Why We Preach The Word (2 Timothy 3)

Good morning, Gospel City. Open your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. This is where we’ll begin our four-week series on our distinctives. My name is Mitch, and I’m one of the pastors here. It’s a privilege to open God’s Word with you this morning.

As you turn to 2 Timothy 3, I want to begin with a question. Have you ever thought about the fact that what we’re doing right now is kind of strange? Think about it. There’s hundreds of people gathered in this room to listen to one man give a passionate speech for 45 minutes.

It’s not like you’ve come to Gospel City because the preachers here are particularly funny. If you wanted to laugh you would go see a comedian. If you wanted to be entertained you wouldn’t come here. You would go to the beach or you would go see a movie.

It’s not like you’ve come here because there is some extraordinary public speaker with amazing oratory skill. I got a C- in my 8th grade speech class. I still remember Mr. Smithers ripping my speech to shreds.

So why have hundreds of extremely busy people gathered here this morning to hear one man give a passionate speech for 45 minutes? And the more you think about it, the more strange it gets. This morning’s speech is based on a text in 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy is a letter written by a man named Paul to another man named Timothy. And Paul wrote this letter thousands of years ago in a language that none of us speak to a man we have never met who lived in a strange culture that we have never experienced.

And yet you have all gathered here this morning to hear someone give a long passionate speech about a few words written in this letter, written by a stranger to a stranger from a strange culture, written thousands of years ago. That’s kind of strange if you think about it.

So why are we here? Why do we gather every Sunday week after week to hear passionate speeches from this ancient book? With that question in mind, I invite you to look down at 2 Timothy 3:14 and hear the Word of the Lord.

It says, But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word.
(2 Timothy 3:14-4:2)

Let’s pray. Father, we thank You for this morning where we have gathered together to worship You in the name of Jesus by the power of the Spirit. Lord, we thank You that You have summoned us, you have called us, here. We are the called out ones, called out of the world, called out of the kingdom of darkness, called out of the kingdom of the devil and transferred by believing in the gospel of Your Son, transferred into His kingdom, the kingdom of light, the kingdom of goodness and joy and peace and hope.

And as a representation of our people here on earth, we have gathered together to sing praises to the King of heaven. And Lord, we thank You that Your Word is Your Word, that we have come here to hear the preaching and the teaching and the singing and the reading and the praying of Your Holy Word. And Lord, we thank You that Your Word has the power to teach us, to reprove us, to correct us and to train us for righteousness, that we may be men and women of God, equipped for righteousness, that the world may look at us and the way that we love one another and that they would know that we are the disciples of the God who is love.

So Lord, I pray that You would use this sermon to encourage us, to equip us, to maybe even reprove us, correct us, and train us for righteousness as we talk about why we as a church are a church that preaches Your Word without apology. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

So as we’ve said, this sermon begins the first of our four-week series on the Gospel City distinctives. And our first distinctive is bold exegetical preaching. So let’s start with some definitions. Exegetical is a big word, but it simply means to draw meaning out of a text. Preachers don’t invent a message that isn’t there. We expose the meaning that is there. Preachers are not chefs who invent a message; we are servers who deliver the message we have been given. We don’t just read the text and then talk about whatever we want to talk about. We talk about what is in the text. We are drawing meaning out of the text.

And preaching is a type of speaking that aims to influence the will and the emotions through the mind. As preachers, our goal is to move you to action, to exhort you to love God with your affections and to obey Him with your actions. And yet we don’t use emotional manipulation. We appeal to the truth that God is lovable and worthy of all of your adoration and all of your obedience. We aim to influence the will and the emotions through the mind.

A message that only aims at the mind is just a lecture. A message that only aims at the emotions is just a pep talk. And a message that only aims at your actions is just a motivational speech.

But exegetical preaching aims to expose the truth of God’s Word, then teach what is there. And then we say, “Because this is true, you need to love this and feel this and do this and obey this.” It exhorts the will and the emotions through the mind by exposing the truth of God’s Word.

