ALL OUT WAR Week 6 Never Retreat Powerful Offensive Weapon It provides to strike down the enemy.

y. We have a very powerful weapon at our disposal. For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Heb. 4:12) Must use carefully and skillfully we must know how to use the Word, if you dont read the word, you are like a soldier with a sword that doesnt know how to use it. You must learn to communicate Gods Word effectively to others, and for that you need to KNOW the Word. He can take classes and read books about swords all day long, but until he holds it in his hand, he will never be able to develop the skill needed to use it on the battlefield. You must know its origin - All Scripture is given by inspiration of God (2 Tim. 3:16) 1,500 years and had more than 40 authors No contradictions. God inspired these men. No doubt. They wrote down what God told them to write. Its consistent. It is matchless. There is nothing else like it. External Proofs 1: Earth is round - we can see that the Bible contains many natural facts that were stated thousands of years before science proved these things to be true. For example: Isaiah 40:22, the bible points out the world is round, it was in Gods word all along. He who sits above the circle of the earth 2: Earth hangs without nothing holding it - The Bible also states that He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing (Job 26:7) which was not fully realized until thousands of years later, after science realized that the earth was not rigidly supported and that the stars and sun did not rotate around it. 3: Ocean Currents - The Bible clearly talks about ocean currents when the psalmist wrote, the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the sea (Psa. 8:8). A man named Matthew Fontaine Maury read Psalm 8 back in 1872 and said, It is enough, if the word of God says there are paths in the sea, they must be there, and I am going to find them. He then mounted an expedition and is credited as being the man who discovered the ocean currents, even though God told about them thousands of years prior. Fulfillment of prophesies about Christ Almost 750 years before Christ, it was prophesied that a Child would be born and called the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6), which He was. It was prophesied that He would be born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14), which He was. The psalmist prophesied that He would be rejected by His own people (Psalm 118:22), which He was. It was prophesied that He would be killed and would remain silent (Isa. 53:7), which He was and did. If that werent enough, who could have prophesied that He would be raised from the dead? Hosea even prophesied, roughly 750 years before Christ, that He would raise from the dead on the third day (Hos. 6:2), which He did. Gives us life Gods word is powerful to be able to save our souls (James 1:21). Gods word can also produce rebirth and help us to grow spiritually (1 Pet. 1:23-2:2). What great power we see in Gods word that it can give us life! Guides us Walk by faith, every thought and action that we undertake, it is guided by Gods holy word. As Jesus was tempted, he quoted scriptures. Jesus quoted scripture, which said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). Our life is not sustained in physical things, but only on Gods word, His EVERY word!

We must spend time training Reading, studying, meditating on His Word Think about it, when were constantly thinking about God and His word, is there any room for sin? Meditation is critical if we want to be well-trained in Gods word! Develop a Desire for his Word Grow in the Word - Closely acquainted with our Sword Wielding it Hold the sword in our hands Put Gods Word into our hearts - Pauls prayer for the Ephesian brethren was that He would grant (them), according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man (Eph. 3:16). Strength from it to stand - Strengthened with might. It is through Gods word that we can have strength and be able to survive in the last day. Once we have put Gods word into our hearts, Paul says, if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live (Rom. 8:12-13). This may seem easy, but it requires that we completely put away our old life of sinfulness and Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus (Col. 3:16-17). It is only when we are truly in the Lord, when we have put His word into our life, that we can stand strong and confident (Eph. 6:10). Must use it skillfully - It will take work, but we must Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15). What does it mean to rightly divide Gods word? It means that we are searching all of Gods word (Psa. 119:160) in order to find out how to apply these truths into our lives. In your life, your life doesnt just fall together. Your life doesnt just come together. There is some assembly required. God says, My word is an instruction manual for your life. It is a way for you to learn, a way for you to grow, its a way for Me to give you direction and light the path for your life. Gods Word Is Gods Gift Matchless Flawless Instructional Fresh Infinite COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO Example of Edmond Dantes when he loses his sword in the battle at the end, how he looks for it frantically. Paul knows that the sword is so vital in the battle. The word of God is so important to your life, to your existence. When you dont have it, you lose confidence. What makes the Bible so vital to our lives? Why is the Bible so vital to my life? Why is it so vital to who I am? It gives me strength to overcome hopelessness. Some of you in this room have gone through amazing pain, pain that I could never begin to imagine: loss of a parent, loss of a sibling. Your parents have gone through amazing financial struggles. Youve gone through amazing loss, amazing pain. What its done is Satan has used that to attack you, and youve lost hope. You feel like, Theres no use for me going on. Everything that I love has been taken from me. So heres what we do. Because weve lost hope, we try to regain hope by our own strength, on our own. Because we cant do it, guess what happens to us? We turn to other devices: cutting, drugs, alcohol, relationships, sex, money. We turn to other things to try to fulfill the hopelessness in our lives. God says thats not going to do it. You cant do it on your own. As matter of fact, you dont have to have loss in your life to experience hopelessness. Some of you, youve lost hope because youre a Christian and your parents arent, and you think, Why am I even doing this? My parents arent going to become Christians. They dont love God. Why even try?

