The power of the Word

This stack of papers represents the years worth of sermons at Immanuel Baptist Duncan. Mostly Sunday mornings, but also some funerals, Sunday nights, Wednesdays, and other lessons. Just based on the Sunday morning sermons it's close to 200,000 words.

It's a great privilege that the church supports me to do this work. I try to work hard and be worthy of the honor. But I also know that if you asked people who sat in the sermons what they were about, many of them would be hard pressed to remember. Maybe they’d remember big topics like going through Galatians, Psalms, or Jude, or could guess on Christmas and Easter passages. But I understand that even a week after the fact most people won't remember what the sermon was about.

Most of us would be hard-pressed to remember what we had for lunch last Sunday, but it fulfilled us for that moment. We surely couldn't remember what we had for lunch last January, but that meal we had in the moment sustained us for the day. In the same way the weekly “meal” of God Word sustains us for that moment.

God's word is greater of course, and has the power to change lives. The food we eat is quickly gone, but scripture tells us that the word of God abides forever. These words of mine will pass away, these manuscripts will be forgotten. But the word of God they contain continues to take root and grow in people's lives. It's the cumulative effect of the nourishment of God's word that makes a difference in their lives. If you want to grow close to God there's no better way than to be daily in his word, and to sit under godly teaching as often as you can. I worked hard on the sermons, and they will be forgotten, and that's OK. Because God's word lasts forever.