Lord, I just pray, God, that your Word would be blessed today. Father, we are a people who have been shed of all the things of the world. God I'm so thankful and so happy and so rejoicing, Jesus, today to see a people who have thrown off sin that so easily entangles and have come into your Spirit. God, this is a special day in the church and I pray that you would bless the Word as it goes forth to accomplish what you purposed it to accomplish, Lord. May your Spirit be here and may it be with us. In your name, amen. Amen.

This week I was talking to somebody and it kind of morphed into me thinking of this idea and God giving me this idea for the sermon. We got talking about Disney; I believe that there's two different types of people in this world: there are Disney people, like Enjolic and then there's normal people like everyone else. They’re like a special breed, Disney people, you know? Me and my wife, we are not Disney people. I just don't understand the draw, maybe it will be different with my kid, you know, the lines, the heat, the everything, so much goes into it. It’s just not for me. But I got talking to him, he said, ‘Yeah, my daughter really loves Disney’. I thought that was weird because his daughter is very young and I said ‘Wow, that's amazing. How did she come to love Disney so much?’ And he said ‘well, it’s no wonder she loves Disney so much because I love Disney so much!’ And he began to tell me how he purposely would go about and talk about it weeks before the trips would come up and he would begin to get her excited about it and after they would leave he would talk about things that happened while they were in Disney so that she would have these special memories of what happened. And it was kind of cool to hear how he did it and then he said something that really struck me and I think it's something that the church misses so often - And he said, ‘Kris, you know, it only makes sense that our kids are passionate about the things that we are passionate about.’ You know, it only makes sense that my child loves Disney because I love Disney and my child loves fishing because I love fishing. And even as a young girl she gravitates to the things that her father loves and that's the way it's meant to be. He looked at me and he said,’You know, Kris, I'm sure that even applies to the church. I know that’s something that you're passionate about and I'm sure your child will grow up passionate about it as well.’ And I thought that was amazing and I thought - How is it that someone, just a regular guy in the world, can have such a deep understanding of how the church is meant to run, but we as a church, the universal church, embrace such ideals as backsliding and children rebelling, and we say that that's normal. But it’s not normal. It’s not normal in the church and it’s not normal in the world. Because if the father loves the Giants, I’ll tell you what, that child is going to gravitate to them and they will be a lifelong fan. Why? Because they are passionate about that and the child just gravitates towards that passion.

We in the church, I feel have missed it so often and have to come to understand that we are meant to be those passionate believers in the Lord Jesus Christ that multiply and that people gravitate towards. If it’s not your children then it’s your coworkers, if you don’t have coworkers then it’s your friends, if you don't have friends then I don’t know, buy a hamster and influence that. But something should be influenced by the Word of God in your life! The Word is meant to do a work. We have to ask ourselves today - Has the Word of God completed a work in your life? Because the Word is not dead. It's not just something on the side, it’s alive and it’s purposeful and God, when He spoke those words, they were with the purpose. And the question today is - Are you that passionate believer that has been transformed by the work of the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ?

So today if you have your Bibles, we’re going to be reading from first Thessalonians. First Thessalonians 2:13 and it says “And we also thank God continually, because when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as it actually is, the word of God, which is effectively at work in you who believe.” And I love this verse - it’s effectively at work in you who believe. This is going to be our main verse for today and I’ll be going into other verses, but I just want to focus on that - the Word of God is effectively at work in the believer. If you're missing it today, if you find that the Word is not effectively at work in you today, well I tell you you're missing something that is so important to the believers’ life because the Word is meant to do a work inside of us.

So what is that work? Firstly, the Word forms. The Word forms something inside of us. The Word is meant to form something inside of the believer. We need to understand the purpose of the Word of God. People look at the Word like they’re nice stories, like they’re things that should teach us how to be better people and we should look up to it and try to emulate the stuff in the Word, but that's accepting it as a human word. We need to know that these are the divine inspired words of God. That these words are the words of creation. Let me tell you that in the beginning there was nothing and the world was formless, the Word of God came forth and creation came to be by that Word! Amen.