So this is what bold exegetical preaching is. And the good news is you don’t have to remember any of that definition to be blessed by exegetical preaching. But you should know that it is a distinctive of our church not just on Sunday mornings but of all the ministries that we do. And men’s and women’s Bible studies we preach and we teach the Word. In youth group we preach and we teach the Word. In children’s ministry we preach and we teach the Word even to those four-year-olds. In small groups we discuss and we apply the preaching of the Word.

This morning I want to help us understand why. Why do we preach the Word? Why don’t we preach about politics or current events or social activism or saving the democracy? Why don’t we just gather and have some devotional thoughts? Why do we preach the Word and only the Word?

Well, our passage for today is all about the Word, what the Word is, and what the Word does. And as we think about what the Word is and what the Word does, I think we as Gospel City will have a collective “amen.” This is why we at Gospel City preach the Word, and this is why you have chosen to become united to the Body that is Gospel City Church.

I see three reasons in the text for why we preach the Word. Number one, we preach the Word because the Word has the power to save sinners. We preach the Word because the Word has the power to save sinners. Look back down at 2 Timothy 3:14.

It says, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

So Timothy was a pastor over the church in Ephesus. He’s a young pastor who is discouraged in the ministry. So Paul is writing to encourage him to preach the Word no matter what. Paul is saying, “Timothy, no matter how much pushback you get in your congregation, no matter how much you are being persecuted by the world around you, preach the Word and only the Word. Keep preaching the Word in season and out of season. Keep teaching the Word that you have been taught since you were young. Keep preaching the Word.”

That is the point of the whole passage, to exhort the discouraged Timothy to keep preaching, no matter what resistance he might get. And in order to encourage Timothy to keep preaching the Word, Paul reminds him what the Word is and what the Word does.

So look back at verse 15. It says, “the sacred writings, or the Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

So Timothy needs to keep preaching the Word because the Word is able to make people wise for salvation. Paul is saying, “Timothy, remember the Word is what saved you. So keep preaching it because it will save your hearers also, even maybe those who are persecuting you.

And now I want us to focus on the word able. How are the Scriptures able to make us wise for salvation? I think as we consider how the Scriptures are able to make us wise for salvation, we will see that it has lots of implications for preaching. The first way, the Word reveals the message that saves.

So there’s only one message that saves, and we call this message the gospel of Jesus Christ. Acts 4:12 says, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Jesus adds, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Galatians 3:16 says, “We know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.”

So the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only message of salvation. Your good works can’t save you. Your church attendance can’t save you. Your grandma’s faith can’t save you. Your bank account cannot save you. Your resume cannot save you. Modern medicine cannot save you. The Republican party cannot save you. The Buddha and Mohammed, Dalai Lama, none of them can save you. Only faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ can save you from the wrath of God and the eternal fires of hell.

So we need to ask ourselves, where can we find this message that saves? Is it written in the sky? Is it just some devotional thoughts that we share? Where can we learn what it means to have faith in Jesus Christ?

The answer is obviously the Scriptures. Romans 10:17 says faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ. In order to come to faith in Christ, you must hear the Word of Christ.

And yet it’s important to understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not just in a few verses in Romans. It’s not just in the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. No, the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation is telling one unified story about how God saves sinners through faith and faith alone in His Son.

Jesus says in John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me.” He adds in verse 46, “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me.”

So Paul is saying, “Timothy, preach the whole council of God’s Word because the Word is proclaiming from beginning to end the good news that God saves sinners through faith in His Son, and this is the only and only message that saves.

And Gospel City, this is why we preach the Word because hell is real and God is holy, and every Sunday sinners walk through those doors in bondage to their sin, in bondage to the fear of death, knowing that they deserve the wrath of God. They are burdened to their guilt, burdened to their shame, with no hope and without God in this world. Sinners who deserve the wrath of God are in bondage to sin. They don’t need a spiritual pep talk. They don’t need a motivational speech about how to be more religious. They don’t need a Ted Talk about how to be the best version of themselves. They don’t need some jokes and stories just to numb the pain and send them back out into the broken world. They don’t need to be told to live their best lives now and that they’re stronger than they think and they just need to become a better you.

