“The Word of God, a Marvelous Help” By Brother Parrish Lee June 2nd,
2013
1Samuel
3:1 …the
Word of the LORD was precious in those
days; there was no open vision. And
the word of the Lord was precious in
those days; there was no open vision. And the Word of the Lord was
rare,
special, set apart… You
know, back in those
days, they didn't have all the nice, fancy things that we got now. It’s kind of hard to
imagine. They
didn’t have printing presses. If
you wanted to find the Word of the Lord, you
didn’t go to college. They
didn't have
elementary schools. You
know what they
were worried about back in those days? survival.
They didn’t have electricity and
refrigeration back then. They
didn’t
have the niceties that we’ve got.
If you
wanted to learn about the Lord back in those days, you had to go find
and aged
man that had somehow spent some time with the Lord.
Or maybe you can find it if there was a
prophet in the land, and you could go around and find some Word from
the Lord
from him. Maybe
there was a small group
of men that had dedicated themselves, taking months out praying and
fasting,
trying to find some vision from God so that they could have something
themselves that they could give to other people.
Yes, it was precious.
If you could find somebody that could tell
you something about God, you would catch it, you held onto it… Most
people
didn’t know how to read. You
didn’t need
to know how to read; if you got something from the Lord, you remembered
it, you
kept it in here, you shared it with your family, your kids, your
grandkids,
aunts and uncles, and cousins... They
would come over, because they want to hear: “What was that Word that
you got
from the Lord? What
was it? It’s
precious.” Nowadays
you can find Bibles at Wal-Mart, K-Mart,
the Dollar Store, and all over the place.
There’s all kinds of Bibles all kinds of places. They’ve got commentaries,
all kinds of books—somebody
said this, somebody said that—you’ve got TV, you’ve got the internet. They didn’t have printing
presses back
then. As far as
writing the Word down,
for what? You had
to have some special
people that knew how to make a scroll, and that way, they could roll it
up. Nowadays,
there’s Bibles in bound books all
over the sanctuary today. You
can listen
to it on the radio; you can put it in your I-pod.
They’re all over the place.
You would think that it would be so much more
precious now, it’s abundant, we’ve got it, we don’t have to search for
it so
hard—but it's, like a smorgasbord—when it is plenteous you take it for
granted.
“It’s always
here, I can get it any time
I want it. Yeah,
it’s precious, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.” I
just came
back from Baltimore, by the way. “Let’s
talk about the Superbowl. That’s
precious. We ain’t
won that in a while.” I
heard a lot of talk about how this was
precious or that was precious, but the word of the Lord? “Oh, no, no, no, no, no. We can talk about that
anytime. Let’s talk
about his stuff. But
we'd like to cover a few things that the
word of the Lord is to us today. Part
1: A Powerful Help Hebrews
4:12 For the Word
of God is quick, and powerful,
and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of
soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of
the
thoughts and intents of the heart.
“For
the word of God is quick, and
powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the
dividing
asunder of soul and spirit…” Now,
that’s
sharp. Now the Word
of the Lord is not
the type of thing that has to comes on the scene and it has conditions,
or
needs things; the Word of God stands all on its own. It
does not become lonely. It
does not need help. It
does not need assistance. It
is not conditional. It’s
not something that only works if everybody gets together and hums the
same
key. It’s not
something that only works
if you eat only on one side of your head.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
The Word
of God is not powerful to me; it’s powerful all by itself. It stands alone. It doesn’t care if nothing is there.
He speaks,
and that word comes forth, and the next the you know, life follows. When there was no life,
there is life. Living,
breathing, life. The
Word of the Lord stands so independent,
that everything else around it needs it.
We live in a society today where independence is
glorified. “I need
to be independent. I
need to be in a pace where I don’t need
anybody. Let me be
there.” The fact
is, you are never going to be in a
place where you don’t need God. You
may
fool yourself for a while, but it’s just a circle, and by the time you
come
back round, you need Him more. I
love
how the Word of God is so powerful.
It
is so powerful that it can come in and change everything. You ever notice how you
can be in a room full
of people, and they could be talking about anything, let one Christian
come in
and everybody knows that he’s a Christian.
Let him or her be a vocal Christian that has already
spoken the Word
before, and you see things start to change, because the Word doesn’t
have to be
spoken. The Word
stands up, and if it’s
living in somebody’s life, it makes the scene, as soon as they bring it
on the
scene. The Bible
says in Isaiah 42:8: I
am the Lord that is my name and my glory
will I not give to another—so look at how great this wonderful Lord is,
how compassionate,
how longsuffering, how merciful, He will not give his glory to
another—but He
knew that we were going to be a needy group of people.
