Experiencing God's Presence through the Preached Word

And that ministry being the ministry of fathers, and we would like to express to every father here happy Father's Day and we would also like to take a minute to present to you a gift and that gift is a booklet Fathers called Mighty Men. The Starter's guide to leading your family, and I'm not gonna get into the details of the book, but we commend it to you guys. We would encourage you to read through it. it's only about 40 some, not even 40 pages, and so it's very manageable, very doable, and it has some terrific things to say about the father's role, about the father's ministry, and so I wanna ask every father.

And even father to be to stand so that our ushers can present you with this booklet. Please stand, dads. So Being a father is not necessarily the easiest thing in the world. God gives to us these little sinful kids or a sinful child, and he says, Dads, I want to use you as the instrument of my blessing in the life of that child to help that child get to the point of knowing Christ and growing in Christ and having a passion for Christ so that at the end of the day, your son lives or your daughter.

Lives to the glory of God and is prepared to face him on the day of judgment that is no easy task and so fathers knowing that we have a tough tough task, ahead of us, that we have had a tough task behind us and we have a tough task right now for those of us who have our kids in the household, I'd like to take a minute to pray, for our dad. so join with me please in prayer. A dear heavenly Father. Our sovereign God, our omnipotent, omnipresent God.

Our Father in heaven. Who, though you are transcendent, are also eminent and you are near to us. Lord, I come before you representing my brothers, my fellow fathers. And I pray, Father, for your special blessings upon them, oh God.

I pray Lord that you would strengthen every single one of us for the task at hand. Lord, we come before you, many of us repenting and confessing that Lord being a father has been a challenge and we have fallen short and Lord God, we need your grace, we need your mercy, we need your strengthening your enablement. That you would help us as fathers to represent to our children who it is, oh heavenly Father, that you are. Help us, Lord.

And Lord, I know too that on a day like Father's Day, it can oftentimes invoke for some of us. Pain That for some of us, Lord, on this day we reflect upon fathers who have passed away, fathers who have gone on to be with you. And they are missed. Lord, for some of us, Father's Day reminds us of the fact.

That we won't ever be a father. That we won't ever be able to share. In that joy And yet, Lord, we look to you, our Father in heaven. For grace and for comfort and for encouragement Affirming that you are God and that you are sovereign, and that you are good, and we praise you, Lord.

For some of us, Lord, our earthly fathers have not been the fathers that they should have been. And I know that for some of us we have been abandoned by our earthly fathers, and yet, Lord, we look to you, Lord, as our heavenly Father. And we ask, oh God, that you would prove yourself strong to us. Help us to know what it means and to experience what it means.

That we have a dad, a Father in heaven. Who looks down upon us and draws nearer to us and who loves us. Deeply. To the point to where you sent your Son Jesus.

To be crucified. So that we might be your sons. Lord, on this Father's Day, we ask. That you would bless us, that you would comfort and encourage us, and most of all, Lord, that You would help us to be drawn close to you, our Heavenly Father, who is worthy of all praise.

Now Father, speak. Word of God speak through us, through our pastor Milton. And may it be that through him we hear your voice. Give us sensitivity to listen, to hear.

To obey, and we ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, good morning. let me, Have you guys turn in your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 3, and I want to, while you're turning, extend a Father's Day.

greeting to, to all of you dads. I also would like to recognize, some people in our service. My dad and mom are here today, and my wife's dad and mom are here today. It's the first time they've ever been here, together.

They've been here for, our daughter Brooke's graduation, but I'd like to have the four of them stand if they would, and let's give them a warm cornerstone welcome. If you have not met them, please go out of your way to do so today. I would like For you to meet four of the most wonderful people in, in my life, and I also would like for them to meet you because they have heard much about you and I, I want them to know, know you also. So if you've not met them.

take some time to do that today after the sermon. but 2 Timothy chapter 3, we're gonna be pulling some things out of verses, 3 verse 15 through chapter 4 verse 3. And we are in the 3rd week now of our series entitled The Dearest Place on Earth where we're celebrating the gathering our coming together, especially on the Lord's Day wherein we experience the presence of God. One of the things that makes gathering together so wonderful is that God in a unique way is gathered with us.

Jesus said, we're 2 or 3 are gathered together in my name. There am I in the midst of them. So, yes, God is everywhere. He is present everywhere, but he is especially present in a unique way when his people assemble together.

And therefore, God right now is in this room. Room in a very unique and special way, and he wants us to be impacted by and transformed and blessed by that presence. One of the ways that we experience his presence is through the preached word. And so, I'm gonna speak to you this morning on the subject of experiencing God's presence through the preached word.