No, sinners need Jesus. They need to hear the good news that they can be saved from their sins through faith in the Son. And this one and only message of salvation is revealed in the Scriptures. Therefore we preach the Word because the Word is able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. What else would we preach? We preach Christ and Him crucified. And in order to do that, we preach the Word from Genesis to Revelation.

Number two, the second reason the Word is able to make us wise for salvation, the Word has the power that saves. The Word has the power that saves. We just considered how the Word has the one and only message of salvation. Well now I want us to consider how the Word has the power for salvation.

And in order to consider the power of the Word, look down at verse 16. Verse 16, one of the most famous verses in the Bible, says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God.”

There are seven words in that phrase and every single word is important. Scripture refers to what you hold in your hands, the Bible. And the Bible is not just words about God. It is God’s Word. It is breathed out by the living God. That is a world of difference. It is not just what some men thought of one time and wrote down what they think what God is like. No, the Bible is breathed out by the living God. Just as I am breathing out words to you right now, Scripture is words breathed out by God.

Next it says “all.” It says all Scripture, not some of it. All of it is God’s Word. Romans is God’s Word, and Leviticus is God’s Word. It is all breathed out by God.

It also says “all Scripture is breathed out.” Not was. That’s a big difference. It says the Bible is, Scripture is breathed out by God. The Bible is not what God said a long time ago that may or may not be relevant in our modern world. No, the Bible is what God is saying right now in the present tense.

This means that when you read the Bible, the God of the universe is speaking to you. When the Bible is preached correctly, the Creator of heaven and earth is speaking to His creatures. All Scripture is breathed out by God means that every word is God’s Word.

And Gospel City, do we know how powerful the Word of God is? I mean, what you hold in your hands is the living Word of the living God. We need to pause and consider how powerful God’s Word is.

Scientists estimate that there are about two trillion galaxies in the universe. If you wanted to count every galaxy one at a time, it would take you about 63,000 years. Forget counting the stars one at a time. If you just wanted to count all the galaxies one at a time it would take you 63,000 years. That’s a lot of galaxies. Scientists guess that there are over 200 billion trillion stars. We know some stars that are so big that 10 billion suns could fit in that one star. And our little sun is powerful enough to heat our planet from 93 million miles away.

And Gospel City, remember that God’s Word is so powerful that He created all of these by simply saying, “Let there be light.” In the beginning God said, “Let there be light,” and billions of trillions of stars flew into existence. Scientists call it the “Big Bang,” but we know it as the big “God spoke.”

As Hebrews 1:3 says, He didn’t just speak it into existence and take a step back. Hebrews 1:3 says God is still sustaining the universe by the word of His power. And the reason this planet spins in orbit around the sun and doesn’t just fling off into the Milky Way galaxy is because the Word of God is sustaining it right now.

The reason your body as you sit in this chair doesn’t disintegrate into a puddle of mush and blood is because the Word of God is holding you together and sustaining you. The reason when you are asleep at night and your heart continues to beat even though you are completely unconscious and doing nothing to contribute to your existence is because the Word of God sustains your existence.

And here’s why I say all of that is because in order for sinners to be saved, they need a supernatural power to come upon them. Sinners are not just kind of bad, needing to be cleaned up a little bit. Sinners are not just kind of wrong, needing to be convinced of some new facts. Sinners are spiritually dead as Stephen read at the beginning of this service in Ephesians 2. Sinners are spiritually dead, in need of a spiritual resurrection. Sinners are spiritually blind, in need of spiritual sight. Sinners have rock hard hearts that do not love God, that do not obey God, do not have any desires to worship God, do not even acknowledge the existence of their Creator even though every day they walk under the sky that proclaims, the heavens proclaim the glory of God. And they do not acknowledge their existence because their hearts are hard and their eyes are blind, and they are spiritually dead.

Paul says in Romans 8, the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it can’t. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. This is why sinners need a supernatural power to come upon them in order to be saved. They need new hearts and new hearts and new life. They need to be made a new creation.

