God's Word at the Centre: How God Shapes His People (Joe Penner)

Well, last week we had the blessing of being away on

vacation. We enjoyed a cabin in Tennessee

with some family. And so thank you to all those

who were praying for us for safe travels and and an enjoyable

vacation or relaxing vacation. We appreciate your prayers.

As we were on vacation, the Sunday came up and, and we knew

that coming up to Sunday, we want to find a church where we

can go worship God together. And, and so we found this church

and we decided we were going to attend.

And I began looking into the church a little bit and I, I

noticed that they were going through the book of Nehemiah as

well. And I was really excited.

I'm like, oh, great, What are the odds of that?

Here's a church they're going through the book of Nehemiah was

really excited. And so we came to the church on

Sunday morning and, and everybody was very friendly and

we found a seat and, you know, watch the, the countdown timer

as Jonah was mentioning his countdown timers, counting down

the time to the service starts. And I was really excited.

And then the timer hit 0 and the worship team began to sing, but

we remained seated. And they they sang a song that

was popular maybe 15 years ago that was on the radio, a song

that was not very singable or congregational.

And then we stood up and we did sing a song together.

And it was, it was a good, it was a good worship song.

And then we sang a song from the very well known Christian

artist, The Beatles. Let it be, let it be, let it be,

let it be. And then the Sir, the pastor

came up and he preached a sermon kind of about Nehemiah.

I I don't remember one single time in the entire service that

we read any passage of Scripture from the Bible at all.

I may have missed it if if he did, it was one or two verses.

But we did to my remembrance, we did not open the Bible.

And if you go on their website and and the very first thing you

see on their website is we are a Bible believing, Bible teaching

church. And yet we didn't open the

Scriptures one time. Well, that's kind of like where

we pick up the Israelites in the book of Nehemiah.

They were called to be God's people and they called

themselves God's people, but but they weren't really following

God's word. They weren't really following

his ways. Instead, they had abandoned the

Lord. They had abandoned his ways.

And that is why they were being disciplined.

Why they had been disciplined for years because they had

abandoned God. They didn't hold his word with

reverence and honor, meditating on it day and night.

But now through the leadership of Nehemiah, God brought them

back. He brought them back to his

word. And through Nehemiah, through

this man who who had a desire to be faithful to God and his word,

they rebuilt the walls. They they were able to overcome

the attacks from the enemies. They were able to overcome

fighting even from within, and they rebuilt the wall in 52

days, a miraculous work that clearly God was behind.

And as Pastor Jonah talked to us last week, now they began to

restore the purpose for why Jerusalem existed in the 1st

place, which is to be a center place of worship for God.

This is what the Israelites were made to do, why God had saved

them to worship God. And as we're going to see today,

the people of God put God's Word back at the center of who they

are as a people. And so that's my title this

morning. God's Word at the center, how

God's Word shapes his people. And what we're going to see this

morning is when God's people put the Word of God at the center of

who they are. It is powerful and it unifies

us, it transforms us, and it will grow us.

Let's pray for the Lord to do that this morning.

God, we thank You for Your word and we stand on the truth of

Your Word. Lord, we have nothing to say if

it is not from Your word. And we thank You that through

Your Word we can know truth, that we come to know the God of

the universe. And Lord, we pray that that as

we are a people who center our lives and center our church and

all that we are on your word. We pray, Lord, that you would

unify us together by the power of your spirit, that you would

transform us through the renewing of our minds, and that

you would grow us so that we may be glorifying to you as we seek

to build not our own Kingdom, but your Kingdom.

This we ask in Jesus name, Amen. So would you open your Bibles

with me to Nehemiah chapter 8? We are going to read God's Word

Nehemiah 8 · chapter mention

this morning. Nehemiah chapter 8.

Nehemiah 8 · chapter mention

I'll be reading from the ESV and I will read the whole chapter.

And all the people gathered as one man into the square before

the Watergate, and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the

book of the Law of Moses, that the Lord hadn't commanded

Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the

law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could

understand what they heard on the first day of the 7th month.

And he read from it, facing the square before the Watergate from

early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the

women and those who could understand.