As I was putting this message together, I was reminded of something that happened about 2.5 years ago. My mom's older brother had passed away and he was gonna be buried at Arlington Cemetery in near Washington DC and so for the service, I flew to Washington DC and took my son, Brendan along with me and there was something of a quasi-family reunion there. In DC and it happened to be, we were there during the time of the national presidential election. On election day, so in the hotel lobby, I remember us sitting around as all the family were watching the election returns, and if I remember right, the election was not determined.

The presidential election was not determined by the end of election day. We had to wait till the next day because it was so close, but the next day we were out and about touring different spots with some of the the larger family that was there. And we were on our way to the Smithsonian and we heard that President Bush had been declared the winner and that he would be giving his victory speech in the Ronald Reagan Building, which was fairly close to where we found ourselves at that moment.

So we decided if Bush is going to be in the Ronald Reagan Building, then we're going to try to get into that building so that we can see the president.

And so we stopped what we were doing and we went to the Ronald Reagan Building and the first entrance that we found, we tried to enter but were rejected. There were security personnel there. And they told us that we were not welcomed through that entrance, so not discouraged, we went around the building to yet another entrance. We tried to get into the building through that entrance, and again there were security personnel there who did not let us into the building.

If there ever was a seeker in sensitive environment, it was that one. We were made to feel very unwelcome and yet we were not discouraged. So we went around to the front of the building and at that point people were just like emerging out of nowhere and all of them had a tag around their neck, which I guess was their pass to get in. We didn't have a tag, but we still tried to get in, so we got in line with all these people with tags and the line was incredibly long.

We stood there for quite a while and we were thinking, man, we're going to get to the end of this line and then they're going to say no, you can't get in and we're going to waste all this time. So we sent two family members up. To the end of the line to find out, can we get in? Is there any possible way that we can get in?

Some were saying we could, some were saying we couldn't. And so we spent a lot of time waiting in line and having them check on this. And finally, after a lengthy period of time. We received enough validation that there was absolutely no way that we were going to get into that building.

So knowing that we could not get into that building where the president would be, we decided that we would do the next best thing, and that is try to get somewhere on the route where the president would be traveling to the Ronald Reagan Building. So we go towards the White House and is this boring you? OK, we, we go towards the White House and On the route that we figured he would be taking, and there were already people lining up on the street, so we thought that was the place to be.

So we stood there on the side of the street for quite some time, 45 minutes to 1 hour, waiting for the motorcade, hoping he would take that route.

We heard sirens at different points and we would think, OK, he's coming, and it was a false alarm. So we continued to wait and finally the exciting big moment arrived where the motorcade came by and it was probably about 15 cars just screaming with sirens wailing and and going pretty quickly down down that street and there was one SUV type of vehicle that had like 15 antennas coming out of the top of it. There were ninja-like military police personnel. It was like a military type of escort.

And finally, all these cars are whizzing by of no doubt important people, and then finally, the presidential vehicle goes by and my son and I look and on the side of the street where we were standing, just, just like 30 ft away, we saw Laura Bush. Looking through the tinted bulletproof window passively at us, and it was evident she did not recognize us because she didn't, which that's fine, she was going very fast and so she didn't have a clear view of us, but But anyway, she, she waved as she went by and as we peered through the, the car, we saw President Bush.

His back was to us. We were on the wrong side of the street.

He was facing the other way and we could see him waving at the people on the other side of the street. He apparently did not know that we would be on the other side. Of the street. The moment lasted about a second and a half as they whizzed on by.

It was just the briefest glimmer of Laura Bush and the president, and before we knew it, the moment was over. The sirens dissipated into the distance. And all grew quiet and I looked at my son and I said, that was awesome. And we all through the rest of the day talked about that experience of that brief moment of seeing the president and his wife.

it probably took about 2 hours from beginning to end, trying to get into the building and then being on the motorcade route, but every single one of us felt that it was time well spent to be in the president or the presence of the president. For 1.5 seconds. We can only see them through a bulletproof window that was tinted, and yet it was worth our time we felt. In this series, we are learning about one greater.

Than the president. Amen. Who actually makes himself more available to us, more present to us. Than the president of the United States will ever do to all of us.

He teaches us in his word that when we assemble together. He is here And he wants us to experience that presence. And it is because he is present that we can say with the psalmist, better is one day in your courts. Then 1000.

Doing anything else. Better is one day in your courts where we experience your presence than 2.5 years of doing anything else. How do we have that value system? We have that value system by understanding that what makes it so precious is that God is here.

