Hear the Word
Pastor Phil Derstine 1-29-23
Sword (Word) and Fire (Holy Spirit) – We need both!
· All Word and no Spirit, we dry up; all Spirit and no Word, we blow up; both Word and Spirit, we grow up!
· I Corinthians 15:46 – First the natural, then the spiritual (How Faith Works)
· Information (Hear the Word) – Inspiration (Know the Word) – Declaration (Speak the Word) – Demonstration (Do the Word)
Hear The Word – Information
· Romans 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
· Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…”
· I Corinthians 1:21 “For since the world through its wisdom did not know God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”
· Jeremiah 20:9 “His Word is in my heart, like a fire shut up in my bones!”
· Luke 24:32 “And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?”
God’s Law of LOVE – the cure for racism
· John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
· I Corinthians 13:1 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”
· Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
· Our identity in Christ should be more important than belonging to a racial category or ethnicity.
· Luke 11:42 “Woe to you Pharisees! For ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and neglect justice and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”
Luke 7:36-50 – Contrast between Pharisee and sinner woman in the house with Jesus
· Luke 7:47 “Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.”
· Pharisee heard the Word and was in the house but didn’t know Jesus (Spirit)
· Matthew 22:36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? (37) Jesus replied, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (38) This is the first and greatest commandment. (39) And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. (40) All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
· I John 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God, he that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love.”
