Thank you for listening to this message from
Lifehouse Church. This Tuesday is Veterans Day.
It's a day that we take and set aside to honor
those who serve this country and really pay the
price for our freedoms. And we wanted to take
just a few minutes and honor those who are currently
serving in the military or have served in the
past. in the armed forces. So if you, if that's
you, first we want to say we see you. We appreciate
the sacrifice. We see your courage. We see your
willingness to do what others won't do. We see
the brave choices that you make and the challenges
that you overcome. And we want to make sure that
we recognize and give you honor today. So if
you're in the military currently or you have
served in the past, I'm going to ask you to do
one thing. I want to ask if you would just stand
right where you are in your seat. If you would
stand up this morning, we just want to take a
moment. Thank you. Thank you. I know they're
always hesitant. Come on. Give them applause.
And if you would stay standing for just a moment,
we got just a very small gift, something that
we want to give you just to say thank you. We
do appreciate, I appreciate that I get to stand
in this pulpit Sunday after Sunday because somebody
paid the price on the front lines for me to share
the gospel loud and sometimes very loudly, right?
Out loud. And we appreciate that so much. Could
you give him just one more hand? Yeah. Thank
you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for
serving. Well, listen, for almost two millennia,
Christians have held to one document, one source
of truth, one source of wisdom, one source that
tells us what God's word is, and it is the Bible.
If you got your Bible this morning, I want you
to hold it up. Come on, if you got the written
word, hold it up high. If you got it on your
phone, you can hold your phone up. That's okay
too. I read the Bible on my phone all the time
and the word of God there, but it is the Bible.
It is our source, right, of absolute truth. It
is the reliable handbook for life. It is two
testaments in one, the revelation of the most
high, one measuring stick for all of life, one
standard, one rule for our lives. It's the Bible.
Its value is beyond silver and gold. Its wisdom
is from above and not below. Its power is beyond
other words, any other written words. 66 books
compiled to bring us the completed work of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. One word,
one book that gives us a proper description of
the King of Kings and of the Lord of Lords. One
book that leads to eternal life. One book that
makes us healthy. and whole if applied. Amen?
Amen. Come on, one book that is authored by none
other than the Holy Spirit. He spoke and moved
on men, right? And they wrote as God directed
them. One book that is descriptive and prescriptive
in nature. One book that leads us to the creator
of all things. One book that reveals the nature,
the character, and the will of God. One book
that is divine. One book that is inerrant. And
it is the best -selling book of all time. It
is the Bible. Amen? Come on. It's our sword.
It's our weapon. It's what we use to take down
any giant that gets in front of us. It is the
word of God. Amen. That should get you just a
little bit excited. It gets me excited. And this
morning, I want to take you to the first chapter
of the book of John and help you understand the
incalculable value of God's word, the Bible,
his word. And as you turn, I'm going to pray.
Father, I thank you for this day. God, I thank
you for each one that's in the house. God, I
pray your favor and blessing. God, as we break
the word, as we break the bread of life, Lord,
I pray that you would help us. Lord, pour it
into our spirits and hearts. God, write it in
our minds. God, write it on the walls of our
heart, Lord, that we might not sin against you,
that we might be able to recall your word, and
God, know the truth, and we just give you praise
and glory. In Jesus' name, everybody said together.
Amen, amen. I'm gonna ask you to stand for the
reading of the word. I don't do that very often
because I jump around a lot in the Bible, but
it's a lengthy portion. We're just gonna stand
in honor of the word. It says this, in the beginning
was the word and the word was with God and the
word was God. I'm gonna read that again. In the
beginning was the word and the word was with
God and the word was God. He was in the beginning
with God. All things were made through him and
without him, nothing was made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of
men. And that light shines in the darkness, and
the darkness did not comprehend it. There was
a man sent from God whose name was John. Now,
when it's talking about John here, it's talking
about John the Baptist, the forerunner, the one
who would announce Jesus as coming into the world
as Messiah. This man came for a witness to bear
light, to bear witness of the light that all
through him might believe. He was not that light,
but was sent to bear witness of that light. That
was the true light, which gives light to every
man coming into the world. And it goes back to
describing Jesus. He was in the world, and the
world was made through him, and the world did
not know him. He came to his own, and his own
did not receive him. But as many as received
him, to them he gave the right to become children
of God, to those who believe on his name, who
were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word,
say in the word. became flesh and dwelt among
us, and we beheld his glory, and the glory is
one of the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth. You may be seated. Give somebody
a high five while you're sitting down. Tell them
it's good to hear about God's word. Come on.
