"Know Your Armor, Part 4" Ephesians 6:10-17
- This message was preached by Senior Pastor, Robert Dennison, on July 23, 2023.
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Audio Transcript
All right, today you got to work. I didn’t prepare a slideshow. It’s been kind of a busy week. So you got to actually use your Bibles today. All right, we’re going to start out in Ephesians chapter six.
And if you want to use the pew Bible in front of you, I will give you a small hint. Ephesians 6 is on page 1039. 1039. That’s the black book in front of you. If you’ll turn with me instead of reading from the screen, I’ll read to you and you can follow along in your Bible.
Ephesians 6, verses 10 through 17. I’ll begin reading in verse 10. Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil spiritual forces in the heavens.
For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to resist in the evil day. And having prepared everything to take your stand. Stand therefore with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace in every situation. Take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
May we pray. Heavenly Father, once again we come to you today, thanking you for your word that we have all the instruction that we need on what to believe for our faith and how to practice our lives so that we might honor you in all ways. Show us things in our life that we may need to change today and encourage us in things that we are doing rightly. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Know your enemy. Who is your enemy? Know your source of strength. Who is that? Know your armor.
First, we have the belt of. The breastplate of the shoes of the. The shield of helmet of. And today we come to the sword of the Spirit. There are three main points we’re going to be looking at today.
The first one is the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God. The second main point will be that the sword of the Spirit belongs to the Spirit. The sword of the Lord belongs to the Spirit, and thirdly, the sword of the Spirit serves a variety of purposes. The sword of the Spirit serves a variety of purposes.
Let’s start out with number one. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God. We have to go all the way back to the beginning in Genesis 1 and what Genesis 1 teaches us about God and what we believe from that affects everything about what we believe, about what we understand about the Bible and what we understand about him. In Genesis 1, we learn that God exists, but then we learn that everything he made was what? Good.
And it was completed. Everything was very good. So because God made everything good, we know that what kind of God is He? He’s a good God. And that makes a huge difference that we have a God that is good.
If we had a God that was evil or a God that waffled one way or the other, it would change the way we think and the way we live. But we know God is good. We know that all he made is good. Therefore we know that everything he said, what do you think the answer is? Is good.
And therefore everything in God’s Word is good. It may seem hard at times, it may seem difficult, it may go against what contemporary logic or reasoning says, but we know that God’s Word is good. And I want us to look at three words today just so we think properly about God’s Word. The first word is a technical word, and that is inerrant. I n E R R a N T Inerrant.
This technical word means that there are no errors in the autographs. Now, if you pick up a Bible today, you might go through and say, oh, well, that page number is wrong, or they should have capitalized that letter. We acknowledge that there are a few mistakes in the Bible because people make mistakes in the transmission. When the first King James Version came out, they left one word out of the Ten Commandments, and they left out the word not. And instead of writing, thou shalt not commit adultery, in that first printing, it said, thou shalt commit adultery.
Now, that didn’t change the word that God had given us. We recognize that mistakes like that are made. But it’s just wonderfully miraculous how the word of God that we have today, as we get older and older copies that go back toward the original autographs, it’s almost exactly the same. Even the scroll of Isaiah that they found in the Qumran and the dead sea scrolls 400 years before Christ, it’s just like what we have today. Today there are four witnesses that we have to the fact that what we have is God’s Word.
The first century Jews, they held to it that God had passed this word to them and had entrusted it to their nation to pass it on to the world, all the way back to the time of Moses. And they were very meticulous about how they copied it. And we could go into a lot of detail today that would help you to understand it. But they were extremely careful. Letter by letter, they copied the scrolls and then they would count all the A’s to make sure they had the right number of A’s, and they would count all the B’s, and then they’d say, now count in so many words, and it should be such and such.
They were checking it. And to them, if they made a mistake on this holy written material, you know what they did? They didn’t have white out, they didn’t have a computer. They would start over again. So they were very careful about how they did it.
But the Jews, they were witnesses that they trusted it to be God’s word. The Old Testament itself is the second witness because it says over and over, this is the Word of God, or the Word of God came to me. And in the case of Moses, God himself actually wrote on the stone tablets. But we also have in the New Testament that the New Testament writers, they claim that the Bible that they had in that day, the Old Testament, was the word of God. And Jesus himself over and over witnessed to the fact that the Old Testament they had.