Well the question is, where does this power come from? Can a preacher raise the spiritually dead with his charisma? Can a preacher open the eyes of the blind with a persuasive argument? Can a preacher change the desires of your heart with a motivational speech? Of course not. This is why we preach the Word because the same Word that has the power to create the universe has the power to raise the spiritually dead. As Peter says in 1 Peter, through the living and abiding Word of God, you have been born again. You have been born from the spiritually dead. You were spiritually dead and now you are spiritually alive because of the abiding Word of God.

We preach the Word because only the Word has the power to create life and light and sight. Ted Talks can’t do that. Motivational speeches can’t do that. The Word and only the Word has the message of salvation and the power to save. That’s point number one.

Let’s move on to point number two, why we preach the Word. We preach the Word because the Word has the power to sanctify sinners into the image of Christ. We preach the Word because the Word has the power to sanctify sinners into the image of Christ. Look back at verse 16. It says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

So Paul is continuing to unpack what the Word is and what the Word does. Scripture is the living Word of the living God. And now we’re going to consider what it does. It is profitable or useful for these four things. I want us to focus on these four words, profitable for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness.

So first, it’s profitable for teaching. The word for teaching here refers to the content of what is being taught, not the method of how teaching is. It refers to doctrine. It is from the Bible that we learn that there is one Creator God of the universe who is holy and righteous and good. It’s from the Bible that we learn that man was created in the image of God, free to serve Him, free from sin, and free to worship Him. It’s from the Bible that we learn that sin came into this world through one man, and death through sin. And sin, rebellion against the Maker, is why this world is so broken and evil and dark.

It is from the Bible that we learn that we’re not going to be able to just stay here in our rebellion. But there is going to be a day of judgment and the wrath of God is coming. And it’s from the Bible that we learn that the one and only way to be saved and to be reconciled to our Creator is by calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus. The Bible is profitable for teaching us the most important things that we could possibly learn.

Well it doesn’t stop there. It’s also profitable for reproof. The word for reproof means “to expose or convict.” So the Bible doesn’t just inform our minds about what is true. It then pierces our hearts as to expose how we are denying the truth with how we live or what we believe or even what we desire. The Bible teaches that God alone is worthy of worship and then it convicts us or it exposes the error in our hearts that we are more interested in our phones. We are more captivated by the dinky little screen than the God of the universe.

The Bible teaches that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and it exposes the arrogance in our hearts that thinks that we could come to God, that we could reconcile ourselves to God through religion, through our good works. The Bible teaches that this life is short and the kingdom of God is coming and that it convicts us that we are living for this world, living for ourselves, saying we believe what it says and yet living as if we deny the fact that eternity is coming and this life is short and it’s all going to burn. And only what is done for Christ will last. The Bible is profitable for teaching us what is true, and about convicting us how we are not living according to the truth.

Third, it is profitable for correction. The word for correction refers to the restoration of something to its proper condition. So think about Chip and Joanna Gaines. What they do to houses, the Word of God does to sinners. We were created in the image of God, and yet sin has marred the image of God. We do not love God or desire God or reflect God’s holy, righteous character in the way that we live. But the Word has the power to create what sin has destroyed. The Word has the power to create in us holy desires that lead to holy actions. The Word has the power to restore us into the image of Christ, the perfect man, the God man, into His image.

At this point, let me pause and say that these three words, teaching, reproof, and correction, they’re not just three different things. They are three parts of the one process of sanctification, what Paul is saying here, how the Word is profitable to sanctify you, to make you holy. It is the power to recreate you into the image of Christ or to fully furnish you for every good work as it says in verse 17.

In order to be holy, you need to know what holiness is. You need to encounter the God who is holy. You need to know what sin is and what obedience looks like and why God’s wrath is justly poured out on sin. So that’s where the teaching comes in.

But we need more than just to be taught what holiness is. We need to have our unholiness exposed. We need the Word to pierce our hearts and expose our blindness and our pride. We need to be convicted that our beliefs and our desires and our actions are unholy. This is where reproof comes in.

But the Word doesn’t just leave us there broken and convicted and in shame. No. It has the power to create in us new desires that lead to new actions. It has the power to correct us.