The words of God are powerful, they are divine, they are meant to accomplish something. And every word that proceeds from the mouth of God has a purpose and is accomplishing something. These are the words of creation. So when you open up your Word today, when you open up your Bible, today when you walked in church and you began to flip to the Word - Is there an expectation of the Word of God in your heart? Is there an expectation that you are about to encounter the Words of God? The ones that created the heavens and the earth? The ones that said - Let there be light and there was light? The words that created man out of the dust? The words that created every ground we walk on, that all things are held together by? The Word of God that tells the oceans to stop, and they stop? Amen.

Those are the words that are at work inside the believer. They’re not idle words, they’re not powerless words, they’re not just gossipy words, they’re not just blabber - NO - these are the powerful Word of God that go and creates and forms something inside of the heart of the believer. Are you in expectation of what God is doing today? I tell the youth group kids every Tuesday - Are you listening? Because remember, Paul said when I came to you and you accepted them not as human words, because we have them nice bound in a book for us now, they are widely accepted as the words of God, but in that time Paul was actually going and speaking these words and these people stopped and said - no this is the Word of God. I tell the youth group kids - Are you expecting to come in? Are you expecting to hear something that’s going to transform you? When you woke up this morning, are you expecting the Word of God to do something in your life? When you open up the Word, are you expecting something to come and something new to be formed inside of you?

So what does God form? What does the Word form? It forms things like godliness and passion, faith,steadfastness and desire. These things are meant to be formed in you that you would no longer look like the world. Let me just stop and let me just break the life that says that a Christian can look like everyone else in the world - that's not what it was meant to be. The Christian is meant to have something different inside of them. You can’t look like the world, yet still take in the Word and say that they do exist in you the same time; that's not how it works. The Word of God forms godliness, forms Jesus Christ inside of you, that you would resemble Him and not the things of the world. Our souls are inside, they’re meant to resemble the attributes of God. For the ones who have a hard time committing it to prayer, passion begins to arise inside of their hearts. God forms in you a man or woman of steadfastness that will not be shaken; one who does not waiver, one who has decided the God that they will serve or desire. As a man desires his wife, as a man desires his partner, I’ll tell you, your heart is meant to desire the things of God and chase after them and godliness. Where the rest of the world continues to rebel against the ideals of God, the Word of God forms inside of you godliness that will not bend a knee to Baal. God, the Word is meant to form something inside of us.

When you look at that word, ‘effectively’ - I thought it was really interesting, Pastor Janet last week talked about energy and the energy of God and how it works. That word there, ‘effectively’, if you translate it, it literally translates into ‘energeo’. Right? Energy. It’s energy. The word is energy and it is effectively at work inside of the believer; it is efficient, it is effectual, it is to be mighty and it is fervent. Those words don't sound dead to me. It sounds like it's alive and moving and completing a work inside of the believer. Do you open up the word and are you expecting what God is going to do? Are you reading it just to get it to a checklist? Because that is just accepting it as merely human words. And I tell you, then it is no different than any self-help book you can pick off the shelf at Walmart. But this is the divine inspired words of God, this is the words of power and I look at this verse and it says that there's two ways to receive it. It’s the same word, two ways to receive it: one as human words, one is powerless one is dead, this is the word that people here year after year after year, yet continually stay the same. This is the word that people read every day, yet there's no revelation, there's no enlightening of their soul. This is a dead word because people are not in expectation of what God says He can do. They’re not looking in the word and saying, ‘God these are your power’, ‘God these are the words of creation’, ‘God what could they do in me’; they’re accepting them as human words.

And then there's the Word of God. Let me tell you that the Word of God is always empowered by the Spirit of God. To be effectively at work in the heart of the believer, the word of God is meant to be lit on fire by the Spirit of God. Like gas to a flame, it's meant to ignite those words that have been stored up inside of your heart to bring about godliness and love and fervor and passion. Through the Word, Spirit of God you should be going, ‘God, as I open up this Word today, Lord may your Spirit come and may it touch my mind, may it touch these words, may it open up my heart and God may you form something new’. It's meant to empower you. It’s meant to show you where you lack and then empower you to overcome it. Otherwise, we’re just reading and accepting them as human words.

