His Word - Week 2 - Pastor Kipp Penrod

Thank you for listening to this message from

Lifehouse Church. This Tuesday is Veterans Day.

It's a day that we take and set aside to honor

those who serve this country and really pay the

price for our freedoms. And we wanted to take

just a few minutes and honor those who are currently

serving in the military or have served in the

past. in the armed forces. So if you, if that's

you, first we want to say we see you. We appreciate

the sacrifice. We see your courage. We see your

willingness to do what others won't do. We see

the brave choices that you make and the challenges

that you overcome. And we want to make sure that

we recognize and give you honor today. So if

you're in the military currently or you have

served in the past, I'm going to ask you to do

one thing. I want to ask if you would just stand

right where you are in your seat. If you would

stand up this morning, we just want to take a

moment. Thank you. Thank you. I know they're

always hesitant. Come on. Give them applause.

And if you would stay standing for just a moment,

we got just a very small gift, something that

we want to give you just to say thank you. We

do appreciate, I appreciate that I get to stand

in this pulpit Sunday after Sunday because somebody

paid the price on the front lines for me to share

the gospel loud and sometimes very loudly, right?

Out loud. And we appreciate that so much. Could

you give him just one more hand? Yeah. Thank

you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for

serving. Well, listen, for almost two millennia,

Christians have held to one document, one source

of truth, one source of wisdom, one source that

tells us what God's word is, and it is the Bible.

If you got your Bible this morning, I want you

to hold it up. Come on, if you got the written

word, hold it up high. If you got it on your

phone, you can hold your phone up. That's okay

too. I read the Bible on my phone all the time

and the word of God there, but it is the Bible.

It is our source, right, of absolute truth. It

is the reliable handbook for life. It is two

testaments in one, the revelation of the most

high, one measuring stick for all of life, one

standard, one rule for our lives. It's the Bible.

Its value is beyond silver and gold. Its wisdom

is from above and not below. Its power is beyond

other words, any other written words. 66 books

compiled to bring us the completed work of the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. One word,

one book that gives us a proper description of

the King of Kings and of the Lord of Lords. One

book that leads to eternal life. One book that

makes us healthy. and whole if applied. Amen?

Amen. Come on, one book that is authored by none

other than the Holy Spirit. He spoke and moved

on men, right? And they wrote as God directed

them. One book that is descriptive and prescriptive

in nature. One book that leads us to the creator

of all things. One book that reveals the nature,

the character, and the will of God. One book

that is divine. One book that is inerrant. And

it is the best -selling book of all time. It

is the Bible. Amen? Come on. It's our sword.

It's our weapon. It's what we use to take down

any giant that gets in front of us. It is the

word of God. Amen. That should get you just a

little bit excited. It gets me excited. And this

morning, I want to take you to the first chapter

of the book of John and help you understand the

incalculable value of God's word, the Bible,

his word. And as you turn, I'm going to pray.

Father, I thank you for this day. God, I thank

you for each one that's in the house. God, I

pray your favor and blessing. God, as we break

the word, as we break the bread of life, Lord,

I pray that you would help us. Lord, pour it

into our spirits and hearts. God, write it in

our minds. God, write it on the walls of our

heart, Lord, that we might not sin against you,

that we might be able to recall your word, and

God, know the truth, and we just give you praise

and glory. In Jesus' name, everybody said together.

Amen, amen. I'm gonna ask you to stand for the

reading of the word. I don't do that very often

because I jump around a lot in the Bible, but

it's a lengthy portion. We're just gonna stand

in honor of the word. It says this, in the beginning

was the word and the word was with God and the

word was God. I'm gonna read that again. In the

beginning was the word and the word was with

God and the word was God. He was in the beginning

with God. All things were made through him and

without him, nothing was made that was made.