And also what he would give through his designated apostles and writers from the New Testament were the Word of God. Now, the Bible may record errors, it may record lies, but it records these errors and lies truthfully without error. Let me give you an example. The Bible quotes Satan in the Old Testament. Now, is what he says the truth?
No. But God’s Word is truthfully, without error, recording his lies. And so there may be things in Scripture, they’re the opinions that were shared or somebody committed some sin. That doesn’t mean that it was right. God’s Word is recording it accurately though.
And also he’s given us a faithful transmission to this day of His Word. So technically, it’s inerrant. If we look at the words and we look at the phrases, they’re all exactly the way God wants it to be. But the second word I want you to understand is infallible. I N F, A L, L, I B L, E. I think it’s the right spelling.
I’m looking at my wife, she’s saying yes. So instead of a technical term, it’s kind of the same. But this is a personal term. It’s similar, but what it means that the Bible is reliable and it’s trustworthy. So not only are the words inerrant, Jesus said even the smallest marking in the text is there because God wants it to be there.
But what the text presents, what it teaches us about what we’re supposed to believe and how we’re supposed to believe, it’s all trustworthy. And we know that because God is good, it will always lead us correctly. I Read from Isaiah 55, 10, 11. For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout and providing seed to sow and food to eat, in other words, the rain that falls from heaven, it accomplishes its purposes. God says in verse 11, so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty.
It’s going to return, bring about an abundance, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do. God being good, what pleases him is good, and his intentions are always good. Therefore his Word is going to always bring about good in our life. It’s infallible, it’s reliable, it’s trustworthy, and the third word is complete. I think you know how to spell that.
And that means that there’s nothing more to be added to the Bible. We’re not waiting for a next step on how to be saved. We’re not waiting for some more instruction about how we’re supposed to live. God’s Word is complete in that it provides. We say everything that we need to know for our faith and everything that we need to know for our prayer practice.
And of all the books in the world, of all the speakers, and everything that is said out there, they’re all trying to say, well, this is what to do, and this is the right way to go. And you know how things change. There was a time when we weren’t supposed to give our kids milk, and then there was a time we were supposed to give them milk. And now I don’t know what else is going on. Bill Boger would say that the stuff that we’re offering today really isn’t milk.
If you drink almond milk, he’ll tell you that’s not milk, that’s almond drink. Is that right, Bill? Anyway, so I’m just saying what one generation says is truth can just change so quickly. But God’s word we can always go back to it is absolute truth. It’s the only source of truth, and it’s complete.
The sword of the Spirit is the word of God is inerrant, and it’s infallible it’s complete. Now, let’s think about the sword of the spirit belongs to the spirit. That means it is given to us to use, but the spirit still continues to possess ownership of it. It would be like if you were in the army and they hand you equipment, they hand you a machine gun, and they give you two trucks to drive, or a tank. When you leave the army, do you take that tank home with you?
No. You’re expected to leave it there. If you have a job and your boss provides you with a computer and a telephone, if you leave that job, it’s not yours to take with you. It’s being given to you so that you can use it. The Holy Spirit gives us his word and he maintains it as his.
We take up the sword, but it does not belong to us. But we have to choose to use it according to the spirit’s will. Because the word of God can be a dangerous thing. If it’s not used in the right way, it can hurt people. Sometimes that hurt is for good, like a doctor doing surgery.
But there are other times God’s word can be used to hurt people. Therefore, it’s important that daily we’re filled with the spirit. We’re saying, God taking up the sword, and I want to use it today, but I’m going to make sure that I’m using it according to your will. Somebody who’s lost or even a believer might use the word of God incorrectly. They might use it wrongly.
We have to remember that it can cause damage if it’s not used according to the intentions of the spirit. And that’s why it’s not the sword of us. It’s not the sword of the Christian. It is the sword of the spirit. Let’s go to the third part.
Now, the sword of the spirit serves a variety of purposes. And I want you to think today about knives. If I were to ask you how many knives you have at your house, do y’ all have a multiplicity of them? I mean, even in our kitchen, you know, I don’t know how many we have. All those knives have different what purposes.
And you don’t take a bread knife and try to cut a steak with it. You use a steak knife the same way. You don’t use a machete to peel an apple. Maybe some of you do, but that would be kind of dangerous when we’re looking at swords here in the Bible, there are two different terms. The first sword I’m going to tell you about is not the sword that’s used in this text.
