“Word of God!!!” By Bob Heirtzler June 9th,
2013
What a powerful, powerful presence
of God. God is so
real. I know we all
know that. He’s our
provider, our encourager. He
supplies everything that we need, even
things that we don’t like, but we still need, like rebuke, correction,
hair-combing, butt-kicking, etc. I’m
thankful today; I’m thankful that God called me to this ministry many
years
ago. I’m thankful
that he placed His
Spirit in my life, that I can wake up each morning with a sound mind. I woke up one morning in
the middle of a
field; I did not know how I got there.
I
remember being at the carnival with the firemen, and that was the last
thing I
remember. My dad
told me, “The Fire
Department brought you home at three o’clock in the morning, you went
off in
the back lot somewhere.” I
don’t
remember any of that. I
woke up about
10:30 in the morning in the middle of a field; keep in mind there’s
cougars, bars,
coyotes, skunks, and other critters out there, oh, and snakes: we had timber-rattlers,
copperheads, and
another one I can’t remember right now…
There
were black widows in the area… God
protected me. I
woke up and I said,
“God, I promise I will never, ever, ever do this again.” I’ve held to that to this
day. I have never
been in that condition again.
I also want to send some greetings
from my mom and dad. My
mom had
surgery. She is
doing fine. She had
a knee replacement; she appreciates
your prayers. Friday
she went to
physical therapy, and the doctor told her, “I just need you to get on
the
bicycle, and I just need to make half-turns, just to get the knee
going.” She didn’t
hear the doctor say that, she got
on the bicycle and pedaled for ten minutes.
She was going somewhere.
Wherever
she was going, she was going. God
blessed, and touched her. Amen,
I’m
thankful for that.
Today we’re talking about the Word
of God. My opening
Scripture is in John
Chapter one, verses one through fourteen.
We’re talking about the Word of God.
Parrish shared last week about the precious Word. John
1:1-14
…the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father,)
full of grace and truth.
Does anybody know who this passage
is talking about? The
answer is… Jesus. Verse
9: That was the
true Light, which lighteth every
man that cometh into the world. John
8:12
Then spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not
walk in
darkness, but shall have the light of life.
We all know that was Jesus that
walked among us. The
word “Word” is singular! (from
John 1:1) “…the Word was with God, and
the Word was God.” Meaning
One, 1. Word was
made flesh!! That
One Word that Parrish talked about last
week, that precious one word!! –
Jesus!!
You call out
that Word, and it heals
you. You call out
that Word, you’re
praying. You call
out that Word when
you’re having a bad day and it turns around…
I remember one time I said, “God, I need you to help. I’m about to lose my
temper because I’m not
going to like the answer I’m going to receive.”
I prayed to that Word, and God put calmness over me. Sometimes bills stack up,
and you don’t know
how to take care of them, but that Word will take care of them. Sometimes we make plans,
but things don’t
turn out the way we want it to be; that one Word will change our
perspective. I
remember going into the
restroom and praying to that one Word because I needed a calm spirit
about me…
That one Word, Parrish, we all know that one Word is Jesus. He
also stated
it’s a precious Word. I
want to do a
little visual here, this moment. We
all
know that—I need some help here. Anybody
remember any books that were written in the past that became movies? “The Ten Commandments”
“Roots” “The Hunt for
Red October” “Gone With the Wind” “Peyton Place” “The Notebook” “The
Passion of
the Christ” (That was a book?) “Harry Potter” “The Lord of the Rings”
“The
Hobbit” “The Chronicles of Narnia” What
are some comic books that became
movies? The
Green Lantern, Superman… How
many Batman
movies do you think there are? Too many. This
is my favorite, The Incredible Hulk.
Some of these are years ago; some are close
by. They
have conventions about these
people. They have
meetings about these
fictional characters. There
are DC and Marvel
comic conventions and people dress up in these weird outfits, and they
become
these princes and warriors and whatnot.
They’re
fictional characters. They
did that
movie, “Pirates of the Caribbean;” you’ve got Johnny Depp who’s known
as: “Captain Jack
Sparrow,” and every time you
see a pirate, you think of Captain Jack Sparrow. Whenever
Sylvester Stallone goes to
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, what is his name in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania?
Rocky Balboa. They
built a statue. They
put his footprints on those steps.
So, my question is, why is it so hard for
people to believe that God came down in the flesh, and walked among us? What’s so hard about that?
They believe
in fictional characters, what
about non-fictional characters? God
walked
among us. We’re
talking about the Word
of God. Where is
the Word of God? Is
it more than just this book here?