Now when we gather and God is here, how do we experience that presence? We're going to learn today that one of the primary ways that we experience the presence of God when we assemble together is through the preached word, through the preached word. It's if you go through 1st and 2nd Timothy where Paul is speaking the word to Timothy and charging Timothy, it's interesting how frequently Paul connects charging. And giving the word to Timothy with the presence of God.

Look at this. First Timothy, chapter 5 verse 21. I solemnly charge you, Timothy, in the presence of God. First Timothy 6:13, I charge you in the presence of God that you keep the commandment.

2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 14, he's telling Timothy that in his preaching, To his congregation, he says, remind them of these things and solemnly charge them in the presence of God. Specifically, when the people of God assemble together, God is uniquely present. Timothy, you be mindful of his presence and you charge the people of God, you preach to the people of God with an awareness of that presence. And then in our passage today, 2 Timothy 4.

Verse 1 and 2, Paul says, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word. Two things are being said here. Paul is saying, I personally charge you in the presence of God, but a part of what he's saying also is I charge you to preach the word and when you preach the word, you preach the word in the presence of God. So the preaching of the word in the presence of God.

are tied together in Paul's thinking, the presence of God, especially the special unique presence of God, is the environment in which the word is preached, and we experience God's presence in that way. So the question I wanna ask this morning is why should we value the preaching of the word in our times of gathering? Here at Cornerstone, we gather every Sunday and every single service somebody preaches. Have you ever asked why that is?

Where did we get that? Did we just make that up? Why is it such a central element in our times of, of worship? it's important to spend some time on this today because actually, people more and more increasingly are having a low view of preaching the word of God.

It's being replaced by drama, by entertainment. Some churches are eliminating preaching from their services altogether. Sometimes I get naive and I start to think, well, what is there to do other than what we do? and so all churches are doing what we do.

And then we get a phone call from someone who's wanting to know about our church, and they ask questions like, do you use the Bible at Cornerstone? And you just wonder, where does a question like that come from? Why does someone have to ask that? And I've even asked people at times, why do you ask that?

And they say, well, because at my previous church, they did not use the Bible. And so preaching, as Al Mohler says, has fallen on hard times. Al Mohler says preaching has fallen on hard times. At least that's the impression you would gain by listening to much of what passes for preaching in American pulpits.

Something is clearly missing, and that missing element is the deep passion for biblical exposition that always characterizes the great preachers of an era. Another Southern Baptist pastor in Texas says we've replaced preaching with stand-up comedy routines and self-help, therapeutic pop psychology. And the examples of this are absolutely a dime a dozen. There's a thing called the emergent church that you, some of you probably have already heard of that you will be hearing more of where they're radically redefining.

The way church is done, rather than in a situation like this, they're gathering in living rooms, rather than a preacher heralding the word of God like we're taught to do in the scripture, everyone just gets together and they discuss, just, let's just talk. And that's how they think that they can experience God. And they actually in the emergent church have a very low view of preaching, specifically expositional preaching, which is what we, do here at Cornerstone. This is from a theological encyclopedia resource on the Internet, so totally objective, just trying to describe the emergent church and what it's all about, and they say the emergent church is seen as dismissive of expositional preaching.

Many in it argue that expositional preaching should not be the primary way of preaching, as exposition is especially seen as not suited for a postmodern culture. So they look at our culture. And say, what, let's set this aside because it doesn't fit the culture. Most EC leaders or emergent church leaders tend to shun modernism and believe that all methods and ideas that were developed during this time, for example, an emphasis on expositional preaching, are not helpful and are in fact harmful.

To today's church. There are people who would say that what I'm doing this morning is harmful. To the church And so we do need to take some time to just evaluate why do we do this? Why do we place such a high value on the preaching of the word in our times of gathering.

I want to give you 8 answers to that question, 8 reasons, and reason number 1 is because the word is God breathed. Why do we place such high value on the preached word in our times of gathering? Reason number 1, because the word is God-breed. In 2 Timothy chapter 3.

verse 16, it says, all scripture is inspired by God. And in the Greek, it's literally all scripture is God breathed. All right? All scripture, this written word of God is God breathed.

And you can also translate this technically, even the word breathe in English, that's a verb. This is not a verb in the Greek text. You could actually say all scripture is God breath. It is the breath.

Of God All scripture is the breath. Of God You think about that, you begin to understand something of the nature of our interaction with the word of God. It is the breath of God. And when we hear the word preached, when we read the word, it is as if God is breathing upon us.

