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The Word, Work, & Worship

The 3 “W’s” of our Lives – The Word – Part #2

Intro

II Cor.4

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

My wish, my prayer for your life is the essence of my 1st point this morning

Ps. 147:12-15 (Psalm of praise and thanksgiving)

Extol the Lord, Jerusalem;

    praise your God, Zion.

13 He strengthens the bars of your gates

    and blesses your people within you.

14 He grants peace to your borders

    and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.

15 He sends his command to the earth;

    his word runs swiftly.

I. May God’s Word Run in Your Life

II Thess. 3:1

New International Version

As for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you.

American Standard Version

Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run and be glorified, even as also it is with you;

King James Bible

Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:

A. An Eternal Kingdom

There is an amazing concept that is communicated throughout the scripture --- it’s this word “eternity.”

: time without an end

: a state that comes after death and never ends

: time that seems to be without an end

The first 4 words of the Bible speak to this concept, “In the beginning, God” --- God is, He has always been, and He will always be

Ps. 90:1-2

Lord, you have been our dwelling place

    throughout all generations.

2 Before the mountains were born

    or you brought forth the whole world,

    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

B. My Time in this World

Ps. 39:4-7

“Show me, Lord, my life’s end

    and the number of my days;

    let me know how fleeting my life is.

5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;

    the span of my years is as nothing before you.

Everyone is but a breath,

    even those who seem secure.[b]

6 “Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom;

    in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth

    without knowing whose it will finally be.

7 “But now, Lord, what do I look for?

    My hope is in you.

For some, they are not even able to say this – like Jack

Choosing between a pistol and a Gideon Bible

Somewhere on the border of Oregon and California, I ended up in a motel

room and decided there was nothing left in this life worth living for.

I knew there had to be a God, but I didn’t think that He loved me,

because no one ever told me He did.

In that motel room, I had a pistol and nothing left in life. I was

bitter against law enforcement. I had to blame somebody, and decided I

would shoot a policeman.

There was a Gideon Bible on the nightstand beside the bed. I looked at

that Bible and hated it. I snatched it up and threw it across the room

as hard as I could. It hit the wall and fell to the floor. Then I

picked it up and began to read.

For the first time in my life, I cried out to the Lord, “God, if you’re

real, don’t play games with me, just help me.” I fell to my knees and

started to weep. While I was on that floor weeping, a peace came into

my life that I still have to this day.

I want to give glory to the Lord Jesus Christ for what He has done in

my life. And I thank and encourage you Gideons.

-Jack

Someone once said: A Bible in the hand is worth two in the bookcase.

- And someone else said: A Bible stored in the mind is worth a dozen

stored in the bottom of one’s trunk.

- DL Moody said: “The scriptures were not given for our information but

our transformation.”

- Mark Twain, not exactly a die-hard Christian, wrote these words:

“Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not

understand, but the passages that bother me most are those I do

understand.”

- No matter how many times you have been through it, let it go through

you.

- God’s word is like salt in the back of your car in the winter. It’s a

lot more useful when you take it out and apply it.

- We get more out of the Bible when we let it get into us.

C. Have true Kingdom Success

1. Following Christ and not this World

Mt. 16:26

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life[f] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

It’s why if we were to choose a theme verse of the Bible we would choose

John 3:16

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

2. You and Your family

The truths of God’s Word were meant for every man and woman and our children

Deut.11

18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

II. How do I best experience God’s Word

Read – Study - Memorize

Jacob Koshy grew up in Singapore with one driving ambition: to be a

success in life, to gain all the money and possessions he could. That

led him into the world of drugs and gambling, and eventually he became

the lord of an international smuggling network. In 1980, he was

arrested and placed in a government drug rehabilitation prison in

Singapore.