It’s in our hearts? We
have to walk the Word of God. The
King James Bible is made up of 66
books: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. There are
31,102 verses
in the Bible; no, I did not count that, I just Googled it. First Word in the Bible
is, “In.” Genesis
1:1
In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth. The
middle verse of the Bible is Psalm
118:8. I like this
Scripture. This
will help us. Psalm
118:8 It
is better to trust in the Lord than to
put confidence in man. So
the King James Bible has the words
"the Lord" right in the center of it (the King James Bible has an
even number of words). Last
Word is
“Amen” Revelation
22:21
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be
with you all. Amen. So,
the first word is, “In,” the middle
two words are, “the Lord,” and the last word is, “amen.” In the Lord, Amen!! It’s all centered around
that. Where
is the
Word of God today? John
8:31-32 Then
said Jesus to those Jews which believed
on Him, If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; And ye shall know the
truth, and the truth
shall make you free. If
you continue in God’s Word, then you
are His disciples. We
shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make us free.
Philip had a hard time understanding
who was who, so Philip asked the question, John
14:8-11 Philip
saith unto him, Lord, show us the
Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus
saith
unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not
known Me,
Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou
then,
Show us the Father? Believest
thou not
that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak
unto you
I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the
works. Believe Me
that I am in the
Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works’
sake.
The Word of God is in us.
When we share under the unction of the Holy
Ghost, the Word of God is being shared.
It
could be as simple as saying, “Good morning.”
It could be as simple as getting a cup of coffee,
or, when someone is
coughing, you just get a glass of water and put it on their desk. We’re sharing the Word of
God through our
lives by being ministers. John
14:25-27
These
things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which
is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things,
and bring
all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my
peace I give unto
you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be
troubled,
neither let it be afraid.
Country
was sharing how Jailed was learning to play the violin.
It took practice and practice, and practice
brought back to her remembrance how to do that.
If I ask a simple question, like, two plus two is?
“Four.” Five times
five is? “Twenty-five.” Twenty
minus fifteen is? “Five.” How
do you spell, ‘cat?’ “C-A-T.” ‘Dog?’
“G-O-D.” Somewhere
along the line, we went to
school. Right? Somewhere along the line,
we went to school
and we learned that. When
I ask those
questions today, it brings back to your remembrance how to spell or how
to add,
multiply, or subtract. That
means that
we have to study the Word of God to have it brought back to our
remembrance. We
have to get into Bible
Studies.
I
have to tell a story; this is an extra commercial:
We had a group outing with the church, years
ago, over six hundred students. A
lot of
teachers were there. That
was the same
day that they were cleaning the ravine.
I did not know who was cleaning the ravine; I did
not know who was down
there, but they were playing very loud, vulgar music.
The kids said, “Mr. Heirtzler, could you
please have them stop that? We’re
trying
to get away from that kind of stuff.”
Gerry Nelson was there that day, and I said, “Gerry,
can you bring out
the PA system? I
need to bring out the
guns, and blast this thing over the hill.”
He said, “I’ve got a new CD from Kirk Franklin.” “Okay, let’s put it in.” The first song was,
“Stomp.” We just
blasted that. Pastor
Saniatan came out with a cup of
coffee. It was just
loud, over the
ravine. This
gentleman came up, and
said, “Hey what’s going on?” “Well,
we’re just having a Children’s Church picnic, and your music is kind of
vulgar,
and the kids don’t want to hear it.”
He
said, “We’ll turn ours down if you turn yours down.”
I said, “Okay.”
We waited, they turned theirs down, so I
said, “Gerry, turn it down.” I
did not
know that he was the mayor of Waukegan at the time.
We
have to study the Word of God. Parrish
encourages us all to read one chapter a week, five minutes of prayer,
and call
two people to encourage them. Continue
to do that. You
know what’s going to
happen? We’re going
to call four people. We’re
going to get two baptisms, we’re going
to get more and more excited about what we’re reading.
The more we read, the more we’re going to
want to share. We’re
doing those things
already, we’re just going to fill up; you know what I’m saying? 1
Corinthians
2:1-16 And
I, brethren, when I came to
you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto
you the
testimony of God. For
I determined not
to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. *And I was with you in
weakness, and in fear,
and in much trembling. And
my speech and
my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in
demonstration
of the Spirit and of power: That
your
faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Howbeit
we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this
world,
nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery,
even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our
glory: Which none
of the princes of this
world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the
Lord of
glory. But as it is
written, Eye hath
not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man,
the things
which God hath prepared for them that love him.
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit:
for the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. **For
what man knoweth the things of a man,
save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God
knoweth no
man, but the Spirit of God. Now
we have
received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God;
that we
might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we
speak, not in the words
which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth;
comparing spiritual
things with spiritual. But
the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness
unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. But he
that is spiritual judgeth all things,
yet he himself is judged of no man.
