Thank God for His Word (North OC)

Marcel: It's the holiday season.

Are you guys excited about the holidays?

You have a Thanksgiving, we have Christmas, we have new years time to

eat a lot, perhaps maybe eat too much.

I know that's my sin during this time, but uh, it's a season of holidays

and particularly Thanksgiving.

It's a season of giving thanks.

So I want us to do this in, in pairs and in threes and fours.

Answer this question right here.

What are you thankful for?

What are you thankful for?

Just whatever it is.

Go ahead right now.

Share what is something that you are thankful for.

All right, let's get it.

Let's get a couple people to share.

Let's hear a couple of things here.

What's one thing that you are thankful for?

Let's go ahead.

Let's have some people share one thing that you are thankful for.

Okay, you were just talking.

All right, so here we go.

All right, Alan.

Yes.

Okay.

He said he's thankful for the body of Christ and being in the church and

how he can get help and receive help during with his struggles and whatnot.

Okay.

Amen.

That's awesome.

All right.

Yes, sir.

Mr.

Artechi.

Okay.

For those who couldn't hear, Will said he's thankful for his

mother in law, Joyce and Joyce.

If you know, we've been praying for Joyce.

She just had surgery and look at her in the house.

Come on, representing.

Let's go, Joyce.

Joyce is a lovely woman.

Now, if she can be here after heart surgery, you better not have an excuse.

Talk about my thumb hurts.

You know what I'm saying?

She's worshiping the Lord.

Amen.

We are thankful for you, Joyce.

All right.

Any others?

Any others?

Something that you're thankful for?

Yes, Jane.

She says she's thankful for her family, how God is always taking care of us.

Awesome.

Okay.

All right.

We'll go one more.

Uh, Stacy.

I'm thankful that Jessica.

Okay,

awesome.

Stacey shared that her niece, Jessica, uh, which we're gonna announce she's

getting baptized today after service.

Amen.

Come on.

Amen.

Let me ask you this, these are all things that we can think of for ourselves.

What are some things that we all can thank God for?

Okay, so go ahead and answer this question there.

What are some things that we all can thank God for?

And if you're online, go ahead and put in the little chat there, uh,

some things and answer that question.

What are some things you can be thanked for?

So let's go ahead and give you about 30 seconds or so.

What are some things that we all can thank God for?

Alright.

Let's go ahead and, uh, let's get some, some, some more sharing here.

Alright, right there, my man in the, uh, is that a Dodgers hat right there?

Okay, yeah, go ahead.

Okay, we're thankful for God's grace.

Yes, that's so true, right?

We all can be thankful for just the fact that we're living today.

It's a sign of His grace.

Yes, others?

Uh, right here, Dallas.

God's consistency.

Okay, there you go.

How God is consistent in who He is and what He does.

Okay, awesome, awesome.

Alright, any others?

What are some things we all can thank God for?

Yes, uh, Daniella.

His protection.

God protects us.

All right.

Yes, Josephine.

His second chances and his promises.

Okay.

All right.

Uh, yes, Mr.

Barber.

This beautiful Southern California weather, right?

Yes.

We're all so grateful.

It's getting cold in the morning, right?

But then by the afternoon, it's pretty good there.

Yes, we all can thank God for a number of different things that

apply to every single one of us.

And so we're actually going to start a sermon series here for the holiday season,

uh, and it's called this, it's called thank God for, and we're going to walk

through what we can all thank God for.

And so we're going to be talking about that today.

And today we're going to be talking about how we can thank God for his word,

how we can thank God for his written revelation, what we call the Bible.

Let's go to God in prayer.

Father, thank you so much for your word.

Thank you for the church.

Thank you for your consistency.

Thank you for your grace.

Thank you for your mercy.

Thank you for your promises, your second chances.

Thank you for your faithfulness.

Thank you for allowing us to be here.

Thank you for the family of believers.

Thank you that we can see Jessica get baptized here later on today.

Thank you for this chance to worship you here in Placentia.

God, we thank you so much.

We can spend hours thanking you.

But God, it's because you are good.

And we thank you for being that to us.

I pray right now that you will speak your word into our hearts so that

we may respond the way we should.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

All right, we're going to go over to Psalm chapter 19.

Psalms 19 · chapter mention

Psalm chapter 19.

