The Transformative Power of God's Word

The passage of Scripture that I want to talk about in the beginning was a very time of tumult in Jesus' life. A lot of times you have things that go really well, and then all of a sudden something collapses around you. Jesus had been talking to a large crowd of people. The Bible says there were 5,000 men there. Maybe women and children were over and above that. He'd been teaching them all day long out in the sun, and it came night, and there was no place for them to go and find something to eat. So the disciples brought Jesus two fish and five little small barley loaves, and Jesus fed these over 5,000 people out of that small meal. You can imagine how thrilling it would be to see that experience take place. But Jesus' disciples then left to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and in the middle of the night, a storm came up, and Jesus had to walk on the water out to the boat where they were, and then say to the wind, be still, and it calmed down. You can imagine how thrilling that sort of thing could be. When the boat landed on the other side, Jesus was met with the large crowd of people that He'd just had on the other side of the sea, and they were there for Him. When He stepped out, they said, Moses made bread rain down from heaven. What kind of miracle are you going to do for us that would match that? Jesus discovered that they were only interested in the food that they could get, not in the spiritual things that He had to say to them. He wanted to correct this. He wanted to point them to a different direction. And He said to them, the manna that came down from heaven, the people ate it, but they died. It was only physical food. And God has come to bring to you spiritual food, food that will bring to you eternal life. And they said, we would really like to have that food that would last forever. And He said, I am that food. I am the bread of life. God has sent me with the words of eternal life for you, the words that will not only change your life here in this world, but forever. And if you take these words into your mind and life, it will transform you. I am this bread. If you will listen to me and consume spiritually what I'm telling you, like you would consume bread, just like the bread goes into your body and makes parts of your body, so the spiritual bread that I give you will go into your mind and your spiritual life and transform you and who you are, how you think and what you do. When Jesus was talking about consuming himself, this puzzled people. They were distressed by this. And many of them said, this guy is weird. He's talking about cannibalism. And so the scripture says that as a result of what Jesus was doing, the people turned away from Him. From this time on, many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him. You do not want to leave too, do you? Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God. Simon Peter addressed the issue that Jesus was trying to get across to those who were His enemies. I have for you the words that will change your life, not only in this world, but all through eternity. I have words that will transform you. But you don't want to think that the words of God found in the scripture or the words of Jesus spoken are magic words. It's not like Jesus says something and suddenly you are transformed. For the words that are found in the scripture are only transforming in a certain way. The words that are there are words that do change the lives of people, but not just hearing them. You look at the people who are around Jesus, the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees and all these people who are His enemies, they really knew the words of the Bible. These scribes were so skilled at the Old Testament that they could tell you how many letters were found in the Old Testament. They could tell you the one verse that was the very center of all the Old Testament. They could tell you the one letter that was the center of all the Old Testament. They knew the words of the scripture. And yet when Jesus came to talk to them, to bring them the very words of God, it did not change their lives. It angered them with bitterness and resentment toward Him until they wanted to kill Him. The words of the scripture meant to give life to them, instead made them enemies of God. You needn't think that simply reading the Bible is going to necessarily change your life. When you read the Bible, there are all kinds of reasons you might have. You can read the Bible to find out information. You can read the Bible to find out what was it like when the days of old were passed by. Or you can read the Bible to find out if there's some way you can avoid damnation and hell. There are all kinds of motives for reading the Bible. But simply hearing the words of scripture do not change the lives of a person. There's a secret to what takes place. It is that the words of life have to become real to you and personal to you. The Bible in 1 John is describing for us how the power of God and the Bible really transforms the nature and character of people. In 1 John, chapter 1, verses 3 through 6, we know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands. The man who says, I know Him, but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys His word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we're in Him. Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did. Then in verse 9, anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. What John is describing for us, the element that makes the difference between simply reading the Bible and being transformed by the words of Scripture. It is that you listen to the words of Scripture for God to speak directly to you. You know that His word is there, and it's the word of life, but it's only the word of life if you allow it to affect the way you think, the choices you make, and the lifestyle that you live. Jesus came telling us that His words were the very words of God. They are the plan as to how a person ought to live. So the words of God are transforming, as John said. They are changing the way we live. So if you read the words of God and you still live as you did before you read them, then there is no value to them whatsoever. You have not really accepted the word of God and allowed it to transform the way you think, the choices you make, and the way you act. God's word becomes powerful when we receive it into our lives and allow it to transform us. Going to church can be interesting, it can be exciting, it can be thrilling, or it can be boring. It's only exciting and thrilling if your senses are stimulated or if your mind is stimulated. If God is speaking words directly to you and you know that what is being said is your story, your issue, your problem, then God has opened His words to you. Now when you hear those words, you have a choice as to what you're going to do. Do you say, Lord Jesus, I hear what you're telling me and I hear you saying that there are some things that I think and the ways that I act that are contrary to what you want. I admit that and acknowledge it and ask you to forgive me and give me guidance as to the direction I should take. Or you may hear God saying, I want you to understand something about me. In this passage, I want you to know that I love you all the time because you've devoted your life to me. I want you to know that these are the promises I make to you that I will provide for you. I will help you make the right choices in your life. I will protect you from the things that might destroy you so that you can live in this world with absolute confidence. Now you can read those words and you can understand all of them. But if you do not accept the reality and truth of it, you will continue to live in fear and uncertainty and insecurity. What the Bible is talking about is that appropriating the words of Scripture do give us life. But simply reading the words of Scripture does not necessarily change your life. We know that Judas heard every word that Jesus spoke. He saw every miracle that Jesus did. But in the end, he turned against Jesus and betrayed him. Hearing the words of God do not necessarily change your life. They can simply be words. How do you get past this? How do you make sure that listening to a sermon or a Sunday school lesson or reading the Bible does not become simply empty time in your life? When Jesus was starting his own ministry, he began by talking about the necessity of transformed attitudes on the minds of people. And Matthew, Jesus, when he was starting, took his disciples, as Matthew writes, and gathered them together to begin to say, if you want to understand what I'm going to do, you must realize that my own life and what I'm teaching you is contrary to what your human nature thinks and feels. And it will be contrary to the culture around you. The Beatitudes that Jesus started with show that the values of the kingdom of God are radically different than the values you will see from the people around you. In Matthew chapter 6, he said, you're a blessed person if you have a poverty in your spirit. If you mourn about the things that are difficult, if you look around you and you hunger and thirst for righteousness instead of the things of this world, if you are merciful to people instead of being mean to them, if your heart is pure toward God, if you are a peacemaker with the people around you, if you're persecuted because of the things you do, you are a blessed person. Those are contrary to what the world says. If you have money, if you have success, if you have pleasure, if you have comfort, then you're blessed. The kingdom of God requires a different way of seeing the world and a different way of thinking. You may have discovered that people around you see things differently. Sometimes a man sees things in the house differently than a woman sees them. We understand that those are differences in perspective, but our culture in this world sees things from the physical point of view. God sees things in this world from the spiritual point of view because he understands at the very best we're only going to be in this physical world a hundred years, but we will spiritually live forever. So the priorities he places on this world are far different than the people around you will place on it. He is trying to transform us in this world that we will become like he is. He told us the secret to this transformation. You listen to what God has to say and you say, God, how can this change me? What is it that you have to say that will affect my life? So whenever you open the Bible, what God wants you to do is to say, who in this story do I identify with? Who is a person that I think is kind of like me? Who is the person in this story that is different than me? What is it that God is trying to say in the people in this story? You can read a lot of pages in the Bible at one time, and they're good to be able to do that sometimes, but if you want the life-changing events to take place in your life, when you begin to open the scriptures, you start by saying, God, what do you want to tell me about myself? And then when you read the story or the passage, a paragraph is usually a good place to start, you look at the people, the characters in that story, and you say, who is this in this story is like me? And what is God saying about that person? Is it destruction that comes