And there’s a Greek word called rhomphaiia. And this type of sword, which is not in this text, is a really long sword. It has two sharp edges on it, it’s straight. And then they would take a handle or even a pole to put on this long sword. So it could be a sword from here all the way over to here.
It wasn’t a sword that you put in your pocket, okay? It wasn’t like a pocket knife. And it wasn’t the sword that they would stuff down in their belt because if you stuffed it in, you’d be dragging it behind you. Some people would call this a broad sword. It was a sword that you had to carry on your shoulder.
Now, you didn’t carry this on your shoulder all the time. You would pick it up when you were about to go into war. Because that particular sword I’m talking about, it’s meant to thrust, it’s meant to hack at people, it’s meant for destruction. That’s not the sword that’s being spoken of here in the text today. But I do want to show you where it’s used.
If we go over to Revelation 1, verse 16, this is the sword in Revelation that John says is coming out of the mouth of Jesus Christ. Because John is looking toward the end of days when Jesus at his second coming is coming as the conquering king and he needs a sword now for destruction. The verse reads, he had seven stars in his right hand, a sharp double edged sword, this rhampha that came from his mouth and his face was shining like the sun at full strength. If we go over to Revelation, chapter 2, verses 14 through 16, I’m going to read some verses about the church at Pergamum. And in this church at Pergamum they had members who were involved in sexual immorality and idolatry.
And Jesus isn’t going to bring a little pen knife to come and deal with this situation in his church. He wants to get rid of these people. He’s going to destroy them, he says, so repent. Otherwise I will come to you quickly and fight against them with the sword, the rhomphaia of my mouth. And then he explains earlier what he has against them.
I have a few things against you have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block in front of the Israelites to eat meat, sacrifice to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. And in the same way you also have those who hold to the teachings of the Nicolaitans. So Balaam was a prophet in the Old Testament. He was not a prophet of God. He knew who God was, but he was a foreign prophet.
And the Israelites had come into the land, and Balak was wanting to have them destroyed. So he hires this prophet, Balaam to come and he says, curse the Israelites. And so Balaam goes up onto the mountaintop and he looks down at the Israelites and he’s wanting to pronounce a curse. But God Almighty says, you can’t do that. This is what you’re going to say.
So this false prophet still had to speak the truth of God. And that truth of God was, Israel is to be blessed in every way. Well, that infuriated Balak because he was paying him to curse the Israelites. And he paid Balaam three times to curse them. And every time, Balaam instead blessed them.
But when they left, Balaam said, I can’t curse them, but I can tell you how to trick them. Them to fall from following the Lord. He said, when your beautiful young ladies are down celebrating, invite those young men from Israel to come down. Get them interested in those ladies, and while they’re there, get them drunk, and there’s going to be sexual immorality that happens. And there’s going to be sacrifices to idols.
So in doing that, Israel was infiltrated by these evil practices. It’s no wonder that Jesus says he’s going to come to this church at Pergamum because he doesn’t want that to infiltrate into the church. He’s going to bring destruction to those that are teaching it. In Revelation 6, verses 7 through 8, we’re talking about the tribulation here. And when the fourth seal is opened, this rider is given a rhomphaia.
This is what it says in verse seven. When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, come. And I looked, and there was a pale green horse. Its rider’s name was Death, and Hades was following after him. And these two were given authority over a fourth of the earth to kill by the sword, this long sword that’s meant for destruction, by famine, by plague, and by the wild animals of the earth.
If we go all the way to the end, we come to Revelation, chapter 19, where we’re seeing Jesus Christ coming at his second coming, not to save the world from sin, but to remove sin from the world and to set things all right. He uses this same sword here, the Rhomphea. John said, I saw heaven open, and there was a white horse. And its rider is called Faithful and True. And with justice he judges and makes war.
His eyes were like a fiery flame, and many crowns were on his head. He had a name written that no one knows except himself. He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the word of God. The armies that were in heaven followed him on white horses wearing pure white linen. And a sharp sword this long rhomtheia came from his mouth so that he might strike the nations with it.
He will rule them with an iron rod. He will also trample the winepress of the fierce anger of God the Almighty. And he has a name written on his robe and on his thigh. King of kings and Lord of Lords. This first sword was a weapon, and God’s word is sometimes referred to this weapon of destruction.