And the ears of the people were attentive to the Book of the

Law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a

wooden platform that they had made for the purpose.

And beside him stood Mattathaya, Shima, Anaya, Uriah, Hilkiah,

and Mehasaya on his right hand, and Padaya, Mishael, Malkaja,

Hashem, Hashpadana, Zechariah, and Mashulam on his left hand.

And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he

was above all the people. And as he opened it, all the

people stood, And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all

the people answered Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands, and they

bowed their heads and worship the Lord with their faces to the

ground. Also Joshua Baney, Sharabaya

Jamin a cub, Shabbati Hodaya May Asaya Kalida Azariah, Josabad,

Hainan Pelaya. The Levites helped the people to

understand the law while the people remained in their places.

They read from the book, from the law of God clearly and they

gave the sense so that the people understood the reading.

And Nehemiah who was the governor, and Ezra the priest

and the scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to

all the people, this day is holy to the Lord your God, do not

mourn or weep. For all the people wept as they

heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, go your

way, eat the fat, drink sweet wine, and send portions to

anyone who has nothing ready. For this day is holy to our

Lord, and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your

strength. So the Levites calmed all the

people saying, Be quiet, for this day is holy, do not be

grieved. And all the people went their

way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great

rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were

declared to them. On the second day the heads of

fathers, houses of all the people, with the priests and the

Levites came together to Ezra the scribe in order to study the

words of the law. And they found it written in the

law that the Lord had commanded by Moses that the people of

Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the 7th

month, and that they should proclaim it and publish it in

all their towns and in Jerusalem.

Go out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive,

Myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is

written. So the people went out and

brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof,

and in their courts, and in the courts of the House of God.

And in the square at the Watergate, and in the square at

the gate of Ephraim. And all the assembly of those

who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived

in the booths. For from the days of Jeshua the

son of Nun to that day, the people of Israel had not done

so, and there was very great rejoicing.

And day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read

from the book of God, the book of the law of God.

They kept the feast 7 days, and on the 8th day there was a

solemn assembly according to the rule.

After having experienced the the discipline from the hand of the

Lord, now the people put God's Word back at the center of their

lives, the center of their worship.

And there are many benefits and blessings that come as we do

that as God's people. The first thing we see is that

God's word unifies us. Now when you read the history of

the of the Israelites, one of the most, the one of the most

terrifying statements that we read is at the end of the book

of Judges that says everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

And this is what led Israel into sin.

This is what led them to experiencing the discipline of

the hand of the Lord. They turned away from God and

turned away from the blessings that came with it.

But here in Nehemiah, God's people desire once again to

center their lives on God's word and be unified in it.

Now God's word unifies us when we gather to hear the word.

That's what the Israelites were doing.

They were gathering together to hear the word.

We see this in verses one through 3.

All the people gathered as one man into the square before the

Watergate, and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of

the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel.

And so Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly,

both men and women and all who could understand what they heard

on the first day of the 7th month.

And he read from it, facing the square before the Watergate,

from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and

the women and those who could understand.

And the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of

the Law. So they gather as one man, as

one body, as one unit, They come together.

And what do they come together? Unified in God's Word, they

asked Ezra to bring the book of the Law and to read it to them.

And so they're looking to be unified in God's Word.

And so Ezra reads the Word in everyone's ear, is attentive.

Everyone who could understand is here to listen to the Word of

God, and they are unified as they are reading the same word

of God. We're also unified when we

worship the Word. So God had given His Word, and

His Word pointed them and taught them about Him.

And so the hearing of the Word LED them to worship God the

Word. And I sort of got to play on

words there. We can pass forward to John

John 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. John tells us that that in the

beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word

was God. And so we worship the Word, but

we don't worship the words on this page.

We don't worship the Bible. The Bible points us to a living

God who is to be worshipped. Look at me with verses 4 through

6. Ezra the scribe stood on a

wooden platform that they had made for the purpose, and beside

him stood Marathiah, Shima, Anaya, Hilkiah, Mehsaya on his

right hand, Padaya, Michelle, Malkaja, Hashem Hashmadanah,

Zachariah, and Mashulam on his left hand.

