March 9, 2011
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Power of God’s Word by Pastor Don Moore
Transcript of sermon preached 2/7/10 by Pastor Don Moore, Living Word Chapel, West Hurley New York.
What is in [brackets] is what the congregation says.
SAY AMEN
SHOW 143
POWER OF GOD’S WORD
02-07-10But now that we’ve prayed, I want you to open your Bibles to Luke Chapter 7. I want to share three passages of Scripture with you. And I know that this will encourage you. We went to the Holy Land in Florida. We visited the TBN Holy Land in Florida. We’ve visited the Holy Land before TBN had it. And I can say unequivocally, without a doubt, it is improved. TBN has done a wonderful, wonderful job. And the prayer, the opening prayer that I gave was emphasizing the power of the Word.
At TBN at the Holy Land, they had different dramas and presentations. The one that they did on the day we were there was the Centurion. And so they had the teaching of the Roman Centurion who had a servant who was ill. And I think many of you know the story and we’ll just pass through it a little bit right now. In it, they acted it out. They had to change a few things in it, it wasn’t biblically perfectly lined up, but in order to make a drama you have to fill in the parts that weren’t there. So they showed the Centurion and his relationship with his servant. We know from Scripture that it was a close one. And that he cared for this man and didn’t want his servant to die.
And they’re going through it, and I’m sitting there with my wife and we’re watching this dramatization. And I’m thinking to myself, well that guy there isn’t the Centurion. But, you know, he could look kind of like this Italian boy running around up there on the stage, and he’s, you know, that’s not an authentic Roman uniform but it’s close enough. It does look like some of the stuff they wore back then and then the servant girls were even more elegantly dressed than a servant girl would have been in Biblical times.
And then this, we’re sitting there and here comes Jesus. And He’s coming from the back going up toward the front. And here’s this tall, long haired, blonde haired, six foot two, six foot three guy, [laughter]. I mean, he was huge. If I was as tall as him, I’d still be playing in the NBA. This guy was huge. I mean, he was tall. Huge guy. And so, they’re walking down the aisle with this pretend Jesus, you know, I mean he had hair, longer than his shoulders. Had all this flowing long hair, and He’s got on this nice robe, and He’s smiling at everybody. Coming in.
And I go, that’s a pretend Jesus. [laughter] And so pretend Jesus goes up there with His pretend disciples, and they all sit down. And the pretend Centurion comes over and the Word. [hmm] And they speak the Word as it is in Scripture. And the Presence of God just showed up. And I’m sitting there with tears in my eyes. The power of the Word of God will overcome costumes, decorations, [laughter]. It just overcomes it. There’s something about the power of the Word. Let’s listen to the power here, of this Word…
In Chapter 7, “Now when he concluded all His sayings. in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum.” Or Capernaum. ”And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear to him, was sick and ready to die. So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to Him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying that the one for whom He should do this was deserving, for he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with them. And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.” And listen to this. ” “For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, “Go,” and he goes; and to another, “Come,” and he comes; and to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it.” When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant well who had been sick.” [amen]
The power…is in the Word. [yes, amen] Let me say it again. The power is in the Word. [amen] Oh let it be known throughout your heart and your mind that your words are of great importance. [come on] Know that the words that you speak are power. They have creative force. You are made in God’s image. And the way that you’re made in God’s image, is you have the ability to create with your words. [yes] You can turn your situation around. It is the rudder on the end of your life that will steer the boat that will turn it right or left. Words are important. But a word must be spoken. Watch this now. In conjunction with what God has already spoken. [Yes], and a Word must be spoken in obedience. Not in doubt. Not in excuse making or questioning.
The difference between the centurion’s faith and the faith of the other men is in the simple phrase. Are you ready? Can you say it? Yeah but.... [yeah but, oh preach, pastor]…. Yeah, but…. yeah, but….Look a little bit further in scripture, to verse 30… Verse 30. ”But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him. And the Lord said, “To what then shall I liken the men of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying: ”We played the flute for you,” Yeah, but. ”…you did not dance…. We mourned to you,...” Yeah, but. ”...you did not weep.” For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, “He has a demon.” The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, “Look, a glutton and a wine bibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!”