Normally in our culture, we. We don't mind people hearing us breathe. technically, when we talk to one another, like all you're doing right now is you're hearing me audibly breathe, OK? And that's OK.

We're all comfortable with that, but we tend to stay far enough away from each other physically to where we cannot feel each other breathe, right? because that's too close, that is too intimate. Imagine what it would be like if you were one of the disciples after Christ's resurrection from the dead. In John chapter 20.

When Jesus actually breathed on them. He comes up to the disciples, John 20:22, and it says he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. So Jesus would have gotten close to them. And exhaled Imagine that experience of that closeness, the breath of the Lord Jesus upon you.

In Psalm 139, when we studied the Psalm a number of years ago, we came to verse 7, and one of the ways that I suggested that we look at this verse is technically in the New American Standard, it says, Where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence? Literally, it's, where can I go from your spirit or breath or where can I flee from your face, literally. and the picture is not that the psalmist is saying, wherever I go, I can look up and off in the distance, I see the face of God looking at me.

That's not the picture.

The picture is wherever I go, I turn and there's the face of God just right there. I cannot get away from his face and even from his breath. He flees to the remotest part of the sea, and he stops to see if he's away from God. And then he feels the breath of God upon him.

And he turns and there's the face of God right there. Right there. That's why he says in that Psalm, you've enclosed me behind and before, laid your hand upon me. There's intense closeness here.

And so when we think about the Word of God, when we hear the word of God preached, when we read the Word of God, it is God's breath. God is breathing upon us. And here's the beautiful thing about the Word of God. According to the teaching of the Bible, we don't just gather together to look at a book that records what God said 2000 years ago.

I don't get up here and say, 2000 years ago, here's what God said. Let's focus on what God said back then. Technically, yes, God said these things 2000 years ago, but he is still saying these things. He is still speaking these things.

God is still speaking today. He's still breathing his word today. As the word is preached, and as we read his word, the Spirit speaks. Today, God spoke, and he speaks.

If you go through the New Testament and you look at all the times where the Old Testament, for example, is quoted from. The New Testament writer thus far in every case I have found, uses the present tense. He doesn't say the Holy Spirit said, he says the Holy Spirit is saying, as he quotes from something that's already been written. Just real, real quick, I don't want to belabor this, but in Hebrews 3:7, the Old Testament is quoted from, and the writer says, just as the Holy Spirit says, present tense, he's saying this now.

1 Corinthians 14:21, Paul quotes from Isaiah, and then he says, says, present tense, the Lord. 2 Corinthians 6:2. He says, present tense as he quotes from the Old Testament, down at the bottom of the screen, Romans 12:9, vengeance is mine. He's quoting from the Old Testament.

Vengeance is mine. I will repay. Paul quotes the Old Testament, and then he says, is saying, the Lord, what God said, he's still saying. And so when we gather together, and the word of God is read, and the word of God is preached, God who is present is speaking.

He is breathing upon us, and we hear him breathe upon us. There's relationship, there's intimacy. God is present, we experience that presence through the preached word. Now, actually, that's sufficient.

we can stop the sermon here. And say, what, that's, that's, that's all the reason we need to value the preaching of the word in our times of gathering because through that we experience the breath of God, the presence of God, but let's continue because I've got more time I need to fill up here. reason number 2. Why we should place a high value on the preaching of the word in our times of gathering is because the Word is powerful to save.

The Word of God is powerful to save. 2 Timothy 3:15. Paul says to Timothy, from childhood, you have known the sacred scriptures, which are able to be giving you the wisdom, literally in the Greek text into. Salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

A lot of times we look at a passage like that and we say, OK, God's word is able to get a person saved. That's not simply what Paul is talking about. What he's saying is God's word, even after you're saved, can keep taking you deeper and deeper and deeper into this thing called salvation. One of the mistakes we make as Christians is we get saved, and we say, I am saved.

I have entered into salvation, and we stop there rather than realizing there's so much more. That we have yet to experience. in Bible times, when a Jewish boy would turn 13. he would become a man.

He would enter into adulthood. But he, even though he is an adult, he is not as entered into adulthood as deeply as a 40 year old man who has teenage children or some children out of the home. And so yes, he's now a man, but he's not all the man that he's going to be. He needs to go deeper into that.

And the same is true when it comes to salvation. We enter into salvation, and yet we have so much still to learn, so many areas we need to change and to grow in, so much baggage we need to get rid of from our pre-salvation days. We need to go deeper and deeper and deeper into salvation hood, and it's God's word that can take us into the experience of that. My challenge to you guys is, if you're saved, go on being saved.