If you’re here today and you’ve been walking with Christ for a number of years, just think back to what you used to desire, the unholy things you used to desire and do. And if you have been in Christ for a number of years, I’m guessing that your desires and your actions are more holy than they used to be. Not perfectly. You’re in the process. But if you’re here today and your desires have become more holy, you’ve grown in holiness, it is because the Word has corrected you. It is because you are in the process of being restored through the ministry of the Word by the power of the Spirit.

Ephesians 4 helps illustrate this process of sanctification. The idea of the three words, teaching, reproof, and correction, are very clear in this text. So it’s on the screen. It says, “Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus” (so that’s teaching) “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires” (so that’s reproof) “and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (that’s correction).

So Michelangelo was asked, “How did you make that incredible statue of King David?”

And he famously said, “It was easy. I just chipped away everything that didn’t look like David.”

Well, when the Word reproves us, it is chipping away in us what doesn’t look like Christ. But here’s the problem. If all the Word did was reprove you, it would keep chipping away, and every layer of sin that it chipped away, it would just find a new layer of sin. It’s not like there’s Christlikeness in you deep down if you just get off all the sin on top. No. It needs to create in you something that isn’t there. In order to conform you into the image of Christ, it doesn’t just reprove you, it corrects you. It restores you. It helps create desires and beliefs and actions that were impossible without Christ, that were impossible when you were an unbeliever.

So in order to restore to the image of Christ, we need not just the reproving power of the Word. We need the correcting power of the Word. It tears what is unChristlike in us down and rebuilds Christlikeness into us. And all this happens through the ministry of the Word by the power of the Spirit.

Fourth, it’s profitable for training in righteousness. So this just means that sanctification is a process. It does not happen overnight. So athletes train. They train day after day. They don’t just practice once and then they’re really good at their sport. They have to train and train and train. Musicians, the same thing. They train for years. In the same way, we as Christians, we don’t just listen to one sermon or memorize one passage and then we’re like Christ. No, the Word over the years trains us for righteousness.

So this is why we preach week after week, Sunday after Sunday, even Wednesday after Wednesday, because slowly but surely the ministry of the Word through the power of the Spirit we are being taught and reproved and corrected and trained for righteousness.

And at this point I hope that all of us are thinking to ourselves, “Of course we preach the Word. What else would we preach?” The Word has the message of salvation. It is through the Word that we preach Christ and Him crucified, and the Word has the power for salvation. It has the power to raise us from the dead and to sanctify us into the image of Christ.

Humanly speaking, as pastors our role is to help present you mature in Christ, the beautiful, perfect, holy Christ, to help conform Christlikeness in you. Can we do that through our charisma or a motivational speech or just a chat or devotional thoughts? No, only the Word can conform us into the image of Christ, which is why we preach the Word and only the Word.

But before we move on, I want to answer one question that we might have. What about the Spirit? Is it the Word that raises the spiritually dead or the Spirit? Is it the Word that sanctifies or is it the Spirit?

And the answer is yes. It’s both. The Spirit of God works through the Holy Spirit-inspired Scriptures to accomplish the Word of God or the work of God. We can’t really separate the two because the Spirit works through the Word. We don’t say Micahel Jordan didn’t dunk the basketball; his hand did. We don’t separate that. We don’t say C.S. Lewis didn’t write the Chronicles of Narnia; his pen did. No, we don’t separate these things.

In the same way, the way that God works, the way that the Father works through the Son by the Spirit is through His Word.

The third reason we preach the Word, we preach the Word because the Word has the power to awaken people to the reality of God. We preach the Word because The Word has the power to awaken people to the reality of God.

So look down at chapter 4 verse 1. It says, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word.”

So far Paul is focused on what the Word is and what the Word does. And it’s all building to this charge. It’s building to this point. The reason he’s focused on how the Word is able to make us wise for salvation, it’s breathed out by God and profitable for sanctification, is right here. He’s saying, “Timothy, preach the Word,” because the Word is God’s Word. It has the power. The power is in the Word. So Timothy, no matter the pushback, preach the Word.

And yet look back at verse 1, because verse 1 is like a waterfall of reasons why Timothy should preach the Word. I mean, Paul could have just said, “I charge you to preach the Word.” and coming from a Holy Spirit-inspired apostle, that would be a weighty charge. But Paul says, “I charge you in the presence of God.”