He was frustrated beyond endurance. All his goals, purposes, dreams,

and ambitions were locked up with him in a tiny cell, and his heart was

full of a cold emptiness. He was a smoker, and cigarettes weren’t

allowed in the center. Instead, he smuggled in tobacco and rolled it in

the pages of the Gideon Bible. One day he fell asleep while smoking. He

awoke to find to find that the cigarette had burned out, and all that

remained was a scrap of charred paper. He unrolled it and read what was

written; “Saul, Saul Why do you persecute me?”

Jacob asked for another Bible and read the entire story of the

conversion of Saul of Tarsus. He suddenly realized that if God could

help someone like Saul, God could help him, too. There in his cell he

knelt and prayed, asking Christ to come into his life and change him.

He began crying and couldn’t stop. The tears of a wasted life washed

away his pain, and God redeemed him. He started sharing his story with

the other prisoners, and as soon as he was released he became involved

in a Church. He met a Christian woman, married her, and is now a

missionary in the Far East where he tells people far and wide, “Who

would have believed that I could find the truth by smoking the word of

God?” TONY BRITT

A. Best Bible to Read

1. What to Read

Answer --- The one you have

The one I like to read out of for my daily Bible reading most of you know is this “One Year Bible”

A very popular One Year Bible right now is the

The Daily Bible Devotional: A One-Year Journey Through God's Word in Chronological Order (Hardcover)

by F. LaGard Smith

Some people get a little fussy over which translation is the best. I think it really comes down to personal preference more than anything, though it is good to research the translations or at least browse through them at the Christian Bookstore. Family Christian – Mayfair and Brown Deer Rd, VCY on Capitol just east of 45

Let me give you a quick teaching on the translations of the Bible

The Original languages which it was written in was Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic

Unless your able to read those languages, you will have to do what most people due and that’s read a translation.

I like to group in 3 catagories

Paraphased – Living Bible, Message

Dynamic Equivilent --- NIV,

Literal --- NASB, ESV, KJV

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2. When to Read

The time that works for you

Accountability --- Matthew McCabe story

3. How to Read

Ask God to reveal scripture to you. That something may speak to you

Ps. 119:105

King James Bible

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Pray that God’s Word would be a tool in your life, bring instruction to your life, and be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto you path

B. Best way to Study

1. Methods



Method One - The Devotional Method of Bible Study

Method Two - The Chapter Summary Method of Bible

Method Three - The Character Quality Method of Bible

Method Four - The Thematic Method of Bible Study

Method Five - The Biographical Method of Bible Study

Method Six - The Topical Method of Bible Study

Method Seven - The Word Study Method of Bible Study

Method Eight - The Book Background Method of Bible Study

Method Nine - The Book Survey Method of Bible Study

Method Ten - The Chapter Analysis Method of Bible Study

Method Eleven - The Book Synthesis Method of Bible Study

Method Twelve - The Verse by Verse Method of Bible Study

2. Tools

• Concordance – Strong’s

• Bible Encyclopedia – The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

• Bible Dictionary - Holman

• Lexicon – The New Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon

• Commentaries – Matthew Henry’s, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, John R.W. Stott, William Barclay, Warren Wiersbe

• Web sites – and

3. Devotionals

• Morning and Evening – Charles Spurgeon

• Amazing Grace – Kenneth W. Osbeck

• Jesus Calling - Sarah Young

• My Utmost for His Highest – Oswald Chambers

• Nightlight (Devotional for couples) – James Dobson

• has an excellent online youth devotional

• Our Daily Bread (One per family)

Join a Bible Study or Class

C. Best Way to Memorize

Make time for it --- Turning of the TV and Radio can be a great place to start

Ten Tips for Memorizing Bible Verses

1. Choose a verse to memorize that speaks to something in your life

right now.

