Preached Word | Practice Makes Perfect | Twin Rivers Church

So today we are concluding a message series called Practice Makes Perfect. You probably heard that phrase when you were younger, when you were learning to play the clarinet or when you were learning to throw a baseball, but we're using it a little differently. It's spiritual practices that perfect our faith. And what I wanna do is I just wanna acknowledge we all come from different spaces, places, and backgrounds, and I would never want you to come here week after week and not know why we do what we do, particularly how it relates to scripture. And so we're going in and looking at some of the practices we have and showing you where they are in the scriptures and then giving you the power behind them so that your participation increases. And I just believe this, as your participation increases in spiritual practices, the grace of God flows more freely in your life. We've talked about everything from expressive worship to why we do the practice of laying on of hands that scripture talks about when we pray for someone. We've talked about serving and giving. Today's unique, I wanna talk to you about the practice of receiving the preached word of God. Now, years ago, Kayla, she kinda stretched me. You know, she's always stretching me. She took me cliff jumping and whitewater rafting, but she really stretched me when she had me go to the spa for the first time.

Now, listen, I know that doesn't sound like it takes a lot of courage, but for me, it does. First of all, I'm a germaphobe. So this setting is not my, normally it just creates a lot of anxiety. I don't relax easy. And then, you know, ultimately I just kept on my mind thinking there's gonna be a fire drill and I'm gonna be standing outside in just a towel. That was kind of my fear the whole time. Well, she told me when you go in, she said, you gotta go through kind of these stations. There's kind of a whirlpool, then there's a steam area, and then there's the cold plunge and you do them in that order. Well, I did the first two and it was semi-enjoyable, but then when I got in a cold plunge for the first time, every word a pastor shouldn't say rushed to the front of my mind. I mean, my spirit and body separated when my body got in that ice water. Now, they tell me that a combination of a steam room and an ice plunge somehow improves your health. I don't know about that, but it is interesting. They're the same substance used in different ways for improvement. It is essential that you have a relationship with the word of God. Let me say it this way. You can't follow Christ and stay at distance from his word.

Jesus said this. He said, my word is like bread that satisfies your hunger for truth. My word is like a seed that brings all fruitfulness in your life. My word is like water that it satisfies the thirsty. So my word is like a bedrock. It's the only foundation you can build a life on. There's no such thing as following Christ and staying at distance from his word. But it's interesting to me as I've been studying, here's what I've learned is that we don't just need his word in the same package. It's the same substance, but we need it in different packages. Let me say it this way. You need to read the word of God, but according to scripture, you also need to receive the preached word of God. This study was so interesting to me because frankly, for years I've preached, you need to read the word of God, but I don't know that I've ever preached on you needing to hear the preached word of God, but overwhelmingly in the New Testament, here's what you're gonna find. The preached word of God does something very unique and it's a divine practice and I wanna get into it with you today. I think it's important that we get into it

because we live in a culture that is kind of our online community. It seems like more than ever, preachers are being discredited and preaching's being dismissed. Preachers are constantly in comment sections being called to, oh, they want your money and people are saying, well, sermons are antiquated. We don't need that anymore. We're enlightened, they're boring. It's just an emotionalism, it's a performance, but as I got into the scripture, here's what I'll tell you. Preaching is not a performance. It is a divine practice that God himself instituted in the faith of a believer. As a matter of fact, it's such a big deal that when I got into it, what I found is all three members of the Godhead actually have a portion in preaching. Let me show it to you. First of all, preaching was not man's idea, it was God's idea. First Corinthians 121 says, "'For since in the wisdom of God, "'the world through its wisdom did not know him. "'So God was pleased through the foolishness "'of what was preached to save those who were believed.'" Ultimately it's saying when God decided how to reach people with his gospel,