He knew that we were going to have cases
where we were going to get stretched off all alone all by ourselves and
need
something. So, this
is what this
awesome, loving, compassionate, thoughtful God did for us. He gives us one word. That one word is supposed
to be able to come
on the scene and be helpful. That
one
word is supposed to be able to come on the scene and help us all
prosper; help
us get stronger. If
you’re feeling pain,
you’re supposed to be able to use the one word that God gives us, and
know that
the pain is not going to last, because I can cling to the one word that
God
gave me. He puts
one word on the scene,
and I know that whatever I’m going through, if I’m going through
something,
that trouble’s not going to last.
He
puts one word on the scene, and, all of the sudden, I can feel a change
coming
on. He brings one
word on the scene, and
I know that there’s a refreshing going on that’s all around and
surrounding
me. He gave us one
word, and you have
hope; you have focus. That
one word is
so precious that He sent an angel to bring it down. And that one word
is a
name. And that
name, when he gave it, Joseph;
what must he have been thinking? It
said
he was pondering how he could put his wife away.
Then that one word came down with the angel,
and, all of the sudden, he had answers.
“Oh, I’ve got some direction now.”
God was in it And
that name was Jesus. Could
you just say that with me... Jesus. Say
it again... Jesus. Oh,
the blessed name of Jesus. There
is none other name under Heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
One word; that name.
You just say that name, and there’s nothing
like it. If you’ve
ever found yourself
where you needed to say it one time; you were at the end of your rope,
and you
said, “I don’t even know where to turn,” but you said his name. You said His name. Then, all of the sudden,
your hope
returned. As bad as
it was, you just
said His name. That
one word is so
powerful that everything connected to it automatically brings glory.
Jesus -
the lamb of God, Jesus—the rose of Sharon; Jesus my deliverer; Jesus my
healer;
Jesus, my Savior; my rock, my sword, my shield, my helper, my friend,
my Lord,
light of the word, way out of no way; Jesus, my Savior; Jesus, the
shepherd;
Jesus, lover of my soul; Jesus the dayspring; Jesus, my ever present
help in
time of need; Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. That
one word is so powerful that according to
Ephesians 3: at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue
confess—oh
yes the knee of all of us here, and the city, the state, this country,
the
world—past, present and future. But not just us humans, the knees of
the
animals have to bow the needs of the plants and trees have to bow, they
tell me
that every embryo whether it's human or animal when it's in inception
it is any
bent over position as though it were bowing. And even after they are
created in
their lives they bow—just ask the fig tree. And
not just them; when we call on that
word given to us asthma will bow, bronchitis will bow, cancer will bow.
I am a
witness to the asthma, the bronchitis-time and time again the doctors
have told
me of my ailments—and time and time again have I seen God say peace be
still.
And not just them, the storms have to bow, the stars have to bow, bad
Angels
have to bow, good Angels have to bow, every knee has to bow to that one
word.
There are many great words God has given us and names to know but at
the name
of Jesus every knee shall bow for there is no other name under heaven
given
among men, whereby we must be saved. But according to the Bible. There
is one
thing you must have with this from the book of Acts chapter 3 verse
number 16 His
name through faith in His name. You must have faith.
We have a responsibility to. Act
3:16
And His name through faith in his
name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith
which is
by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. You
ever hear people use that name and
not have faith? I
just came back from my
sister’s; she was receiving her doctorate, so my family said, “Please
be here,
Parrish.” “Okay.” You know, I had a great
time with my family,
God opened a lot of doors. One
thing
that happened when I was with some of my family members, and one of
them used
the word Jesus like a swear word.
Anybody that knows me knows that brings me halfway
there. You use my
Lord’s name as a swear word, we
may have covered a lot of ground, but you’ve got me real close. Then, a younger person in
our family said
it. “So what? This is what our family
does; they do it,
I’ll do it.” As
soon as he said it, I
couldn’t hold it back any more. I
had to
ask, in front of everybody, “Let me ask all of y’all something: Why that
name? Why are you
calling on that
name? Are you
expecting him to do
something for you?” Now
they knew
something has started him now. “I
have
to know, why that name? Why
don’t you
call Allah? Why
don’t you call dad’s
name? Why that
name?” The young
guy said, “Well, I don’t know. I
never really thought about it.” I
told him, “If you call on Him, He hears
you, and expect Him to remember that you called on is name in vain. What about you? Why did you use His name
in vain?” This guy
is a little more rough, and he
didn’t mind me being kind of brash.