But in our text today, there’s a different word that’s used. And here, instead of being a weapon, we want to talk about a sword that’s really more of a tool, because the word that’s used here is machaira. And it can be anything from a surgeon’s scalpel to a sword that’s like 12 to 18 inches long. It could be a pocket knife. It could be a fishing knife.
It could be a knife that was used to kill animals and to slaughter them, all different sizes. Going back to the idea that we have many different types of knives, and they’re not all made for destruction, but instead they’re made to do good things for us. And that’s the word that’s used here, that God’s word is this type of knife that is a tool. So I want you to think of it as being more like a pocket knife instead of being like a machete. Even more specifically, to be like a Swiss army knife.
Has anybody had a Swiss army knife? I mean, there’s a knife. There can be scissors. There can be a spoon. There could be a fork.
There can be tweezers. There could even be a toothpick in there. Okay? It’s a knife that isn’t designed to hurt somebody. It’s a knife that’s designed to what?
To help. Now, I said earlier in the service today, if I were faced with a cougar and Brad Rosema were not with me to take care of it, if all I had was a Swiss army knife, I’d pull that little thing out and do the best I could. It can be a defensive weapon, but the main intent to help us. That’s the word here in the text. This sword could be defensive.
This sword or knife could be offensive, but it’s meant to be helpful and Positive. This is the sword that they brought when they arrested Jesus. It’s the type of sword that Peter used to cut off the ear of Malchus. It’s a small sword or knife that the jailer pulled out in Acts 16 when he was about to kill, kill himself. It’s also the sword in Romans 8:35 that God promises cannot separate us from the love of God.
It’s the sword, sadly in Hebrews 11 that some people of faith were killed by and others escaped death. And interesting even more so in Revelation 6 where we read about the longsword being given to one of the writers. This sword is also used there, the short one, because it’s given to the rider of the second seal, who Scripture says will take peace from the earth so that people would slaughter one another. The machaira was a weapon of offense that can destroy, but more often in day to day life. It was a tool that was used to help and to bring about healing.
Now, in order for that knife to be helpful, you didn’t leave it at home. And then when you need it, go home to get it. What did you do with that knife? You carry it with you all the time as opposed to the one that’s meant for war and destruction. You don’t carry around.
This is that pocket knife that you carry with you. So it’s there at all times for all needs. That’s what the word of God is for us. And we carry it with us physically, we carry it with us in our hearts and we carry within our minds to use it for all types of things. I’d like you to turn to second Timothy, chapter three, verses 14 through 17.
And again, a small hint. If you’re using the Pew Bible, it’s page 1056. That’s 1056. And this verse lays out for us the positive aspects and the positive uses of God’s word in our life. Second Timothy 3, 14:17.
I begin reading in verse 14. But as for you, Paul is speaking to his disciple Timothy. Continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you. He’s referring to his mother and his grandmother.
And you know that from infancy you have known the song Sacred Scriptures. He’s referring to what they had as the Old Testament in that day. And they’re the sacred scriptures. There was no other. It was there and it was complete by this time.
Paul goes on to say, which are given, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation. That’s the. It’s perfect and complete for faith. It gives us wisdom, understanding how to be saved. And it tells us all, all that we need for faith, faith, that is, through faith in Christ Jesus.
It tells us in verse 16 that all Scripture is inspired by God, which means that God directed how the Scriptures were to be written. And the word here refers to the wind that blows a ship. It pushes against the sails. And depending on the weather that day and the waves, the ship may go like this, or it may go like this, or it may have to tack back and forth, but still that wind is driving the ship exactly where it is tending for it to go. So God moved in lots of different types of people.
Paul doesn’t write like Luke, Luke doesn’t write like Mark. God used their personalities, he used their vocabularies, like this ship. It’s just that they all got to God’s purposeful place in a different way. All the scripture is inspired by God. And now we find out what is it profitable for.
And these are the sword that is for good, not for destruction, profitable for teaching, profitable for rebuking, profitable for correcting, and profitable for training in righteousness. What do those four words mean? Well. Well, teaching means that it just literally instructs us. It gives us information.