For
who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we
have the
mind of Christ. Reference
Scriptures: *Philippians
3:4-8
Though I might also have
confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof
he might
trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised
the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an
Hebrew of
the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching
the righteousness which
is in the law, blameless. But
what
things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count
all things but
loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for
whom I
have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that
I may
win Christ,
Paul’s giving us his resume, right off
the bat. He
automatically gave his
resume, why he could do what he did, but he counted all dung, that he
might win
Christ. Every time
I come across people
that tell me about all the things that they have done for God, okay,
God likes
that, but what are you doing right now?
Where a tree falleth, there shall it lie
(Ecclesiastes 11:3). The
Old Testament shares several stories
about people that lived right for years, but then they turned for a
moment, and
they were lost. God
didn’t remember
there charity for several years when they died; it’s that present
moment where
we stand. Where a
tree falls, there
shall it lie. I’ve
never seen a tree
fall, get back up, and fall in a different direction.
Once it’s down, it’s down.
**John
20:30-31
And many other signs truly did Jesus in
the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written,
that ye might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might
have life
through his name.
This one blew me away when I first
read it. There is
enough written for us
to make it to Heaven. That’s
why, when
we start seeking the key things of God, there’s more to show. I had a dream one time (I
don’t usually share
dreams, but this particular dream I had) I was lying on top of the
lake, and I
couldn’t get under the water. I
was
laying on top like a dead-man’s float or a back float, and I couldn’t
get under
the water. God
said, “You know this lake
so well. You know
every pier, every
rock, every tree, every dock, all around this lake.”
God was showing me that the deeper you go,
the more you understand what’s in this lake:
what kind of fish are in it, what sort of sunken
vessels are in it,
what’s are on the bottom… The
deeper you
go, the more you learn, and the lake will eventually come to a bottom. God said to me, “I have no
bottom. You can go
as deep as you want, and learn as
much as you want in My Word, I will teach you.”
I want to go deep into the Word of God.
Anything that sticks in my head has to match up with
the Word of
God. We have those
spirits that try to
distract us, and try to take us off the path, and lead us to something
that’s
not really there. You
know that the Word
of God will back up whatever path that you need.
If it’s not there, then don’t go that
way. Make sense?
I thank God for the great day we’re
having today. **John
21:24-25
This is the disciple which testifieth
of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony
is
true. And there are
also many other things
which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I
suppose that
even the world itself could not contain the books that should be
written. Amen. There’s
a lot of things that He did that wasn’t written down.
It says that the world couldn’t handle the
books that would have been written.
The
Word of God is in us, just like it was in Jesus.
What book are we writing?
What is the report now, about us?
The Book of acts is still going on.
It doesn’t end with an ‘Amen.’
It’s the history of the church.
What our legacy?
What does that little dash in between date of
birth and date of death represent? that we aspire to live for God; that
we did
everything we could to reach out to people.
How do we get the word of God in our lives?
meditate, pray, fasting,
fellowship, worshipping, obeying… Now that we’ve got the Word of God in
our
lives, what are we supposed to do with it?
I posted on FaceBook this morning, ‘Do you ever just
wake up and go
“NOPE” and roll over and go back to sleep?’
It was amazing some of the replies I got. Jimmie called me a Holy
Roller. Thanks,
Jimmie. All right,
now we have the Word of God, like
I said, what do we do with it? In
verse 4 (of 1 Cor. 2), Paul says that
his wisdom does not stand in the philosophies of man.
There are so many books written about the
Bible. They even
have a Bible written in
Vulcan. I’m not
saying that reference
material is bad, but I’m saying that you need to be careful what it’s
teaching
you. You’ve got to
have the Word of God
to understand what’s right or wrong.
Some people read other books, and there’s nothing
wrong with that, but
don’t let that be your main source; let the Word of God be your main
source. Don’t be
quoting something
outside the Word of God, quote the Word of God.
The Word of God is within us, and we can’t falter or
walk away from
it. Somebody
offered a million dollar
reward for anybody that could find a mistake in the Word of God, and
they
couldn’t. What it
says in the New
Testament, it says in the Old Testament.
All these other translations? one minute they’re
this way, and then,
something else. I’ll
pick one in my
head: In the Old
Testament, they say
that there’s one God, but they say there’s three in the New Testament. But there’s one God
throughout the entire
Word of God. If
they created two more,
then why didn’t it say ‘Gods’ or ‘Jesus and His two Brothers?’ It is so powerful what
Malcolm shared that
God did not have a son, He came
down as His son, Himself, and
walked amongst
us. Make sense?
