Wednesday Night Life (The Standard of the Word of God, Living a Godly Life) - Dan Cudmore

Listen to Psalms chapter one.

It says, Blessed is the man or woman who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.

Lord, we thank you for this great time of being together to worship you.

We thank you, Lord, as we lift our hearts to you and exalt your name.

You're enthroned on the praises of your people.

And we enthrone you on our heart tonight, Lord, as King of kings and Lord of Lords.

We surrender to you as King, as Lord, as Master.

We give you all of ourselves tonight, Lord, our will, our mind, our emotions.

And we thank you, Lord, that when we surrender to you, we understand the destiny and purpose of our lives, even before time began.

You ordained us to be here tonight, to worship you, to be with brothers and sisters, to hear of your word, to grow together, and to pray for one another.

We are the body of Christ.

And we thank you, Lord, for each one that's here tonight on this beautiful day that you've given us.

This is the day the Lord has made, and we have been, will be, rejoicing.

For you have created this day, and we give you praise in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Good to be in the house of the Lord tonight with brothers and sisters.

There's a scripture that was uh floating through my mind when Jesus was dealing with the Sadducees, and the Sadducees were sad, you see, because they didn't believe in the resurrection.

They were sad, you see.

Okay?

And Jesus said, You are wrong because you neither know the word of God nor the power of the Holy Spirit.

You neither know the word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

And the quest today for every believer and every family of God is to keep the word of God present before us, always holding it in high regard.

Because really, the only thing that weapon that we have against the enemy is the word of God.

When the enemy brings deceit to our hearts and to our lives, lying to us, bringing error into our life, what are you going to do?

Stand up against him with your good looks and charm?

No.

You give him the word of God, just like Jesus did in the wilderness.

Amen.

It is written, and how powerful it is when we live our lives according to the word of God, and we declare the truth of God.

Amen.

And I was wondering today, because we read 1 Peter chapter 3, we read verses 8 to 12 on Sunday, and it's a powerful, powerful verse explaining how the body of Christ, the family of God, should treat one another in the house of the Lord.

1 Peter 3 · chapter mention

Right?

And then it goes on to say in verse 9.

Well, let's read it.

1 Peter chapter 3, let's read from verse 8.

1 Peter 3 · chapter mention

Finally, all of you have unity of mind, be like-minded, or live in harmony.

All of you have sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

Do not repay evil for evil, nor or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you are called, that you may obtain a blessing.

For whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.

Let him turn away from evil and do good, let him seek peace and pursue it.

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer.

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

Verse 8, this is how we're supposed to be with each other.

Have this unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

Now, all these uh five-fold declarations of what an authentic Christian is, is really tough when you look at it.

Because your natural self, your flesh, says, uh-uh, that is not me.

Right?

And that's why we need Jesus.

Amen?

Let's close in prayer.

No, it's it's as basic as that, friends.

We need Jesus.

But I was thinking, you know, over your life as believers, you are in Christ.

Many of you have lived for Christ for many, many years, and you can look back and say, man, what I was before Christ, woo-hoo, wild and crazy, kind of nutty.

But from that point when I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, there's been change and transformation.

No doubt.

Amen?

Change and transformation.

And I was I was thinking over the over my life how my younger, I got saved when I was nine, baptized in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues at 12.

And then for the rest of my high school days, I was in fights.

I was filled with wrath and anger.

I was saved.

My position in Christ was I was in Christ.

I was saved.

My status still being worked on, sanctified.

Amen.

And we can we can all say over the years that Christ has been changing us and transforming us slowly, progressively, being made more like him, being conformed to his image.

But I was thinking, how in the world does this transformation take place?

When you look at some Christians, they've been believers for many, many years, they might not exhibit the fruit of the Spirit or live a Christian life that you would think.

And then there's others that have accepted Christ and immediately there's a change, a transformation of heart.

There's deliverance, there's a power in their life and heart.

And I was I was wondering, man, what makes the difference when it comes to internalizing the word of God?

Internalizing it, right?

I knew a pastor, a friend of mine, that used to say, uh, let's read this word, and we pray that the Lord would massage it into our hearts.

And as, oh man, that's you know, pictured a throbbing heart and then, you know.

But what the Lord does is he massages this gently into our heart, and he shapes it and he forms it and he molds it into our heart.

And one thing about going for a massage is you got to lay there quiet and you gotta lay there still.

If you start flailing around, it doesn't work, right?

Most times when the word of God is applied to our heart and he wants to massage it into our heart, sometimes we start flailing around, don't we?