You see, I think of Jesus Christ and He was the Word made flesh. You see when God created Jesus, there was a mold that was set in place. He didn’t just think of it and was like, ‘oh,this is probably good, i’ll just do this’. No, there was a mold that was made with Jesus Christ and that mold was the Word of God. And He breathed life onto that Word. And when that Word and that Spirit came together there was a conception that came about and it was the Word made flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ that came and forgave the sins of man. There was a mold that was done. Today, Jesus Christ, He is no longer here. He went to heaven. He left behind His Spirit. He was the Word made flesh, but where are the words made flesh today? It's meant to be us. We are meant to be the Word made flesh. The Word is supposed to be coming alive. You see, the Word is the mold inside of us and God pours His Spirit into it and ignites it and that is how we are made to look like the Lord Jesus Christ. The rest of the world says you can do whatever you want. The world says you can look however you want; you have to be an individual, you have to be different and you have to be unique. But let me tell you I don't want to be unique, I want to look like my Savior, I want to look like the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

We are meant to be the Word made flesh. And what happened? I said that that word, there's always a purpose. God spoke the word and it came down and it did it’s work here on earth and it forgave the sins of man and where did it go, but back into heaven to be with God. You see, that's how the Word of God works. He speaks it out. It goes and it accomplishes a purpose and then it returns back to God having completed the task to which it was given. We are meant to be the Word made flesh. We are meant to be the ones that go into this world and overcome and complete the work that God has called it to be. To influence your family and your friends, to go out and spread the Word, to spread the influence, to set the boundaries of the kingdom of God in this world. And you are meant to then return to heaven and be with God. Let me break a lie right now that says that heavens going to be filled with all different sorts of people, all different nationalities, all different languages - let me tell you that's not true. In heaven, God, and heaven's table are going to be filled with people who are the Word made flesh. It is going to be the Word made flesh that enters heaven. Nationalities won't matter. Languages won’t matter. The only thing that will matter is that the Word of God came into your life, it was effectual, and it completed a purpose. Amen.

The Word of God never returns void, it always returns back to the Father. So when you look at your life today, is the Word of God alive inside of you? Is it moving? Is it accomplishing a purpose? Is it forming godliness and love and passion and desire inside of you? Because if not, they’re just merely human words and we’re missing what God intended them to be. It's meant to mold you every day. And when it molds you like clay and it begins to form something inside of you - every time it hits that rocky hard spot that can’t be molded, the Spirit of God is supposed to come and pulverize that stone down to dust that it might be formed as well. And this is how the Christians resemble and are formed to the likeness of the image of the Son. This is how the Christians are formed to look more and more like Jesus Christ every single day. So when you open up your Word, there should be that expectation. When you open up and you read verses like first Peter 5:6 that says - humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. All of a sudden you’re a prideful person, but the Word of God begins to form something inside of you, it forms humbleness and you begin to bow a knee to God and you begin to submit to God- which I tell you for a prideful person is the greatest evidence of the Word of God working in someone's life. Or when you open up your Word to Ephesians 5 where it talks about - loving your husband or your wife above yourself. You see, the Word of God is meant to empower you to actually do it. Or Hebrews 12 where it talks about - throwing off all sin that so easily entangles. The Word and the Spirit are meant to empower you this day that you might be free. The Word of God is meant to form something inside of the believer. My prayer today is that the Word would be alive in you, that you be having a heart of expectation when you open it up and that God would be forming inside of you those things of God that do not tarnish and do not fade away. Amen.

So secondly. We see that the Word forms, and secondly the Word judges. Now I know that's like a bad word, ‘judges’, right? I know in today's culture the word, ‘judgment’, people kind of shrink back from it and they’re like, ‘Oh no, he didn't just go there! He didn't just say the word, judgement, did he?’ That’s almost like a curse word in today's society. People constantly repeat the mantra ‘Only God can judge me’. They revel in their individuality and condemn anyone who would dare question it. And the very thought of judgment in our culture has become so taboo, but let me tell you that judgment is not a bad thing. It's a bad thing for people who are going to receive it outside, who have spent their lives rebelling against God; but for the believer, we are meant to embrace the judgment that comes from God.

This week I read a Facebook post from the guy from Skillet, it’s on a lot of Christian news websites. I thought it was really interesting and I got really into it. He goes in and begins to speak about these believers that have recently fallen away and have renounced their faith. It’s a really long post and I would encourage you to read it if you have a chance, but when he starts he talks about something interesting that struck my heart. And he said for the people outside the church, look I’m not judging them, I have no right to judge them, but for the people inside the church and he says quote, “However, when it comes to people within my faith, there must be a measure of loyalty and friendship and accountability to each other and to the Word of God.” And I thought ‘Wow! That's so refreshing.’ You know? Hearing judgment in that light instead of looking down upon and looking like we have no right.