he chose the practice of preaching. Not only that, but God chose it, but did you know Jesus modeled it? Jesus said in Luke 4, 18, "'The spirit of the Lord is upon me "'because he has anointed me to preach.'" Listen, God had one son and guess what he decided to make him, a preacher. And but it also the Holy Spirit plays a role. He anoints preaching look what Paul said in 1st Corinthians 2 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling my message of my preaching were not with wise and pervasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power So that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power. Here's what Paul's saying That it may at on surface appear like But preaching is the same as what a politician does or a sales pitch, or someone who's teaching a class But let me be very clear the difference between what a Politician does and a preacher is the anointing of the Holy Spirit The difference between hearing a sales pitch and a preacher is the anointing of the Holy Spirit The difference between hearing someone pontificate their ideas and a preacher is the anointing of the Holy Spirit Preaching is not a performance Preaching is not an opinion shared preaching is when the Word of God is anointed by the Spirit of God Glorifying the Son of God to transform the people of God There is a spiritual dynamic to preaching God's Word and every believer Needs that dynamic in their life and I can actually prove it from this step Every significant step in your spiritual journey has been launched by preaching For example you were saved through the act of preaching here's what Romans 10 and 14 says how then can they call on the one they have not believed in? how can they believe in the one in whom they've not heard and how can they hear without someone preaching to them and

How can anyone preach unless they are sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news the gospel is preached and then the gospel takes root in our hearts But not only is your salvation began with preaching it this salvation is sustained through preaching because in verse 17 of Romans chapter 10 Guess what? You may know this verse. It says faith comes by Hearing notice. It did not say faith comes by reading the reading the Word of God's matters But hearing the Word of God matters and that word comes means continually is built it means this idea that every time you hear a sermon your faith is strengthened every time that a message is shared from God's Word your Faith is strengthened that you may not feel it today in your emotions or in your body But as you receive the preached Word of God your faith is getting stronger And then we find that while preaching is taking place healing takes place Acts 14 the Bible says is that while Paul was preaching a man Literally had faith erupt in his heart and he got up and was healed Every week that I preach marriages are being put back together minds are being put back together memories are being healed emotions are being healed bodies are healed as the Word of God is preached and not only that but you receive revelation as The Word of God is preached now, you know over the years. I've had this happen a thousand times Someone will come up to me and they'll say Pastor Joe when you said and they'll say something that they heard me say and they'll say when you said this man I knew that was just for me But often here's something that happens. See I'm gonna let you behind the scenes. I manuscript my sermons, which means every word is written. Okay, and Oftentimes people say when you said and then they tell me something That's when it was for me. And you know what? I'll be thinking. I didn't say that. I Know exactly what is said because I know the manuscript and then we've got it on video many times people say when you said and I'll be like I didn't say that and it kind of confused me until I read Psalm 119 verse 130 look at this the Unfolding of your words gives light It gives understanding to the simple now the unfolding here's what it means Is is that there's a rollout with the revelation of God as you hear the word preached? Let me say it this way That that as I am speaking to everyone the Holy Spirit is speaking to each one That there's an everyone message and then spiritually there's an each one message and that's how I can be preaching on the tabernacle But somehow your parenting get better

That's how I can be talking about Noah and a and a boat and somehow you you get an answer for money problems That's how all of a sudden I can be preaching about money and you get healed of a childhood memory Because I am preaching to everyone and the Holy Spirit at the same time is preaching to each one With a revelation that's being released now. Listen to me. I have a concern that as as followers of Jesus That we have began Approaching preaching like entertainment that we come in and go. Well, that was a good sermon or that was okay That we we judge it we enjoy it and then we just move on past it never realizing this is the Word of God and By His Word the Lord created the heavens and the earth and by His Word he can recreate anything we need in our lives Listen to me, I do my best to present something that is engaging, but do not mistake and believe that the preaching of God's Word is based on my talent. You could take the least articulate person on the planet and you give them the Word of God and it will be more powerful than any monologue that has ever been written in human wisdom. Listen, we have a culture that says preaching is boring and it's something that should be put to the side. But you need to know, every time you sit in preaching, you are sitting in an atmosphere where God can do the supernatural. It doesn't matter if it's a house church or a large auditorium. It doesn't matter if it's in person or it's being streamed through a screen. The Word of God reveals revelation, it dispenses power, and it puts you in a place where miracles can take place. There is something significant according to the Word when God's Word is preached and proclaimed. And so one of the things I want to do today is this. I want to get in the nuance, though, of you've heard a lot of sermons and some of them have impacted you and some of them haven't. So why is that? If the Word of God is powerful, how come sometimes you leave without any power? And I think it's because the Word of God always carries supernatural potential, but based