to them? Is it blessing that comes to them? Is it correction that comes to them? And so you begin to take personally the information that God is speaking in that story to the people who are there. This is the living word of God in you. All the way through the Bible, stories are told about every kind of person who's ever lived in this world, and you will find in those stories people like yourself. God is showing us the people who lived, the mistakes they made, and the consequences of their mistakes. He is showing us what rebellion against him really does. He's showing us that the people who were caught in these circumstances, sometimes they stopped and said, God, I realize I'm doing the opposite of what you want me to do. I acknowledge that. I ask you to forgive me. Change my life. And then God would set them on a different course, and their life would become entirely different. That's what God wants to do for you. Every one of us, every one of us, have inside of us flaws that make us unlike God. Those flaws that make us unlike God create problems in our lives that are sometimes devastating to us and all the people around us. So what God is trying to do by his word is show us the people who've made those same mistakes all through history, 4,000 years of people who've made these mistakes. And you will find in that people are making exactly the same mistakes you're making. He tells you not only what happens to people that do that, but how to be able to avoid it. He also shows you when you come to those circumstances, the kinds of choices they should have made, or he'll send the prophets, or he'll send someone else to say, here is the mistake that you've made. And if you would have stopped and tended to God's business, listened to him, the mistake would not have occurred in your life. God's goal for you is to shape your life to be like him. That's his goal for you. He's looking at the life that you live, the choices you make, the relationships you have, and he's measuring those against his own character. He knows if you do what he tells you to do, you will find life in all of its fullness. He doesn't want to hurt you. He's not trying to squeeze you into a box to make you something you aren't. He wants to make you completely and fully the person he created you to be. And he wants you to be able to live a life, not without problems, but that the wisdom inside of you, when you get to those problems, have a way by which you can make your way through the difficulties that come. So that in every part of your life, you will be able to say, God is blessing me, even in the most difficult and trying and painful times in your life. Because he wants to show that these words in the Bible are the words of life, not by magic, but by when you put those words into practice and begin to do what God tells you you should do, you will find the miracle of life that God wants to give you. Against all of this, the people around you will be talking and living a different way than you are. They will live by different standards and values than you live by. It will be filled in the televisions, it will be filled around you when you work, everywhere you go you'll see it, and it will be so powerful that you will want to do what everyone else around you wants to do. But in the middle of all this, God gives the words that bring life, not pain, not destruction, and not evil, but the words that bring life. Now what Jesus did when he started his ministry in Matthew chapter 5, he not only told them that there needed to be a different way of thinking about life than they thought before, but he began to give us illustrations about how we should live in a different way than the world around us lives. You have heard it said in verse 21 of chapter 5, you have heard it said to people long ago, do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who's angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, Rekha, is answerable to the Sanhedrin. That's a word that means you idiot or you fool, and it's a word that we use, fool, lightly, but it's a word that describes someone who is really not human. If you think of a person as being insignificant, but anyone who says you fool will be in danger of the fire of hell. Therefore, if you're offering a gift on the altar, and remember that your brother has something against you, you leave the gift in front of the altar, first go and reconcile to your brother, then come offer your gift. Settle manners quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you're still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth, you will not get out till you've paid every penny. Jesus is describing for us how God will wants to deal with issues in the world. The Old Testament said you're not to murder anybody. But God wanted more than that for us. Murders grow from anger, resentment, and bitterness inside of a person. So what He wanted to address, what Jesus wanted to say is, it's not enough for you not to murder someone. For if you lose your temper and you get angry, sooner or later the anger will boil over and something will happen that you resent, that you will look back on and be sorry for. All of us have had this happen to us. You get in a situation, it rubs you the wrong way, and all of a sudden you lash out at someone you really care about and you really love, and you say something that's painful, damaging, and hurtful to them. Your anger, you see, causes you to hurt another person, even to kill a relationship. And you may have had in your life a time in which someone around you acted in such a way that you got angry with them, and you said words that caused them no longer to be a friend to you. It can be even a family