We’re supposed to learn it, we’re supposed to memorize it. But it doesn’t just give us information, but it also rebukes us. And what that means is, as you read through God’s word, you might read something there. It says, you’re not supposed to be doing this. Scripture’s rebuking you.
It says, don’t do that. It’s getting onto you. But like a good parent, it doesn’t just tell you when you’re doing something wrong. It also corrects you. That means Scripture doesn’t just say, don’t do that.
It says, do this instead. Scripture doesn’t just say, don’t do it that way. Scripture says this is the right and correct way to do. Gives us information, it gets onto us. It shows us how to do things in the proper way.
And lastly there, it trains us in righteousness. You have to think of a marathon. You have to think about being on a football team, or you have to think about pursuing something that takes a lot of time and energy and practice. And you need a great training manual to learn how to do those things. And you not only have to have the training manual, but it’s not going to help you in a football game unless you know the playbook.
I mean, if you just carry it in your pocket, it’s not, not going to do any Good. You have to use it and let God’s Word train you. And the reason why God’s Word does all these things, it tells us in verse 17, so the man of God may be complete. God’s Word completes, fulfills us. It gives us everything that God intends for us to have so that we can be the good creation that he had in mind.
It makes us complete and it equips us not just for some good works, but for every good work that God wants us to do. But we have to keep it with us. We have to learn how to use it. We have to practice with it. Let’s look at some things that the Word of God does for us.
First, Peter 2, 2, 3 says that the Word of God helps new believers to grow. The Word of God helps new believers to grow. We read here like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the Word so that by it you may grow up into your salvation. If you have tasted that the Lord is good. He’s talking about a newborn baby here.
If you don’t give it milk, what’s going to happen to that baby? They’re going to die. What if you give that baby liquid skittles instead of milk, what’s going to happen to it? He’s going to get sick. When there’s a new believer that has placed their faith in Jesus Christ, they don’t need this and this over here.
What do they need? They need God’s Word. You need to encourage new believers to read God’s Word. You need to provide them with a copy of it.
Going to turn our Bible now to a psalm in the Old Testament. We’ll give you a test here. It’s the longest psalm. Anybody remember the number of it? Psalm 119.
And we read it a few times last year as a church. We heard it on Sunday mornings. It’s on page 538. And the Pew Bible. This is the longest chapter in the Bible.
And what does the longest chapter in the Bible talk about? The Bible.
What does that say? The longest chapter that God placed in the Bible is used there to talk about his very word. It requires this longest chapter to describe all the good things that the Word of God does for us. So we’re going to take time today to read all of this very slowly.
No, we’re not going to do that. But we are going to kind of skip through the verses. And if you haven’t read it recently, I encourage you to go back and read it again.
In verse one, we see that the Word of God helps us to be Happy. How many people like to be happy? We like to be happy. The world wants to be happy. You have the Word of God to offer to them, to say, this is what will make you truly happy.
Verse one says, how happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk according to to the Lord’s instruction. God’s Word makes us happy. Let’s look at verse nine now. The Word of God helps us to live pure lives. The Word of God helps us to live pure lives.
We read there in verse nine. How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping your word.
Verse 18. The word of God shows us wondrous things. How many of you like to see beautiful things? You like to go traveling and see things that you’ve never seen before. I mean, I’m just utterly amazed all the time.
All the things that God has made beautiful things, funny and awkward things. But it just makes our world so interesting. The Bible provides wondrous things. Verse 18 says, Open my eyes so that I may contemplate wondrous things from your instruction. If you read God’s Word regularly, you will never cease to be amazed at what you discover there and learn.
Verse 25 we learn here that the Word of God gives us life when we are discouraged. It gives us life when we are discouraged. The psalmist writes, my life is down in the dust. Sounds like he’s pretty bad off emotionally. Then he says, give me life through your Word.
He doesn’t say, send a friend, God, give me something to eat. He says, give me your word. That’s what I need when I’m discouraged. Because the Word of God gives us life when we are discouraged. Verse 49.
The Word of God gives us hope.
Verse 49 says, Remember your word to your servant. You have given me hope through it.
When times are rough, when the world gets evil and awful, we have hope. As we look forward to the second coming of Christ.
The Word of God gives us a song to sing. Our worship leaders should appreciate that. And I appreciate Kelly, Jo and Bill and those that bring Scripture songs for us, but they’re basically all based in God’s word. Verse 54 says, you, statutes are the theme of my song during my earthly life. If you’re lonely, if you’re discouraged, a lot of times we get in the car, what do we turn on?