In him was life, and the life was the light of

men. And that light shines in the darkness, and

the darkness did not comprehend it. There was

a man sent from God whose name was John. Now,

when it's talking about John here, it's talking

about John the Baptist, the forerunner, the one

who would announce Jesus as coming into the world

as Messiah. This man came for a witness to bear

light, to bear witness of the light that all

through him might believe. He was not that light,

but was sent to bear witness of that light. That

was the true light, which gives light to every

man coming into the world. And it goes back to

describing Jesus. He was in the world, and the

world was made through him, and the world did

not know him. He came to his own, and his own

did not receive him. But as many as received

him, to them he gave the right to become children

of God, to those who believe on his name, who

were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh,

nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word,

say in the word. became flesh and dwelt among

us, and we beheld his glory, and the glory is

one of the only begotten of the Father, full

of grace and truth. You may be seated. Give somebody

a high five while you're sitting down. Tell them

it's good to hear about God's word. Come on.

John clearly lets us know in this passage, in

this portion of scripture, that the word has

been there from the beginning. The word was with

God, and not only was the word with God, but

the word is God. Is God. That Jesus Christ is

the manifestation of God's word in the flesh.

That he is the living word. He's Emmanuel. We're

getting ready to go into Christmas time, right?

Thanksgiving and Christmas. Emmanuel. He is God

with us. God in the flesh. And Jesus himself

tells Philip in John 14, 9. He said, if you've

seen me, you've seen the father. If you hear

me, you've heard the father. He said to him,

have I been with you so long? And yet you've

not known me, Philip. He who has seen me has

seen the father. So how can you say, show us

the father? God is the word and the word is God.

If you hear Jesus, you hear the father, you hear

the words of the father, you hear the words of

the son and of the Holy Spirit, three in one.

And if you hear his words, the word of God, It

is God. You cannot separate God from his word.

You can't do it. You can't do it. Jesus is the

embodiment of God's word, the living word, of

the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

And this is important to know because, and we

need to know this, because to know someone is

to hear their words. If you're going to know

somebody, you've got to hear their words. Turn

to the person beside you. Tell them I want to

hear your word. Give them any word. Come on,

turn them right now. Tell them I want to hear

a word. Make it a good one. All right, they're

sitting right beside you. But to know someone

is to hear their words. We are our words, and

our words are us. We cannot separate the two.

We cannot be known outside of our word. We really

can't. We can't step outside of our words. God

cannot be separated from his words any more than

you and I can be separated from our words. Our

words virtually identify us. Who we are, what

we are, is our words. Our words are the external

identification that people place on us every

time we speak. I'm letting somebody know who

I am. You're letting somebody know who you are.

We cannot be separated from our words, though

sometimes we would like to, right? We cannot

be separated from our words, and God... cannot

be separated from his words. And he never wants

to be separated from his word because his word

is truth. We're known by our words. We are, right?

Now, let me ask you a question. Have you ever

said something that you wish you would have never

said? Raise your hand if you're with me. Amen.

Thank you for leaving me hanging up here alone.

All right. The moment it fell out of your mouth,

you thought, I wish I could take that back. I

wish I could stick that back in. So you said

something to somebody you love, you said something

to a group of people, and you thought, ah, could

I put that back, please, right? Because you know

that the people who were listening were identifying

you the moment it fell out of your mouth. What

was in your head, what was in your heart, that

stupid thought that was swirling around for about

a half a second fell out of your mouth, right?

You didn't think about it. You didn't spend any

time with it. And it labeled you on the spot.

It really did, right? How many of you get labeled

sometimes? You say something not so smart. I

won't use the word stupid, but not so smart.

They might label you as a jerk, right? They might

label you as rude, arrogant, insensitive, ignorant,

and a whole bunch of other descriptive words

I'm not going to use from the pulpit, right?

There's all kind of words that follow and identify

us. Unfortunately, I've done this more than one

time, personally, and particularly with my wife,

who can confirm this, who's sitting on the fry,

right? Some stupid statements have fell out of

my mouth, and the second they came out, I wish

I could have stuck them right back in. I wish

that I never said them, right? I am the man of

this house, and I will do what I please. Jerk,

right? Jerk. Right? She goes, amen. She's amening

on the front. Your words identify you. It's too

late once they drop out of your mouth. Our words

identify us. You cannot separate. You cannot

separate God from his words. Words are like toothpaste.