He
kind of said, “Oh, you want to make a scene?
I can make a scene, too.”
So, he
said, “You ain’t the only one who ever studied the Bible. That Bible was just for
the Hebrews.” I’m
going to have to cut this story
short. “Let me tell
you something. That’s
one of the big ten. That’s
one of the Ten Commandments: Thou
shalt not take the name of the LORD thy
God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his
name in
vain (Exodus 20:7). Okay,
I’ve said my
piece; we can go back to having fun.”
They weren’t having as much fun as they were when
they got started,
but… God gave us
that name to be saved
by, and we don’t take it for granted.
It’s real power.
And the end of
that story is, the very next day, the one who decided to take me on,
called me
up and said, “Please pray for me.
I wish
I had whatever it is you’ve got in your life.
There was nothing I could say to what you was going
on. You’ve got to
help me.” I said,
“I want to help all our family. We
all need more God in our life. Period.
I’m not ashamed of what He put in my life.” The younger one, too, came
and said, “Uncle
Parrish, how can I find what you’re talking about?”
“Let me tell you what I did?
I got away from everybody.
I got away from mom; I got away from dad; I
got away from everybody and I prayed.
It
took me several days, but this is what you can do.
You can pray.”
He said, “But all I know is (rote prayer in
Arabic).” “No, no,
no, no, no, no, I’m
not talking about that; I’m saying pray.
Don’t recite a bunch of mumbo-jumbo; pray. Tell God who you are,
where you are, tell Him
what you desire, ask Him to bring you to Him.
Ask Him.” He
said, “Nobody’s ever
talked to me about this. Ever.” It was a blessing. “His
name through faith in His name,
hath made this man strong…” If
the word
is so powerful—why don't we see more miracles? We see miracles, amen? I’ve seen three miracles
this morning: Two
in my life, and one in my sister’s. We
know that Moses parted the Red sea, how
about Lake Michigan? What
about that
tornado? Why aren’t
we seeing more
miracles? two reasons. You
have to need them—number
one is because of need. There
has to be
a need; God isn't just going to throw them around because He has
nothing else
to do. And number two—because of our faith. Jesus said, according to
your faith
and answered the disciples because of their lack of faith. This kind cometh not out
but by prayer and
fasting (Matthew 17:19-21). We
need more
faith. That’s what
the disciples said,
“Lord, increase our faith.” (Luke 17:5)
So
it has never been just saying that name and that invokes power, it has
always
been through your faith in His name. Part
2: The Word of God is for Direction 2
Timothy 3:16
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine (instruction
& learning) for
reproof, (evidence) for correction, (straightening up) for instruction in righteousness (justification): That the man of God may be perfect, throughly
furnished (fully equipped) unto all
good
works.
“All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God…” We’re
going to look
at a little story. Sometimes
the Old
Testament can help us to understand what the New Testament is saying. This is about two kings;
two great guys,
heads of two nations. 2
Chronicles
18:5-7 …
Jehoshaphat said, Is there not
here a prophet of the LORD besides... So
they were going to go into
battle. The King of
Israel, his name was
Ahab, was talking to the King of Judah, his name was Jehoshaphat, “Do
you think
we should?” “Well,
you know what? just
to make sure we’re on the right track, we’ve got some wise men over
here, yeah,
they’re prophets. They’re
going to give
us the word.” There
were four hundred of
them, and they were all like, “Yeah, go up, go up!
God’s going to bless you!
Go up, go up!
You’ve got the victory!
Go up, go
up! You got this! Go up, go up!
You got this!”
There’s something
about when you’ve been with the Lord.
When you’ve heard Him talk.
When
you’ve heard people talk God’s Word, you kind of know when it’s not
God’s Word,
and when it is. Now,
Jehoshaphat had
spent time in God’s Word, and he had heard people talk about God’s
Word, and Jehoshaphat
said, “Is there not a prophet of the Lord we can ask?”—he knew what the
Word of
the Lord sounded like and what it did for him; he had heard the
difference and
he had seen the difference. But
Ahab
said he hated the prophet of the Lord, he hated Micaiah—because he
always
prophesied evil to me. Jehoshaphat
said,
“Now don’t get all upset. I
know you’ve
got eleven tribes and I’ve just got the one, but I want to hear what
the Lord
has to say.” The
story goes on and
Micaiah tells them that all the other prophets have been telling them
lies. When you’ve
been around the Word
of the Lord, you know the Word of the Lord.