We
have the Word of God within us!! What
do
we do with the Word of God within us? Every
morning we wake up, we have two
Choices!! My last
Scripture is Matthew
25:35-46. We have
two choices. We’ve
just learned that the Word of God is in
us. The words that
we speak are not of
ourselves, but of the Father of salvation.
We have shared how that we can obey, and keep the
Word of God in our
lives. This passage
has two parts, and
I’m going to read the second part first, and then the first part,
second. Matthew
25:41-46
Then shall he
say
also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was
thirsty, and ye
gave me no drink: I
was a stranger, and
ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison,
and ye
visited me not. Then
shall they also
answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or
a
stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto
thee? Then shall he
answer them, saying, Verily I
say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these,
ye did it
not to me. And
these shall go away into
everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
We wake up every morning having a
choice: To be
negative or positive. To
be angry, or to be angry and sin not.
We wake up every morning asking, “God, who do
You want me to talk to today? Who
do You
want me to share with today?” I
wake up
every morning like that. I
know that we
all do, because I hear stories about you sharing with people. So, it’s just, what do we
wake up to every
morning? Is it
WBBM, the traffic report?
Well, I do that, so that I know how to get to work, but then I switch
over to
K-Love, and get my mind thinking.
I walk
into work ready for talking to people.
Sometimes on the phone, I get angry, but I have to
put that under
subjection and calm back down.
Now, it talks about us: Matthew
25:35-40
For I was an
hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I
was a stranger,
and ye took me in: Naked,
and ye clothed
me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous
answer him, saying,
Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave
thee
drink? When saw we
thee a stranger, and
took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came
unto thee? And the
King shall answer and say unto them,
Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the
least of
these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. This
doesn’t necessarily mean that we
physically fed them, but that we spiritually fed them; they were hungry
for the
Word of God, and they sat down with you, and you fed them. The next thing is, it says
you gave me
drink. It doesn’t
have to be a physical
thing, but it can be a physical thing, like that up of coffee or that
water I
mentioned earlier. WE
should be prepared
that they can take food or drink out of our lives.
we heard that message years ago, that God
continues to supply our needs. The
next
part is, I was a stranger, and you took me in.
I was a stranger when I first came to this ministry,
when I walked up
those stairs. Nobody
knew who I was, but
they took me in and shared with me.
All
of us were strangers at one time, and God took us in.
Didn’t it feel like we’ve known each other
all our lives, once we got involved?
We
all have the same Father, a Spiritual Father.
Make sense? I
know this is a
crock-pot type message today; it’s not a microwave message (hit the
button,
and, a few seconds later, ‘DING!’)
I’m
glad it’s like this. God
has hundreds of
activities for us to do, we’ve just got to get out there and help the
people. The prison
might not be a physical
building, some people are imprisoned spiritually.
They’re in a battle, and they think there’s
no way out. They
don’t know that one
word, Jesus, that can break them out.
Sometimes, we as humans, that’s the last choice we
have on our
list. We try
everything else out
first. God will use
us to give that
person hope. God
has a calling on our
lives, church. We
have the Word of God
with us; we need to share with other people.
I’m glad to hear all the good news about the
fellowship going on, on
Wednesday nights and Friday nights.
We
are sharing God’s love in our lives; reaching out to people. When we wake up in the
morning, we have two
choices. It’s more
than just a book; it’s
alive in our lives. We
serve a
non-fictional God. He
only has one word:
His name is Jesus. Jesus
can take on
everything. Call on
the name of Jesus,
and that Spirit just starts flowing.
Just this past week I had an answer to prayer right
in front of me. Sixteen
years ago, I had a student in the
church school,, and he called me last Sunday night.
He said, “God told me to call you.
I want to be saved, and I needed to call you.” We had a long talk on the
phone. He lives in
Jacksonville, Florida. Do
we know anyone in Jacksonville? Pat Taylor.
We had a long talk; I encouraged him about
fellowship. I hung
up, let Pastor Paine know what was
going on, made sure Pat’s in the loop.
Maybe he went over there today.
He
said, “I’ve tried everything, and nothing’s working.
I’ve been in relationship, after
relationship, after relationship, and I can’t find the answer. I’m not in a relationship
now, but I just
know that there’s more.” It
was a powerful
talk. When we start
talking to people,
we’re going to have a lot more stories like that one.
It might be somebody at work, somebody in the
grocery store, somebody at the gas station, wherever they go. It would be a miracle if a
cop pulled you
over and wound up getting saved instead of giving you a ticket, huh? Thank
you for listening. God
bless you all.
Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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