Sermon Central
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God's Word Has Power To Change Lives
Contributed by Ray Ellis on Jun 14, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: This message tells about the transforming power of God’s Word to change lives. Ideas for this message were glended from the "Ezra Network."
God’s Word Has Power to Change Lives
God’s Word has power to change lives because it message is about Jesus the World and Person Changer.
How important is the Word of God to you? Is it something you take for granted? Is it something you can do without and all you need to get from the Bible you can get on Sunday? I pray that through the teaching of this message today that if you are not regularly reading and studying the Word of God you will began to make God’s Word a regular diet for your life.
All who take God at His Word find power in His Word.
## Isaac a Lambadi tribesman lay paralyzed on his left side. Isaac had prayed countless prayers to Hindu gods asking for healing. But nothing happened. So the Lambadi tribesman in central India began reading a Lambadi Gospel of Mark, the only Scripture translated into his native language. His heart quickened with hope as he read that Jesus healed the paralytic who was lowered through the roof. (Mark 2)
“Jesus,” he prayed, “you healed that paralyzed man. Please heal me.”
Time passed, and Isaac continued to pray. First he noticed feeling in his limbs. Then he could move his hand, then his entire arm. Within a few weeks, he got out of bed and walked out of his house!
“The Hindu gods healed you!” astounded townspeople exclaimed.
“No, it was the God of this book,” Isaac answered, holding up the Gospel of Mark. “He is the one true God.”
Using that one book of Scripture, Isaac began to lead his people to the Lord. Today, through the power of the Scripture he loves, he pastors a growing church of more than 250 Lambadi believers.
The Bible is authored by God through the Holy Spirit’s inspiration. The Bible is the only book in the history of the written word that contains a message that can redeem the sinful human heart and transform the human mind to become more like Christ’s! Only through this power, divinely revealed to us from God, can we find forgiveness of sins through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Turn to Ezra 7:6-10 in your Bibles. Ezra is in the Old Testament and follows I & II Kings and I & II Chronicles and comes just before Nehemiah. Ezra was a priest of the Lord who took the Word of the Lord seriously. When 50,000 Jews returned from exile in Babylon back to Jerusalem, Ezra served as their pastor and teacher. The 1,500 mile journey took four months and eleven days.
From the life of Ezra we are reminded of several truths about the Word of God.
I. God’s Word is Powerful
God’s Word is powerful because it is inspired by God. Holy men of God wrote His Word as they were moved and carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21)
“All Scripture is God-breathed (inspired) and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16)
• God’s Word is alive and powerful. (Hebrews 4:12) “For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
• God’s Word will not return void or empty. (Isaiah 55:10-11), “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out of my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
• God’s Word is Power of salvation to all who believe. (Romans 1:16) the Apostle Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew, then for the Gentiles.”
• God’s Word is Powerful in overcoming temptation. When Jesus was tempted by the Devil Jesus used the Scriptures to defeat the Devil’s temptations. With every temptation Jesus answered Satan, “It is written and quoted Old Testament Scripture.” (Matthew 4:1-11)
• God’s Word serves as motivation for outreach. (Romans 10:14), “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”
Missionaries tell stories that some nonbelievers even have more respect for the Bible.
## For many years Samuel Desimone has ministered to men incarcerated in prisons in and around Buenos Aires, Argentina. But one night even he was surprised at the power of God’s Word.