member, someone who's part of your own bloodline. And that relationship was killed because of anger. Now, what Jesus was trying to help us understand is, God does not want any division to come between people. He wants them to be able to know and love each other. And so He outlawed anger, because it kills relationships in the very same way that murdering someone kills a relationship. In other words, if a person's murdered, dead, and buried, you no longer can relate to them. But if you make a mistake that hurts somebody so bad that they never want to speak to you again, they won't answer your letters, they won't answer your phone calls, they won't respond to your emails, your relationship is broken from that person from then on. It's like death has occurred. God is not just satisfied if we don't kill each other. He wants us to know how to love and care for one another. And so He changed. It's not enough that you don't murder, but you must learn to control your anger. Now, whenever you read the stories in the Bible, and you see someone that really gets angry, and you see what happens to them, you say, that's going to happen to me. When you read a story in the Bible about someone who has every reason in the world to be angry, but instead of that, they're not angry. They're kind and considerate and forgiving to the person who's there. You discover the pattern by which God wants to change your life. The next time someone does something that really makes you mad, you stop and say, how did the Bible tell me to deal with this? You admit to God your feelings, and you say, now I'm ready, God, to do what you want me to do. The Bible not only tells you the danger of the things that you have, but He helps you know what you should do. In the same Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told us the secret of dealing with anger. You have heard it said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be the sons of your Father in heaven. The reverse of the way people operate in this world. If you don't like me, if you do something that hurts me, I'm going to turn against you. But He says it's opposite of that. He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. He does, get this, even for murderers, He does good things for them. Even though they don't deserve it, He does good things for them. I'm sure you have people sometimes that do things to you that, you know, they don't deserve to be treated well or right. But He says, the normal things, you get angry. But God deals with this in a different way. So you learn from God how you should handle it. He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? That's normal. Are not even tax collectors, in their minds, the most evil person to be around? Do not the most evil person that you know actually love their relatives? I mean, you look at the mafia. I mean, they protected their own family as best they could, and they gave everything for them. But they kill everybody else. It was contrary to them. That's the way the world operates. God operates differently. And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do this? Be perfect or complete, therefore, as your Father in heaven is full, complete, and perfect. What God has is the remedy for anger. He says, you love your enemies. Now, whenever He says you love your enemies, He doesn't mean that you like your enemies. You can love someone in the way the Bible describes. That is, you put their interest ahead of your own, even if you don't like them. Because you're trying to help them rather than hurt them, even though they may have hurt you. So if someone offends you or hurts you or does something bad to you, you have a choice to make. You can do what your human nature says you should do and get even, or cut your relationship off with them, or turn your back on them. You can do that. That's what all the pagan world does. But if you listen to the words of God, He says, in your mind you say to God, I no longer am going to hold anything against that person, even though they've hurt me. I turn loose of that. I'm not going to get them back. I'm not going to run them down. I'm not going to tell anybody how bad they are or what they did to me. I just erase that. And then the next thing you do is you say, I want to do something good for them. And so you begin to pray for them. I heard someone read that and said, well, then you pray that God would punish them. That's not what you pray for. You pray for God to bless them. You return good for the evil that they've done to you. The model for this, of course, is the life of Christ Himself on the cross. There He was, not guilty of anything that they charged Him with. They were nailing Him to this tree. He put the crown of thorns on His head, and He was bleeding in great pain. And He looked at the people who were doing all this to Him. He had every reason to be angry. He had done nothing wrong. He had every reason to be indignant. I used to live in heaven. I came down here now in this, and I've tried my best to tell the people the message of God, and this is the way they treat me. You ever had that feeling? I've done all these good things, and this is the way people treat me. He had every reason to think that way, but He was not angry, resentful, or bitter. He said, Father, I want You to forgive these people. They don't understand who I am. They don't understand why I'm here, and they don't understand what I'm doing. It's like He was looking at them as a small child who might come up to you and simply, in their own way, pull your hair. I mean, a real small child, just a baby, pull your hair. You don't take that baby that doesn't know any different and spank it and punish it. You just teach