Psalms 19 · chapter mention

It's one of my favorite passages in the Bible.

We're going to read in Psalm 19 in verse seven.

Uh, and we're gonna see what's so special about God's word.

I know many of us, we can, we can preach a sermon ourselves on how

special and awesome the word of God is.

But we're gonna go ahead and, and look at this passage.

It's gonna reveal to us why God's word is so special and why we can be thankful.

And we're going to take it up in verse 7.

The first 6 verses talk about God's creation and how God's creation,

because of God's creation, because of the stars and moons and all these

different things, we can praise God.

And it makes this transition to now talking about how His word

leads to our praise of Him.

In Psalm 19 in verse 7.

Church, are you with me?

It says, The law of the Lord is perfect.

Refreshing the soul.

The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.

The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.

The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous.

They are more precious than gold.

Than much pure gold.

They're sweeter than honey.

Than honey From the honeycomb by them, your servant is warned.

In keeping them there is great reward.

We'll stop right there.

David is the writer of this song, king David, and he writes this and

he's talking about God's word and he mentions God's word being perfect.

Trustworthy, right, radiant, precious.

It's sweet for the soul.

And David, you can see, has so much respect and love for God's word.

He's moved, he's stirred to write these things.

Here's what's incredible.

Actually, me and Karina were talking about this in the morning here.

Is that King David probably has, more than likely, really, the

first five, six books of the Bible.

And maybe a couple songs.

So he doesn't have all the John 3 16.

He doesn't have the Romans 8 28.

Oh, God works in the good for all those who believe he doesn't have.

I know the plans I have for you.

He doesn't have any of these scriptures that you and I say are

some of our favorite scriptures.

All he has is the first five, maybe six books in the Bible.

And we know a song from Moses.

And if you've ever read Leviticus and, and, and Numbers, those

could be some difficult reads.

And what does he say?

After just reading those books of the Bible, it's perfect, it's word, it's

trustworthy, it's radiant, it's sweet.

Wow.

His view and appreciation of God's word.

And again, it's not all the scriptures that you and I have.

So we could testify to this, now having The rest of the

Old and the New Testaments.

And it's interesting, right?

Because David is called man, a man after God's own hearts.

And you see his what?

His view and appreciation for God's word.

Is there a connection between his heart for God and his view of God's word?

I think there is.

And that tells me something.

Is that if you and I want to be a man or woman after God's own heart,

we need to have the right view.

We need to love and appreciate and consume God's word.

Because that would transform us into the image of Christ.

Are you with me, brothers and sisters?

But David captures how powerful the word of God is.

He says it's perfect.

It's radiant.

It's trustworthy.

It's right.

He says, it will refresh the soul.

It will make you wise.

It'll give joy from within.

It will give light to the eyes, and it will, it will reward you and warn you.

I don't know about you, but I want all of those things in my life.

Do you want any of those things missing in your life?

Of course, we want all of those things Again, how do we receive those things?

It's by consuming God's eternal word.

But let's break this down some brothers and sisters.

Are you with me here?

All right, here we go.

Let's get into it.

It says it is perfect.

It needs no additions.

It's perfect.

It has no omissions.

The word of God is perfect.

And what does that perfect word do?

It refreshes the soul or can be translated.

It revives our souls.

It's so it brings soul.

It brings life to our very being.

Some could call it the true soul food.

Y'all know I love some soul food.

Especially some macaroni cheese as we talk about the Thanksgiving and Christmas.

You know what I'm saying?

But this is even better than all of that because it nourishes our very being.

Our soul.

It says that the word of God is what?

It's trustworthy.

You can rely, you can depend upon God's word.

You can bet your life on God's promises.

You can trust his word.

It says it is wise, making wise the simple.

You can learn how to handle life, how to handle situations,

how to handle relationships.

Learn how to be successful in school, in job, etc.

We can learn these things because it'll make us be, it'll make

us transition from being simple and maybe foolish to being wise.

It says it is right.

I mean, it's not wrong.

It's the standard above all, above opinions, above

feelings, above what's popular.

It says it gives joy to the heart.

It feels good when it comes in and we have the right response or the right,

right, right, right, right, right.

Receiving of his word, but it feels good when we actually follow.

You ever do something in the Bible, you're like, man, that feels good.

It encourages.

The Word of God inspires.

It transforms.