And like the uh like the clay on the potter's wheel, we fly off and we say, Whoa, I do not want to change, I do not want to be transformed.

But what is it that causes us to be transformed?

And Jesus said it to the Sadducees.

It's the word of God, the living and active word of God, and it is the power of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

So we internalize the word of God, we internalize the word of God and not just memorize the word of God.

The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ has to be massaged into our heart by the power of the Holy Spirit and the declarations that we make, declaring that it's God say so.

Amen?

It's what God says.

And really, this Christian life is basically the proclamation and the declaration of the word of God back to God.

It's called repentance.

It's a change of heart of what we used to believe, what we used to think about ourselves, what we used to believe other people told us about ourselves.

Amen.

And now we declare a completely different mindset.

The mindset of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of light, and we declare these promises.

And when we declare these promises, man, there's something that stirs up in our heart, and it's the Holy Spirit sanctifying us, changing us, giving us the will and the way and the will to do of his good pleasure.

So, firstly, we receive Scripture as truth about God, right?

When we read Scripture, we receive the truth about God.

This is so basic and fundamental.

You're sitting here going, uh, no duh, dip, okay?

That's what we believe, right?

But many times we don't believe the word of God about what God says.

We we uh receive scripture as truth about God, and then we receive scripture in the word of God what it says about ourselves.

And this is the tough thing, because scripture reveals to us that we don't measure up, that we fall short, that we're not who we think we are, right?

And our flesh begins to fight a little bit and say, hey, I'm not gonna take that.

I'm gonna speak against that.

But repentance is having this mindset that says, God, whatever you say in your word about me and my life, I declare it tonight, I am unworthy, I am fallen, but I have accepted you as my Lord and Savior, and now I am accepted by the Father into His very presence.

I've gained access into his presence.

Amen.

Repentance is a change of mind.

A lot of us try to fight.

When God reveals something to us, when we respond to God with doubt and self-righteousness, what happens is this sense of condemnation comes into our heart.

Isn't it true?

And it brings shame and it brings guilt, and we try to run from God at that point.

Because we don't want to hear that, right?

We don't want to hear that.

The truth of God should bring conviction.

And conviction is this wonderful sense that when my father used to give me the belt, he would say, This is gonna hurt me more than it's gonna hurt you.

Liar.

Okay?

But you know what?

As I grew up and pondered the uh discipline, I realized that my father loved me, my father disciplined me, my mother disciplined me, and discipline is good for the soul, and it's good for our hearts, and it's good for our lives.

The Holy Spirit is known as the comforter and the helper, the advocate, the spirit of truth.

What the Holy Spirit does to us when we say to God what God says about us, and we say, God, I believe what you say about me, based on the word of God.

I repent of my sin, I confess my sin today, the Holy Spirit comes in and embraces us and begins to work on us and massage his work and his grace into our hearts and into our lives.

And it's a beautiful thing, isn't it?

The Bible presents freedom from sin and shame as beginning with understanding who God is and what he has done through Christ.

We know the phrase, it is finished, it is done, it is accomplished, it is paid for, right?

The work of Jesus Christ, as we accept Christ into our heart, it is paid for.

We are not obligated to sin and the flesh, the world and the devil any longer.

That obligation has been paid in Christ.

The wrath of God was revealed on Jesus.

Jesus paid the debt of our sin, and now we are free to live to the obligations of the Holy Spirit and sanctification by the Holy Spirit.

So Christians believe that forgiveness and acceptance before God are based on Christ's work.

Isn't that awesome?

At any moment and at any time, you can enter the presence of the Lord because you are in Christ.

And your salvation, your acceptance of Jesus Christ at a point in time gives you this sonship, this daughtership, this adoption into the family of God.

At any time, you can enter the Father's presence because of his great love and forgiveness for you.

And it's not based on how you feel.

Sometimes we feel like we don't measure up.

Can we still enter the presence of the Lord?

Yes.

Amen.

My mother used to tell me all the time, Danny boy, you've got to practice the presence of the Lord.

Practice the presence of the Lord.

What in the world does that mean?

It means at any moment and at any time, wherever you are, you can speak the praises of God, and God's presence will fill your heart.

Like we say before, thanksgiving and praise is passwords into the presence of God as we give him thanks and give him praise.

And it is wonderful.

The Romans teaches us that believers are justified by faith.

Therefore, we have peace with God, being justified by God.

God's declaration of righteousness over our hearts and our lives are based on grace.

Grace, a gift we receive by faith.