Keep being saved, be getting more and more saved every day. Earl Rodmacher, this is one of my favorite, quotes and the introduction to the book, The Disciple Maker that he co-wrote, with another author. he talks about an experience he had at a pastor's conference where he's preached at a pastor's conference, and listen to what he says. He says I was one of 6 speakers at the annual pastor's conference at Moody Bible Institute several years ago.

In the morning series, I was the 3rd speaker up, preceded by two of my favorite preachers. And so he gets up after these two favorite preachers, and he says, I began by saying, while Doctor Hendrix was speaking this morning, I got saved twice. And then when Doctor Weirsby spoke, I got saved again. And I am praying that as I speak to you now, you will get saved.

Remember, this is a pastor's conference. He goes on to say, you cannot believe the consternation that came over the faces of those 1500 pastors wondering what in the world do we have here. But he goes on to explain his thinking, and I really agree with this. He says one of the major problems that we have in America is the failure of the saved to go on being saved.

In fact, if the saved would get saved, we wouldn't have nearly so much trouble getting the lost saved. Amen. And so once we enter into salvation hood, there's so much that we still have yet to learn and to grow and experience. And what is it that can take us deeper and deeper into the experience of that salvation, deliverance from the guilt of sin, the power of sin, and the enjoyment of God and a relationship with him and all the richness and the texture to that, and the color of that.

What is it that does that? It's God's word. And so if you really want to go into salvation hood more and more deeply, then you need to be living every day in this book, let it be living in you, and the thought of gathering with God's people so that in the special presence of God, you can have God breathe on you, breathe audibly and speak to you. You ought to treasure that because through that you gain wisdom that takes you deeper into salvationhood.

There's a 3rd reason why we should value the preaching. Of the word in our times of gathering, and that is because the word of God is immensely profitable for us. It is immensely profitable for us. And, and by the way, there is nothing else more profitable.

than the word of God in terms of giving you what you need for life and godliness. 2 Timothy 3:16. All scripture is inspired by God, and it is profitable for teaching. All right, so anything you need to know about God, anything you need to know about yourself, anything you need to know about how to parent your children.

to have a godly, marriage, how to experience victory over sin in your life, how to get along in this world, how to be prepared for eternity, how to be prepared for Judgment Day, and to get past Judgment Day and to enter into the glory of God forever, how to have a meaningful workable relationship with the sovereign King of the universe. Anything that you need when it comes to those items, the scripture is immensely profitable for teaching you those things. The scripture is also profitable, it says, for reproof.

Now, what that means is the scripture is profitable for pointing the finger and telling you something that's wrong with you.

Isn't that exciting? God's word can tell you what's wrong with you. And on one level, you say, well, that's not something that makes me want to jump up and down for joy. But if you really stop and think about it.

You really do appreciate this. If you go to the doctor and you've got a huge swelling in your forearm. You wanna know what's wrong, right? We all know there's something wrong with us.

but we don't like it when we don't know what it is that's wrong, right? You go to the doctor, your forearm is all swollen, and you say to the doctor, can you look at my arm? And the doctor says, well, actually I've done an X-ray and your arm is broken. It's broken.

Would you say. I am so offended that you would point out something that's wrong with me. What about all the things that are right with me? Can you just focus on other parts of my body and tell me what's good in my body?

No, you actually would thank him. Thank you for telling me what is wrong with my arm. I know that something is wrong, but now that I know that it's broken, that's actually extremely helpful for me. And so God's word, this is actually an exciting thing that God's word can reveal to you what is wrong with you.

maybe sometimes you just got a bad attitude and you're not even sure why, and you're grumpy all day and feeling anxious and, and fretful, and, and, something's really off and I don't even know why. what, and you're spending time, you're in the word of God, and suddenly the light turns on and you see that pride is at work in you and, and that God through his word is just pointing his finger saying, here's what's wrong. And you respond by saying thank you, because now that I know what's wrong.

I know what I can do about it.

Here's another thing that God's word is profitable for. It's profitable for teaching, for reproof, and for correction. That's the beautiful thing. God's word doesn't just say, here's what's wrong with you.

Now figure out some way to fix it. It says, here's what's wrong with you, and then God through His word says, and I can correct you through my word. Correction is a very positive word. I grew up not liking the word correction because I was not a good student when I was younger and I would take a test and the teacher would say hand the test in so that I can correct it.