And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he

was above all the people. And as he opened it, all the

people stood. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the

great God, and all the people answered.

Amen. Amen.

Lifting up their hands and they bowed, bowed their heads, and

worship the Lord with their faces to the ground.

So as Ezra stands in the presence of all the people with,

with the leaders on his right hand and the readers on his

left, the the leaders on his left hand, he reads the word and

he worships the word. He worships God as they are

unified together. Now the reason this is so

important is because God's Word teaches us who God is and how He

is to be worshipped. And so we need to be unified in

God's Word so that we can worship Him rightly.

We're also unified when we understand the Word.

Look at verses 7 and 8. Now we see Ezra has been reading

the law, but now leaders begin to go out and teach the law.

Verse 7 and 8 also Joshua Baini Sharabaya Jamin Akab Shabbathi

Hodaya Mehsaya Kalida Azariah, Josephad Hainan Pelaya.

The Levites helped the people to understand the law while the

people remained in their places. They read from the book, from

the law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense that there's

this idea of like line by line, paragraph by paragraph.

They gave them the sense so that they understood the reading.

And so notice Ezra doesn't just read the book and then they

leave without any application, right?

They come to read the word, to worship the Word so that they

understand the Word, so that they can what?

Obey. Understanding leads to

obedience. We can't obey if we don't

understand. And so in all of these things,

hearing the Word, worshipping the Word, and understanding the

Word, they are unified together as they seek as one man to bring

glory and honour to God. We see this unity, the same kind

of devotion to God's Word in the early church, in the book of

Acts we read of the early church, and this is after

Jesus's life, his ministry, after he had died and rose again

and then ascended back to the Father.

The Holy Spirit came on all the people as they gathered together

and a huge crowd gathered to see what was going on.

And this was the perfect time for Peter to preach this sermon,

this popular sermon, this, this infamous sermon that he preached

leading about 1003 thousand people to joining God's family.

And we know that that there were people from all over the place,

different nationalities, different Jews from different

locations, but also Gentiles and proselytes and, and outsiders

who had come to Jerusalem. And now this is all parts of

this 3000 people that come to faith in Christ.

Well, all these different people from different backgrounds

coming together. How are they going to be unified

with all these different backgrounds?

How are they going to be unified with all these different

different characteristics and traits and personalities and and

histories? How are they going to be unified

by keeping God's word at the center?

Acts 2 verse 42 says, and they devoted themselves to the

Acts 2:42

apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of

bread and the prayers. How did all these people stay

unified in God's Word? As the apostles faithfully

taught God's Word and how the coming of Christ fulfilled all

of the Old Testament, the people were unified.

It didn't matter what background they came from, because they

were centered on God's Word. And we too will be unified when

we do this. When we put God's Word at the

center of all that we do, we will be unified.

And that is exactly what we are seeking to do here at LEMC.

We believe that God the Father working through his word by God,

the Spirit will transform us into the image of God the Son.

Therefore, God's word is the emphasis of everything that we

do as a church. Maybe you've been coming here

for a while or even just this morning.

Just take a look at this morning.

We begin with the word of God. We we pray God's word.

There's Scripture reading throughout our worship.

There's scripture reading as we study and read the Bible,

there's scripture in our prayers that when when our children

meet, our meeting right now, they are studying God's Word, a

curriculum that is based on God's Word.

When our youth meet throughout the week, they're going through

curriculums based on God's Word. When we meet on Wednesday night,

we come together to study God's Word together.

God's Word informs everything that we do, and we are trying to

be unified by keeping God's word at the center of everything that

we do. But how about you?

Is God's word at the center of your life?

Is God's because it, it, it takes everybody, right?

If, if a few people are centered on God's word and they're trying

to bring everybody else along, that doesn't work, right?

The, the whole goal of why Ezra was teaching the law is so that

everybody could know it and obey it.

And so each and every one of us needs to be putting God at the

center, God's word at the center of our lives so that when we

come together, we're unified in it.