And faith is speaking to God and saying, God, what you say is true in my heart and in my life.

First John emphasizes God's forgiveness when sins are confessed.

If we sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sin, the penalty of sin, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That means cleanse us, our conscience, every fiber of our being, cleanse and washed out from sin, shame, guilt, and condemnation.

And after the washing, after the tsunami of his love that flows out all the filthiness of the flesh, comes in this wonderful presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we know because the Bible says that God's Spirit communes with our spirit and says, Danny boy, you are my son.

Isn't that a great thing tonight?

Richie boy, you are my son.

Nancy girl, you are my daughter.

Man, what a great, great proclamation.

The adoption, the sonship that God gives us.

So we receive scripture as truth.

Secondly, we meditate, we don't just read.

Okay?

We meditate on the word of God.

I said this before many times.

Meditation is this constant going over of the word of God in our heart and mind.

And we're when we're constantly pondering the greatness and the goodness of God, it's it's hard for negative thoughts to get in there when we're declaring the truth of God in our mind.

Isn't it true?

So we meditate on the word of God.

Meditation, an example is a cow that has many stomachs, chews the grass, and then it goes down into a stomach, regurgitation, back up into the uh into the mouth, and it's wonderful seeing a cow chew.

You know, and he's just gnawing on that on that grass, goes down to a stomach and then up again, and it's regurgitated.

And this is the sense of what meditation is it's a regurgitation, it's an always uh bringing up of the word of God.

When you're feeling the opposite of the word of God, what do you do?

You regurgitate the truth of God in your mind.

Amen.

Well, now we know that um there are many thoughts that come through our minds and hearts.

Thousand words a minute, and they say 80% of that is negative.

And this is why we declare the truth of God.

This is why the Bible says we pray without ceasing.

We commune with God at all times in our heart and in our mind.

Uh, whatever you do, when I was doing FedEx, I'd be driving down the road.

I can do all things through Christ who gives me the strength.

I can deal with this manager at work because he can give me the strength and the peace.

You know, meditation on the things of God.

So we meditate, we don't just read.

And this is huge because when you're reading the word of God, God can bring up to you passages that you read, and in your time and season, right then in that day, God reveals a Rema word, a special word of God for your life at that time, and it ministers to your heart.

Amen?

You've read that passage time and time again, and when you receive those, you meditate on the truth of God's word.

Fill your heart with the thoughts of God.

Biblical meditation involves repeatedly reflecting on scripture, asking, what does this teach about God?

And that's the that's the biggest thing that we we can do when we read the word of God.

It's not all about me, firstly, right?

It's about God.

What does the word of God say about God?

And then what does it reveal about my heart, right?

What does it reveal about my heart?

The thing about a believer is we expose ourselves to the light of God.

We want to get into the light of God, the word of God, and allow him to expose our heart.

And when we when he exposes our heart, there's a time of repentance, there's a time of confession, there's a time when the Holy Spirit comes up alongside of us and says, I got you, man.

I got you, woman, and I'm gonna bring you into the sanctification that I have for you.

Questions like, What should I believe?

What should I trust about God in this passage?

What should I stop believing?

That's false and in error to the things of God, and what should I do differently?

What actions should I do, right?

What actions should I we just read Psalms 1, where we meditate on the law of God day and night.

Man, if our church began this practice of meditating on the word of God, the counsel of God, the wisdom of God throughout the day, communion with the Holy Spirit, and allowing the Holy Spirit, who is the author of the Word of God, to speak the living word who is Christ into our hearts.

What a church we would be.

Amen.

Meditate on the greatness of God, the goodness of God, the glory of God, and the grace of God.

So we receive Scripture as truth about God in ourselves, and we repent, we change our mind.

We meditate, we don't just read, we meditate, we regurgitate the word of God in our mind to such an extent that it drops 18 inches down into our heart.

We internalize it.

And then, three, we replace false narratives with biblical ones.

And this is a biggie, isn't it?

What have you been believing about your life that is a lie from the devil?

What have you been believing about your life?

What have you been thinking in your heart and mind about people in your past that have said things about you, opinions, right, that have stuck into your heart, and the devil and the demons, the authorities of hell bring this up all the time, and you begin to meditate on that instead of meditating on God's say-so for your life?

Replace false narratives with biblical ones.

Many Christians struggle with shame because they continue to define themselves by their past failures.

How many know that uh we'd be in sad, sad shape if that was the case?

All your failures and all your weaknesses, right?

You know, if we just ran over our in our minds, our weaknesses, our failures, it would destroy us.