on how we receive it determines if we ever inherit that potential. So let me give you the three ways you have to approach receiving the preached Word of God. Here's the first one. You have to come with expectation. The average female speaks in a frequency of about 170 to 220 hertz. The average male after puberty, though, comes in a little lower at about 150 hertz. You say, why are you telling me this? Well, I'm just telling you, we can measure sound waves. But just because we can measure the sound waves you hear does not mean that you receive the supernatural working of a sermon. Let me say it this way. Martin Lord Jones, who was a theologian, he came up with a dynamic this way. He said that really there's a distinction in the life of every believer and it's this. You hear a message with two sets of ears. Your physical ears and the ears of faith. You see, your physical ears, when you hear a message through that, it just means that you receive the information. It went into your mind, that you heard it, but you're not necessarily changed, gripped by it. It just means that you received what was said. But when you have the ears of faith, that it's not just hearing logically, you hear it with your heart. There's a dynamic to where you're receiving spiritual truth and there's also a rippling of the effect of God's Word that takes place in your life and you leave and you're never the same. Let me show it to you in scripture. There was a woman named Lydia that this literally happened to in Acts chapter 16, starting with verse 14. Notice this.

One of those, everybody help me with this word, listening, was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. Now notice this. She was a worshiper of God and the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. Now, did you see that? In this verse it says she was listening and it also says God opened her heart to hear. These are two separate things. She's listening with her physical ears, but something happens and God opens her ears of faith. Okay, so the question is, what happened? Well, the Bible says she was already a worshiper. You know what that means? It means that she was already familiar with the Word of God and she was also familiar with being in God's presence. And here's the key. What's the difference between hearing with your physical ears or hearing with the ears of faith? It's this. First, you must read God's Word every day. The more familiar you are with the Word of God personally, the more powerful sermons are. Okay, now I do my best to bring everybody along and I realize we're all starting at different places, but when you walk in and you already have a reference point for the account, you've already heard the verse, you've already studied out what it said, there's extra measure of faith that starts to churn because you're already familiar with it, okay? But it also says this, that she was already a worshiper. It means that's the reason we worship passionately. We read God's Word daily, but we worship passionately. Because as worship, just as we did a few minutes ago, here's what happens. When you worship, your heart gets reoriented from the natural world to the spiritual world.

And it's literally like all of a sudden you're hearing God through the muffling of the natural world and all of a sudden you're taken into the spiritual world where your heart can hear Him more clearly. And it just, it's transformative. The best way I can illustrate it is this. In October 1982, there was a football matchup between the University of Michigan State and the University of Wisconsin. And it was supposed to be a clash of the titans, turned out not to be. It was at Wisconsin's home stadium. But Michigan State was winning big. And so you got 60,000 people that are assembled, and they are yawning, they're bored, their team's getting killed. And then in the third quarter, something very unique happens. All of a sudden, cheers start to erupt in the stadium. And their team's getting just destroyed on the scoreboard. Nothing big has happened on the field, but their people are clapping, they're standing, they're cheering. The coaches for Wisconsin are confused. Why are our fans going wild? Well, here's what happens. That ultimately, they saw this game's over with. But 70 miles away in the World Series, the St. Louis Cardinals were playing the Milwaukee Brewers. And people stopped watching the football game and got out their radios and started listening to the baseball game. And when the Brewers got ahead, they started to cheer.