John clearly lets us know in this passage, in
this portion of scripture, that the word has
been there from the beginning. The word was with
God, and not only was the word with God, but
the word is God. Is God. That Jesus Christ is
the manifestation of God's word in the flesh.
That he is the living word. He's Emmanuel. We're
getting ready to go into Christmas time, right?
Thanksgiving and Christmas. Emmanuel. He is God
with us. God in the flesh. And Jesus himself
tells Philip in John 14, 9. He said, if you've
seen me, you've seen the father. If you hear
me, you've heard the father. He said to him,
have I been with you so long? And yet you've
not known me, Philip. He who has seen me has
seen the father. So how can you say, show us
the father? God is the word and the word is God.
If you hear Jesus, you hear the father, you hear
the words of the father, you hear the words of
the son and of the Holy Spirit, three in one.
And if you hear his words, the word of God, It
is God. You cannot separate God from his word.
You can't do it. You can't do it. Jesus is the
embodiment of God's word, the living word, of
the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
And this is important to know because, and we
need to know this, because to know someone is
to hear their words. If you're going to know
somebody, you've got to hear their words. Turn
to the person beside you. Tell them I want to
hear your word. Give them any word. Come on,
turn them right now. Tell them I want to hear
a word. Make it a good one. All right, they're
sitting right beside you. But to know someone
is to hear their words. We are our words, and
our words are us. We cannot separate the two.
We cannot be known outside of our word. We really
can't. We can't step outside of our words. God
cannot be separated from his words any more than
you and I can be separated from our words. Our
words virtually identify us. Who we are, what
we are, is our words. Our words are the external
identification that people place on us every
time we speak. I'm letting somebody know who
I am. You're letting somebody know who you are.
We cannot be separated from our words, though
sometimes we would like to, right? We cannot
be separated from our words, and God... cannot
be separated from his words. And he never wants
to be separated from his word because his word
is truth. We're known by our words. We are, right?
Now, let me ask you a question. Have you ever
said something that you wish you would have never
said? Raise your hand if you're with me. Amen.
Thank you for leaving me hanging up here alone.
All right. The moment it fell out of your mouth,
you thought, I wish I could take that back. I
wish I could stick that back in. So you said
something to somebody you love, you said something
to a group of people, and you thought, ah, could
I put that back, please, right? Because you know
that the people who were listening were identifying
you the moment it fell out of your mouth. What
was in your head, what was in your heart, that
stupid thought that was swirling around for about
a half a second fell out of your mouth, right?
You didn't think about it. You didn't spend any
time with it. And it labeled you on the spot.
It really did, right? How many of you get labeled
sometimes? You say something not so smart. I
won't use the word stupid, but not so smart.
They might label you as a jerk, right? They might
label you as rude, arrogant, insensitive, ignorant,
and a whole bunch of other descriptive words
I'm not going to use from the pulpit, right?
There's all kind of words that follow and identify
us. Unfortunately, I've done this more than one
time, personally, and particularly with my wife,
who can confirm this, who's sitting on the fry,
right? Some stupid statements have fell out of
my mouth, and the second they came out, I wish
I could have stuck them right back in. I wish
that I never said them, right? I am the man of
this house, and I will do what I please. Jerk,
right? Jerk. Right? She goes, amen. She's amening
on the front. Your words identify you. It's too
late once they drop out of your mouth. Our words
identify us. You cannot separate. You cannot
separate God from his words. Words are like toothpaste.