She never corrected my papers. All she did was took a red ink pen and told me what I got wrong. She never fixed it. She never corrected it.

and so maybe we're accustomed to hearing the word correct used in those ways, but actually correction is a very positive word. It means to fix. This word was used back in Bible times to speak of mending a broken bone. So, you've got a bone that is broken, and a doctor will straighten that bone, put a cast around that bone, and in a few weeks, the bone is corrected, the problem is fixed.

It's corrected, and you're happy. About that. It's a very positive word. So God through His word and through the preached word, he teaches you what you need to know about himself and about yourself and how to get along in this world and be prepared for eternity.

He is revealing to you the things that are wrong with you so that you understand what the problems are, and God can fix you through His word. It has never happened, and maybe you're here today and you're thinking, man, there's so much wrong with me. And, and I know that whatever's wrong with me, there's no one else in the church that has the same problems as I have. I find myself thinking that no one is as sinful, no one has the problems, the depth of problems that I have, and has these things wrong with him or her.

And, and sometimes we think that we're beyond repair, beyond fixing, but it has never happened that we have brought our broken selves to God, and God looks at us and says, well, I can't fix that. This is what's wrong with you, but honestly, I can't fix that. That's never happened. We can bring our broken selves to God, and God says, through his word, here's what's wrong, and I can fix that.

Isn't that great? The word of God is also profitable for training and righteousness. This word training, it comes from the Greek word for child. And one of the beautiful things about this is that part of what it indicates is that no matter where you are, if you've known the Lord for 5 minutes or 50 years, God meets you on whatever level you are on, meets you eye to eye, as it were, and he trains you, he coaches you through his word and takes you to where you need to be, and where he wants you to be.

So God's word is so profitable. It's more profitable than anything else that you could ever get your hands on to read. So if you're wanting to be successful in terms of life and godliness, this is the most profitable resource that you can ever. read, study, memorize, and meditate on, and also hear preached.

Another thing about God's word, another reason why we should value the preaching of the word in our times of gathering is because the word of God is sufficient to equip us for every good work. It's sufficient. God doesn't give us his word and say, I, I designed this to be a help, but what? Honestly, if you want the full package, you're gonna have to read Sigmund Freud.

And BF Skinner, Carl Jung, and you're gonna have to watch the Doctor Phil show, at least 4 times a week and listen to Doctor Laura on the radio. And if you are accessing these gurus of wisdom that are out in the world today, and you combine that with the Bible, then you will have all that you need. The Bible actually teaches that it itself. Is fully sufficient to equip us for life and godliness.

And we have to believe that. 2 Timothy 3:12 or 3:17, Paul tells us all the things that God's word is profitable for, and then he says, so that the man of God may be literally equipped, comma, equipped out for every good work. He uses the word equipped twice. The second time he sticks a preposition out in.

In front of it to intensify it. The idea is so that the man of God or the Christian may be equipped, comma, totally equipped for every good work. There is nothing that God ever will want you to do. Any sin he will ever want you to say no to, any ministry that he will ever want you to engage in, any good deed that he ever wants you to do that his word is not completely sufficient to equip you.

Totally equip you for. And so, it's actually fairly simple. Get in this book. And let this book be in you, and be excited about coming and hearing the word of God preached, where God You can witness God breathing through his word as he speaks to you and works in your life.

And you experience the prophet of his word in that. In that way. Well, there's a 5th reason why we should value the preaching of the word in our times of gathering, and that is because the preaching of the word is timelessly appropriate. The Word of God is timelessly.

Appropriate. Paul says to Timothy, in 2 Timothy 4:2, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season. So he's telling Timothy, study the culture. And as you look at the culture, if certain truths that are in the word are in season, and they're popular, go ahead and preach them.

But also, as you study the word, if there are certain gospel truths that are not popular, and they're out of season at the time, well, that's your cue to go ahead and preach those truths anyway. In season, out of season. In other words, God's word and the truths of God's word are timelessly. Appropriate and so we do not need to put our finger to the wind and evaluate whether this doctrine is popular today or not just preach the word.

You guys should want and your pastors for them to get up on Sunday and just preach the word and all of its raw power whether it feels good to you. Or not amen. Whether it's popular or not, and yet we have people in pulpits today who do put their finger to the wind and they try to discern what's in season and they preach. Biblical truths that are in season and those that are out of season, they lay those aside and ignore them.

the Larry King show a little over a year ago, there was a pastor of a mega church in the Southwest that was being interviewed and a caller called in and said, Jesus said, I'm the only way, the only truth, and the only life. No one gets to the Father except through me. what do you make of that? And this pastor totally waffled.