And so I'd encourage you, if, if you're not spending time daily

in God's Word, we would encourage you to do that.

One way that we do encourage our church to do that is through our

Bible reading plan. If you already have a Bible

reading plan that you're going through, that's totally fine.

But if you don't, we would really encourage you to grab a,

a booklet that you'll find over there by the water fountain and

it takes you through the year. Here's a Bible reading for five

days of the week. And, and we believe so much in

the power of God's Word that we want to encourage each other to

be in it daily, that it can transform us and unify us in

Christ. And when we put God's word at

the center of our lives and our life as a church, we will be

unified. The next benefit that comes from

putting God's word at the center is that God's word transforms

us. The Israelites were now putting

God's word back at the center and God begins to transform his

people. And I heard a quote this week as

I was watching a social media clip and and he was talking

about God's word. And it says these texts are not

designed to be mastered. They master you.

We don't come to God's word to come to some sort of theological

degree or, or so that I can put letters behind my name.

I come to God's Word to be transformed, that his Word

masters my life. And that's what we're looking

for. We're looking for

transformation. And what I want to play on is

something I heard one of my professors talk about in our

classes is the piercing comfort of God's Word.

That's what we're going to see here as we look at Nehemiah and

in these people as they hear God's Word.

On the one hand, when we read God's Word, you all have

experienced this, right? It pierces your heart because it

exposes your sins. But on the other hand, God's

Word comforts and soothes with the truth of how we can be

forgiven through Christ and how we can have a relationship with

God. And so that's what we're going

to see. The Israelites were transformed

by piercing. Look at verse 9 and Nehemiah who

was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the

Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, this day

is holy to the Lord your God, do not mourn or weep, for all the

people wept as they heard the words of the law.

As Ezra is reading, their hearts are pierced with the truth that

they have been disobedient to God's word, that they have

failed to live their lives in a way that is holy before God.

And their hearts are pierced of this truth.

As Ezra read the law, that that's the five Old Testament

books, right? Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,

Numbers, Deuteronomy, the Torah. As as Ezra read this, what did

they read? They read what we're reading

right now in our Bible reading plan.

They're reading of how God saved his people from Egypt.

These 10 miraculous powerful signs, how He called them and

saved them to Himself. They were reminded of how God

walked with them for 40 years in the wilderness, giving them

everything that they needed. They were reminded of how God

had helped them defeat all of their enemies as they came into

the Promised Land. God had been faithful to do

everything He said He was going to do.

And as these Israelites are listening to Ezra read all these

stories of their faith, their hearts were pierced with the

conviction that they had disobeyed God.

As they were reminded of God's goodness toward them and how

they had failed to follow Him, their hearts were transformed

through piercing. But then something unexpected

happened, right? The Israelites were transformed

by comfort. Rather than experiencing the

judgement of God. They are comforted.

Look at what the leaders say to them next.

Go your way. Verse 10.

Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who

has nothing ready. For this day is holy to our

Lord, and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your

strength. So the Levites calmed all the

people saying, be quiet. For this day is holy, do not be

grieved. And all the people went their

way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great

rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were

declared to them. Now it is true that God had

disciplined them for their disobedience.

He had punished them because they were failing to walk in His

ways. But now we've been faithful to

bring them back, to rebuild the wall, to begin to reinstate

their worship, and now to center their community on God's Word.

And for that reason, Israel had gathered to celebrate God's

favor. That's why they were gathering

to celebrate, to rejoice in what God was doing.

And so the leaders are saying, don't mourn, don't weep.

The Lord is blessing us. Let's continue the celebration

at what God is doing. He is bringing us back to

Himself so that He can make His name great.

The joy of the Lord is your strength.

God isn't angry with His people. He is rejoicing that they are

turning back to Him in His ways to worship and obey Him.

But as Israelites put God's Word at the center, God transforms

them through the piercing comfort of His Word.

Throughout Jesus's ministry, He told many parables.

And one of the most incredible, incredible parables ever told

that we all know very well is the the parable of the Prodigal

Son. Here we have the story of a man

who has two sons. And this younger son comes up

and and he rejects his father. He doesn't want anything to do

with his father. He doesn't respect him.