I got toothpaste up here. It's like toothpaste.
I used to use this illustration all the time
when I was doing youth group. And we'd do this
and we'd say, listen, this is what the words
are like, all right? You just squirt it out all
over the place. Now, what we would do is I would
say, Zach, I want you to come up here and put
that toothpaste back in this tube. How well is
that going to work out, right? You can't get
it back. And that's actually kind of even and
accurate because if I was going to do this right,
I won't do this to Zach. I'd bring him up and
I'd smear the toothpaste all over him. Because
you hear your words. They stick to you. right?
They identify us. People do not, when they're
looking at you and they're listening to you,
they do not identify you by your intentions.
Do you know that? You can have the best of intentions.
They're not identifying you by your intentions.
Go ahead and read a news article where they quote
somebody. You know, somebody says something terrible
and you know what? You've never seen a newspaper,
this terrible quote printed and then afterwards
it says, you know, they said that, but I don't
think they really meant it. You know, I think
they'd be inside. They really have a good, you
don't see that, right? You don't see that on
social media. You don't get identified by your
intentions, no matter how good they are. You
get identified by your words. We don't even get
identified by our emotions. You can't identify
what's going on with me with my emotions. I could
start crying up here, virtually physically crying.
And you don't really know what's going on in
my mind. Because it can be all kinds of things,
right? It can be tears of joy. right? I just
got a huge income tax return. Tears of joy. The
government actually passed the budget, right?
Tears of joy. Yes, I went there for a second,
okay? Tears of joy. It could be tears of sadness.
It could be tears of sorrow. It could be tears
of grief. It could be tears of fear. It could
be tears of hate. It could be tears of anger.
Some people, if they get angry and they start
crying, get out of the way. Come on, amen? When
you get really angry, you cry. Yeah, if you're
around somebody like that, duck, okay? Somebody's
going down, all right? You don't really know
me with those tears, but if I put words to those
tears, you begin to identify me. Shortest verse
in all the scripture. You're gonna memorize scripture
this morning. John 11, 35, Jesus what? Say what,
say it. You memorized scripture this morning.
Jesus what? Jesus is standing at Lazarus's grave.
Lazarus has been dead for four days, friend of
his. And Jesus begins to weep. And in the very
next verse, it says, and the Jews said, oh, see
how he loved him. The Jews thought they knew.
right? What Jesus was thinking. They thought
they knew what they were identifying Jesus. He's
grieving. He says, that's not why Jesus was weeping.
Because Jesus is about to open his mouth, standing
at the grave of a friend who's been dead for
four days. And when he opens his mouth, it begins
to identify him. Because he didn't say, oh, how
sorrowful I am. He said, Lazarus, come forth.
And Lazarus steps out of the grave, and all of
a sudden, everybody around him knows this is
the Messiah. This is the King. This is the Lord.
This is somebody who calls people from the dead,
right? It is our words that identify us. When
Jesus was in the boat, and the winds and the
waves were crashing, and the disciples thought
they were going to die inside the boat, and he
stands up and says, peace be still. And the winds
and the waves stop, and the ocean goes flat.
They realized this is not just a rabbi. This
is not just a Jewish teacher. This is the son
of God, right? When he commanded demons with
a word and they fled and they went back to the
pit, right? With a word, it identified who he
is. We cannot know God and separate him from
his words. We must know his word. His word is
him, and he is his word. He is eternal. His word
will never pass away. Never. The word of God
tells us that, right? And if we are words, right,
he is so much more. And if we're not in his word
daily, say daily, daily, we're missing him daily
if we're not in his word. You don't really know
somebody until you hear their words daily. You
thought you knew that person you married, but
it wasn't until you heard their words daily,
you really knew them. Amen. And all the married
people said, amen. You thought you knew that
new coworker, but it wasn't until you heard their
words daily that you really knew who they were.