The Word of God is the judgment of God. It is what we are meant to measure ourselves against. It is what we are supposed to go to every single day and measure ourselves against and say, ‘God, is this of you or is this not?’ And it's meant to speak judgment to all the dark and perverse ways inside the heart of man. Hebrews 4:12, and we all know this verse, it’s very popular - For the Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; and my favorite part of this verse, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. I know so often people get caught up in the beginning part of this verse, but God was really speaking to me about the second half. Where it says - it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. You see, the thoughts of the heart are where real dark sin ends up coming from. It’s where man justifies and man kind of schemes against God and they have all these things inside of their heart and all these thoughts, This is where man decides that they're gonna run their own life and they don't need God. And the Word of God is meant to judge those thoughts.

I look at so many Christians’ lives and they spend year after year with so many unwholesome thoughts inside of their mind. Why do the people of God continue with thoughts that are against God? Because they refused to submit them to judgment before God. Because people are not embracing the judgment of God. The judgment of God for the Christian is life, it's freedom, it is death to the things of the world, it is death to that old man, it is death to the thoughts and the mental illness and all of that other stuff that comes with the world. And it speaks life to the Christian. People like to live compartmentalized. They like to say, ‘Well on Sunday I can be judged by God, but what happens at night and what I do on Friday night and how I act at work,those are separate.’ Those are compartmentalized and we live in these worlds of boxes where God can only get into certain ones. But God is meant to judge the thoughts and the attitudes of your heart. He is meant to judge our actions. His Word is meant to speak to the deep parts of our heart that say ‘This is not of God. Let it be sentenced. Let it be judged. Let it be sentenced and let it be put to death.’ Amen.

You know, I look at where we are as a society and every day I turn on the news I feel like there's another shooting and something happening and more people dying and I look and it’s just so sad. Then I turn on CNN and the Democrats are saying we have a gun problem and the Republicans are saying no, it’s not a gun problem, it's a mental health problem. Let me tell you today, it’s not a gun problem, it’s not a mental health problem, it's a God problem. Amen.

For people's thoughts continue to run rampant in their minds and they continue to poison people's minds because people refuse to submit themselves to God for judgment. Because people refuse to say ‘God, this is what's going on in my mind. God, I want you to look at it, I want you to tell me, God, is it godly or not? Because if it’s not it must be put to death.’ See, when the Word of God comes and it begins to judge our thoughts, all of a sudden those thoughts that used to go rampant through your mind, when you submit them to God and say ‘God, show me what these are.’ And He says ‘No, these thoughts are unholy, they are unrighteous, they are ungodly.’ Well guess what happens next time they come up? You can't let them run through your mind anymore, can you? You can’t let them just run rampant in your mind anymore because God has judged them and when judgment comes to sentencing and when sentencing comes death. And that is the cycle that God is meant to do those things of our mind.

Why are there so many mental health issues? If you could do a graph you would see that religion and people renouncing their faith is just continually dropping, yet mental health is increasing. Why is that? It's not by coincidence. I tell you that people, as they continue to turn their backs to God and continue to no longer submit to God and continue to say ‘I'm an individual’, ‘I can think what I want’, ‘I can act how I want’, well I tell you the thoughts of man, the thoughts of sin will continue to poison this generation until they bend a knee to God and say, ‘God, I need to be rescued from these thoughts’, ‘God, I need help’, ‘These thoughts need to be put to death’.

Because that is freedom. There is no freedom without judgment. There is no freedom without judgment because with judgment comes death, with judgment comes a sentencing and with a sentencing comes death and we, people of God, we can’t continue to live ignorantly. But we have to come to God and say ‘God, reveal the thoughts in my life. Let them be put to the test. May I take the Word of God and measure them up to the Word and if they're found to be ungodly, Lord, put a sentence on those things. Judge them and sentence them to death that they no longer rule in my life.’ That is freedom for the Christian.

That is what’s not available to the world, but that is what is available to the Son of God.