I got toothpaste up here. It's like toothpaste.

I used to use this illustration all the time

when I was doing youth group. And we'd do this

and we'd say, listen, this is what the words

are like, all right? You just squirt it out all

over the place. Now, what we would do is I would

say, Zach, I want you to come up here and put

that toothpaste back in this tube. How well is

that going to work out, right? You can't get

it back. And that's actually kind of even and

accurate because if I was going to do this right,

I won't do this to Zach. I'd bring him up and

I'd smear the toothpaste all over him. Because

you hear your words. They stick to you. right?

They identify us. People do not, when they're

looking at you and they're listening to you,

they do not identify you by your intentions.

Do you know that? You can have the best of intentions.

They're not identifying you by your intentions.

Go ahead and read a news article where they quote

somebody. You know, somebody says something terrible

and you know what? You've never seen a newspaper,

this terrible quote printed and then afterwards

it says, you know, they said that, but I don't

think they really meant it. You know, I think

they'd be inside. They really have a good, you

don't see that, right? You don't see that on

social media. You don't get identified by your

intentions, no matter how good they are. You

get identified by your words. We don't even get

identified by our emotions. You can't identify

what's going on with me with my emotions. I could

start crying up here, virtually physically crying.

And you don't really know what's going on in

my mind. Because it can be all kinds of things,

right? It can be tears of joy. right? I just

got a huge income tax return. Tears of joy. The

government actually passed the budget, right?

Tears of joy. Yes, I went there for a second,

okay? Tears of joy. It could be tears of sadness.

It could be tears of sorrow. It could be tears

of grief. It could be tears of fear. It could

be tears of hate. It could be tears of anger.

Some people, if they get angry and they start

crying, get out of the way. Come on, amen? When

you get really angry, you cry. Yeah, if you're

around somebody like that, duck, okay? Somebody's

going down, all right? You don't really know

me with those tears, but if I put words to those

tears, you begin to identify me. Shortest verse

in all the scripture. You're gonna memorize scripture

this morning. John 11, 35, Jesus what? Say what,

say it. You memorized scripture this morning.

Jesus what? Jesus is standing at Lazarus's grave.

Lazarus has been dead for four days, friend of

his. And Jesus begins to weep. And in the very

next verse, it says, and the Jews said, oh, see

how he loved him. The Jews thought they knew.

right? What Jesus was thinking. They thought

they knew what they were identifying Jesus. He's

grieving. He says, that's not why Jesus was weeping.

Because Jesus is about to open his mouth, standing

at the grave of a friend who's been dead for

four days. And when he opens his mouth, it begins

to identify him. Because he didn't say, oh, how

sorrowful I am. He said, Lazarus, come forth.

And Lazarus steps out of the grave, and all of

a sudden, everybody around him knows this is

the Messiah. This is the King. This is the Lord.

This is somebody who calls people from the dead,

right? It is our words that identify us. When

Jesus was in the boat, and the winds and the

waves were crashing, and the disciples thought

they were going to die inside the boat, and he

stands up and says, peace be still. And the winds

and the waves stop, and the ocean goes flat.

They realized this is not just a rabbi. This

is not just a Jewish teacher. This is the son

of God, right? When he commanded demons with

a word and they fled and they went back to the

pit, right? With a word, it identified who he

is. We cannot know God and separate him from

his words. We must know his word. His word is

him, and he is his word. He is eternal. His word

will never pass away. Never. The word of God

tells us that, right? And if we are words, right,

he is so much more. And if we're not in his word

daily, say daily, daily, we're missing him daily

if we're not in his word. You don't really know

somebody until you hear their words daily. You

thought you knew that person you married, but

it wasn't until you heard their words daily,

you really knew them. Amen. And all the married

people said, amen. You thought you knew that

new coworker, but it wasn't until you heard their

words daily that you really knew who they were.