That new boss. That new teacher, that new instructor,
right? When I hear his word daily is when I get
to know who God really is. He is revealed in
his word. It's true. Sundays are not enough.
They're not enough. When you come here to hear
the word of God, I tell people all the time,
when I'm preaching, this is nothing more than
just an appetizer. All right. This is to get
you hungry for God's word. This is to get you
hungry for him. It's just an appetizer. Do you
know what happens if you eat one appetizer for
the entire week and you don't eat another appetizer
until next Sunday? You starve. All right. How
many know if you even eat an appetizer every
single day, it's okay to have an appetizer. But
if that's all you ate every single day, you just
listen to somebody else expound on God's word
and you're just eating an appetizer. How many
know you're not going to be very healthy at the
end of the week? right? Eat and have to, that's
all it is. When you go to life group and you
study together and you should, you should come
to worship service, hear the word of God, you
should be in a life group, you know, studying
God's word, doing all those things, but those
are appetizers. You don't really understand who
God is. You don't really get to know who God
is till you're in the word of God with him every
single day and you're hearing it. It's how it
works, right? We kid ourselves. We kid ourselves.
If we think we're going to really know him, we
get an appetizer down twice a week. We care ourselves.
If I'm going to know him, I got to hear his words.
I got to hear him daily. We need to hear the
written word of God every single day. We must
hear him. We must read. And we must do it for
the right reasons. It's more than just knowing
God by hearing his word, but we have to do it
for the right reasons. You might say, well, what
do you mean by that? If we read God's word for
the wrong reasons daily, we'll still miss God.
We really will. We can read the words of God
and still miss God. And you might be thinking,
well, wait a minute, didn't you just spend five
minutes or 10 minutes unfolding that you got
to hear his words? Yes. Did I mislead you? No,
right? You got to hear it for the right reasons.
You got to be listening for the right reasons.
We've got to be engaged in his word for the right
reasons or we still miss him. It's possible to
hear somebody hear their words daily and maybe
even idolize them some and never really know
them. How many of you know what a fan club is?
Raise your hand if you know what a fan club is.
You don't hear a lot about these days. If somebody's
really young and they didn't raise their hand,
just explain it to them later. Look it up on
Google or something, okay? What a fan club is.
It's a group of people who kind of idolize someone,
right? This happens a lot of times with people
that are singers or sports figures. And they'll
listen to their words maybe even every day. They'll
put on their songs, and they'll listen to them
going to work, and they'll listen to them coming
home, right? And they hear the songs over and
over. And if they're really fans, they'll know
the quotes that they've spoken different times,
and they'll know those quotes. They'll be able
to regurgitate those quotes. You know, somebody
that they idolize or somebody they've heard every
day. They've got the T -shirts. They've got the
buttons. They've been to the concerts. They know
their words, but they don't really know them,
right? We just got back from a vacation, a week
of vacation in Disney, and I watched five -year
-olds who could sing and quote the lyrics to
the movie Frozen, all right? Matter of fact,
I can now, now that I've been in Disney for a
week. Much to my chagrin, all right? And with
great passion and movement, right? These kids
are like, you know, let it go. I can't get it
out of my head, right? You know, watching animated
characters. They hugged Elsa and Anna, right,
on the main characters of this movie, which are
animated. It could be a sports figure. It could
be a person in history. It could be just about
anybody. They know a lot about the person. They
know the statistics, right? They see them on
video, but they never really personally get introduced
to somebody. The wrong approach. And hearing
God's word is fan club Christianity. It really
is. Jesus was addressing the religious leaders
who physically wanted to kill him. Now this is,
it seems strange to say this because, you know,
they're Jewish religious leaders. They're following
after God and they want to kill Jesus. They want
to take him out. And it sounds so strange when
you begin to look at this. And because these
men were experts in the law of God. They were
experts in the written word of God. They were
professionals, so to speak, in the word of God.