And the Word continues, it says “it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” See, for me, this was very enlightening when God started to speak to me about this because sometimes I run into problems where I’ll talk to somebody and they’ll say, ‘Well, I don't have unwholesome thoughts. Well, I don't want anybody to be hurt. I’m a good person. I think that we just all really have to love one another, what’s wrong with that?’ And people begin, and you just try to talk about judgment, you know, ‘You’re separate from God and there's a judgment for that’. And they’re like, ‘No. I'm a good person in my mind, in my thoughts, I just want everyone to be happy’ and all that. And as I read this verse, God really began to speak to what the attitude of the heart is. There's two different types of attitudes. There's one that needs God. There's an attitude who is: ‘God I cannot continue to live like this’, ‘God I need you’, ‘God I can't continue on like this’, ‘God I’m not good on my own’, ‘God you have to come in and do something’. And there is an attitude of the heart that needs and desires God. And let me tell you, people with that attitude, even if they’re living necessarily not the best, even if they’re struggling in how they live, God is with them and God is moving with them and God is working with them. Because they have an attitude of the heart to desire and need God. But there's another attitude, too that says ‘God I don't need you’, ‘I'm good on my own’, ‘I'm living my own way’, ‘I’m happy with how things are going and I don't need you God’, ‘I'm on my own throne’. You see, God doesn't just judge the thoughts that go through our mind, He judges the attitude of our heart of whether we desire Him or not, of whether we’re okay with living separate from him or not.

I think even with the youth group kids, even with some of the kids I talk to, there is an attitude of the heart. Look, you know, forget about you not going to parties, forget about the fact you’re not cursing and drinking, what is the attitude of your heart? Is it that you are desiring God and that you need more of Him every day and that your heart is yearning for more of God? Because God judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart.

That's the judgment that brings about, that reveals sin. The truth is that they really are.. sin is a shackle of darkness and it's powerful in the darkness. It's powerful when it's hidden from the light. But I tell you today, if you submit your thoughts, if you submit your mind, if you submit your actions, if you submit your love and what you call love and your care and your relationships and you submit them before God and say ‘God let your judgment come today’, ‘God I want to open up the Word and I want to hear what you have to say about these things’. I tell you, when they're taken out of darkness, you will find that the shackles of darkness will melt away because the light; they have been brought into the light. There's power in the darkness for sin, but bring it into the light today, submit it for judgment today and you will find freedom.

I thank God for his judgment today. I thank God for his judgment today. I would not be able to be a father today without the judgment of God. I would not be able to be a husband today without the judgment of God. I would still be that old man who was shackled by sin if it were not for the judgment of God. God is meant to bring judgment to those things and I'll tell you, that's how you read the Bible and you read it in Titus; I was reading it the other day where it says - the grace of God has appeared to bring salvation to all people. Training us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and to live upright lives in this present age. I’m reading that and I’m thinking ‘Wow. That’s so much about self-discipline and training us to live godly lives.’ How does that training come about? It’s that God does something inside the heart, He brings judgment and I'll tell you, the Christian, when he has judgment upon his life, he can no longer live like the rest of the world. I look at how the rest of the world lives and how people live as opposed to Christianity. Don't Christians receive the same type of temptations that everyone else? Don't Christians know that there is an easier way out than everyone else, just like everyone else in the world? Haven't Christians been brought down and looking for an easy way out and backed into a corner and desperate? Yes. But when judgment is over your life it brings about a sense of self-discipline that says, ‘God I could go be like everyone else’, ‘I could go to everything else, but Lord you have spoken judgment over those things and you have put me on a path that leads to heaven and you have said ‘This is the good way, walk on it, this will lead to me’. You see, when there's no judgment in our lives we can walk however way we want, to go to the left and go to the right, but when God speaks judgment upon our lives it keeps us self-disciplined on the path that leads to heaven.

God is looking to bring judgment. I pray today that the judgment would stop being a curse word in the church and in this world and that you would embrace it today because I tell you, with judgment comes sentencing and with sentencing comes death. But without it, we’re left bound to the shackles of darkness. Open up the Word today and say, ‘God let your judgment come, that it might speak death to all these things of the world, all this pervasiveness, all this ungodliness.’ Lord, let it speak death to these ways of the world. Let it speak death to the addiction. Let it speak death to the pride. Let it speak death to how I treated people in the past. Let it speak death to my relationships. Let it speak death to all my sin and all that stuff that holds me back and entangles me. God let it say death to those things and Lord, let your Spirit bring life. Amen.