He doesn't appreciate all that he has through his father.

He says, give me my inheritance and I'm out of here.

And he goes into a land, a country that is far away so that

he's far out of the reach of the hand of his father.

And he squanders every last penny that he has.

And that's exactly when a famine hits.

And so instead of at that point turning back to his father, he

says, I got this. I can take care of myself.

And he begins to work feeding pigs.

And, and as he feeds the pigs, he's so hungry that he longs to

be fed with the pods that are given to the pigs, but no one

gives him anything. And finally he comes to himself

and he and he says, what am I doing?

What am I doing here when my father's servants are living

better than me? I'm going to go back to my

father and I'm going to repent and I'm going to ask him for his

favor. But I'm not going to say you,

you should reject me as your son.

I'll just be one of your servants.

And so Luke that chapter 15 speaks of this parable.

He says, and he arose, and he came to his father, but while he

was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt

compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and

before you. I am no longer worthy to be

called your son. But the Father said to his

servants, Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put

a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened

calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.

For this my son was dead and is alive again.

He is lost and is found. And they began to celebrate.

The son had been pierced with the reality that he had sinned

against his father, but he was not met with the judgement that

he expected. Instead, he was comforted with

the joy of his father, who had been eagerly waiting for and

praying for his son's return. Maybe you're like the prodigal

son at the beginning of the story who you reject God.

You want nothing to do with God and his goodness.

You don't care anything for his provision.

And maybe you think God is just some evil God who's standing up

there who wants to put all these ridiculous restrictions on our

lives and he has nothing but evil intended for us.

And you don't see God as a good thing or a good person or a good

God, that he wants to punish you.

He's mad at you. Now, it is true that God does

hate our sin. It is true that God pierces our

hearts through the exposing of our sin.

But it's because He knows that your sin will leave you broken

and hurt. He wants what's best for you.

And so He wants you to come and find comfort in Him, in a

relationship with Him, so that he can satisfy you with His

goodness. Turn to Him today and you won't

find an angry, judgmental God. You will find a God who has open

arms and wants to welcome you and give you the joy of His

presence. Maybe you're like the prodigal

son and you already have been pierced with the reality of your

sin. Know that you cannot make it on

your own, though you try. You try to to make your life

perfect. I know that I just got to get my

life together and then I can come to God.

That is not possible. There is no way that we can

atone for all our sins. The minute you think you restore

and reinstate all the bad from one sin, you've committed 10

more. We cannot earn God's favor.

Turn to God. Don't think that you have to

make yourself right before you come back to Him.

He is the one who restores you. He is the one who makes you holy

and righteous as you turn back to Him.

Friend, God loves you. He desires what is best for you.

He doesn't want to punish you, He wants to forgive you.

He wants to clothe you in the righteousness of Christ and

celebrate with you. Psalm 1O3 says He does not deal

with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our

iniquities. For as high as the heavens are

above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who

fear Him, as far as the east is from the West, so far does He

remove our transgressions from us.

Turn to God in humble confession and repentance, confessing your

sins. Believe that God paid for your

sins through Christ on the cross by sending to Jesus, by sending

Jesus to die for you. If you repent of your sins and

put your faith in Christ, you will be saved.

For the believers here this morning, if you are a part of

God's family, you must recognize that I've already said that you

need to be in God's word every day.

And it's challenging, right? When we read God's Word, it

pierces our hearts, it exposes our sin.

But that's where we need to run time and time again to the cross

and be reminded of God's sacrifice for us, That through

Christ we are righteous. Not through obeying the law,

through faith in Christ, we are made righteous, and God's Word

comforts us with that truth. This is the transforming power

of God's Word as we put it at the center.

And so when we put God's Word at the center, it unifies us, it

transforms us, and it grows us. God's Word grows us as the

Israelites came, as they put God's Word at the center.