We turn on the radio. Music has such a great effect on us, and God’s Word does the same. Verse 66 the word of God helps us make good decisions. I like to make good decisions. Sure makes life a lot easier.
When I make good decisions. God’s word provides direction for that. The psalmist says, teach me good judgment and discernment, for I rely on your commands. Next, in verse 72, we learn that the word of God is more valuable than wealth. More valuable than wealth.
Verse 72 reads, instruction from your lips is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. We can’t find anything greater in this world than God’s word. Word. The word of God in verse 77 is a source of delight. May your compassion come to me so that I may live, for your instruction is my delight.
We’re going to stop there. We’re not getting through the whole chapter, but it just goes on and on telling us how the word of God isn’t always this destructive sword, but it’s this knife, it’s this tool, it’s a scalpel that is very helpful in so many ways, in the ways that it blesses us. So what do we need to take away today? We need to take up the sword of the Spirit. Don’t leave it at home.
Carry it with you, physically memorize part of it, even if you just read it and try to learn the overall context and, and the basic stories so that it can be there in your heart to do all these good things. Take up the sword of the Spirit. It isn’t forced on us. And God doesn’t put it in your pocket every day. When you walk out the door, it’s your responsibility to pick it up.
The second thing is keep the sword of the spirit with you. If Brad’s not with you and you’re facing that cougar, you don’t have time to run home and get your pocket back knife. You need to have it where you need to have it with you and you need to be ready. Next thing is learn how to use the sword of the spirit. Whether it’s the large one or the small one, if you don’t know how to use it would be kind of dangerous.
I mean, during our right at the service, as I said, we’re handing out broad swords that are four feet long and we’re giving them to all the kids and the adults and we’re going over in the other room to say what we can do with them. It would be what, dangerous? Disastrous unless you are trained how to use it. So it is with God’s word. You need to learn how to use it.
And everybody knows that the most dangerous knife in a kitchen is what kind of knife. It’s a dull knife. The sharpened knife is what’s the Safest. But you have to know how to use it. You have to respect it and be careful with it.
So it is with God’s Word. You never learn enough of it. You always have to continually be honing it in your life to keep it sharp. Last thing is, ask the Spirit to use His Word not only on other people, but here’s the hard thing, ask him to use it on you. Because we all have things in our life that we need a scalpel to come in and remove those things so that we can live more according to God’s Word.
Ask the Spirit to use His Word in your life to do that. I want to close by reading Hebrews 4, verses 12 through 12 13. And what we read here is that the Bible is not a dead book. How many of you took algebra in high school? How long has it been since you’ve picked that book up?
How many of you read the Chronicles of Caesar or whatever they were? Maybe never have, and you’ve never picked it up. God’s Word is not a dead book like these other books. It’s still alive and it’s purposeful. And as I read this passage, what I want you to really hear is that God’s Word is the only solution for our heart issues.
You can go to your beautician, who is not a magician, and she can work with your face and your hair, okay, to solve some problems that you might have. You can go to a doctor to help you fix something physically with your body. You can go to a counselor like Kelly Jo to help you with your emotions and your thoughts and to try to get things worked out in your life. But when it comes down to it, all of our main issues are where they’re in our heart. And your beautician, your doctor, even a counselor can’t correct your heart issues.
You have to go to God’s Word to do that. For the Word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double edged sword. And here it’s the smaller sword, but it’s double edged. It penetrates as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It’s not that big sword coming in and whacking you up.
It’s. It’s going in there, very careful, carefully, to show you what’s wrong and to remove what needs to be corrected. It is able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart because only God in His Word knows what anyone is truly thinking. No creature is hidden from him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. The Bible’s not a dead book.
It’s useful. Its main purpose is not to destroy, it’s to build up. It’s to help. It’s to encourage us and make us more like Jesus. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, give us a greater love for your Word. Give us an understanding and desire to set aside time regularly that we might hone our skills with it and learn how to use it in a proper way. Thank you for giving it to us so that we might understand that faith only comes through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that by placing our faith in him alone, we have a righteous life that we can now spend not only the present with you, but eternity. And we thank you that your Word, after we come to faith, continues to guide us in everything that we need in life. In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.