That new boss. That new teacher, that new instructor,

right? When I hear his word daily is when I get

to know who God really is. He is revealed in

his word. It's true. Sundays are not enough.

They're not enough. When you come here to hear

the word of God, I tell people all the time,

when I'm preaching, this is nothing more than

just an appetizer. All right. This is to get

you hungry for God's word. This is to get you

hungry for him. It's just an appetizer. Do you

know what happens if you eat one appetizer for

the entire week and you don't eat another appetizer

until next Sunday? You starve. All right. How

many know if you even eat an appetizer every

single day, it's okay to have an appetizer. But

if that's all you ate every single day, you just

listen to somebody else expound on God's word

and you're just eating an appetizer. How many

know you're not going to be very healthy at the

end of the week? right? Eat and have to, that's

all it is. When you go to life group and you

study together and you should, you should come

to worship service, hear the word of God, you

should be in a life group, you know, studying

God's word, doing all those things, but those

are appetizers. You don't really understand who

God is. You don't really get to know who God

is till you're in the word of God with him every

single day and you're hearing it. It's how it

works, right? We kid ourselves. We kid ourselves.

If we think we're going to really know him, we

get an appetizer down twice a week. We care ourselves.

If I'm going to know him, I got to hear his words.

I got to hear him daily. We need to hear the

written word of God every single day. We must

hear him. We must read. And we must do it for

the right reasons. It's more than just knowing

God by hearing his word, but we have to do it

for the right reasons. You might say, well, what

do you mean by that? If we read God's word for

the wrong reasons daily, we'll still miss God.

We really will. We can read the words of God

and still miss God. And you might be thinking,

well, wait a minute, didn't you just spend five

minutes or 10 minutes unfolding that you got

to hear his words? Yes. Did I mislead you? No,

right? You got to hear it for the right reasons.

You got to be listening for the right reasons.

We've got to be engaged in his word for the right

reasons or we still miss him. It's possible to

hear somebody hear their words daily and maybe

even idolize them some and never really know

them. How many of you know what a fan club is?

Raise your hand if you know what a fan club is.

You don't hear a lot about these days. If somebody's

really young and they didn't raise their hand,

just explain it to them later. Look it up on

Google or something, okay? What a fan club is.

It's a group of people who kind of idolize someone,

right? This happens a lot of times with people

that are singers or sports figures. And they'll

listen to their words maybe even every day. They'll

put on their songs, and they'll listen to them

going to work, and they'll listen to them coming

home, right? And they hear the songs over and

over. And if they're really fans, they'll know

the quotes that they've spoken different times,

and they'll know those quotes. They'll be able

to regurgitate those quotes. You know, somebody

that they idolize or somebody they've heard every

day. They've got the T -shirts. They've got the

buttons. They've been to the concerts. They know

their words, but they don't really know them,

right? We just got back from a vacation, a week

of vacation in Disney, and I watched five -year

-olds who could sing and quote the lyrics to

the movie Frozen, all right? Matter of fact,

I can now, now that I've been in Disney for a

week. Much to my chagrin, all right? And with

great passion and movement, right? These kids

are like, you know, let it go. I can't get it

out of my head, right? You know, watching animated

characters. They hugged Elsa and Anna, right,

on the main characters of this movie, which are

animated. It could be a sports figure. It could

be a person in history. It could be just about

anybody. They know a lot about the person. They

know the statistics, right? They see them on

video, but they never really personally get introduced

to somebody. The wrong approach. And hearing

God's word is fan club Christianity. It really

is. Jesus was addressing the religious leaders

who physically wanted to kill him. Now this is,

it seems strange to say this because, you know,

they're Jewish religious leaders. They're following

after God and they want to kill Jesus. They want

to take him out. And it sounds so strange when

you begin to look at this. And because these

men were experts in the law of God. They were

experts in the written word of God. They were

professionals, so to speak, in the word of God.

