, this would have been a disaster. And so he communicated. And so God, throughout history now, communicates to us. It's recorded in scripture. It's the unfolding of God's plan to redeem man.

It's the opening of his love letter to us. John 5 .39 says, the scripture points us to Christ. It's not just a textbook, it points us to Christ. And so we get the opportunity, and we should take the opportunity, and as we have the opportunity to open God's word, to study God's word, to consider God's word, we need to let it impact our life.

We need to understand, and we need to anticipate, that his word transforms us. So that's where we are this morning. Let's pray. Lord, as we open your word, to understand your word, open the eyes of our heart, we pray for your spirit's guidance, your spirit's understanding.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The Eternal Word and God's Communication to Man

I want to make two observations about the word. First one is going to be in John chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. I had the really great opportunity about a year ago to meet with Joe, a .k .a. Dutchie. How many guys knew his name was Dutchie?

Anyway, hope did. He and I were practicing scripture. We were memorizing scripture, and Joe's plan was to memorize John chapter 1, 2, and 3. Not just a couple of verses, but John 1, 2, and 3. And so we worked through the process.

But I love the way that it starts. In the beginning was the word, the logos. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, and the same was in the beginning with God.

Some observations. God's word is eternal, in the beginning, and for all time. God's word is eternal. It's infinite, and it is true. If this is coming from the great I am, this is, I love to understand and respect our teachers.

I really do.

Those of you who have that profession and who impart to our children, blessings upon you. Blessings upon you. We get something even better through the scriptures, because this is coming from the word that was with God, that was God, that was there from the very beginning.

God's word comes from the I am. God's word is not limited by man. It's not limited by our interpretations. It's not limited by what we think. It is God's word. That's the first observation about God's word.

The second one is perhaps a little more practical, and that the word is God's communication to man. Now, this means two things. One is that it means that it's God speaking personally to me. And each one of us would be able to say that.

God's word is God speaking personally to me. The God of all universe taking it and giving it to me. But it means something else. It means I have to have meaningful reception.

That's the key.

There are things in my reception that limited the ability of the word to transform my life. There are roadblocks that I put in the way. Question is, what makes the Bible? What makes his word worthy of my attention?

Well, it's the word.

It's the truth.

What could be more worth my attention than the word, the truth? What could possibly be more? Unless I've diluted it. Unless I fabricated false stories about it. But make no mistake about it. God's word is worth your attention.

What happens when I pay attention to the world is earth shaking. It will be for you. It is for me. It is. Now, Pastor Jeff right now is taking us on a journey through the book of Acts. We did Luke. We're doing the second half of Luke's story.

That would be the book of Acts. In the book of Acts, we're going to see the spread of his church throughout the world. In it, we're going to see the amazing action of the Holy Spirit through man and through his church.

And through the book, we're also going to see the power, the transforming power of the word of God. Now, if you start in Acts 1, if you remember back to Acts chapter 1, it comes right off the end of the gospel of Luke.

Jesus has taken his followers up on the mountaintop. He's about to go home to his father. He gives them, as recorded in Matthew 28, the great commission. And then as we go into Acts 1, it's again repeated.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses into Jerusalem, and to Judea, and to Samaria, and to the other most parts.

Of the world.

And so he gives his word, in this case, his instruction. Acts chapter 2, as Jeff brought us last Sunday, they're in the upper room, waiting, obediently waiting. And the Holy Spirit, and like tongues of fire, cloven, come, separate, and anoint each of the people with the Holy Spirit.

And they speak in tongues that are totally, it's a miracle. But now Peter goes out. And he'll be taking us next Sunday. And he goes out into the crowd. And he preaches. And thousands of people hear the word as if in their own language.

In the garden, there was one language. We honestly don't know what it was. But in the garden, there was one language. Adam and Eve had no problem understanding God. In fact, Eve had no problem understanding Satan.

There was one language. Move a little bit forward into history. Man becomes very, very, very big on himself, wants to build a tower to reach the heavens. And God says, that's enough. And so he confuses the language and scatters the people.

And so language is broken down. But here in Acts chapter 2, language isn't a barrier to God's word. When God wants his word proclaimed in Acts chapter 2, as we move into next week, language is not a barrier to God.