It changes our character, our hearts.

It changes our lives.

And it goes on and it says it is radiance.

It's glorious.

It shines.

It is beautiful.

Kind of like that southern sunny California weather.

It gives light.

We can now see clearly.

We can see what's true.

We can see what's right.

We can be able to distinguish good from evil because of what the word God does.

It helps us not to be in the dark spiritually.

It goes on and it says that the word is firm or another word

that can be used is sure, meaning it's steady, it's dependable.

And we all need security in life.

We need something that's dependable, don't we?

It goes on and it says that it's righteous.

It's more precious than gold, sweeter than the honey, honeycomb.

And these were precious things in ancient times.

And so what is it saying?

It's more valuable than all the wealth in the world.

The word of God is sweet.

It tastes good when you consume it.

It says sweeter than honey.

Whenever I read that passage, I think of Winnie the Pooh.

Some of young folks are like, who's Winnie the Pooh?

Just Google that later.

It's a bear.

He loves honey.

You know, you think Winnie the Pooh, you think honey.

You know what I'm saying?

And I go, wow, I need to spiritually be like a Winnie the Pooh with God's word

and just taking that scriptures in.

Scriptures are finger licking good, you know what I'm saying?

It says and it warns us and it rewards.

It warns us.

There's trouble ahead.

It also said there's rewards when we follow it.

Again, this is God's word.

This is how powerful God's word is.

This is what God's word does when we consume it and we apply it to our lives.

Let me ask you this.

Can you relate?

Can you relate to God's word being or doing these things in your life?

I know many of us, we can testify, we can relate, we can say, God's

Word has done those things.

It's been that in my life.

I know I can testify to this being true.

The Word of God has radically changed who I am.

Radically.

I got my Aunt Martha here in the house.

I was, my mom is over there with the kids.

They can testify that Marcel Hall of today is radically different from

the Marcel Hall from before Christ.

And all of you should say hallelujah for that.

Cause we might not have had a good experience, you know what I'm saying.

But I can testify what's radically changed my worldview.

How I view the world, it is totally different.

Even with politics coming up.

I mean, my world view is just different now.

I view things differently.

My character is different.

My work ethic is different.

My morality is different.

My choices, what I deem to be right and wrong, true and false,

it's all different because God's word has directed and changed me.

What I view as important and what's valuable.

My integrity.

My relationships.

Directed and stirred and steered by the word of God.

I think of my relationship with my mom.

That's grown and it wasn't a bad relationship but man because of

God's word it has transformed that.

The word of God helped direct me to have reconciliation with my father.

The Word of God has transformed my relationship with my siblings.

And hallelujah, the Word of God has helped me in my relationship

with my wife and my kids.

If it wasn't for the Word of God, my life would be a three course mess.

I would have ruined it twice over.

Probably with no chance of redemption.

But the Word of God, Has given life to my soul.

It's giving light to my eyes.

It has warned me and it has rewarded me.

And I know there's so many of you that can testify as well.

Am I right?

I know there's so many of you can testify.

That it has revived your soul, your faith, your hope.

When you were discouraged, or you were depressed, or you were doubtful.

The Word of God did something in your life.

So many of you can testify how you handle situations better

because of the Word of God.

You are gonna go into that situation, and then the Word of God, and you said,

You know what, I better not go that way.

And you said, Hallelujah, I follow God's Word.

And you remember, when you used to handle things differently, when it

was just your opinion, your thoughts, your feelings, and how things would

radically be different, and probably destroy certain things in your life.

Many of you can testify you've seen it to be true of relationships

and human behavior, especially when you read the Proverbs.

You're like, that is human life right there.

So much wisdom.

I understand people and I understand myself even more because of the light

that the Word of God has given me.

You many of you can testify has helped you to know the truth,

the truth of who you are.

The truth of life.

Again, what's valuable?

What's important?

The truth of what the world feeds us and be able to distinguish.

That's not right.

That's not right.

That's not true because of God's word.

You've been able to distinguish that you've been able to testify,

man, this is some good soul food.

You know, God's word's incredible when we take a step back, right?

We started thinking about what is done and we start to realize how powerful it is.

And one of the things it does is it makes you what?

Thankful, thankful that you have that.

Where would your life be without God's word?

I don't even want to think of where my life would be.

In fact, I get a glimpse when I look at my life prior to Christ.