Internalizing scripture means consciously replacing thoughts such as, I am my worst mistake, I am a loser, I will never measure up, I will always fail.

Right?

These are subtle little thoughts that get into our minds, don't they?

And they become a mindset.

How about we replace it with this?

I am forgiven.

God loves me, He'll never leave me, and I am being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Amen?

I'm not destined by my past, and I am definitely not destined about what people have said about me in my past, and what people have done to me in my past.

So it doesn't mean we deny sin, it means we agree with Scripture and the seriousness of sin, but the reality of God's grace.

Where sin abounds, and where sin abounded in your life, grace does much more abound.

Amen.

Grace does much more abound.

That word abound is pretty cool.

It's like this.

When I used to play in the neighborhoods when new houses were being built, we'd play King of the Hill when there was dirt.

And all the guys would get up there and we'd pound each other.

We'd kick each other off the dirt.

And then after a while, when we got tired, we'd sit at the bottom of the uh we'd sit at the bottom of the hill.

And one day we were sitting there, and then uh we heard a little beep, beep, beep and stuff, but we weren't concerned.

But right over us was a big bulldozer with a huge bucket of dirt, and he dumped it down onto us, and immediately we had to like flee the wrath to come scurry away, and the dirt came down.

And I was thinking, man, isn't that a wonderful example of what Christ does for us?

He dumps his grace on us in such a manner that we are just buried with his grace.

But most of us scurry.

Let's just sit, man.

Right?

Behold what manner of love the Father has lavished, has dumped on us that we should be called sons and daughters of God.

Amen?

What a great God we serve, man.

Let him dump on you in a good way, amen.

Dump his presence and his will in your heart and life.

Fourthly, we memorize key passages.

We memorize key passages.

Now I was in Bible quiz and I was so glad to memorize my first verse, which was John 11, 35.

Jesus wept.

That was my starting verse, because it was only two words.

And then I moved up from there.

Amen?

But here, David says this I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Isn't that something?

The more of the word of God we have in our heart, it guards us against sin.

The more we have the word of God in our heart and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us, our conscience becomes alive, right?

Whenever we go to do something or we go to think a thought, the alarm bells of our conscience go off because it's not seared, it's not calloused, it's fresh, it's alive to the word of God that speaks to us.

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

God's truth can shape decisions before temptation gains momentum.

Amen?

And that's the key right there.

Temptation is not a sin.

You know that, right?

If you're tempted, it's not a sin.

But if you are tempted, what does the Bible say?

We submit to God, we resist the devil, and he flees from us.

If you're tempted, he always gives us a way of escape.

But if you're practicing these principles of God's word, God's truth shapes us even before the temptation comes.

And you when you see an enemy that you know is an enemy coming from a distance, you can deal with that enemy quickly.

Amen?

Um, so yeah, let the word of God shape us.

And then we practice repentance without self-condemnation.

We've we talked about that before.

It's just natural to get down on ourselves because we fail.

But the biggest aspect of repentance is that we cry out for mercy.

Amen.

Because normally when we fail or when we weak, when we're weak, we try to say, okay, I gotta get better.

I gotta try better, I gotta have more willpower and everything.

Uh no.

What you need is the mercy of God, right?

We come boldly to the throne of grace.

We come confidently in our sin and in our being tempted and in our weakness, we come boldly to the throne of grace where we receive mercy and we find grace in our time of need.

Grace in our time of need.

Isn't that awesome?

The grace of God.

So we practice repentance without self-condemnation because it's the enemy tool to slander you and to accuse you.

And when we fall prey to that weapon of the enemy, we fall prey to the enemy's massaging his will and his way into our life and into our heart.

Isn't it true?

So we uh we come against that.

Conviction is recognizing sin and turning back to God.

Condemnation is believing you are beyond God's mercy or defined by your failures or defined by your weakness.

We are not, as people that are in Christ, we are not defined by our weaknesses or our failures.

We're defined by the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Now, doesn't that throw you?

You are not perfect, but thank God Christ is.

Amen.

And we are forgiven.

And that is wonderful.

Internalizing scripture means learning to respond to sin with repentance and with faith.

Now, repentance isn't getting a whip and slapping yourself on the back.

I repent, I repent, I repent.

No, it's a change of mind.

That says I feel condemnation and I feel shame.

I'm changing my mind and resting in the finished work of Christ when he says, I am forgiven.

Amen.

Oh, the grace of God.

And then we live scripture in community.

So glad to see everybody out here on a beautiful day.