Well, what is the difference between these two groups of people? The difference is that the centurion did not, “yeah but” Jesus, when he found out what Jesus could do. He just said, “Yeah.” [laughter] Without the “but.” [come on] When Jesus is dealing with the Pharisees and the scribes, He is saying that your faith is terminated, your obedience is terminated, because you have a, “yeah but” that keeps us from seeing the hand of God in operation. I’m convinced of it, I’m sure of it that when God gave man free will, He gave us more than we really thought we were getting. [amen] In that we really forgot, we forgot some key things here.
But the main thing that we forgot was that inherent, intrinsically in the Word of God, is free will and that free will can terminate and destroy the active desire that God wants to fulfill in our lives. [amen] And that, yeah but, oh my goodness. And why is it, I get a kick out of this. But why is it we feel, when we are questioning that we are somehow more intelligent than someone who is just flat out obedient? [hmmm, come on pastor, laughter]… Come on. Am I right? [yes] I missed you guys. [laughter] But, you know, come on. We look at someone who is just flat out obedient as they’re stupid. But somebody that asks a whole lot of questions and has a whole bunch of yeah, buts, we somehow accredit to them a higher value of intelligence.
You know, while I was away on vacation, I was reading this book called, “The Disillusionment of Disbelief.” And in it, he pointed out, and he did it by quotes. I have always heard that Einstein was an atheist, or an agnostic, but that he did not believe in God. Well, this guy did the research to go through different things that Einstein, one of the greatest minds, even the Bible Code, the Bible Code says, when you put in “Einstein” the Bible Code says, “a very smart fellow.” [laughter] See to God, he’s only a smart fellow, he’s not, you know, brilliant or off the levels. You know. God’s not impressed with him. But he was surprised that he was a smart fellow.
But, nonetheless, he quotes, he quotes Einstein and people that were close to him, and Einstein refused to be identified with the atheists. He refused to be identified with the agnostics because through science, he had discovered the order of the universe is so well set that it could not have happened by chance. [amen] Glory be to God. Glory be to God. Isn’t that wonderful? So we have to recognize that being intelligent at a certain point, you, watch this now, you must, if you arrive at the higher levels of intelligence, you must arrive at the point where the questions stop, and faith kicks in. [yes, amen] cause there has to be a point at which you believe God knows more than you, God understands better than you. The Word that God has spoken is more powerful than any word that has ever been spoken. And therefore, when God gives you something that He wants you to do, or He speaks into your life, and it’s time to move instead of time to stay. And it’s time to go and rather, than time to draw back. It’s time to act rather than to sit idly by. And God says, “Do it!” Then it’s time not to say, “Yeah, but.” But it’s time to get up and move as God has directed you. [amen, hallelujah] Somebody say, “Amen in this house.” [amen] Glory to God. I said, “Glory to God.” [glory to God]
Look at Luke, Chapter 6…. Verse 46. We played the flute for you, yeah but, you didn’t dance…. We played a sad ditty for You to mourn, but yeah but, You didn’t mourn. Well, why didn’t You? Because you were questioning at each juncture what to do, than going, “Yeah, but. Yeah, but. Yeah, but.”… “Yeah but!” [chuckling] Now, that’s a good point. Did you hear what she said? She said, “Pastor Dona, was teaching and she said that whatever follows the but becomes greater than whatever preceded it. [ooooh, yea] If it isn’t greater, at least stalls the effectiveness of what preceded it. Ok, everybody with me on this? You understand where I’m going? Or at least where I’m coming from?
So Jesus is saying, what are we supposed to do with you people? You know, we sent John the Baptist, he’s a teetotaler, and he’s out in the woods and he’s eating just honey and all, but you didn’t follow him. You said, “Yeah but,” to him. Now Jesus says, I come, I’m hanging out with the sinners and the tax collectors, and you go, “Yeah but” to that. He says, so you have to realize, as a believer, the people that you want to lead to the Lord will yeah but you to death, because they have no vision, and they don’t have the Word of the Lord yet in them. So how do you expect, you’re going to come up with something that’s gonna work? [hmmm] Huh? Cause at some point, you just have to lay it down and say, “I’m going for it.” [right] I’m going for it. I’m just going to do what the Lord says until I get, let’s see.
Now Luke 6, verse 46. It’s a very famous verse, you all know it. He says, “But why do you call me “Lord, Lord,” and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like:” What’s he like, Jesus? ”He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded….” what? [on the rock] Say it again. [on the rock] One more time. [on the rock] There, those are my people. ”But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately.…” notice it says immediately”…immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”
But, what’s He talking about? The ruin of the house was great. He’s saying, Lord have mercy. If we build it on a rock, if we build on the rock of the Lord who has spoken things that are true, truisms. The problem is that when we go, “Yeah, but” to a truism, we treat it as if it is a falsehood. [right] Right? [yeah] You say, this will work for you.