Now I know there's some of us in here who can't relate to

the things that I've shared.

And the question then is, why is that?

Which leads to, what does that reveal?

If you can't relate to anything that I'm sharing, what does that mean?

What does that reveal?

I believe it probably means you're not consuming God's word the way you need to.

You don't have the word of God in your life the way it should be, so

therefore you're like, I don't really know what you're talking about.

That seems more like theory than it does my experience.

But here's the thing, I have some encouragement for every single one of

us, and direction for every single one of us, is that here's the key, and here's

what God is calling you and me toward.

And that's not to only be thankful for His Word, but it's

this, it's to live by His Word.

We are called to live by God's Word.

The Word is to be followed, not just read and liked.

It's not just something you buy at the home goods store or whatever and you get

a little plaque and you put that on your wall and you go, Oh, that's really cute.

I like that.

That's not what the word of God is supposed to be.

It's not just a cool little quote that you see on social media and you like

and now you repost or you reshare.

No, the word of God is supposed to be lived out in our lives.

That's when we start to taste and experience, wow, this thing is powerful.

Wow, it is good for my life.

I need more of it, and I want to share more of it with other people.

You know, let's be reminded of this passage.

Many of us are very familiar with this passage.

It says, All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking,

correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be

thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I love the way the NIV, you phrase this.

It says, The Word of God is to be, it's useful.

And when something's useful, what are you supposed to do with it?

Supposed to use it, right?

Now I have, uh, uh, uh, a, um, uh, African, uh, drum,

uh, uh, a djembe at my house.

And, uh, many people have seen the African drum in our house,

and many people have come over.

And they'll grab the drum, and they'll start to play, and they'll look at me,

and they'll go, Marcel, do you play?

And I go, no, I don't play.

That's a decoration.

They're like, Oh, you don't play?

No, I don't play.

And in fact, in my heart, can you please stop playing that?

You know what?

I'm just playing.

Cause some of y'all are like, Man, that was me.

I'm just playing with you, okay?

But they're over here playing and they're like, Man, you don't use this?

I'm like, Nah, man, it's decoration.

Man, look at the rest of the place.

This is a decoration.

And here's the thing.

Spiritually, some of us, that's what the Word of God is.

It's a decoration in our faith.

We're not using it.

It's there, it's there, it's around, it's present, but it's not being

used the way it's supposed to.

And so it's a decoration.

So therefore we're not experiencing its blessings.

We're not testifying to its power and its goodness because we're

not putting it into practice.

You see, when we apply God's word, here's what's really cool.

Then we see Psalm 19 become true.

We can testify.

And then what happens is we're grateful for God's mercy.

We're grateful for God's word.

And then we start to see that we need more of it so that we

consume more of God's word.

And this cool cycle takes place.

Do you guys get what I'm saying?

Because I'm excited.

I'm grateful.

I'm like, man, I need to apply this.

And as I apply it, I go, wow, this is really good.

Hallelujah for it.

I need more of it.

And the cool cycle takes place.

But you know, it also takes place is when we don't have

the word of God in our lives.

Another bad cycle takes place.

We think, Oh, it doesn't help me.

It's not true.

God's promises aren't reliable.

So maybe he's not reliable.

So therefore, let me take a step back from this faith thing.

Let me take a step back from the brothers and sisters thing.

In my life, let me take a step back from trying to follow Jesus.

And we keep going and next thing we know, we are distant from God.

And so when somebody gets up there and says the word of God's powerful,

we're so far over here, we're like, I don't think that's true.

'cause I haven't seen it in my life.

But we didn't realize it was all the steps prior that led us to that point.

And I believe that Psalm 19, the opposite is just as true as the affirmative.

What I mean is this, is that if it gives light to our eyes, when we don't have the

word of God in our lives, what happens?

We're blind, spiritually, we don't have the joy in our soul, but now we maybe have

anger and sadness that can't be quenched.

And instead of it making us wise, it makes us foolish.

Because we have removed God's word in our lives, and now we're making poor

choices leading to the destruction.

Maybe not initially, but as the years go by, to our very souls.

And so this is why.

We need to make sure that we just don't like it, but that we

apply God's word to our lives.

Brothers and sisters, are you with me here?

We need to apply God's word and once we do, it will be incredible.