Some of you lost hope because youre not good in school. You dont do well in your grades so your parents continue to impress upon you the importance of having good grades and you think to yourself, Im just not smart enough. Why even try? God says, You want strength for the hopelessness, I will give it to you. The Bible says in Romans 15:4: Such things were written in the scriptures long ago to teach us. They give us hope [Circle hope.] and encouragement as we wait patiently [Underline wait patiently.] for Gods promises. You may have some serious problems in your life right now where youve lost hope and you want your hope regained now. The Bible says youve got to wait patiently Gods timing. Were selfish. We want it to happen right now. God says, Youve got to wait for My timing. God says, You get hope from reading My word. Thats where it comes from. If someone asked you, how did you get through that tough moment, could you say: The reason why I got through that pain was because of my faith in God and the promises in His word. The promises in His word the sword of the Spirit. Gods word, Gods gift, Gods love letter. That got her through hopelessness. If youre at a point in your life where you feel youre hopeless, Gods word gives you encouragement . It gives you hope. It gives you peace. Heres a second thing it gives you, it gives you standards to make right decisions. I have talked to so many students lately who have made bad decisions. When I asked them about the decisions they made, I said, Where do you get your standards to make your decisions? Where do you get your standards to justify the decisions youve made? They go, When I look at my friends lives, in comparison to them, Im doing pretty good. Thats the problem! You dont compare your life or you dont compare the standards of life based on your friends or your parents or your teacher. You base your standards on the word of God, the standards to make the right choices. God says, Thats not right. You need to base your life and your standards on right decisions on what My word says. Its true. Its honorable. Im committed to your life and seeing it fulfilled. Look what 2 Timothy says: All scripture is inspired by God, and its useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our life. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right [Circle right.]. It is Gods way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do. Some of you, you look at that verse and go, See? Thats why I dont read the Bible. Its just full of rules! God just wants rules. Thats all He wants is just rules. God doesnt want rules. Its not like God sits in heaven and goes, What else can I do to make them mad? Wait to have sex until youre married, theyll hate that! God doesnt do that. God is protecting you just like a father would protect his children. He sets standards for us, guidelines for us, because He wants our lives to be full of joy, to be really fulfilled as John 10:10 says. Heres a third thing. Not only does Gods word give us strength to overcome hopelessness and standards to make right decisions, but it gives us truth to reveal the real me. As a matter of fact, look what it says in Hebrews 4: For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are. If you really want to know who you are and you read Gods word, for some of you it may hurt when you find out. See what Hebrews says there. When you read Gods word, it exposes you for who you are. It is like the sharpest knife cutting deep inside of you. Does that feel good? No. It hurts. But sometimes truth hurts. But you grow through it if you let it help you. Gods word can be that tool, give you truth to expose who you really, really are. Heres the last thing. The Bible is vital to your life, and it gives you nourishment to grow spiritually healthy. Matthew 4:4 Jesus says, But Jesus told them, You know what the scriptures say, people need more than bread for their life. They must feed on every word of God.

Therere a lot of great things in our world. Success is a great thing; wealth is a great thing; relationships are a great thing; achievements are a great thing. But those things will leave you empty inside. Yeah, theyre great for a short period of time, but they will leave you empty inside. God has created every single one of us with a void in our lives that can only be filled by Him. We get that hope and encouragement from His word. We try to fill it with money and relationships and achievements and success. Thats temporary. Gods word is whats feeds us. It makes us spiritually healthy. Some of you are purposely withholding Gods word from your life . You are spiritually anorexic. You are starving yourself. The only time you get Gods word is on Sundays when you come in here and hear us talk about if for 30 minutes. Your life is crying out for Gods word. Gods word, the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, it gives you the nourishment you need. Its vital to your life. Every single one of you, the key to vitality in your life is Gods word. Gods promises. You must desire Gods input. It starts here. I can come up here and talk about Gods word. I can give you stories. I can get you excited; I can tell you Im passionate about it. I bleed it. I can tell you that. But you have to have the desire to learn. You have to have the desire to grow. You have to have the desire to read Gods word and then live it out. It starts with that. Youve got to have a desire. Youve got to realize that youre crying out for the Bible. It starts with you. A second thing, youve got to develop a reading plan. Heres the third thing. If you want to make the Bible vital to your life, you must designate a time and a place. I told you that I read my Bible in the morning. If youre not a morning person, you cant do that. If you cant wake up and go, Good morning, God! but you wake up and go, Good God, its morning! maybe thats not the time for you to read. Designate a time and a place. You always make appointments with your friends. Make an appointment with God. God, Im going to spend twenty minutes with You (or ten minutes or five minutes with You), reading Your word. Make an appointment. Set a time and a place. If you miss that, dont feel guilty. I miss it sometimes. Its going to happen. Dont feel guilty. The main reason why we stop reading Gods word, we stop studying, is because we feel guilty: I missed one day. I might as well miss them all! No, dont feel guilty. Its going to happen. But designate a time and a place. A fourth thing: once you do that, you have the desire, you develop a reading plan, you designate a time and place, then dig into Gods word. Dig in! Go after it. Heres the last thing. Determine to battle confusion. Youre going to miss a day; youre going to miss a reading. Dont give up; battle through the confusion. A lot of people start reading their Bible, they start in the book of Genesis. Theyre excited, but then they get to the book of Leviticus. If you get to a part where youre confused, there are lots of commentaries online. Or e-mail me, e-mail my staff. Ask us. Dont let confusion stop you. That is spiritual warfare. That is what Satan wants. He wants you to be confused. He wants you to have questions so in your mind you think, I just dont get it, so Im going to quit. Dont do that. Battle through the confusion because knowing Gods word is so imperative to your life. Psalm 119 says, I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You. You want to know whats vital to your life? You want to know whats imperative for growth in your life? Its Gods word. Its the sword of the Spirit, the whole armor of God, the sword of the Spirit, that vitality in your life, knowing that this is what will help you conquer the battle.