This is what we begin to see as God's people come to their work,

to His Word. He grows them so that they can

be more faithful to Him. It grows us as we study God's

Word together. Look at me at verse 13 through

15. On the second day the heads of

fathers, houses of all the people, with the priests and the

Levites, came together to Ezra the Scribe in order to study the

words of the Law. And they found it written in the

law that the Lord had commanded by Moses that the people of

Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the 7th

month, and that they should proclaim it and publish it all

in their towns and in Jerusalem. Go out to the hills and bring

branches of olive, wild olive, Myrtle, palm, and other leafy

trees to make booths as it is written.

And So what do we see at the beginning of this passage?

We see at the beginning of this passage all the heads of the

Father's houses come together to study with the Levites and with

Ezra. Notice that the the studying of

God's law isn't reserved just for the leaders, it's for all

the men of the houses. Why?

Well, Israel wasn't all living in Jerusalem all the time, so

they couldn't just come together and learn from the describe all

the time. These men needed to study and

know God's Word so they could take it back to their families

in these other countries, in these other places, and teach

their families. That's how God's Word was.

That's how they had unity. They taught their families God's

Word together. And as they studied God's Word

together, God grew them. Next, God's word grows us as we

obey God's word together. So as we saw, they studied God's

Word and they realized, hey, we need to make booths because

that's what God's Word says. It says that we need to

celebrate on the 50th day of this month.

We need to celebrate the Feast of Booths and we need to make

booths to live in. And this is a reminder of God

walking with His people through the wilderness.

Look at verse 16 through 18. So we see their obedience.

So the people went out and brought them and made booths for

themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts, and in the

courts of the House of God, and in the square at the Watergate,

and in the square at the gate of Ephraim.

And all the assembly of those who had returned from the

captivity made booths and lived in the booths.

For from the days of Jeshua the son of Nun, to that day, the

people of Israel had not done so.

And there was very great rejoicing.

And day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read

from the book of the law of God. They kept the feast 7 days, and

on the 8th day there was a solemn assembly according to the

rule. And so we see the Israelites

obeying God's Word. It says that we should make

booths. So they immediately go out and

get these branches. So they come and they make

booths. And what is the result of

obedience to God's Word? Rejoicing, they rejoiced

together that they were unified in God's Word and obeying Him.

Faithful to His commands, God used His Word to grow His people

as they studied and obeyed together.

And I already mentioned the early church in the book of

Acts. We see this exact same thing

there. We already saw how they devoted

themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship,

to the breaking of bread and prayers.

They devoted themselves to God's Word.

And what did God begin to do in them as they devoted themselves

to His Word? Look at verse 43 through 47.

And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were

being done through the apostles, and all who believed were

together and had all things in common.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and

distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking

bread in their homes, they received their food with glad

and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all

the people. And the Lord added to their

number day by day. Those who were being saved as

the early church devoted themselves to God's Word.

As they put God's Word at the center of all that they did, we

see God working in powerful ways to grow them.

He united them in their worship. He transformed them by them

working in their hearts and them serving each other through

incredible sacrificial acts. We grew them in number as souls

came to faith in Christ through their message.

And so God grew them as they experienced joy in unifying

themselves together on God's word.

And as a church, this is just again, such a good reminder for

us that we have to keep God's word at the center of all that

we do. I know I, I've had, I've had

this question asked to me before.

Well, what, how, how, what are you guys doing that your church

has grown? And I always say to them the

same thing. It's I don't know, I nothing.

I mean, the answer is we're focusing on God's word.

That's the answer. But what they're expecting me to

say is, oh, we have this really great, neat strategy.

If you go to any conference today, a church growth strategy,

what they're going to tell you is that you need to find a

certain demographic of the people in your community that

you need to target and you need to go after those people and you

need to share the gospel with them so that your church is full

of 45 year old people who have a wife and two kids and a white

picket fence and A2 story home brothers and sisters.

That's not the gospel. The gospel is a good news of

salvation for all people. And so we run astray when we

don't put God's Word at the center of what we do as a

church. We want to center everything

that we do on God's Word. That's the only reason that we

have grown as a church is because we're centering what we

do on God's Word. And God's people are coming

together and they're finding sort of my experience when we

attended this church as we visited last week, you go to

these churches and you're like, this seems very shallow.