Uh, many of you know I went on the Price is Right, well some of you know, I went on

the Price is Right when I was in college.

And, uh, I showed the, uh, the clip, I think my first

sermon, uh, that I was here.

Uh, I showed the, uh, the clip of, uh, uh, me being on the Price is Right.

And one of the things that I won is I won an electric fireplace.

And, uh, so I won this electric fireplace and I'm in college.

And so what am I going to do with an electric fireplace in my dorm room?

So I didn't do anything with it.

So I, I, I had, I kept it at my mom's place.

And so it was, it was in boxes.

There's three big boxes.

And it was in these three big boxes.

And so whenever my mom moved, those three boxes went with her.

And when I moved, those three boxes stayed with my mom.

And so then I went and I get married.

I still don't have, I still have never opened this thing.

And about ten years go by.

I tried to sell this thing a couple of times.

Never saw it.

And then we're in this home, and we're in this home, and we don't have

central heating or central air, and there's this breeze that's coming in,

right, in our place, and it's freezing.

And we're like, man, we gotta do something, man, like,

I'm getting cold at night.

And so then I go, you know what, man, I got that electric fireplace.

I said, man, I need to open that thing.

It's been 10 years, it finally was with me, and my wife said, boy,

you better get that fireplace.

So I finally take it, and I take it out the box, there's three

big boxes, and I go, wow, this is actually really easy to assemble.

I don't have to do anything.

I thought I had to have, you know, hammers and screwdrivers, nothing.

All I had to do was put the three things on and it was good.

So when I was humbled by that, and I put it on and I go, wow, this

actually looks a whole lot nicer than what I remember the picture was.

Because The Price is Right sent me a nicer version.

They said, hey, the version you saw, that's actually not

the one you're going to get.

We're going to give you a nicer one.

It was like 2, 000 more, you know, I was like, Whoa, and I'm

looking like, wow, this is nice.

And I said, Karina, let's try to put this in our room.

We put it in, hallelujah.

We were heated up and we kept that thing.

And guess what?

I have kept that thing to this day.

It's nice.

We, we love it.

It heats us up.

I'm like, what was I thinking?

I had this treasure for 10 years and I didn't even use it

spiritually.

It's what we do with the word of God though.

This treasure.

This source of heat, this source of refreshment, this changing of our lives.

It's there, but it's in a box.

It's on the side.

You know, old school, we used to just put it on the table

or put it in the bookshelf.

Now it's just an app that's not used.

And in fact, maybe it's closed.

And it's not being used and we're like forfeiting all the treasures and the

blessings because we're not using it.

What would things be like if we actually used this powerful

Word of God in our lives?

It would radically, continually change us more into the image of Christ.

And so this means that the Word of God must be our standard.

And I have this little table up here, and I want to Want to get my bag Dallas.

I'm literally in my bag.

You know what I'm saying?

There you go.

There you go.

I got this, uh, this scale here.

All right, there you go.

Brother bought this.

I'm trying to, you know, lose a couple of pounds there.

All right.

Help a brother out there.

And, uh, I have, uh, I have this little Pyrex here and, uh, and

a little measuring tape here.

Now, what are all these things for?

To measure, right?

We use all these things to measure.

And here's the thing.

It's important that we actually have something that's a

standard for us to measure by.

In fact, Eric, Eric, can you come on up?

Let's, let's get both Erics.

Let's get both Erics.

Can you, both Erics, can you come up on stage here real quickly here?

Come up on stage here real quickly, alright?

We're gonna do something here, alright?

Alright, there you go.

Okay, you gonna transfer?

I was actually talking about Erica, uh, uh, uh, Ennis there, but, you know,

if you wanna, both of y'all come up, both of y'all come up, here we go.

We got all nations in here.

Alright, there you go.

Here we go, here we go, here we go.

Come on over, come on over.

Here we go, here we go.

This is Eric Azarte.

Can you say hello to Eric there?

There you go.

Wow, they're all Erics.

There you go.

Come on, here we go.

This is really cool.

This wasn't planned.

This is the Holy Spirit.

Wow.

Here we go.

Alright.

We have Eric Hughes and then we have Eric Ennis here, right here.

Alright.

Now, here's what they used to do back in the day.

I don't know if you knew this.

But back in the day, and this is how we get the terms here, uh,

back in the day, the way they would measure is really a foot.

