March 2, 2014 – Pastor Tim – “Study the Word”
James 1:25, But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. (NLT)
Many Christians are trying to have faith. We are trying to believe. We meet together in services, each of us urging the other to do what we’re not doing ourselves. Sometimes we use scriptural expressions and high sounding that make us sound like we know what we are doing.
One of the problems can be that we are listening, but we are not digesting what is being said. We are not doing any original thinking on our own. Al Gluchoski once talked about the difference between the “milk” and “meat” of the Word. Milk is when someone feeds you. The preacher prepares a sermon and feeds his flock. To enjoy the “meat,” a person goes in the Word and hunts for their own meat. At best, the “hearer” is only drinking milk—which is nourishing. But we must spend our own time in the study of God’s. Now don’t misunderstand me, you can take what you hear and start the hunt. But if we are not hunting for ourselves, studying for ourselves, we are what the Bible calls “hearers of the Word” and not doers. And that’s the reason why some people go under when the storms of life come, or are weak in the battle—“growing weary in well doing”.
Jesus said in Matthew 7:24-25, “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. Jesus said that the man who built his house on the sand is the man who heard the Word but did not do it. But the man who built his house on the rock is the man who heard the Word and did it.
So many people are hearers of the Word and not doers. If you’re not a doer of the Word, you don’t have any foundation under you. Smith Wigglesworth made a statement: “If you wait until you need faith to get it, you’re too late.” That’s the reason you need to study the Word for yourself and find out what it says.
We need to be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only. We must spend time studying God’s Word, and then put that Word into action. Take the risk to believe and act. There is no faith in believing—faith comes in the action. But action alone is not faith. We must discover God’s truths contained in His Word. Believe, add faith and follow with action. And then we will be blessed in every area of our lives. We will have faith (faith from God’s Word) for the task…the storm…the call…
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