This will work for your marriage. How do you know? It’s in the Word of God. That’s the way it is. Well, then when you alter that, guess what? You’re treating a truth as if it’s a falsehood. And therefore, you are standing on your question and your question cannot sustain you. [that's right] … The brilliance of your question cannot sustain you in the face of the truth. Let’s do one more, now.
Go to, in Chapter 6 go all the way back to verse 33….33… “I have to turn the page. Are you there? [yes] He says, “And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back.”
Let me ask a question. Is that the truth [yes] Sure is. And then, look what He says. “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind”...He is kind to the unthankful and evil. [hmmm] ”Therefore be merciful, just as your Father is also merciful.”
Now I just want, I just want to play with your head for a second…. What is that saying? Jesus isn’t establishing these as maybe they work. He is giving Spiritual truth. He said Spiritual truth. The Father is merciful. Spiritual truth. If you act like Him, and are merciful, guess what He’s saying. You will receive, what will you receive? [mercy] Mercy. If you lend without expecting to get it back, what will you receive? [great reward] You will receive great reward. He isn’t treating those as if they are suggestions that might work. He’s giving them, He’s giving them as tenets of truth that they definitely will work.
Than why is it that even in the Church, when someone asks you to lend you something, you ask them, how much you going to pay me, and when are you going to pay me back? [laughter] [now, come on now] … Why do we do that? And how about this one. Well, I would have loaned him, but… I would have loaned him the money but what? But I know he can’t pay me back, and I know. I know he’s just a lowlife… We do that even in the Church. And it’s not Gospel. It’s just cheap. [yeah] …. So, what are we doing? We are saying, “Yeah, but” to the tenet of truth, which is, God is merciful, therefore be merciful like God. God is giving, so be giving like God. Don’t be judging. If the guy can’t pay you back, then God is saying, “I guarantee you, that I God will pay you back.” [amen] That’s a truth. [that's right] I’m just trying to use that one because most of us might be guilty of that at some point in time.
Cause I’ve done it. I’ve had people, that I know can’t pay me back, ask me for something and I go, “Yeah but, you slime ball, I know you’re not going to pay it back. So, I’m going to withhold this five bucks.” As if somehow the five bucks is going to break me. How many of you know that that ain’t going to happen. [yes] Yeah. Come on, elbow the person next to you and say, “Be giving. Be merciful.” [be giving, be merciful] If nobody’s sitting next to you, do yourself. [laughter] Ok, that’s the truth, isn’t it? [yes] It is the truth. So, let’s say it together. God is generous. [God is generous] and so am I. [and so am I]
Let’s look at some “yeah but” situations. I’m just, I’m almost about out of time. But let me just help you with a few “yeah but” situations.
King David is told not to take a census. King David goes, “Yeah but.” Cause he wanted to really know the size of his people, so he could put his chest out and say, “We have enough whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever.” And it brought a curse upon him and upon the people of Israel. And a plague broke out. All because of his, “yeah but.”
King Saul is going into battle. King Saul’s going into battle. And the priest was late coming to give the sacrifice. [laughter] And so, King Saul decides, “Huh, some of the people are leaving me.” Is there anybody here, that you’ve looked around, you were going into a difficult situation, somebody promised to be there with you, and you looked around, and they are not there. [laughter] Has that ever happened? [yes] Yeah. Come on, some of you wives know. [laughter] Some of you wives know. He said he was going to go shopping with you, but when it came down to it, he found a way to get out of it. [laughter] Now, what I’m saying is, King Saul. God has given him instructions, the king is to do what the Kings to do, and the Priest does what the priest does. And the priest gives the sacrifice and the king’s not supposed to be involved in that thing. And sure enough, he looks around, some of the soldiers are leaving. He had his strength in the people around him, not in God. [come on] He was looking for somebody to do something about his situation.
I love the President, the Congress, and the Senate. But trust me, they ain’t going to fix this thing. I’m not looking for them to fix this thing. I’m putting my trust in Jesus Christ. [yea, applause] He’s the superstar here. [applause] He can fix it. And He can fix my finances and look out for me.