They would literally go by your foot.

And so somebody would go, okay, well, it's four feet.

And then by hand, that's how they would measure, uh, by the

hand there for, for horses.

And a cubit was from your nose all the way to your fingertips.

Let's do that real quickly.

Okay.

All right.

So let's go ahead.

Can you put your hand out here?

Okay.

All right.

There you go.

We're going to go ahead and measure here for a quick second.

Uh, how long that is from your nose, brother?

I'm not gonna try.

There you go.

All right.

Thank you so much.

Hold that tight there, brother.

Okay, here we go.

All right.

We got about a, let's just give you, let's say 30 inches here.

Okay.

There you go.

All right.

Eric, can you go ahead here?

All right.

Look straight there.

Okay.

We got you at about 30, 35 inches right there.

Okay.

There you go.

Alright, we got tall Eric in this here.

Okay.

Oh, okay brother.

All right.

Yeah.

Eric feeling good about himself, you know what I'm saying?

Alright.

Let's say that's about 40 inches.

They're right there.

40 inches.

Wow.

That's incredible.

Right?

Now, just imagine we told them to go ahead and, uh, let's all build the same thing.

Let's all build these chairs, or let's build tables and you're gonna

use it by your qubit measurements.

How's that going to work out?

Because his was what, 30, 33 was it, 30, 35 was it, and 40,

how's that going to work out?

It's not going to work out is it, why?

Because they're not using the same standard measurements are they?

And so here's the thing, we might do that with a chair, I wouldn't care.

I'm hopeful that they didn't do that with these chairs.

But would you want to do that with your plane, your vehicle,

or bridge, or your house?

Let's just guess.

Here's what I think.

Or if you're cooking, right?

If you're cooking.

You know, my kids like to cook there, you know what I'm saying?

Well, uh, in my opinion, here's how many milliliters.

In your opinion, here's how many.

Let's just use our hands.

How's that gonna work out?

Tell me how that cake is gonna taste.

Hallelujah, Chick fil A doesn't do that.

They got a standard.

Each Chick fil A you go to, boy, you taste that same goodness, right?

Here's the thing here.

If we go ahead and use ourselves as the standard, we're gonna be a mess.

And we're gonna go off of him, but then off of, it's gonna be a mess.

Because here's the thing, hallelujah, these are great men, but they

don't know what they're doing.

Because only the Supreme Ruler, God Most High, knows what he's doing.

He's established the earth.

He's established the laws of life.

He knows what he's doing.

So what does that mean for you and me?

It means that we need to make sure that the Word must be

our standard for our lives.

We need to measure everything by God's Word.

We need to make sure, hey, how does this work when it comes to my relationship?

What does God's Word say?

When it comes to my dating, my romantic interest, what does God's Word say?

When I parent my kids, let me measure it.

Let me use God's word to guide me the way I treat my parents, the

way I treat my kids, the way I share my faith, the way I live.

It has to be based on what God's word, if it's based on anything else,

brothers and sisters, we're a mess and we're in trouble, but wait, we can,

we know that because all we have to do is think back either to our lives.

Before or our lives when we're not doing well spiritually, or we just look

at society today and we can see what it's like when we use anything else

than the measurement of God's word.

Let's go ahead and thank you these brothers.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate you being on here.

Here's the thing, brothers, sisters, whether it's big decisions or small

decisions, they need to be based on the word of God or world views.

Need to be based on the principles laid out in God's Word.

What I watch on TV.

What I wear.

How I speak.

What jokes I share and laugh at.

What I spend my time doing.

Does this align with the truth revealed in God's Word?

What are the principles in God's word that direct our views, decisions, and actions?

Because we can say, well, that's not clearly in the Bible, but

there's biblical principles.

And when we don't know or we don't understand, guess what we do?

We utilize the church to help us to see and discern and decipher and

distinguish what are godly decisions.

And that's called seeking godly advice.

And so our dedication to the word must be our hallmark.

I remember a time in our church, real quickly, I remember a time

in our church when it was clear the word of God was our standard.

I mean, it was clear.

I remember being so inspired when I came out to church in Washington, D.

C., our church in Washington, D.

C.

And I saw every, just what I remember, I'm sure it wasn't 100%, but every member I

saw had, and this is old school days, they had their physical Bible and they had a

pen and paper and they were taking notes.