They memorized large portions of scripture. Maybe

the first five books of the Bible, they would

memorize all of it, the Pentateuch, right? And

they knew their stuff about the word of God,

and they totally missed God when Jesus showed

up. They missed him completely. They knew the

word of God. They were just studying it for all

the wrong reasons. They were professional religious

leaders. They studied the Old Testament and unfurled

the scrolls, right? They spent countless hours

searching God's word and they totally missed

him. John 5, 39 says, you search the scriptures

for in them, you think you have eternal life.

And these are which testify of me, but you are

not willing to come to me, to Jesus, that you

may have life. They had no idea that the Son

of God was right in front of them. The Word of

God in flesh. The reason we read God's Word daily

is to draw near to Him. That's the purpose. That's

why we do it. We read God's word daily so we

personally get to know him, so that we are part

of his unique system to personally understand

and know God. God has a kind of a two -part system.

He's got the written word of God and he's got

the Holy Spirit. When you come and get saved,

you have the written word of God, right? These

66 books. And then you have the Holy Spirit who

comes to dwell within you. And he's a personal

teacher. He's a personal instructor. That's what

the word of God tells us. He'll teach you all

things, right? And you begin to know God when

you engage in that on a daily basis. But if you

read the word of God for any other reason, to

check a box, so you get it done, that's what

Christians are supposed to do. For any other

purpose, purpose. I want a little inspiration

once in a while, right? Come on, I got to figure

something out, so I do one of these deals, you

know, and hope it's the answer that God gives

me. Anybody ever do that other than me? All right,

come on. The scribes and the Pharisees were so

caught up in the religious system of that day

that they built a world around studying the scriptures.

It was a way of life for them. It was a profession

that they developed around the written word of

God. They developed this legalistic system that

actually went beyond the word of God. And it

kept them from knowing God. The traditions they

had, the music that they had, the culture they

developed around the word of God, but they never

drew near to God. In fact, when Jesus showed

up, they wanted to kill him. And you think, how

in the world can that happen? Well, it's a little

bit like people who love to go to the hospital.

Believe it or not, there are people out there

who love to go to the hospital. They love everything

about the atmosphere of the hospital. They love

sitting in the waiting room for hours on end

with other people that need help, right? They

love to get poked and prodded. They love to meet

the medical community. They love their vitals

getting taken. The rest of us are cringing right

now, like, please don't make me go to the hospital.

They love meeting the staff, right? Most of us

hate it. We only go if we're made to and we have

to and we need healing of some kind. But they're

in the hospital for all the wrong reasons. They're

not interested in healing. They're interested

in the atmosphere. And that sounds crazy, but

the same thing happens at church. People come,

they're not interested in Jesus and getting closer

to God. They love the greeters. We got some good

greeters, by the way, right? They love the people

in the parking lot. They love that they get hugged

and their hands shook coming in the door. They

love the awesome coffee that we serve and the

atmosphere out in the square. They love the music.

They love the positive feel and vibe, right?

In church, they love the people they're sitting

with in their pew because you all have a pew.

I see you every Sunday in the same spot, right?

They love to stay in class. They love all of

it. They even like the preaching and the singing,

but they're here for the wrong reasons. They're

not here to find God. They're not here to draw

close. They just love the process. They love

everything about it. I've been in ministry a

long time. I know people that have gone into

ministry for the wrong reason, because they love

the process, right? Worship team, if you'd come.

John 5, 39, let me read it again. You search

the scriptures, for in them you think you have

eternal life. And these are they which testify

me, but you're not willing to come to me that

you may have life. We read his word to come to

him daily. You cannot separate God from his word.

You cannot. Can I share a little bit of a plan?

that we got going on right now at LifeHouse?