His word supersedes what we know as language. We're going to take a quick overview in Acts to see how the power of the word actually works. In the first several chapters, we see the word impacting in Jerusalem.

In Acts 22, men of Israel hear these words. And then he goes on to say Jesus of Nazareth. Now, what Peter is doing there, in fact, as he starts, as Peter starts, he actually quotes Joel. He actually quotes the word.

We know that the word initially was the Torah, the law. It was the history. It was the songs. And it was the prophecy. But what happens now as we move into Acts 2, Peter quotes the Old Testament word.

But then he says, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth. The word of God now includes the evangelion, the good news. As we move past Peter's proclamation, we see the believers together, devoted together, praying and devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching.

The word now becomes central. Acts 24, we see that the believers are filled with the Holy Spirit and continue to speak of the word of God, the combination of the power of the Holy Spirit and the necessity and the power, the transforming power of the word of God.

As we move on in Acts, we're going to see in Acts 8, the word is extended to Samaria. As we move into 11, we see that the word is expanded to the Gentiles. As we move into 13, it goes to Cyprus. As we move later in 13, Paul's on his missionary journey.

It goes to Asia Minor. The word is spreading out in obedience to what God's plan was in the beginning of Acts. There's a really, really interesting comment, though, as we get later in Acts in chapter 17.

This is after Paul has now moved to Berea. He's been persecuted and everything else. He now goes to Berea and he preaches. And it says, they received the word with all eagerness.

And catch this.

Examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Did you catch that?

Paul proclaimed the word. This is an important thing. But each individual person went back and went into the scriptures to see if it was as so. This says to me, brothers and sisters, that the scriptures is not only available, not only accessible, but it's required that we individually be in the word and not rely on somebody else telling us that it's so or reading a book, a commentary.

These are good things. But we need to be deep diving into the scriptures. Probably the best scriptures you can go into, the single greatest teaching on the word is Psalm 119. 176 verses. It scares most people.

It scared me for a long time. 176 verses in one chapter. It's basically 28 stanzas or 22 stanzas. Each stanza, each verse is long. It's called an acrostic. Kimberly, you can tell me this. If you go into the Hebrew alphabet, you start at aleph and you end at tau.

Basically, this is the A to Z of what each stanza begins with a letter in the Hebrew. So each eight verses of the first begin with aleph and each of the second begin with bet.

It's a song.

It's a beautiful song. But in it, we are going to learn the significance of the word. We are going to see the impact of the word. We are going to see the instructions on how we should deal with the word.

We are going to get insight on how to place the word into my life. I'd like to read Psalm 119 verses 9 through 16. It's the second stanza, the bet stanza. How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.

With my whole heart, I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord. Teach me your statutes. With my lips, I declare all the rules of your mouth.

In the way of your testimonies, I delight as much as with all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word. Starting in verse 9 is the question of purity.

How can a young man keep his way pure? Now, let's be very careful. I am not talking about the question of salvation here. That's not what's at stake here. The stake is, how does my life focus? How does my life pattern itself best after God?

It's a choice of my heart. Now, to encourage you, this is not a verse that the first time you fall apart, you have lost your chance. That's not the case.

Let's think about David.

Acts 13, verses 21 and 22, David is reported as being a man after God's own heart. But yet, we know what he did with Bathsheba and what he did to her husband, Uriah the Hittite. Yet, David is called a man after God's own heart.

So it's the heart. And it's, where does our heart gravitate to? What is important to our heart? Matthew 5, 8, in the Beatitudes, it says, blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God. Now, in life, we are faced with choices.

There are many choices, but there's only one right choice. The first time we see this is in, what, Genesis 3? All they had to do was just not eat of the one tree. That's all they had to do, just not eat of the one tree.

And Satan says, well, did God really say that? He knows if you eat of the tree, you'll be like him. Very, very, very subtle. The options that we face are going to be enticing. I think we know that. The options that we face, they're going to feel, perhaps, good.

But they're not. And so being able to see and to differentiate the path that you can take, that's where Psalm 119 is going to take us. The Spirit is given to all believers. Prayer is available to all believers.