He is saying, “Remember Timothy, God is on His throne and He sees everything you think, say, and do.” There is nowhere you can go to escape His presence, certainly not one of his pulpits. It does not matter what your church thinks of you. It doesn’t matter what the world thinks of you. It doesn’t matter what’s trending in social media.

You preach the Word in season and out of season because when you preach, you have an audience of one. There’s really only one person whose opinion matters of you when you preach the Word, and that is God. And He knows whether you’re preaching His Word or not, even if you’re just reading it and sharing your thoughts and making it seem like it’s the Word. He knows because it’s His Word. He wrote it.

So that’s pretty weighty, but Paul adds to the weightiness. He says, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and dead and by his appearing and his kingdom.”

So Paul is saying remember, God is watching right now and Jesus is going to return in glory with a face that is brighter than the sun. Just read Revelation chapter 1. He’s going to come with His mighty angels. He’s going to raise every person who’s ever lived, summon them to the judgment seat. The books are going to be opened and they’re going to have to give an account for how they lived.

And He’s going to judge their every thought, word and deed. And those who are not in Christ will be punished. Those who are in Christ, there is no condemnation for them, but they will still be rewarded in the heavenly kingdom. This includes you, Timothy, Paul is saying. You will be judged by the judge of all the earth for how you stewarded the church that Jesus shed His blood to purchase for.

So Jesus shed His blood to purchase a church. And the only way they can be saved and put faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ is if the gospel is preached. So how dare we preach anything other than the gospel that saves?

And Gospel City, this charge is specifically to Timothy and to pastors, but it has implications for all of us. Paul is using the Word to awaken Timothy to the reality of God. He is awakening him to infinite realities that he cannot see or feel but that is abundantly true. He is reminding Timothy that God exists and that heaven is real and that judgment is coming.

And Gospel City, we preach the Word Sunday after Sunday because we need to be awakened to this reality week after week, week after week as well. When you wake up in the morning, do you remember that God exists and that your life exists for His glory alone? Or do you just wake up and go about your day, worried about today’s troubles, completely forgetting that you have a God who sustains you overnight?

When you scroll your phone at night, do you remember that God is watching and that every breath you take is a gift and that even your recreation time that you think you’ve earned so hard is still a gift? Every breath is a gift, and you’ll give an account for how you stewarded this one life you’ve been given. And when you think about money and possessions, do you remember that it’s all going to burn and that only the treasures in heaven will last?

I think all of us can say that we get lulled to sleep every single day. We are so focused on this physical and temporary, good-gifted, creation yet broken world. We need to be awakened to the reality of the presence of God. We need to be awakened to the reality of the coming judgment of Christ and the coming kingdom that will last forever and ever.

And the Word has the power to jolt us awake, not just physically, but spiritually. The Word has the power to awaken us to the reality of God. And this is why we preach the word, because the Word has the power to save, the Word has the power to sanctify, and the Word has the power to awaken us who love Christ and yet slumber. The Word has the power to awaken us week after week to the reality of God.

Now I want to close with some brief applications. This is not just a message for preachers and future preachers. This is a message for all of us because all of us are awakened and nourished by the Word. So I have three quick applications. Number one, (just a warning, there’s a lot of “p”s coming at ya) pray for what we preach.

So every Sunday morning at 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM before the first and second gathering, Pastor Wilson gathers with a few faithful pray-ers out those doors in that room. And they’re praying that God would give the preacher boldness and clarity. They are praying that God would use the passage to save the dead people who walk through these doors. They are praying that God would sanctify the people through His Word, and they are praying that God would awaken us all to the reality of God’s holiness and goodness and glory and how if we put our trust in Him, He gives us a peace that surpasses understanding not just in this life. But we have eternity to look forward where there will be no more pain, no more crying, no more tears, no more death.

They are praying that God would awaken us to these realities. They are praying for the preacher. They are praying through the passage. They are praying for the people. And it’s such a blessing to pray with faithful pray-ers. You learn how to pray by listening to people pray. And I would invite you to join them at 8:00 or 10:00.