And so people are coming here because we're centering on the

truth of God's Word. And that's what's going to grow

us. And our primary concern is not

to grow in number. I know Jake talks about this all

the time, that we want to be a people of relationship.

We want to go deep. We want to love the Lord our God

with all our heart, soul, and mind and strength.

We want to love our neighbor as ourself.

We want to grow in a relationship with one another,

and then we want our community to experience the joy and the

fellowship of having a relationship with God and one

another. And we only want that growth as

it comes through God's Word. And so we need to center all

that we do on God's Word, and that's how we're going to grow.

And so you'll see that as we meet on Wednesday nights, as we

meet on Sunday nights, again, as I already mentioned, we come

together to study God's Word and to know Him better.

That's what we do. And as we commit to studying and

knowing God's Word, and through obedience, God will grow us.

Now this begs the question, why is God's Word so important?

And in our church Bible reading plan, we've been going through

Exodus. And after delivering his people

out of Egypt with a strong and mighty hand, God brings them to

a mountain. And he tells them, You

yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore

you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself.

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my

covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all

the peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me

a Kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

These are the words that you shall speak to the people of

Israel. God commands His people to obey

them because He saved them. Then God gives them, He begins

to give them instructions on how to build a Tabernacle, to build

an ark, a table for the bread, a golden lampstand, and then all

these articles, these priestly garments that they're to wear.

Why all these rules? There are a lot of instructions.

And then God even says in Exodus 25 verse 9, exactly, exactly as

Exodus 25:9

I show you concerning the pattern of the Tabernacle and of

all its furniture, so you shall make it.

Why is God so concerned about their exact obedience to His

Word? The answer is in is right the

verse before. Let them make me a sanctuary,

that I may dwell in their midst. God wants to dwell with His

people, but He can't because of their sin.

And so he sets up this system of worship so that so that their

sins can be atoned for, so that they can be a holy people in his

presence and he can dwell among them.

But now Christ has come through his life, his death, his

resurrection, He's fulfilled all of the purposes of these

ceremonies and these statutes and these these laws and these

feasts and festivals. All of these things point us to

Christ, and He fulfills all of them.

And through His death, through His life, through His

resurrection, He's defeated our enemies.

He's defeated sin and death. He has saved us through His

sacrifice and through faith. We are now righteous, and His

Spirit can dwell in our hearts. You see, that's the storyline of

the Bible. In the Garden of Eden, God

dwells with his people, but because of sin, they're kicked

out of the garden. And all the rest of Scripture is

God trying to come back to dwell among his people.

And now we live in the day and age of Christ, where now God

dwells in US. It's not God's presence in a

cloud around us. It's God's presence in our

hearts. And one day we will be fully in

his presence, holy, blameless, righteous, never to weep or cry

or mourn or be in pain ever again.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, because of the sacrifice of

Christ, it should be our joy, our longing, our greatest

desire. To obey Him, we should long to

be pleasing to the God who saved us, seeking to bring glory and

honor to His name for His greatness.

But in order to do that, we must put His Word at the center.

We must meditate on His Word day and night so that we can know

it, so that we can obey Him. And when we are faithful to do

that, He will unify us, He will transform us, and He will grow

us. 1st Corinthians 6 verse 19 and 20 says, or do you not know

that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom

you have from God? You are not your own, for you

were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your

salvation, for your redemption through Christ our Savior.

We thank you that you have saved us from sin.

We thank you that you have given us the hope of eternal life and

we no longer need to fear death. There is no condemnation for

those who are in Christ. And so now we look forward with

joyful expectation at eternity in your presence.

And Lord, we pray that through the power of your Spirit that

you would strengthen us to be obedient to Your Word.

We know that we cannot do it in our own strength, in our own

flesh. And so, Lord, we pray that your

Spirit would drive us to Your Word on a daily basis,

meditating on it day and night, that we may be pleasing to you.

And we ask, Lord, that as we do that, that you would unify us as

your church, that you would transform us, and that you would

grow us in the likeness of our Savior Jesus Christ, in whose

name we pray. Amen.