So they stopped responding to what they see and started responding to what they hear. That is the idea of you walking in and the difference between physical ears or the ears of faith. People who walk in with the ears of faith, it don't matter what life looks like. They hear the frequency of heaven. They understand the promises of God. They know God's at work, despite what's going on in their kids' lives with a diagnosis and their marriage. They recognize heaven's frequency has something to be said. And they're just receiving what other people are not receiving. Listen, when we come into these moments, we don't just attend religiously. We don't just show up and hope that we, we come with expectation, with the ears of faith, expecting for God's word to transform our lives. Okay, here's the second one. The second one is you have to not only come with expectation but you have to come into agreement. Okay, now most people think to benefit from a sermon, you just have to hear it. Like you just have to be in the room. But Paul says, no, no, no, no, no. He says two people can hear the same sermon. One receives it, the other gets nothing out of it. And he expounds on it.

Let me show it to you in scripture. First Corinthians 2.13. This is the amplified version. So it's meant to give you a more robust explanation, okay? We also speak of these things, Paul writes, not in words taught or supplied by human wisdom, but in those taught by the spirit, combining, interpreting spiritual thoughts with spiritual words for those being guided by the spirit. But the natural man does not accept the things, the teachings and revelations of the spirit of God. For they are foolishness, meaning that he just, the natural man sees them as absurd, illogical. And he is incapable of understanding them because they are spiritually discerned and appreciated. Okay, but the spirit man, this is the mature believer, judges these things, he questions, examines, and applies what the Holy Spirit reveals. Okay, so here's what Paul's saying. Two people are listening to this. One's a spirit man, one's a natural man. The spirit man receives it and is able to live in the promises of God. The natural man hears it, but does not receive any of the promises of God. So listen, this is very interesting. What Paul's insinuating is this, you can cancel the power of the word of God in your life. That God can be sending a powerful word, something that's gonna enrich your life,

but you cancel its power because you received it as a natural man. Well, what's a natural man, pastor? What does that look like? Well, it just means that you don't ever come to a place where your spirit man is the one receiving, you stay in the natural. Let me say it this way, you stay distracted. You show up to church late, you're scrolling through the whole message, you're not taking any notes, you never settle your mind and focus it, it's just the natural man. Okay, let me say it this way, or you're sitting there debating with it. You're debating, well, aren't we enlightened by that now? I don't know if that still applies to today. I don't know. Basically, what you're trying to do is take your secular truth and merge it with God's truth. Or let's say that you just dismiss it, that the natural man listens to something that says, yeah, I know it says that, but I don't wanna do that. I don't wanna forgive. I don't wanna give. I don't wanna submit. I don't wanna be humble. I don't wanna be compassionate. I don't wanna give. Basically, you're dismissing it.

He says, when you show up distracted, debating and dismissing, you're then the natural man and the natural man can't receive. So what disposition receives the word of God puts you as the spirit man, Paul says. It's one that agrees or one that says, amen. See, have you ever been in church and you heard someone, maybe here you've heard me make a point or something, and you hear somebody say, amen, preacher. Okay, now, is that person being overzealous? Are they out of order? What's that about? Okay, according to scripture, amen is not just some salutation you put on the end of a prayer. It is a governmental or judicial term. Okay, let me say it this way. It was used in official court proceedings throughout scripture. And it means, it's twofold, here's what it means. First, it means, I testify this is true. So it means that in ancient Israel, when they were holding a court proceeding, if someone agreed with what was said by the court, they said, amen, I testify this is true. When Moses brought charges against people in the Old Testament, after he would read a charge, they would say, amen, that's true, I did that, amen. They were staking the truth, this is true,

I'm staking the truth, I testify that's true. Okay, here's what else it means, is it also means, let it be, or that's for me. So also in ancient Israel, it was like signing a contract. So when people made a covenant with God, they would say, amen, meaning, I agree to that, and I receive that, let that be for me. Which, by the way, by the way, that's why the Lord's prayer ends with amen, is because every time you say amen, you're saying, let that be in my life. It's why revelation, the very last word of all of scripture is, amen. Because at the end of Revelation 21, guess what's happened, heaven has come to earth, all things have been put back in order the way that they should have been in the Garden of Eden, sin and the enemy has been put away, and Jesus is king, and they closed the scriptures with amen, because it means, let it be. Now, now, this is why Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1.20, he says, for all of God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ, with a resounding yes, and through Christ, our amen ascends to God for his glory. Here's what he's saying, when you come in here, and you hear someone say amen, I don't want you to ever scoff at that again, because this is not a worship service, according to heaven, it's a court proceeding.