So, King Saul looked around and says, “Where, where are the trustees? Where’s the army?” And half of them were going over the mountain. So he decides, he’s going to give the sacrifice. Now the priest shows up… The priest shows up and says, “Hey, yo, whatcha doing man?” He said, “Yeah, but…” [laughter] I had to do something, yeah but. Noooooo. That was his “but.” Wasn’t it? [yes] God snatched the kingdom away from him. [that's right]
You see, God has made provision for you and for your own greatness. Can I preach to you for a second? God has made provision for your own particular individual greatness. He’s made provision for it. He has set people in place to bring it. He has timed it out. He has a schedule that you’re going to reach point “A” at such a time. And then be at point “B” at such a time. He’s done it all. But the only problem is your “yeah but” will detain you. Will get you off course. Will hold you back from arriving at the place He has for you. Where your greatest blessing is going to emerge and you shall have the victory. But you can’t get there because your yeah but is keeping you on your butt. [laughter]
I’ve been away for awhile. I just save it all up for you guys. But you know, there’s so much that we can, that we can learn from this so that hopefully, yeah but will get caught up in your mouth and you won’t be able to question it. How many of you know, you’ve heard from the Lord at one point in your life, at least one time? [laughter] At least one time. How many of you will admit it that sometimes that one time was answered by you with a yeah but. [yes] Yeah but Jesus it’s too big. It’s too big. How about this one. It costs too much. [yes] You know, it costs too much. I’m afraid of the price tag. And you go, yeah but, I’ll buy it if it’s free. [laughter] I saw a bumper sticker. It says nothing was free till nothing became nothing. [chuckles, amen, oh yeah] Nothing is free until nothing becomes nothing. So, until it has no value, then yeah, nothing is worth anything unless it has a price tag on it. And everything that’s worth anything has a price tag on it.
The most expensive thing to me in this room is my wife. [there you go, amen] She’s the most expensive thing I have. But she is also the greatest value. [amen, that's right] I got the best return on value from my wife. I am way, way ahead for what I spent as a 24 year old man, to get this woman. I am way ahead. [applause] … What are you talking about? What are you talking about? She wanted a diamond. Went and bought it with her own money. [whoot, laughter] Don’t tell me I’m not blessed! [laughter] I’m thoroughly blessed, come on. We have to see something.
Things of great value come with a great price. But if you yeah but during the negotiations, how’s God going to be able to bring it to pass for you? [amen] Nothing’s free out here. But your yeah but… How many of you have ever had the Lord speak a word to you, and half way beginning you went, “Yeah but.”
You know what we do in the Body of Christ? We call it, I need a confirming word. [laughter] I need a confirmation. I don’t think that was the Lord. Why? You didn’t think it was the Lord because it was going to cost you more than you wanted to pay. But you took your eyes off of what the prize was going to be, and you forgot, wait a minute, if It’s God, if God’s in it, the reward is going to be greater than the sacrifice I’m going to make to get it. [amen] But my yeah but will do what? Will withhold it. It will do what? It’s an excuse. [right] We need an excuse for our fear.
Why I’d be faithful in Church but I know I got one of these days man, Pastor Don’s going to walk up and ask me to do something. [laughter] So let me practice my excuses. What are you talking about? If I ask you to do something that didn’t give a blessing of God is going to be on it, and you’re going to be more blessed than you were before you were asked to do it. [amen] What are you talking about? What are you talking about?
Excuses. The other one, the yeah but will do is throw you a postponement. [yep]… You know, you ever go to somebody’s house for dinner and sit awaiting for them to serve the dinner? No, that doesn’t happen to you all. But trust me, as a pastor, it happens. [laughter] You know, they invite you for dinner, and you sitting there, and they’re talking, and then you’re sitting there, and they’re talking, and you’re sitting there, and they’re talking and you’re sitting there, and they’re talking. [laughter] I lean over and say, “Was this a counseling session or dinner?” [laughter] Do we get to eat in between their talking? [laughter] They’re just postponing the meal. Come on now, you all. It’s like they’re afraid that if you eat, you’re going to run. You know. The sooner you feed me, I’m going to sit and stay. But postponement.
Do you realize how many times we postpone the blessing that God has for us. He’s got something really, really good for us, but we postpone it because we’re yeah butting it. [yes] Does anybody know what I mean? (singing) Surround me, oh Lord. Surround me, oh Lord. Surround me, oh Lord. Let your presence fill this place. Oh, just invite Him into your heart today.
