God’s Word is Like Honey from Heaven

[hmp_player playlist=’Honeyfromheaven’]

Sermon Notes Below:

March 23rd, 2014,

“God’s Word is Like Honey from Heaven”

God desires unity among His people.

Ephesians 4:4-6 says there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father over all, in all, through all.

Acts 2:42-47, says our unity is expressed and maintained by knowing and obeying God’s Word, as we participate in close fellowship with one another, commemorating the Lord’s death and resurrection, and continually coming before God in prayer.
Our main purpose, as servants of Christ, is to bring honor and glory and praise to God.

Luke 12 records the story of a farmer who makes plans to build bigger and better storehouses to hold his surplus crops (v. 20), “But God said to him,`You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’”

That farmer had lived only for himself, and in God’s evaluation, his life would come to nothing!

Paul, during his last years in prison, wrote (2Timothy 4:7), “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” What a great epitaph. Does your life reflect the presence, pleasure, and power of God’s Spirit living in
you (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 1:13-14; 2:10; 5:1-2; 2Corinthians 5:17-21)?

God has provided all we need to know Him and to enjoy life on earth, while serving Him (2Peter 1:3-4); God promised to bring us to be with Him in heaven forever (John 14:1-3; Revelation 21:3-4).

2Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God (all who confess Christ as Lord) may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

•The Bible is alive and active.
Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active. …it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

•The Bible is life giving.
John 6:63, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.”

•The Bible nurtures our spiritual growth.
Hebrews 5:14, “But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”

•The Bible transforms and directs our lives.
Romans 12:1-2, “Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is –his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

•We Must Believe the Bible!
Romans 10:9-10, “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”

•We Must Study the Bible!
Acts 17:11, “Now the Bereans received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”

•We Must Honor the Bible!
Psalms 19:14, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

•We Must Obey the Bible!
1John 2:3-4, “We know that we have come to know Him [Jesus Christ] if we obey His commands. The man who says, ‘I know Him,’ but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

2Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

We are living in the “last days,” and people have turned away from the truth of God’s Word and continue to reject the revelation of God’s Son. We must get serious about studying, applying, and proclaiming God’s Word.

Let me share an illustration from the life and purpose of of a bee. When a bee leaves the hive each day, it goes out empty; when it returns, it is heavily laden with pollen and full of nectar.

As a bee moves from flower to flower consuming nectar and gathering pollen (which is actually the plant’s male reproductive cells) the bee, by God’s design, deposits some of this pollen into the seed-bearing female organ of the flowers, and this enables the plants to propagate.

Nectar is consumed by the gathering bee, and is shared with the other bees in the hive; it is a vital source of energy, and of course, it is used to make honey.

Pollen provides protein for the bees and is used to feed the bee larvae; thus, the bees work in unity, playing an important role in the life of one another, in the care for the larvae (future bees) and in aiding the plants to reproduce, to create more nectar and pollen.

If Christians would approach God’s Word with the same diligence and purpose that bees approach flowers; the Church would be much more unified and productive, for its members would be full of Godly nectar and pollen.

We ought to daily seek God’s Word, to believe it, study it, honor it, and obey it, allowing it to fill us, to nurture, strengthen, grow, and transform us, so that we can encourage and equip one another, while at the same time, spreading the Gospel of Christ among those we come into contact with; like the bees sharing the nectar and pollen that they consumed, collected, and distributed.

Psalm 19:9-11, “The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”

Psalm 119:102-104, “I have not departed from your laws, for You yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.”
We need to humbly come to God in prayer each day, emptying ourselves, purposing to feed upon His Word until we are full (like the bees gathering nectar and pollen); then, with anticipation and expectancy, we can we share God’s Word with those around us, so that they too might be blessed and nurtured by it.

God’s Word is honey from heaven, it never spoils or decays or looses its flavor, it eternally provides what we need so that we might be encouraged, equipped, exhorted and empowered, to do what pleases God.
Feed on it daily, share it with others often!