Step one is this. November, we're going to be

preaching about the Word of God all through the

month of November. As we go into Thanksgiving,

what an amazing thing to preach on as we go into

Thanksgiving season. And then in Christmas, we're

going to, you know, December, we're going to

focus on who the Word's all about. We're going

to focus on Jesus. But come January 1, we're

going to take away every excuse you've ever had

to read through God's Word in a year. We're going

to give you plans and opportunity. We're going

to give you groups of people to get together

so you can cheer one another along in it. We're

going to give you a very easy way. It's amazing

with modern technology and the apps that are

now can be downloaded on phones. It's incredible

the instruction that you can get and how easy

they lay it out for you. And in minutes, you

know, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, you can get with

the God of the universe. even like calling it

devotions anymore, because it's too easy to say,

I skipped my devotions, right? I'm just going

to skip my devotions today. No, man, you're skipping

your appointment with the God of the universe.

That's what you're missing. I've done it. Not

a good thing to do, all right? How many, no,

you get a couple days away from meeting with

the creator of the universe, you start getting

all sideways, and you start living you, right?

It starts, everything starts going sideways on

you. Your thinking starts to get messed up, right?

Your emotions start to get messed up, because

you're not getting with the king. So this coming

in January, we'll give you, come on, I'm giving

you too much to prep up, all right? Too much

to prep up. That's a long time to get ready.

But we're gonna go through the word of God together.

And we're gonna meet with the creator. We're

gonna meet with the God of the universe. Isaiah

55, six says, seek the Lord while he may be found.

Call upon him while he's near, while he's near.

I don't know if you've been looking around what's

going on in the world around us. But I'm telling

you, Jesus is getting ready to return. There

are things that are unfolding. There are things

that are taking place in the world around us.

Signs of the times are everywhere. We went away

for a week. We came back and all the leaves were

blown down and pumpkins were everywhere in our

house. They were rolling all over the yard. And

we're like, we saw a sign of something, right?

Yeah, there was some kind of windstorm. Something

went down around our house. There was stuff everywhere.

There's signs. Church, we're gonna get with God,

amen? I'm gonna ask you to stand this morning.

We're gonna seek him. Pastor Alyssa preached

it last week. We're gonna seek him. We're gonna

go after him. And you cannot do that outside

of his word. If you've not been in his word and

you keep telling yourself you can't, you're fooling

yourself. You're fooling yourself. Word of God

will call you out. Calls me out all the time.

You're fooling yourself. Revelation. Revelation

is this. The word revelation means an uncovering,

an unveiling. It is not until you get with the

God of the universe on a daily basis that you

begin to uncover for yourself God. And what happens

is, is God and revelation is God's words. It's

his application to your situation is what happens

with revelation. You're probably, you may or

may not find your situation in the word of God.

But if you're meeting with the God of the universe,

you'll start finding out the revelation that

is the application for your situation. God's

word never changes, but he can change your situation.

That only comes when it's self -discovery. It

only comes when you're in the word of God yourself.

When you're learning to feed yourself. People

tell me all the time, well, I quit attending

church because they quit feeding me. You need

to learn how to feed yourself. Amen? Pray for

the pastor if he's not that good. I appreciate

that, okay? I do. But you've got to learn how

to feed yourself. That happens in the word of

God. In the word of God. That's why he gave it

to us. We freely. freely read this in this country.

We can carry this anywhere in public. That's

not in all cases. That's not in all countries.

We can read the word of God anywhere we want

to. If you're a student, you can carry this in

your public high school, right, and read the

word of God. We have that freedom. God's good,

isn't he? I want you to just if you would, bow

your heads right where you're at. This starts

off with the desire to meet with God. If you

don't desire to meet with God, I can't help you,

honestly. You and the Holy Spirit are going to

have to work that out. Do you want to meet with

him? Do you want to meet with him? Do you want

his revelation in your application? Because you

can't separate God from his word. Can't do it.

You got to get into his word. You got to let

the Holy Spirit. Begin to move in you. Thank

you for tuning in to this message from Lifehouse

Church. We pray that you were impacted powerfully

by this message. If you have been personally

affected by our ministry and you would like to

partner with us as we love God, love people every

day, visit our website at www .lifehouse .org.

lifehousecog .com.