They memorized large portions of scripture. Maybe
the first five books of the Bible, they would
memorize all of it, the Pentateuch, right? And
they knew their stuff about the word of God,
and they totally missed God when Jesus showed
up. They missed him completely. They knew the
word of God. They were just studying it for all
the wrong reasons. They were professional religious
leaders. They studied the Old Testament and unfurled
the scrolls, right? They spent countless hours
searching God's word and they totally missed
him. John 5, 39 says, you search the scriptures
for in them, you think you have eternal life.
And these are which testify of me, but you are
not willing to come to me, to Jesus, that you
may have life. They had no idea that the Son
of God was right in front of them. The Word of
God in flesh. The reason we read God's Word daily
is to draw near to Him. That's the purpose. That's
why we do it. We read God's word daily so we
personally get to know him, so that we are part
of his unique system to personally understand
and know God. God has a kind of a two -part system.
He's got the written word of God and he's got
the Holy Spirit. When you come and get saved,
you have the written word of God, right? These
66 books. And then you have the Holy Spirit who
comes to dwell within you. And he's a personal
teacher. He's a personal instructor. That's what
the word of God tells us. He'll teach you all
things, right? And you begin to know God when
you engage in that on a daily basis. But if you
read the word of God for any other reason, to
check a box, so you get it done, that's what
Christians are supposed to do. For any other
purpose, purpose. I want a little inspiration
once in a while, right? Come on, I got to figure
something out, so I do one of these deals, you
know, and hope it's the answer that God gives
me. Anybody ever do that other than me? All right,
come on. The scribes and the Pharisees were so
caught up in the religious system of that day
that they built a world around studying the scriptures.
It was a way of life for them. It was a profession
that they developed around the written word of
God. They developed this legalistic system that
actually went beyond the word of God. And it
kept them from knowing God. The traditions they
had, the music that they had, the culture they
developed around the word of God, but they never
drew near to God. In fact, when Jesus showed
up, they wanted to kill him. And you think, how
in the world can that happen? Well, it's a little
bit like people who love to go to the hospital.
Believe it or not, there are people out there
who love to go to the hospital. They love everything
about the atmosphere of the hospital. They love
sitting in the waiting room for hours on end
with other people that need help, right? They
love to get poked and prodded. They love to meet
the medical community. They love their vitals
getting taken. The rest of us are cringing right
now, like, please don't make me go to the hospital.
They love meeting the staff, right? Most of us
hate it. We only go if we're made to and we have
to and we need healing of some kind. But they're
in the hospital for all the wrong reasons. They're
not interested in healing. They're interested
in the atmosphere. And that sounds crazy, but
the same thing happens at church. People come,
they're not interested in Jesus and getting closer
to God. They love the greeters. We got some good
greeters, by the way, right? They love the people
in the parking lot. They love that they get hugged
and their hands shook coming in the door. They
love the awesome coffee that we serve and the
atmosphere out in the square. They love the music.
They love the positive feel and vibe, right?
In church, they love the people they're sitting
with in their pew because you all have a pew.
I see you every Sunday in the same spot, right?
They love to stay in class. They love all of
it. They even like the preaching and the singing,
but they're here for the wrong reasons. They're
not here to find God. They're not here to draw
close. They just love the process. They love
everything about it. I've been in ministry a
long time. I know people that have gone into
ministry for the wrong reason, because they love
the process, right? Worship team, if you'd come.
John 5, 39, let me read it again. You search
the scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life. And these are they which testify
me, but you're not willing to come to me that
you may have life. We read his word to come to
him daily. You cannot separate God from his word.
You cannot. Can I share a little bit of a plan?
that we got going on right now at LifeHouse?
