The Transforming WordHeb 4: 12-13

4 reasons to not disregard the Word

• 1. It is a Living Word (v12a)• 2. It is a Powerful Word (v12b)• 3. It is a Penetrating Word (v12c)• 4. It is a Discerning Word (v12d & 13)

A living Word…• The Library of Congress has over 150 million items on over 530 miles of shelves.• But the Bible is in a unique category all to itself.• “living” Gr: zon – placed in the empathic position; not dead but compelling relevance; cannot fail itself to be alive. • Going through the Bible is one thing; letting it go through you is an entirely different matter.

A Powerful Word…• Powerful: Gr energes – energetic; literally means “at work.”• “News articles may inform us. Novels may inspire us. Poetry may enrapture us. But only the living, active Word of God can transform us.” ~Charles Swindoll~• The story of Mutiny on the Bounty

A Penetrating Word…• A sharp sword can lay open a human body. The Sword of the Word opens our inner life and exposes it to ourselves and others.• God’s Word can reach our inmost recesses.• The Word is a scalpel in the Spirit’s hands, removing the cancer of sin and deceit.• The Whitefield/Thorp story.

A Discerning Word• Three truths:• 1. God sees everything – there is no escape• 2. God sees everything – there is no hiding.• 3. God sees everything – there is no excuse.

God sees all – No escape

• God sees us when we are in pain or going through difficult times, but if He sees ALL, He also sees our wrongdoing that we’d rather not look at.

• Discerner: Gr kritikos – critic or judge.

God sees all – no hiding!• Only the Word is capable of exposing

the thoughts & attitudes of a human heart.

• “laid bare” Gr. Tetrachelismena; to bend a neck backward so the face is looking up.

• In the grip of an all powerful God, we are vulnerable, and all our secrets are known. The devil loves when we keep secrets – he uses them to keep us in condemnation and shame.

God sees all – no excuses

• There is a coming day of reckoning upon which we will each give an account for our lives.

• Rom 3:19 “…every mouth will be stopped….”

• 2 Cor 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

The challenge…

•Are you •willing •to be

•changed?

Be blessed!

•The Words of the•Lord are pure

words,•Tried as silver.