So the Word forms something inside of us, it speaks judgment and finally, the Word renews. You know, when we talk about meditation I know most Christians are like ‘oh that’s a bad word, no meditation, not for me’. Because so many people in the world get very into it and get into all sorts of stuff that really is outside of Christianity, but there is a meditation that God calls from the Christian. What is meditation about? So many people get into it, it's about just focusing, blocking out all other stuff and focusing on one thing. But God has not called us to focus on our problems. He's not called us to focus on a statue. He hasn’t called us to focus on humming. He hasn’t called us to focus on how good of a person we are. No, God has called us to meditate and focus on the Word of God.

Joshua 1:8 “Keep this book of the law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you might be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Amen.

If you, right now could put a pie chart up in front of you, of your thought life throughout the entire day, and you could see how much of the pie is devoted to other things, how much of that pie would be the Word of God? How much of it would be devoted to what's going on at work, and things we have going on in our lives, and what the kids need to do, and our sports, and our appointments, and what we’re going to eat for dinner when we get home, that's a big one for me, and what we’re going to watch on TV that night, and all these different things that take up our mind and consume our minds. But God has called us to meditate on His Word day and night that you might be careful to do everything in it. Meditating on the Word of God is what renews your mind; it’s what renews your mind. It focuses you on what's important, it resets you and sheds all the ideals of the world and what you think is important and keeps our minds on Christ and puts away all the trivial things of this world and most importantly it realigns you under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word is Jesus Christ. The Word is Jesus Christ. And when you're meditating on it; when you bring it in and you begin to chew on it, and you begin to think about it, and you begin to dissect it and break it down, well I tell you - what you're doing? You’re meeting with the Lord Jesus Christ and it puts away all the garbage and all the things in the world that are meant to consume you and it resets you under the authority of God. Amen.

It's very easy to do something… My wife sometimes will tell me to do something and if I don't really give it thought, if I'm just like ‘yeah, yeah, I got that’, I’m going to forget it, right? Like ‘Hey, make sure you take out the garbage when you leave’. And i’ll get a call a half hour later, ‘You didn’t take out the garbage’. And I’m like ‘Oh, I'm sorry, you know, my mind got caught up into other things’. Because why? Because I’m not really giving it that thought and consideration. It’s the same thing with the Word of God. It’s no different. We go out to work and we go out to school, and we go out to our lives and we never give the Word of God the consideration that it’s due. Well I tell you, it’s very easy not to live by something. It’s very easy to not be influenced by something if we’re not really giving it the consideration that it's due. What does this Word say? Meditate on it day and night so that you might be careful to do everything written in it and that is how you are prosperous, that is how you are successful. Amen.

Only through meditating on it, is God really able to do what He wants to do. A good example of that: The other day I really got thinking about His Word and how it says that our lives are but a mist. It's like spraying a Windex bottle, right? Here for one second and gone the next. And that's the truth of it. If you ask anybody of the older generation that we have here, they’ll tell you, every single person says the same thing - light flashes by your eyes so fast, it's here one second and it’s gone the next and it's over. And you think about that and I'm thinking about God, you know? Our lives are really short and we get so caught up in the stupid things of this world and how we look and how we’re perceived and what people are going to think about us and it becomes this ‘people-pleasing’ rat race that we get into. And I began to think about this word and I began to think - God, there will be a day, and it is not that far away, where I’m going to be submitted before you for judgment. Where every single one my thoughts and everything thing I've done, every action and every relationship that I’ve had is going to be judged by you. And then from there on I will spend eternity with you, God. I will spend eternity at your table. What is this life? What is 70, 80, 90 years compared to eternity? As I began to dwell on this word and I began to think about it my mind all of a sudden realigned to the things of God. Guess what? What’s going on at work, and what things I have to do, and what people think about me, none of that garbage matters when you compare it to the almighty power and judgment of God.