On that Statement of Jesus and said, well, I, I don't know it's not my place to judge. I've been to India and those people, it's a different religion but they're certainly sincere and they love God and it's not my place to judge and on national television this mega evangelical pastor has a massive church completely waffled on a truth that happens to be out of season. Today In the same interview, Larry King asked him, do you preach sin and damnation? Do you tell people that they're sinners?

And the pastor specifically said, no, I don't. No, I don't. I want to be an encourager. I want to encourage people not to condemn them.

Well, if that should be one's philosophy of ministry, Paul really blew it. And did not know what he was doing. But what? There are a lot of doctrines in the word of God that are out of season today.

The teaching about the biblical teaching on marriage, that's out of season, that it's one man and one woman. that homosexual behavior is, immoral and an offense against a holy God that's out of season today. we can stand up here and list many, many doctrines, the truth that Jesus is the only way of salvation. These are all very offensive out of season truths, but what you want in your pastors is for them to look at God's word.

And to just preach it whether it's in season or out of season. Pray that we will have the courage to do that. so that's another reason why we should value the preaching of the word in our times of gathering. Yet another reason is because the preaching of the word gives us both confrontation and encouragement, and boy, do we need both.

The preaching of the word gives us both confrontation and encouragement, and we need both. 2 Timothy 4:2 preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke. Now those are negative words, and we don't like that. None of us enjoys being rebuked.

We can mature to a point where We appreciate it, but none of us just experiences a thrill at being rebuked. We don't like that. And yet Paul is commanding Timothy that when he preaches the word, that he reproves and he rebukes the people of God. And so you actually need to expect that when you gather and you hear God breathe and speak through the preaching of the word, you need to expect to feel conviction and to be rebuked and reproved by the teaching of the word of God.

why you should expect that? Because we all have a lot of changing that still needs to happen in our lives. None of us have arrived. And so we need to experience that.

And, and what? Here's what I've been thinking about. While none of us likes to be rebuked and reproved even by the word. We ought to get to a place where we actually relish that, because I'll tell you something scarier than being reproved and rebuked and convicted by the word.

Here's, here's something scarier, not being convicted. Or reproved by the word. To hear the word of God preached and to feel no conviction, no guilt, no reproof. That's the scariest place to be.

That's when your conscience is seared and God is not working in this way in your life. I remember when I was in seminary, I went through a season where I, I began to be terrified because I would read the Bible and it was just words on a page. I didn't feel like God was speaking to me, through his word. And I wasn't feeling conviction as I would hear the word preached and as I would read the word and I began to suspect that God was finished with me.

and then near the end of that season I started reading the book of Hebrews, which was a very hard book to read. There were a lot of threats and warnings, and, and I began reading that and suddenly that book came alive to me and I felt like God was speaking to me through that book and as hard as it was to hear my heart was leaping up and down because I was like, God is not done with me. He's still speaking. And I cherish the fact that I could feel conviction still.

Because it was a sign that God was working and that I was his child. When you do hear the word preached and you just feel sliced with guilt or shattered in your heart with conviction over your sin, you need to realize that that's a sign of life in you. That is a sign of love. God loves you so much that he's not done with you, and he wants to work in your life so that through that conviction, he can bring you to the cross and further change you into what he wants you to be.

So the preaching of the word gives us the confrontation we need, but also it gives us the encouragement we need. Look at this reprove, rebuke, exhort. That word exhort means to call from along one side or to call to one side. This word is often translated as comfort or encourage, even in the New Testament.

And so Paul is saying you do need to rebuke the people of God if there's sin in their lives, but also as you preach the word, encourage them, comfort them, call them to your side. And let them know that they are not alone in their journey and even in their struggles and give them comfort and encouragement. And so there should be balance. And as we read the word, it's amazing.

God in just one season of time in the word, he gives us both conviction and also encouragement at the same time, and he does that in a preaching message also. So a 6th reason to value the preaching of the word in our times of gathering is because the preaching of the word gives us both confrontation and encouragement, and we need both of these in our lives. Reason number 7. Why we should value the preaching of the word.

And that is because the preaching of the word does its work progressively over a long period of time. One of the fascinating things to me is that., I've heard a lot of sermons in my day and also every sermon I preach, I'm preaching to myself, so, I have to hear myself twice every Sunday and sometimes 3 times on a Sunday when I preach at EFC. I cannot measure the impact that one single sermon has on me. It's hard to quantify and to measure, but I do know that I'm a different man now than I was 10 years ago.

And I know that a huge part of that has been the messages that I have heard others preach and that I've even heard myself preach from the word of God and the the beautiful thing about the preaching of the word is that through the preached word God intends to do his work in us over a long period of time. it'll never happen. In fact, let me pick on Britt Kimball here that just imagine, and this is extremely hypothetical here, and I'm just kidding. imagine Britt were perfect.