But if you can’t join them, let me invite you to join them on Saturday night or through the weekend praying for the preacher, praying for his family and the spiritual warfare that comes with it, praying through the passage, praying for the people, that God would save sinners and sanctify us to the image of Christ. Just think about what God might do in this church if on Saturday night we turned off our TVs and got on our knees and prayed that God would awaken us to the reality of God.

Second, practice what we preach. So here at Gospel City we believe the power is in the Word. And we practice this belief by preaching the Word and only the Word. But let me ask you, do you practice this belief in your own life? Where do you need power in your life right now? Maybe you need power over your anxiety. Where are you turning? Are you turning to eating or doomscrolling or binge watching or are you turning to the Word that has the power to awaken you to the reality of God, who is able to give you the peace that surpasses understanding?

Maybe you need power over your children. Your children are rebellious and out of control and you don’t know how to parent them. Where are you turning? Are you turning to Instagram influencers or self-help psychology, or are you turning to the Word? Are you turning to other brothers and sisters in Crhsit who can minister the Word to you? Where do you need power in your life right now?

Maybe you’re sitting there as I speak and there’s doubt in your heart. You’re thinking that there is nothing that could free you from that sin, nothing that could free you from that addiction. You’re thinking there’s nothing that could fix that relationship or that problem. And I admit, I don’t know what God has planned for you, but I do know that His Word has the power to create the universe and the power to sustain the sun. Whatever problem you face is not too hard for Him. So run to Him and turn to Him and may He show you through His Word how He really does work all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose to conform them to the image of His Son.

Lastly, let me encourage you to prioritize what we preach. We preach the Word because we believe the Bible is the living Word of the living God. We believe that what food is to the body, the Word of God is to the soul. We believe that it is sweeter than honey and worth more than gold, even much fine gold.

And we’re blessed to go to a church that prioritizes the Word in all of our ministries, and we’re able to say “amen” to the preaching of the Word on Sunday morning. But do you prioritize the Word in all of your life? Do you go to bed on time and set your alarm so that you can wake up and consume the Word because you believe that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God? Do you meditate on the Word in your car or at your bed at night or on the couch rather than just wasting our lives on social media? Do you meditate on the Word because you believe that meditating on the Word day and night will help you become like the blessed man, become like the tree planted by streams of water?

Or do you turn off your tv and put your phone down so that you can memorize the Word because you believe hiding the Word in your heart will help you not sin against the Lord and Maker and Savior and King? You love the Word and you’ve prioritized the Word so much that you hide entire chapters of it in your heart. You store a whole book in your heart because you believe what we say we believe, that the Word has the power to create Christlikeness and you believe this is Christ speaking to you and you want to know everything He has to say, so much that you devote your life to memorizing it.

The question is not, do you prioritize the Word? Yes or no. I go to a church that does, so that means I do. No, the question is how can you prioritize the Word more? We believe the Word has the power to raise the dead, sanctify sinners, and awaken us to the reality of God. So may we be a church that preaches the Word and only the Word every time we gather together and may we be a people who pray the Word, practice the Word, and prioritize the Word every day of our lives. Let’s pray.

Father, we thank You. We thank You that You have spoken. Lord, You could have been perfectly just to leave us in darkness, to leave us in ignorance, not knowing our maker, not knowing our Creator, dead in our trespasses and sins, living a life of rebellion against our Lord. And yet by Your grace You spoke through the prophets and the apostles, revealing the glory of the gospel of Jesus. And by Your grace Your Word has been copied and transmitted and translated into our own language. And by Your grace we live in a time and place where we’re educated enough to read it. And by Your grace there’s a church within driving distance of our house that actually believes it and is willing to preach it.

Lord, we love Your Word because we love You. And Your Word is how You speak to us. Your Word is how you reveal Yourself to us. Lord, we long to know You more. We long to love You more. May we be a people who love Your Word, who wakes up every day excited to meet with our Maker. Thank You Lord that You are building this church. Thank You that You are conforming us to the image of Christ. Lord, not to us, not to us, but to Your name give glory. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.