The Word of God is available to all believers. And by going to the Word of God, and we're going to see this in this psalm, putting it in your hearts allows you, gives you, the ready access when that choice is there to discern one way from the other.

Referee basketball. There's absolutely no way I can know everything that a player is going to do. But I know what he should do. And so if I see a motion that doesn't fit in what is supposed to be, my whistle goes off.

The Word of God is given to you, so you know what should be. And so when something doesn't line up with what scripture gives you, and you store it up, a whistle blows. And you make the right choice. The trick is to understand the roadblocks.

One of them is your sinful nature. You may be a believer, and you may have the Spirit, and you may be washed in the blood of the Lamb, but you still have that sinful nature, which makes us vulnerable.

And the reality is that although Satan is not omniscient, he doesn't know everything, he is relentless. And he will work at you until he finds that vulnerability in you, and he will use that. That's my sin nature.

It's where I'm weak. The second one is sin, that time when I fall, and I do fall, and I realize I fall, and Satan convinces me that I'm no longer worthy of him. And so now I'm in sin. My fellowship with God is weak, so I'm not looking to his Word anymore.

The worldly noise will get all over the place, and my priorities are gonna get me messed up. It's, I have this event I can go to. I have this job that I have to take care of, so I don't have time to read his Word today, but I'll get to it tomorrow.

Priorities and procrastination go together. The next one is my terms, going to Scripture on my terms. I want to read what is gonna make me feel good, what's gonna encourage me in my way, and that goes along with my interpretation.

These are the things that get in the way, and so we need to look for the answer, and the answer in Psalm 119, how can a man keep his way pure? By guarding it, by guarding his way, according to your Word.

That's our challenge. Earlier in Psalm 119, verse five, it says, oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes. So there are six concepts that I want to look at briefly that are wrapped into this section from verses nine through 16, they're God's blueprint, they're practices, they're instructions for us on how we can establish our heart to stay on the way, and the first is have a heart that seeks.

You need to be a man in love with God. There's a difference between having a mind that seeks after and having a heart that seeks after. Ladies, when you were courting, if they do that anymore, you're intended, it was the heart that motivated you.

Gentlemen, when you were courting, it was the heart that motivated you. You sought after the mind, but it was the heart. Psalm 119, verse 34, give me understanding that I might keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.

God throughout scripture has, and especially in the Old Testament, gave commands as to what was to be done, but he unwaveringly said what he wanted was your heart. Stephen Wren, a book that I have, identifies the heart as the seat of your inner being.

So if God makes it to your heart, it's into your inner being. Verse 36 tells me to incline my heart, turn me. The word there, incline my heart, is to turn it, is to change its direction, to go away from the selfish things that have allured me to turn my heart to God.

And 174 says that the law is my delight. That's from the heart. The second is to be steadfast. Verse 10 says that we need to hope, we need to have a hope. That hope says that there are going to be events, there's going to be long periods of time where it seems difficult.

My heart goes out after Kim, I'm still waiting for the good news, for her employment. And she's been in prayer, many have been in prayer, but having this hope and this steadfastness that just because things seem to be going mm, that's okay.

My hope is in you. I will never forget them because of you. The wicked will not lead me astray, in verse 110. I'm steadfast despite everything. Verse 61 says though the cords of the wicked ensnare me, I do not forget your law.

Be steadfast.

The third one then, after we've gone from having a heart and being steadfast now, is to be equipped with the truth. And the issue here is that there are a lot of messages that are proclaimed by the world that would sound perhaps good but deviate.

And the only place you're going to get truth that doesn't deviate is into the scripture. Verse 125, give me understanding that I might know. Give me understanding that I might know. Verse 25 tells me that I need to live my life according to your word.

And then just a powerful verse in 105. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Be equipped with the truth. The truth is what we need. So if we've gone from having a heart to being steadfast to looking to the truth, we need to look to the teacher and the teacher for the truth has to be God.

He is the one who originates it. He is the one who teaches it. Verse 18 says, open my eyes that I may see. When you go to scripture and when you spend time in scripture, I encourage that in any way you can do it.

But I encourage you as you do it, you intentionally call out on God, open my eyes that I might see because if I don't have God opening my eyes, I might be looking in the wrong way. I might be seeing things in the wrong way.