All right? And everyone in the church, we're talking to him, we see him. And it's like the guy is nailing it. He's perfect in every way.

He never sends a word, deed or thought, and he's always doing the right thing, always has grace and love to give. And of everyone in our church, this guy is absolutely the perfect Christian in every way. And imagine you come up to Britt and say, Britt, what is your secret? how did you become where you are now?

And imagine he said, well, about 15 years ago, I went to a church service and I heard a sermon. And it was a 45 minute sermon. And I don't know, ever since I heard that one sermon, I frankly have not sinned since. My life has been 100% completely transformed.

How would you respond? You'd be like, hey, can I, do you have that sermon available? we would want a copy of that sermon. It would be nice if the Christian life were that way.

But Britt is not perfect. I'm not perfect. None of us are perfect. Sermons don't change us completely, just in one hearing.

God did not intend that and understand. That that's actually OK. The preaching of the word does its work progressively over a long period of time. Look what he says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove.

rebuke, exhort. I love this. Feel the heart of God here with great patience. Timothy, as you preach the word to the people of God, preach not just with patience, but with great patience.

I want every one of you to feel the arms of God around you as he speaks to someone like me and says, Milton, as you preach to these precious people that I died for, preach to them the word, but do it with great patience. Be patient With this child of mine that you preach to. what that tells us about God? It tells us that God has great patience.

And if you walk out of this message this morning, and you're not 100% changed to where you never sin again, that's actually OK. God anticipates that. But what God does want to do is that through every message, through every encounter with his word, you are changed step by step, little by little, from one stage of glory to another. And you may not be able to go home and by Wednesday of this week, quantify and measure the difference that this sermon today made in your life.

But what? Lord willing, 10 years from today, you'll be a different person than you are today. And the hundreds, even thousands of sermons and times alone in the word of God, fellowshipping with others around the word of God. All of those things will have contributed to changing you step by step.

That's why we need to gather just every week to hear the word preached, because it does its work in us progressively over a long period of time. The final reason why we should value the preached word in our times of gathering is because the preaching of the word serves to prevent even Christians from turning aside to falsehood. All of us have a sinful flesh inside of us. We have this bent towards falsehood.

towards sin, even though we have the Spirit of God in us, we have a flesh that is always screaming to do wrong, and the preaching of the word of God keeps us centered in the truth. Do you realize that the Bible teaches in this passage that if we completely stop preaching the word, ultimately, we would dissipate and gravitate towards error. That would happen. Look what Paul says to Timothy, preach the word, be ready in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction.

Verse 3, for the time will come. And part of what he's saying is if you don't preach the word, the time will come inevitably. When they, even the people of God, would not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths. That are befitting to the fleshly desires.

So we need, we need the word of God, we need the preaching of the word of God that exerts a gravitational pull upon us that keeps us centered on the truth and keeps us from that natural tendency to wander away into error and into sin. God Is right now present. In this room Do you believe that? As flawed And imperfect as this sermon today is, God Has breathed audibly.

Through this poor instrument. And he has breathed upon everybody in this room. You have experienced The presence Of God. And that is why We value.

The preached Word. Because through that we experience. The living God who spoke. And who speaks.

Through His word to us. Today, and that is why better is one day. In his courts than 1000 elsewhere. Better is 1 hour listening to the preached word than 1000 hours.

Doing anything else. Let's pray together Father You have breathed. Upon us today. We have listened.

And we have heard. And our prayer is that we will be changed. By this encounter with you. May we, Lord, experience your presence wherever we go.

But may we cherish the unique way that you manifest your presence in the gathering of your people. And may we cherish the unique way that you manifest your presence through. The preached word when your people gather. May we be enriched by this?

Cherish it. Make it one of our highest values. May we anticipate the preached word. May we prepare our hearts for the preached word.

May we. Make sure that we're adequately rested on Saturday. So that we are awake when the word is preached. May we be willing to turn off our televisions.

On a Saturday night, for example, so that. We can get our heart in tune and ready to hear in a very special way God speak. I personally, Lord, want to thank you for being here today. And for breathing on me.

And for breathing upon all of us. In this room. We do not deserve to hear. A single word from you.

Rather than a word of judgment and condemnation. Yeah you give us this book where you speak love. And grace and forgiveness. And hope And healing And relationship.

And we have heard all of that today. We yield ourselves to You, Lord. In the name of Jesus. And all God's people said, Amen.