And when something is announced from God's word, and someone says amen, they're saying, that's true, I agree with it, and let it be, that's for me, I'm grabbing hold of that for my life. So they're saying amen, I want that for my kids, amen, I want that in my business, amen, I want that in my marriage, so don't ever think they're just shouting, there's a court proceeding that's happening, and people are agreeing in the spirit to receive the word of God. So listen, I'm gonna give you some training wheels for it, I'm gonna declare some promises for God, and some of you, for the very first time, you're gonna open your mouth, and you're gonna say, listen, for some of you, this is about to switch from a library to a church, okay, here we go, and you're gonna say amen, here we go. By his stripes we are healed. He shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Goodness and mercy are gonna follow you all the days of your life. I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their seed begging for bread. The peace of God shall guard your heart and minds in Christ Jesus. All your children will be taught of the Lord, and great will be their peace. You will live and not die,

and you will proclaim the good works of your Lord. Look right there, y'all just don't know what you just brought into your life because you agreed with it in the spirit. See, when you agree with the scriptures, you are not just learning them, you are becoming them. It's a living dynamic. This isn't an oversell. What you see in me today is a product of preaching. It's not what I just learned, it's what I became because I agreed with it. Listen, I married Kayla because of preaching. Listen, I wasn't going after godly girls, but someone preached and said this is the kind of woman that you should aim for, this is the kind of character, this is the kind of godliness, and all of a sudden because of preaching, I changed my target, and thank God I did. Listen, I'm in ministry because of preaching. I was in a worship service where someone was preaching, and the word of God gripped my heart, and the Lord said I wanna use you to do that in your life. I'm only here ministering to you today because someone preached to me. And listen, I'm free from sin because of preaching. It was sin that convicted me of sin. It was sin that showed me how to walk away from sin. It renewed my mind and showed me how to walk in grace. Preaching is what released freedom in my life. This is a literal illustration of Isaiah 55, 11

when it says, my word, says the Lord, I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It shall accomplish all that I want it to, and prosper everywhere I send it. Here's what God's saying. If I send my word and it finds an agreeing heart, prospering comes to wherever that agreement is. And so listen, every time you agree with the word of God, you're establishing God's truth, and you've just opened yourself up to prosper in a new place. But we have to agree with it. Now here's the last one. We have to come with expectation, come into agreement. Now here's the big one. We have to come ready to obey. Several weeks ago, I walk into our living room, all of our kids are laying, and they're watching something on television, and I engage them, and not one of them. them even looked in my direction. And then I said, hey guys, I'm going on a walk. Would anybody like to go with me? No one even moved their eyes towards me. No one said, no dad, maybe like, oh, I wish I could. I mean, it's like, I might as well been Charlie Brown's teacher, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. And so I thought, okay. So I go over to the door and I open it up. And just as I open it up, at the top of our street,

an ice cream truck comes on the street. And I mean, it was faint and distant, but that melody came down the street, went through the door, over to the living room. And immediately, every head turns. Smiles erupt on every face. They get up, put on their shoes, and file at the door. And nobody instructed them, no one threatened them, no one told them. Immediately, at the sound, they moved. Which is by the way, when I needed chores done, I just played the ice cream truck on my phone now. There's your parenting tip for the day, okay. Listen, at the sound of God's word, we're supposed to move. Look at what James says, chapter one, verse 22. But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you're only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don't obey, it's like glancing at your face in the mirror. You see yourself, but then you walk away and you forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free and do what it says, and don't forget it, then what happens? God will bless you for doing it. The blessing's not on the hearing, the blessing's on the doing. Now, a lot of people would describe themselves as Bible-believing Christians.