You could be in your backyard sipping iced tea, pondering the wonders and perplexities of life, but you are here, living in community.

And this is what we do.

We share life together.

We rub elbows together, don't we?

And we uh we sharpen each other.

So, how does this reflect on 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 8?

1 Peter 3:8

Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart.

We can't have that unless we meditate on the word of God.

Amen?

Just a few thoughts on brotherly love.

It's the word Philadelphia, it's an adjective which conveys the idea of brotherly love.

Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love.

It doesn't refer here to the love of God, but it's referring to this common commonality or this mutual love and affection that we have as brothers and sisters.

Amen.

And it's based on this union that Christ has given you to him, but all of us together to each other.

The Bible says that we are the body of Christ, diverse members working together.

My liver is working together with all of my other organs and things to make me work and allow my body to be uh energized and work to the best of its ability.

And each person has this wonderful, wonderful aspect of being the body of Christ and operating individual members, doing their part to love on each other and live in community, and that's uh that is awesome.

Brotherly love.

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere, brotherly love, sisterly love.

Love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God.

So we don't view each other as strangers, we don't view each other as acquaintances, we view each other as brothers and sisters, not distant relatives, brothers and sisters.

Amen.

Now, who do I call when I'm in need, when I have a problem, when I need counsel?

We my brother lives about four hours away.

Who do I call?

I call you guys.

You're my family, right?

Brothers and sisters.

I call you guys, and this is what brotherly love is all about.

A family can have uh these petty squabbles, but we learn to uh work with each other, deal with each other because we are family.

We are family, all you brothers, sisters, and me.

Amen.

Yeah, we are family.

Right on.

Mutual love is the strongest argument for the Christian faith.

Amen.

Listen to this.

Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor.

Amen.

We love family.

Hebrews 13:1, let brotherly love continue.

Hebrews 13:1

1 John 3, 14 to 16.

We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers and sisters.

Amen.

Isn't that fantastic?

Whoever does not love abides in death.

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

By this we know love that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives forever.

The enemy wants to bring disunity and disharmony into the word, into the church of God.

And that's why we're so careful not to hold a grudge or grumble against each other or complain against each other, because a little, little, little, the little foxes spoil the vine.

Amen.

A little seed of discontent with someone, a little seed of grumbling or complaining about someone, spreading a little gossip here and there, can turn into uh a monster that that hinders the presence and the anointing of God in the body of Christ.

That's why the Bible says, if you got if you got something against somebody, before you lay something down at the altar, go to that person and be reconciled.

Amen.

Ask for forgiveness.

Have this reconciliation that takes place.

For the anointing of God is an awesome, awesome thing.

Without the anointing of God or the move of the Holy Spirit, we are just a club.

Amen.

But we are the house of the Lord.

So let's internalize the Word of God to such an extent that it moves us to this unity of mind.

The body of Christ needs to think alike when it comes to the core issues of salvation, the core issues of sanctification, the core issues of the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, biblical truth.

And then sympathy speaks of not just thinking alike, but this pathos, this uh your pain in my heart, right?

That's what sympathy is.

Your pain in my heart.

So we need to think alike concerning the word of God, the person of Christ, and we need to feel the same thing for each other.

When one weeps, we all weep.

When one has joy, we all have joy.

Amen?

And what a beautiful, beautiful thing, the body of Christ.

So, unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a mutual love, a tender heart, a bowels of mercy.

Feel for each other with your gut.

Amen.

Feel it down deep.

And then have this humble mind.

For humility is the grease that allows the gears of Christian relationships to prosper and to be fantastic.

Be humble.

Amen.

Prefer one another.

Let's close in a word of prayer.

Lord, we love you today.

We thank you for your word.

Lord, we thank you that your word can cleanse us from the mindsets of our past, the accusations of the enemy, the slander of people and of demons and of principalities that come into our mind.

When we reveal the word of God and we regurgitate your word, we meditate on your word, we let it get into our system, we let it be internalized in our heart, Lord.

The very Holy Spirit that wrote the Word of God ministers the living word of God into our hearts and you change us and you transform us.

Tonight, Lord, on this Wednesday night, Wednesday night life, we ask you, Lord, to transform us.

Continue to change us.

Mold us.

Reveal yourself to us in a great and mighty way.

As we surrender to you tonight, Lord, we declare the truths of God over our heart.

And any negative thought that is contrary to the word of God, we cast it out, we take it captive, and we bring all thoughts under the knowledge of God and your word tonight, Lord.

We declare truth because the truth will set us free, and we give you praise in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen.

We declare the truth of God.