Key points
- 1
1Jesus, filled with and led by the Spirit, used Scripture — not His own divine power alone — to defeat every temptation of Satan in the wilderness.
- 2
2If the living Word (Jesus) needed the written Word to defeat the enemy, how much more do we need the Word of God in our lives.
“if the living word needed the written word to defeat the enemy of the word, how much more do you and I need the word of God”
Illustration
Doctor Tony Evans's statement: 'If the living word needed the written word to defeat the enemy of the word, how much more do you and I need the word of God?'
- 3
3After Jesus combined the Spirit's fullness with the Word in battle, He came out of the wilderness filled with the Holy Spirit's power — the sequence matters.
- 4
4All Scripture is God-breathed and useful to teach, correct, and direct us — opening the Bible is as close as we can get to hearing God speak directly to us.
“when you and I open this up and read this, it's as if God were in that room with us speaking those words to us”
“God's message to you and me this morning is I have. You're holding it in your hands, but you take it for granted so often”
“when the spirit of God is working in and through us and the word of God is working in and through us, and we need them both”
Illustration
A two-person crosscut saw used to illustrate the combined power of the Spirit and the Word
A story from life
The speaker's father using a two-man crosscut saw alone in rural Montana
A story from life
A troubled student with an abusive background who missed an assignment, prompting the speaker to seek the Spirit's guidance on whether to apply grace or consequences
- 5
5The Spirit of God will never contradict the Word of God, because the Word of God was written by the Spirit of God — they always work in harmony.
“the spirit of God will never ever ever ever contradict the word of God, and the word of God will never ever ever contradict the spirit of God, because the word of God was written by the spirit of God”
- 6
6The Bible stands on a mountain of textual and historical evidence, including approximately 2,500 fulfilled prophecies out of 2,700 — we can trust it.
- 7
7Committing to thirty days of daily Scripture reading — putting yourself in the sandals of the people in the story and asking God to teach you — will rekindle a love for God's Word and unleash the power of God in your life.
“through his tear stained eyes, he tries to clean the feces off the best he can. And then he looks at these words written on this page, the word of God to him. And he begins to weep over these”
Illustration
A prisoner in a communist country who found a torn, soiled page of Romans in a latrine waste basket, wept over it, memorized it, and passed it to fellow prisoners
Application
The preacher's challenge is direct and personal: for the next thirty days, carve out time every day to open the Bible and read it — wherever you want to start, whether Proverbs, one of the Gospels, or Esther. When you read, put yourself in the sandals of the people in the story and ask God to teach you and make it come alive. Resist the excuses that it is boring or untrustworthy, and instead trust that every word is God breathing His voice toward you. Let the Spirit and the Word work together in you. The prisoner who wept over a smeared page of Romans challenges us not to take lightly what we hold freely in our hands. Do this, and you will experience the power of God in your life like you will not believe.