Step one is this. November, we're going to be
preaching about the Word of God all through the
month of November. As we go into Thanksgiving,
what an amazing thing to preach on as we go into
Thanksgiving season. And then in Christmas, we're
going to, you know, December, we're going to
focus on who the Word's all about. We're going
to focus on Jesus. But come January 1, we're
going to take away every excuse you've ever had
to read through God's Word in a year. We're going
to give you plans and opportunity. We're going
to give you groups of people to get together
so you can cheer one another along in it. We're
going to give you a very easy way. It's amazing
with modern technology and the apps that are
now can be downloaded on phones. It's incredible
the instruction that you can get and how easy
they lay it out for you. And in minutes, you
know, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, you can get with
the God of the universe. even like calling it
devotions anymore, because it's too easy to say,
I skipped my devotions, right? I'm just going
to skip my devotions today. No, man, you're skipping
your appointment with the God of the universe.
That's what you're missing. I've done it. Not
a good thing to do, all right? How many, no,
you get a couple days away from meeting with
the creator of the universe, you start getting
all sideways, and you start living you, right?
It starts, everything starts going sideways on
you. Your thinking starts to get messed up, right?
Your emotions start to get messed up, because
you're not getting with the king. So this coming
in January, we'll give you, come on, I'm giving
you too much to prep up, all right? Too much
to prep up. That's a long time to get ready.
But we're gonna go through the word of God together.
And we're gonna meet with the creator. We're
gonna meet with the God of the universe. Isaiah
55, six says, seek the Lord while he may be found.
Call upon him while he's near, while he's near.
I don't know if you've been looking around what's
going on in the world around us. But I'm telling
you, Jesus is getting ready to return. There
are things that are unfolding. There are things
that are taking place in the world around us.
Signs of the times are everywhere. We went away
for a week. We came back and all the leaves were
blown down and pumpkins were everywhere in our
house. They were rolling all over the yard. And
we're like, we saw a sign of something, right?
Yeah, there was some kind of windstorm. Something
went down around our house. There was stuff everywhere.
There's signs. Church, we're gonna get with God,
amen? I'm gonna ask you to stand this morning.
We're gonna seek him. Pastor Alyssa preached
it last week. We're gonna seek him. We're gonna
go after him. And you cannot do that outside
of his word. If you've not been in his word and
you keep telling yourself you can't, you're fooling
yourself. You're fooling yourself. Word of God
will call you out. Calls me out all the time.
You're fooling yourself. Revelation. Revelation
is this. The word revelation means an uncovering,
an unveiling. It is not until you get with the
God of the universe on a daily basis that you
begin to uncover for yourself God. And what happens
is, is God and revelation is God's words. It's
his application to your situation is what happens
with revelation. You're probably, you may or
may not find your situation in the word of God.
But if you're meeting with the God of the universe,
you'll start finding out the revelation that
is the application for your situation. God's
word never changes, but he can change your situation.
That only comes when it's self -discovery. It
only comes when you're in the word of God yourself.
When you're learning to feed yourself. People
tell me all the time, well, I quit attending
church because they quit feeding me. You need
to learn how to feed yourself. Amen? Pray for
the pastor if he's not that good. I appreciate
that, okay? I do. But you've got to learn how
to feed yourself. That happens in the word of
God. In the word of God. That's why he gave it
to us. We freely. freely read this in this country.
We can carry this anywhere in public. That's
not in all cases. That's not in all countries.
We can read the word of God anywhere we want
to. If you're a student, you can carry this in
your public high school, right, and read the
word of God. We have that freedom. God's good,
isn't he? I want you to just if you would, bow
your heads right where you're at. This starts
off with the desire to meet with God. If you
don't desire to meet with God, I can't help you,
honestly. You and the Holy Spirit are going to
have to work that out. Do you want to meet with
him? Do you want to meet with him? Do you want
his revelation in your application? Because you
can't separate God from his word. Can't do it.
You got to get into his word. You got to let
the Holy Spirit. Begin to move in you. Thank
you for tuning in to this message from Lifehouse
Church. We pray that you were impacted powerfully
by this message. If you have been personally
affected by our ministry and you would like to
partner with us as we love God, love people every
day, visit our website at www .lifehouse .org.
lifehousecog .com.