But here's the thing. We can't measure how Bible-believing you are based on how many sermons you've heard. We can't measure how Bible-believing you are based on how many quotes you can recite from sermons. The only thing we can measure to determine how Bible-believing you are is how many steps of obedience you have taken after hearing from the Bible. And for many of us, we have amassed a great deal of hearing, but not much obeying. And it's why the absence, it's why there's an absence of the blessing of God, because the blessing's in the obeying, not the hearing. In this series, I did a message on the laying on of hands, which if you read scriptures or practice, the Bible says that we should come to the elders of the church and have them lay hands on us and pray for us. And so we do that at the end of every service. If you've ever been in a service, we offer anything you need. Grief, concern, wisdom, healing, anything you need. You can come forward at the end of service and they'll lay hands on you. Now, all that means is they're probably gonna put their hand on your shoulder and they're just gonna say a prayer. Okay, so the week I preached on this, our elders came forward.

And at this campus, a woman comes forward. She'd only been at Twin Rivers. Either this was her first day or it was within the first couple of times. And she came forward for prayer. And the elder said to her, what would you like me to pray about? And she goes, oh, I don't know. She said, I just heard him preach on this. And so I just doing it. And he goes, okay, well, then I'm gonna pray for her. And she goes, wait, wait. She goes, what are you gonna do? She doesn't know what that means. He said, well, I'm just gonna put my hand on you. And my wife and I, we're gonna pray for you. Is there anything you'd like to pray about? She goes, no, I'm just here. She said, I just heard him preach this and I just wanna be a better Christian. So I'm just doing what he said. That was it. So the elder starts to pray for her, general prayer. And all of a sudden he feels the Holy Spirit just tug on his heart to pray against night terrors. He says that, she steps back and starts weeping. Gathers herself and says, how do you know that? He said, how do I know what? How do you know I have night terrors? And he said, well, there's just the Holy Spirit

just put it out of my heart and I'm praying. I didn't know that. The Holy Spirit knows that. And all of a sudden for her young faith, here's what she did. She heard the word of God. She obeyed the word of God. And at that, the Holy Spirit met her in a supernatural way and solved a problem that she didn't even want to disclose. Now, when I go to another church and I speak, one of the things I always said to the pastor is this, pastor, I'm so honored to be here. I just wanna put another brick in the wall of what God is building here. That's what I say. I just wanna put another brick in the wall of what God's building here. I was thinking about that this week. You know, bricks are essential to building a house. They're essential to building a wall that can protect and house and create space. Some place for meetings between meaningful relationships, but here's the thing a bunch of bricks just stacked together are not a building It's just pile of bricks It's um, it's it's it's mortar That takes a stack of bricks and turns it into a building I mean mortars just a pace that you know connects them and and and it's really not even the most impressive part I mean most people if they go up to a building that's made of bricks. I've never heard anybody say wow That's some great mortar there on that building It's almost this like just forgotten overlooked

But it is essential to build anything Listen, I believe with all my heart every time you hear the Word of God. You just got another brick a brick of forgiveness a brick of compassion a brick of generosity a brick of Character a brick of integrity a brick of sensitivity a brick of purpose But it's the obedience. That's the mortar It's the it's the sermon Combined with the step that builds the life God intends and I just sense in my heart There's a lot of you you got a big pile of bricks Because you've sat through a lot of sermons But there's been little obedience and so there's not been much built How can someone be in church for decades and their character not grow? Their life not be blessed their relationships be in dysfunction because they're just collecting bricks It's the the brick plus the obedience that builds It's the it's the hearing plus the stepping that stacks it and connects it and that's what I'm telling you consistent obedience Assembles the abundant life consistent obedience to the preached Word of God Assembles the abundant life that you want. I don't know what you need Some of you need healing some of you need insight some of you need favor some of you need parenting Directions some you need a spouse. I don't know what you need, but I would tell you this No matter what I need I'd get to wherever they're preaching Because wherever they're preaching that's where God's building and I don't know what you need God to build in your life But I'd get to wherever they're preaching and I'd received the Word of God that is supernatural with expectation I'd hear it with my faith ears and I'd agree with it in the moment, but I'd quickly move on it Afterwards because I want to receive all that God has for me. Listen the way we steward the scriptures Determine how much of the abundance of supernatural activity is in our lives I'm just telling you I'd get to wherever they're preaching Because that's where God's building