Our only hope in this world is to have our minds renewed by the Spirit of God. If you knew today what was arrayed against us in this world, you would be realigning your thinking, you would be praying to God for renewal every single day. If you truly understood what is against you and your family… you would never let your kids walk out of the house without the Word of God, that's for sure. You would never let your kids go to school unless they have been thinking and reading on the Word of God. Because the truth is, this world is constantly being bombarded by opposing views. The world tries to chip away from the resolve every single day to slowly deconstruct what was given to us and gifted to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me tell you that it's very easy for an unrenewed mind to accept compromise. It's very easy for an unrenewed mind to justify pervasiveness. It's very easy for an unrenewed mind to blend in and just go with the flow, whether it be school, whether it be work, whether it be with your families. An unrenewed mind is very easy to slip away and go into the things of the world. God has to be renewing the mind of the Christian every single day. God has to be renewing the mind of the Christian because there is an army that is arrayed against you and it is big and it is strong, but let me tell you, my God is stronger, my God is bigger, my God is mightier, but my God has to come into the minds and renew us, amen!

This process of renewal is a process of life and death that happens every single day. It speaks life to the things of God. It speaks life to that deep man of God that He has buried inside of you. It speaks life to the woman of God that will not bend a knee to the things of the world. It speaks life to those things of God, that personality, things that God wants to bring out and strengthen in you. It speaks life to all the things of God, but it speaks death to the things of the world. It speaks death to the sin. It speaks death to the justifying. It speaks death to the attitude of the heart that says ‘it's okay I'm good without God’. It speaks death to all these other things that say ‘I’m going to go to school and be like everyone else’. It speaks death to say ‘I gotta fit in and be like everyone’, ‘I gotta do the drugs’, ‘I gotta drink’, ‘I gotta have sex’, ‘I gotta be like everyone else in the world’. It speaks death to those things. Parents, children, people I'm telling you today that the hearts of men must be renewed by the Word of God, for otherwise they will fall to the world, but with God - all things are possible! But with God, he is a strong tower that will not be overcome!

We cannot continue to hold on to both flesh and spirit. What is that do? We try to do that and we end up with Christians who just waiver back and forth, as Pastor Jeff preached two weeks ago. Let God put to death all the worldly ways in your life. Let Him put to death your generational curses. Let Him put to death your addictions and your inequities and let Him call to life the spirit of God inside of you. The Word of God renews the mind. The Word of God breathes life to the inner being. It is the form, it is the mold in which God pours out His Spirit that it forms godliness and love and passion and desire inside of the hearts of the believer. May the Word of God come in and complete the work in which it was intended to do.

I’ll finish with this today. This is not going to happen on its own. People think they’re just going to go to sleep and wake up the next day and be this transformed, totally different person. There has to be an intervention of the Spirit of God in our lives; that's the only way transformation comes. It’s by intervention of the Spirit of God in the lives of the believer. The Word of God is effectively at work in the hearts of the believer. Do not accept it as merely human words. Do not open it up and think of it just as another day, another verse, another chapter - NO! Let God go deep and let Him bring judgment and let Him bring life, and let Him form some godliness inside of you, let Him renew your mind, let Him bring about salvation, let Him bring about judgment to put to death all the things of the world, and let Him speak life to your inner being.

The Word of God is alive and active. Alive and active; it is not a dead thing this day.

God, I just pray, Lord, that your Word would go deep this day. Lord, I pray that your Word would speak life this day. Oh, Lord, we know those verses, we read them every day, some of us have them memorized, we’ve heard sermon after sermon. But Lord, all over the country, we see year after year, Christians continually plagued with self-doubt, with mental illness, with mental health problems, with addiction, with abusive relationships, where everyday things never change. But God! Your word is alive! It was not meant to be the same! Lord, the world was empty, it was formless and it was void, but when you said, “Let there be light”, there was light! And Lord, you’re calling today. You are calling love to arise. You are calling the Spirit of God to arise. You are calling desire to arise. You are calling passion to arise. You are calling steadfastness to arise. You are calling the man and woman of God to arise. And I know your Word never comes back void. It always goes and accomplishes its purpose.

Oh Lord, when I'm presented before you on Judgment Day, I want to look to my left and to my right and I want to see words of God. I want to be the Word of God, the Word made flesh because that is what will enter heaven, God. It’s not me, it's not Kris, it's not the things that I hold dear. No, Lord, it’s the Word made flesh that’s going to enter heaven.