Because they wanted to know and they wanted to take the word back

home to their life and study it out so that they can apply it.

And we would talk to each other, what are you learning

in your Bible study right now?

Now, and when we would counsel and encourage and sometimes even challenge

one another, we opened up the word of God and we let that be the standard,

not our feelings and not our opinions.

And I remember that day and I remember that and I was so

inspired by that and even recently I've been, I've been convicted.

I think it was like Wednesday or Thursday, the Holy Spirit, I felt just convicted

me cause I, I, it hit me as I was praying and I was thinking, you know what, wow,

I don't I'm not using the word of God in my interactions the way I used to.

There used to be a lot more in my text messages and my talk.

In fact, uh, part of me, I realized, felt a little insecure sharing the word of God

because I thought, oh, people, they're gonna, they're gonna be offended by this.

Oh, what in the world?

That's, that's an indictment on me.

That I'm, I'm having this view.

And I'm realizing, wow, you know what?

I'm not sharing.

I'm referencing scriptures as opposed to just looking at the scriptures.

Hey, bro, you know, it says here as opposed to let's

just open up the scriptures.

Let's open up the app on our phone.

Let's look at it so that the word of God may minister to you and

not Marcel Hall minister to you.

And so I made a decision.

I'm repenting of it.

And I want to call the whole church back to where we are a people of the word.

Where it's our hallmark.

It's our standard.

It's who we are.

Anybody would have walked in those doors.

They say, you know what?

I don't know a lot about those people, but there's a couple things.

I know they love and they love God's Word.

They treated me with love and they obey God's Word.

If anybody's gonna say anything negative, man, they're fanatics.

They're crazy.

Hallelujah.

But you know what?

They love and they love God's Word.

That should be us.

Why?

Because we are God's people, and as God's people, we should be people of God's Word.

It is and must remain always to the day Jesus returns.

It's the standard for our lives.

Again, we will see the fruit of it.

But it's our beloved Lord's Word.

Church, are you still with me here?

And may we see the blessings.

And the rewards from living by his word.

Let's close it out here.

I want to give some action steps here, alright?

Some action steps here this week.

Go ahead.

Now if you're visiting here with us, whether you're online or you're in

person, uh, thank you for coming.

I want to encourage you this.

This applies to you.

To go ahead and study God's word.

And what I mean by this is to set up a time to, uh, uh, get

together and study the Bible.

Every single one of us, we need help to understand how we apply God's word.

So I want to encourage you to apply God's Word by studying

God's Word with someone this week.

Next up, uh, to reflect.

To reflect on your current view and your current obedience to God's Word.

Just get a time to reflect.

Maybe this afternoon, it'd be great tomorrow morning to

start the week off reflecting.

What's my view of God's Word?

What's my current obedience like to God?

And the Spirit will minister to you and give you direction and insights.

And then lastly, to pray.

And first off, to pray thanking God for His Word.

Thank you so much for all that it is and all that you do through your Word.

And then also pray that we as a church, that we may live by God's Word.

We don't talk about God's Word.

We don't just preach God's Word.

But we live by God's Word.

Right now we're going to take communion.

Amen.

The, uh, the emblems, the juice and the crackers representing Jesus's body

that was broken and his blood that was shed for our salvation and we're

reminded that Jesus is the embodiment and fulfillment of the Word of God.

In John chapter 1 and verse 14, it says, speaking about Jesus,

John 1 · chapter mention

it says, the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only son.

Who came from the father full of grace and truth.

Again, Jesus is the fulfillment and the embodiment of God's word.

He shows us how to live, what it looks like to apply it, and so as

we thank God for his word, we're thanking God for his son Jesus.

Let's go to God in prayer.

Father, thank you so much for your word.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for his, uh, spoken word that is recorded.

Thank you so much that he reveals your truth to us.

Thank you so much for the scriptures testifying and

prophesying about his coming, his resurrection, and his sacrifice.

Lord, we thank you for fulfilling that.

Thank you so much for, uh, uh, uh, uh, fulfilling every part of the

old covenant and issuing the new covenant through your sacrifice.

Lord, we pray that we can respond with faithfulness.

We can respond with love.

We can respond with gratitude for your son, for your word, and for

this grace that you have given us.

We pray in the name of Jesus, Amen.