Verse 98 says, your commandments make me wiser. Verse 130 says, the unfolding of your words give me light. Go to God, get that truth. Okay, now that we've got that, now that we've got a heart, now that we're steadfast on him, now that we've gotten his truth and we've gone to him for the truth,.

Make it a priority.

Verse 15 encourages us to meditate. That can be a scary word for those who haven't practiced it. The idea of meditating is to take a passage of scripture and allow it to be rehearsed over and over again.

Many years ago, I had a strong conflict with a believing brother and I felt that I had been wronged and I broke fellowship. It was a sin. Now, in the meantime, I'm working to memorize Matthew 5, 6, and 7.

And as I'm going through the words, meditating on the words, if your brother has something against you, leave your gift at the altar. First, go be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift.

And I would say that and move on. And eventually, God just smacked me and he said, are you even listening to yourself? It's because I said that verse over and over and over again that it finally sank in.

You're gonna read God's word, do it. And you're gonna look to him, to his spirit, do it. But I guarantee you, you're going to get more out of it when you meditate on it, which says take that word over and over and over again.

Now, a good way to do that is to memorize. That's a bad word. It's the M word. I got a simple one for you. And this is my challenge for you right now is to memorize Psalm 119, verse 97. Oh, how I love your law.

That's pretty easy. Anybody can get that one. Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. My challenge to you this week is to learn that verse, which means you're going to write it on a card.

You're going to have it in front of you. You're gonna read it until you no longer have that card in front of you. And you can say it several times a day. Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day.

This can become your DNA, is that this word no longer becomes a book that maybe you open up in the morning. And maybe you do have a good quiet time. And maybe you do look to it, but it becomes your DNA.

It becomes who you are. Oh, how I love your law.

I meditate.

It is my meditation all the day. The last instruction is to delight. There is no better way to reinforce your dedication to the word than to celebrate its victories in your life. Verse 50 says, my comfort, your word gives me life.

72 says, verse 72, that your law is better than thousands of gold. There are things that I don't need. I don't need self-help. The word gives me life. I don't need all the wealth. The word is, it's more than thousands of gold.

It's sweeter than honey. I don't need pleasures and desires. But if I get the sensation, challenging my small group to seeing God sightings, something Jeff introduced several weeks ago, a couple months ago.

Every week, find a God sighting and rejoice in it. And rejoice in it. Verse 165, great peace have those who love your law. So what do we do with this? What is my challenge to you? It's simple as this.

Don't merely listen. Several years ago, Sandy and I spent six weeks in Ireland. I don't know how many of you have ever been there before. But if you do, bring a GPS. I downloaded from MapQuest Maps to everywhere we thought we were gonna need to go.

It didn't work. I needed a GPS. It needed to tell me where I was going to go. It's a weak analogy. But if you think that you can prepare yourself with a nugget for today or a plan for tomorrow, and you don't have God's GPS, you're gonna have problems.

Don't merely listen to it.

We have the word of God.

I guarantee you it's relevant. I guarantee that it's capable of meeting every need you have in life. And I guarantee it's trustworthy. Question for you is, are you satisfied with good enough?

Did you catch that?

Are you satisfied with good enough? When you turn to the word of God, do you read it? James 1 .22 says, be a doer, not just a hearer only. We're to be transformed. Jesus is God's presence in the world.

Jesus is the access to the Father's will. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And by the way, John 1 .1 tells us Jesus is the Logos. Isaiah 55 promises that his word is not gonna return void. Take his word.

Hold fast to his word. Let his word transform your life. Do not be satisfied with good enough. This is a lifestyle. It's our way back to fellowship with him in all of life. By now, maybe you can say this with me.

Psalm 119, verse 97. Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all day. Charles Spurgeon is quoted as saying that the word of God is like a lion. You don't need to defend a lion. All you need to do is let the lion loose and it will defend itself.

In your life, all you gotta do is let the word of God loose and it will have power in your life. Let it loose. This past week, Pastor Jeff Cleo was quoted as saying, we pray that our congregation is driven to release the lion in all of its power.

Let's pray. Lord, your word is all sufficient. Your word is transforming. Your word is true. Your word is trustworthy. Teach us to be a people who recognize our desperate need for your word. Let it transform our lives.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen.