These are notes on the sermon, The Transformative Power of God’s Word, preached by Pastor Joseph Prince on Sunday, November 3, 2024, at The Star Performing Arts Centre, Singapore. We hope these sermon notes will be an encouragement to you!
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Did you know that many scientific facts in the Bible have been proven to be true? For instance, the book of Isaiah tells us that the earth is round (Isa. 40:22). The book of Job, the oldest book in the Bible, also tells us that the earth suspends over nothing (Job 26:7) and that the moon does not have light of its own (Job 25:5).
The Bible is truly exciting! While the Bible is scientifically accurate, it was not written to inform us about scientific discoveries. It is God’s love letter to us. It points us to our Lord Jesus, reveals God’s love for us, and tells us about the relationship we can have with Him!
Psalm 147 is a beautiful psalm that speaks of the Father’s love for us.
The same God who created this vast universe cares intimately about every detail of our lives. He knows the exact number of stars in the sky, and He calls each one by name. Yet, He is the same God who heals the brokenhearted, binds up our wounds, and numbers the very hairs on our heads (Luke 12:7)!
God’s heart of love for us is also beautifully captured in our Lord Jesus’ teachings on the sparrows.
Sparrows were considered one of the least valuable birds in Jesus’ time—they were so cheap that you could buy two for just one copper coin (Matt. 10:29), and for two copper coins, an extra sparrow would be thrown in for free. Yet, God feeds and cares for these sparrows. If your heavenly Father takes care of the sparrows, how much more would He care for you, beloved?
The Bible is a collection of God’s written Word. But within the written Word, we can also find a rhema word, God’s word in season for us, that can speak directly to our hearts and specific situations. And this rhema word of God is what we need each day!
Notice how the verse starts with “words” (plural) and then moves to “word” (singular)? This change from a plural to a singular form tells us that as we read widely across the whole Bible, there will be a specific word we need that “leaps out” at us and arrests our hearts.
Have you ever experienced this before? You might have even felt as though the Lord is speaking personally to you through a specific verse or passage. That’s the rhema word God has for us, which He invites us to meditate on throughout the day!
Often, we may think we are simply reading the Bible, but the truth is, the Word of God is “reading us”—revealing the thoughts and intentions of our hearts (Heb. 4:12) and illuminating a rhema word that ministers to us. That’s how God uses His Word to speak to, comfort, and guide us.
While the Holy Spirit can lead and guide us in our study of the Word, God, in His grace, has also given us gifts in the form of people to help us in our understanding of the Word. Bible teachers, along with pastors, prophets, apostles, and evangelists, are part of God’s gift to the body of Christ (Eph. 4:11). The Holy Spirit works through people, and He uses Bible teachers to open up His Word to us!
Consider the story in Acts 8:
Here, we see how it was the Holy Spirit who instructed Philip to approach the Ethiopian eunuch’s chariot. The Holy Spirit was clearly present in this situation and could have taught the eunuch directly about the passage of Scripture he was reading in Isaiah. Yet, the Holy Spirit chose to use Philip to guide and bring understanding to the eunuch.
This passage of Scripture shows us that God uses Bible teachers to break down the Word of God so that we can easily receive it. We may struggle to understand certain portions of Scripture on our own. But we can find clarity and understanding when we pick up a book or listen to a message in which a teacher unpacks these portions of Scripture for us. These are moments when the Holy Spirit works through teachers to meet us at our point of need! If we study the Bible on our own, we are likely to gravitate toward familiar passages. A Bible teacher, however, can guide us to different passages in the Bible and help reveal the person of Jesus within them.
It’s important for us to glean from Bible teachers whom God has placed on our hearts. They are often the pastors of the local churches where we are planted. God has a specific rhema word for every church. When you listen to the rhema word preached by your pastor on Sundays, you’ll discover that the word has been specifically tailored to carry you through your circumstances for that week!
The enemy will always try to steal God’s Word from our hearts (Luke 8:12), and one way he does this is through distractions. Wouldn’t you agree that it’s a lot easier to be distracted when you’re tuning in to a service online? That’s why it’s so important that we do not forsake “the assembling of ourselves together” in the house of God (Heb. 10:25)!
In the local church, we experience an anointing that is not present when we are alone in our own homes. This anointing can bring us encouragement, lift us out of our cares and frustrations, and lighten our burdens. Even if we are discouraged, when we gather together, we find that faith arises in our hearts.
The church is also where we encounter the Lord’s presence. And in the Lord’s presence, our enemies are scattered, and our bitterness melts away effortlessly, like butter in the sun. It’s amazing what happens when we come together in God’s house!
Let’s take a look at this beautiful psalm:
Psalm 84 was written by the sons of Korah. In this psalm, we see them expressing their deep longing to be there. Even the sparrows, considered among the least valuable birds, were envied by the sons of Korah because they could build their nests and find their resting place in the house of God.
The psalm goes on to describe the blessings we experience when we value being in God’s house:
Blessed are those who long to be in God’s house and eagerly anticipate gathering with God’s people on Sunday!
“Whose heart is set on pilgrimage”—Pilgrims are people on a journey to a place of worship.
“Valley of Baca”—In Hebrew, Baca refers to “weeping.”
In other words, if we receive bad news during the week and find ourselves in the Valley of Baca (a place of weeping), as we set our hearts on God’s house and embark on a journey toward it, God promises to turn our situations around and transform our “valleys of weeping” into pools of refreshment and blessing. He also promises that we will go from strength to strength!
The Lord provides for us abundantly in His house. The prodigal son in the parable in Luke 15 didn’t return to his father’s house because he had a revelation of his father’s love but because he knew that there was “bread enough and to spare” in his father’s house (Luke 15:17). In the same way, God has abundant bread for us in His house—both spiritual bread (His Word) and physical bread (healing for our bodies)!
When you step into the house of God, you step into a timeless zone where what is impossible with man becomes possible. Are you trusting God for a breakthrough? Beloved, God is still in the miracle-working business. A miracle goes beyond natural laws—God established these natural laws, and He is able to transcend them. Even if things are not looking great now, know that what is impossible with man is possible with God (Luke 1:37)!
God’s house is also where He brings people together! Many in the Bible found their wives at the well: Isaac’s wife, Rebekah; Jacob’s wife, Rachel; and Moses’ wife, Zipporah. The well serves as a picture of the church, where we find living water and come together to be refreshed in God’s presence.
So, let’s value our time in God’s house, knowing it is where He provides for us abundantly and commands His blessings (Ps. 133:3). Truly, a day in God’s house is better than a thousand elsewhere (Ps. 84:10)!
When we read the Bible, our focus should always be on seeing our Lord Jesus in the Word.
On the day of His resurrection, our Lord Jesus chose to draw near to two discouraged disciples on the road to Emmaus. Even though He had just risen from the dead, He took the time to walk with them, and as the Lord expounded to the two disciples in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Luke 24:27), their hearts were warmed.
Luke 24:16 tells us that the disciples’ eyes were restrained from seeing the Lord. Why did the Lord intentionally prevent the two disciples from recognizing Him? Because it was more important for them to see Jesus in the Word than to see Him in person. This gives us hope: even though we no longer live in the days when Jesus walked the earth, we can still encounter Him in the Scriptures today!
As we behold Jesus in the Word, we are freed from self-occupation. Instead, we become Christ-occupied—captivated by Jesus, the loveliness of His person, and His finished work!
The disciples on the road to Emmaus were discouraged because they had hoped Jesus would be the one to redeem Israel (Luke 24:21) and themselves. But now that He had been crucified, they gave up all hope.
Like the two disciples, we can get hurt and frustrated when we are overly focused on ourselves and our needs and desires. Self-occupation is one of the reasons we often struggle with discouragement, self-consciousness, shyness, anger, bitterness, or a sense of entitlement. So, how can we rise above this?
Consider the woman at the well in John 4. She was so occupied with her own shame that she chose to draw water at the hottest time of the day to avoid meeting others. Yet, Jesus met her there and revealed Himself as the Messiah to her. He showed her that He knew everything about her and still loved her deeply. It’s as though He were saying, “I know all about you, and I’m still here. I love you.” After her encounter with the Lord, the woman was transformed. She was full of boldness and became an instant evangelist, going around sharing the good news of Jesus!
Like the woman at the well, when we are occupied with the person of Jesus, we experience the life-transforming power of the gospel and are no longer occupied with our cares and troubles!
In fact, the transformation in our lives can cause us to be a blessing to the people around us!
We are living epistles of Christ, letters of commendation reflecting everything we have received from the Lord through our pastors. Whatever is preached to us will be written on our hearts by the Spirit of the living God. And the words we receive transform us and are translated through the way we live our lives. That’s how we become a blessing to those we encounter!
We read our Bibles, but those around us read our lives. Our friends, colleagues, and neighbors may never open a Bible, but they will encounter us and notice how our lives have been transformed. Our faces shine when we look to the Lord—there is a radiance on us (Ps. 34:5), a light that cannot be hidden!
We need to ensure that we are fully under the new covenant of grace. The Bible tells us that we can’t put new wine into old wineskins; if we do, the wineskins will break, and both the old and new wine will be lost (Mark 2:22). In the same way, we lose the virtues of both the old and new covenants when we mix law and grace, and God’s grace is nullified in our lives! This is why it is important that our doctrines are not a mixture of the old covenant of law and the new covenant of grace.
Martin Luther, a German monk and scholar, similarly emphasized the importance of rightly dividing between law and grace.
In 2 Corinthians 3:6, the apostle Paul says that “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” The “letter” refers to the law, specifically the Ten Commandments. He goes on to say,
While the law was glorious, it was a fading glory. In contrast, the ministry of the Spirit is far more glorious and ever-increasing. At Mount Sinai, where the law was given, 3,000 people died. But at Mount Zion, where the Holy Spirit was given, 3,000 people were saved. The letter of the law kills, but the Spirit gives life! It is crucial that what we hear from the pulpit each Sunday comes from the “right mountain”—Mount Zion, the place of grace and life.
Additionally, we need to understand God’s purpose in giving the law. The purpose of the law was never to give life or to empower us to keep God’s commandments but to reveal our sinful nature and our need for a Savior.
Because of His great love for us, God sent His Son to die for our sins so that we could be identified with Jesus, who is righteous, holy, and blameless. Today, God doesn’t judge us based on our actions but on what Jesus has accomplished for us at the cross.
Does this mean that grace gives us a license to sin? Absolutely not!
First Corinthians 15:56 tells us that the strength of sin is the law. This means that when we put ourselves under the law, we come under the power of sin. However, our hearts and lives are transformed when we live under grace.
As we draw closer to the Lord and experience His unconditional love and acceptance for us, we fall deeper in love with Him. The more conscious we are of His love for us, the more our sinful habits and behaviors lose their hold over us. When we are truly under grace, sin loses its dominion over us (Rom. 6:14).
Like the woman at the well who experienced this transformation after her encounter with Jesus, may we also experience the life-transforming power of the gospel as we continue to be Christ-occupied, finding our fullness in Him. As we behold His beauty, may our lives continue to shine brighter and brighter with His glory and reflect Him to those around us!
We hope these sermon notes blessed you! If they did, we encourage you to get the sermon and allow the Lord to speak to you personally as you watch or listen to it.
© Copyright JosephPrince.com 2024
These sermon notes were taken by volunteers during the service. They are not a verbatim representation of the sermon.
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