2. Start small.

3. Write it down.

4. Say it out loud.

5. Incorporate the verse into your prayers.

6. Put it everywhere.

7. Use music to help.

8. Make it a game.

9. Translate the verse into a different language

10. Repeat, repeat, repeat!

We often take time for things that are most important for us

Do it as a family --- Book of James story

Roadside Assistance

By Joe Stowell

Read: Psalm 46

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. —Psalm 46:1

An acquaintance of mine was hunting with friends near Balmoral, the country estate of the queen of England. As they walked, he twisted his ankle so badly that he couldn’t go on, so he told his friends to continue and he would wait by the side of the road.

As he sat there, a car came down the road, slowed, and stopped. The woman driving rolled the window down and asked if he was okay. He explained and said he was waiting for his friends to return. She said, “Get in; I’ll take you back to where you are staying.” He limped to the car and opened the door only to realize that it was Queen Elizabeth!

As shocking as receiving help from the queen of England may be, we have an offer of help that is even more astounding. The Creator-God of the universe descends into our world, sees our trouble, and offers to marshal His resources to help us. As the psalmist confidently affirms, “God is . . . a very present help in trouble” (Ps. 46:1). Our Savior helps by giving us grace to endure, His Word to sustain us, friends to encourage and pray for us, and the confidence that He will ultimately work it all together for our spiritual good.

Listen to this Poem

Lord, I’m thankful that when I experience trouble

You are waiting and wanting to help. Teach

me to look to You and to rest in Your kind and

loving care until You deliver me safely home.

Rejoice! Your God is a helping King!

Closing

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It is estimated that in his lifetime, Spurgeon preached to around 10,000,000 people,[1][2] Spurgeon was the pastor of the congregation of the New Park Street Chapel (later the Metropolitan Tabernacle) in London for 38 years

The Authority of the Bible is often challenged. The best approach in defending the Bible as the Word of God is offered by the late theologian Charles Spurgeon and his short and simple method. “Defend the Bible as you would a lion, just let it out.”

Ravi Zacharias tells the amazing story of a young Christian in Vietnam.

He writes, “I was ministering in Vietnam in 1971, and one of my

interpreters was Hien Pham, an energetic young Christian. He had worked

as a translator with the American forces, and was of immense help both

to them and to missionaries such as myself. Hien and I traveled the

length of the country and became very close friends before I returned

home. We did not know if our paths would ever cross again. Seventeen

years later, I received a telephone call. ‘Brother Ravi?’ the man

asked. Immediately I recognized Hien’s voice, and he soon told me his

story. Shortly after Vietnam fell, Hien was imprisoned on accusations

of helping the Americans. His jailers tried to indoctrinate him against

democratic ideals and the Christian faith. He was restricted to

communist propaganda in French or Vietnamese, and the daily deluge of

Marx and Engels began to take its toll. ‘Maybe,’ he thought, ‘I have

been lied to. Maybe God does not exist. Maybe the West has deceived

me.’ So Hien determined that when he awakened the next day, he would

not pray anymore or think of his faith.

The next morning, he was assigned the dreaded chore of cleaning the

prison latrines. As he cleaned out a tin can overflowing with toilet

paper, his eye caught what seemed to be English printed on one piece of

paper. He hurriedly grabbed it, washed it, and after his roommates had

retired that night, he retrieved the paper and read the words, ‘Romans,

Chapter 8.’ Trembling, he began to read, ‘And we know that in all

things God works for the good of those who love Him. . . for I am

convinced that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of

God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ Hien wept. He knew His Bible,

and knew that there was not a more relevant passage for one on the

verge of surrender. He cried out to God, asking forgiveness, for this

was to have been the first day that he would not pray. . . . After

finding the Scripture, Hien asked the commander if he could clean the

latrines regularly, because he discovered that some official was using

a Bible as toilet paper. Each day Hien picked up a portion of

Scripture, cleaned it off, and added it to his collection of nightly

reading. . . . What his tormentors were using for refuse — the

Scriptures — could not be more treasured to Hien.” Eventually he was

released from prison and fled to Tailand. Today he is a businessman in

the United States, a radiant Christian and a living testimony to the

power of God’s Word and its transforming power

II Cor.4

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

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