it. These are people, spiritually, who are so ignorant of the truth, they're like little children, and I ask You to forgive them. They don't understand what they're doing. Whenever people do things to you that are bad or evil or wicked, they don't understand the damage that comes, and so you forgive them, and you ask God to forgive them, and you ask God to remove any kind of anger, resentment, or bitterness in you toward them. The Bible tells us how to be able to live life to its fullest. This is only one illustration of exactly what takes place. Now, Jesus' teaching here is illustrated through the Bible over and over again in the lives of people. So when we read one of those stories where people have gone through something that you're going through, and it's painful to you, you can identify with those people in those stories. So you listen and say, Am I the one who offended someone? What am I supposed to do? And whenever He tells you what to do, you do it. Am I the person who's been offended? Then how should I respond to this? I should forgive them and ask you to bless their lives in spite of what they've done. Show them the difference, how to live better like you lived. That's what we do. And the anger, resentment, and bitterness disappears. What God wants for all of us is to be able to find ourselves in all kinds of situations, but in every situation to believe, if I do exactly what God tells me, I will find life in its fullness. That's what He wants. He didn't want you to be overwhelmed. He didn't want you to be depressed. He didn't want you to be scared. He didn't want you to be worried. He wants you to live with confidence, because I've made the choices God has told me to make. Regardless of the present, everything's going to be okay. The disciples got in that boat once as Jesus had fed the 5,000, started to cross that sea, and the storm came, and they were terrified. They had no idea that Jesus could walk on water. They had no idea that He could say, wind, stop, and it would stop. They'd never seen that. Had no idea it could be done. But when they got to the other side, they'd learned something. I don't ever have to worry when I'm with Jesus on the water. He can take care of everything. God wants you, by the experiences of people in the Scriptures, to learn to live with that kind of confidence. The stories are filled with everything. One time, they didn't have enough money to pay taxes. Jesus didn't say, go out and beg something. He said, go down to the river, catch a fish, and open its mouth, you'll find enough to pay your taxes. He doesn't want you to worry about these things. And when you think of that story, and you're worried about it, you say, well, God, if you can put money in the mouth of fish, you can take care of me, and you can live with peace. These stories will bring you life. But here's what you have to do. You have to say to God, whatever you tell me in the stories of the Scripture, I will both believe and I will do. And then you will find life. Jesus said, like bread gives you spiritual, physical nutrition and helps you grow. So my words will give you spiritual nutrition and help you spiritually to grow. Listen to my words. Now, how does he tell you his words? It's in your mind. His Holy Spirit right now is in the mind and heart of every person here. And in your mind, as I've been talking, you've been thinking about yourself, whether or not this fits you, what you ought to do, how you ought to change, maybe what you've done wrong. That is the Word of God. Not just your thoughts. These are the words God is placing in your mind. Here's what happens. If you ignore those, you're like the Pharisees and the Sadducees. But if you hold on to those and you do what God tells you, you will find life. The physical bread will give you a body, but the spiritual bread that I place in your mind will give you spiritual life. Do you want to eat? Not to change your body, but to change your character and your nature and your future. Could you bow your heads, please? These are the words of life. If you believe them and you act on them, then you will find life. What has God told you that you shouldn't do and you realize you've been doing it? He wants you to acknowledge that, ask for forgiveness, and promise Him that you will change if He will give you the wisdom and ability to change. What has He told you that you should start doing? He wants you to say, now, today, I will change the direction of my life. If you listen to these words and you do them, you will find eternal life. Life as God wanted you to have it in this world and forever. All God can do is give you the words. You can either throw them away or take them into your mind. In a minute, the pianist is going to play an invitation song. We just want you to think about what God has put through your mind this morning. You know, if you've been confronted with something in your life that needs to change, do you know what God wants for you? This is your time to say to Him, if you will show me what to do, I will do it as best I know how the rest of my life, but you have to help me. If you want to share a promise that you want to make to God, you can come to the front of the church and share it with me or Carl. We'll pray with you. If you've come to realize that this is the church where God wants you to be a part of us, you may want to come and share that with us. We'll receive you for the congregation. If you realize you've been headed the wrong way in your life and you want that change that you know God can make, you just come and say, I'm ready to start following Christ, to eating His spiritual food, that I might grow to be a godly person. You do what God tells you.