When you’re hungering for the Word, you don’t fall
for a bunch of
junk. If you don’t
want to follow the
Word of the Lord, you can find plenty of people willing to lead you
down any
path you want to go. There
have been
times in my life where I just needed fellowship, and there was a demon
that
said, “No, you don’t need fellowship.”
There have been times when I kind of had my mind
made up in another
direction, when I was around certain brothers and sisters in the
church, I
didn’t have to tell them what was going on in my mind, because I knew
when they
started sharing about God… If
you want
to get away from God, he can find you.
You know, it doesn’t have to be a big thing, it can
be something
small. I’ve been
guilty; I’ve been
guilty of not forgiving somebody and I had a brother pull me aside and
say, “Let
me tell you a little something about forgiveness.”
He shared with me, and I could feel the Word
of God come from him as he shared with me, and ministering to that
wound in my
life. I never had
the strength to say, “God,
I need to take care of this in my life,” until this brother shared with
me
under the unction of the Holy Ghost. So,
they were both of Israel, they both were of Abraham. I
want to make a statement right now:
the Word of God is the answer. Some might say, you don't know what my
story is.
You don't know what my father did, what my mother did, you don't know
the story
in my house—with my wife, with my husband, with my children, you don't
know
what it's like on my job, the Word, the Word, the Word. How are you
going to
stand up there in that pulpit and say that the word is the answer? How are you going to stand
up there and write
carte blanche, write a blank check for things you don’t even know about? There are many questions,
but there’s not a
one that the Lord can’t answer. A
spiritual answer for physical needs? I
need healing. I
need money. I need
some rest. I need
some answers. I
don't really know what I need. John
5:39
Search the scriptures; for in them ye
think ye have eternal life… Jesus
was talking to the Pharisees. When
the Pharisees oppressed Jesus he told
them to search the Scriptures for in them they think they have life. And then he said, and they
testify of me—and
you will not come to me. So the Lord had defined the problems of the
Pharisees
that the word pointed to Jesus and they would not come to him. I
profess to you
today to the world today that in 2013 our Lord proposes the same
question; that
the word points to Jesus and the world will not come to Him. Christians
have to
be careful that this does not become true in their testimony. Part
3: The Word of God is for Protection Col
3:16
Let the word of Christ dwell in you
richly in all wisdom... We
who trust the Word have found that the
Word of God can predict the future: for where the Bible says a haughty
spirit
goeth before a fall and pride before destruction (Proverbs 16:18). If you find somebody with a
lot of pride, find
somebody with a haughty spirit—voila—there you have it.
And have found it to be a great detective on
the soul for the Bible says it is quick and powerful and sharper than
any two
edged sword, dividing the soul from the spirit. Hebrews
4:12 …is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. We
have found it to be a protector for
the Bible says: Proverbs
30:5 Every word of God is
pure: he is a shield unto
them that put their trust in him. Psalms
18:30 … the word of
the LORD is tried: he is a
buckler to all those that trust in him. Don't
you just love how here when it
talks about the word of the Lord every first to the word of the Lord as
He? But
Scripture says here in Proverbs that he is a shield to them that put
their trust
in him. And in Psalms that he is a buckler to those that trust Him. Nowadays we have drones. You can go to a base in
Texas and pilot a
drone in Afghanistan and never even have to see your enemy. It’s a nine-to-five job. Now
back in the Old Testament days they fought many types of battles and
it's not like
it is today, back then you could look on the field and see your enemy.
And you
could see if the archers were there, you needed a shield that was a
decent
enough size to deflect the arrows that were long-range attack. If after
the
battle got up close and personal swing and a shield around took a lot
of time
and energy and you would need something to deflect really fast close
range
attacks. And that's where the buckler came in. So the Scripture tells
us that
His able to, (He being the word of the Lord,) is able to protect us
from all
kinds of battles; we still got to be in the battle but He is our
protection. And
we have found it to be something we
can live by, for the Bible says: Matthew
4:4 …Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Jesus
said we live by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Job
said, in the Old Testament: Job
23:12
…I have esteemed the words of his mouth
more than my necessary food. And
if we ever think that’s not
enough... Psalms
119:42 …I
have wherewith to answer him
that reproacheth me: for I trust in Thy Word. To
sum it up... 1Peter 1:18-23 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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