Rightly Dividing The Word - Part 1 - What is Rightly Dividing the Word?

Hello, this is Mike Kennedy with the Living in Victory broadcast. We're going to start a series titled "Rightly Divide the Word." Over time, many errors have crept into the church due to taking the word of God out of context. We're going to review some of those. Some of those, as I went through them, I have discovered that I had things over time where traditions of men have crept into my own life, my own thought life, my own understanding. We've got to go back to the Word and rightly divide it. I'm going to explain what that means in this series and go over some of the areas that doctrines have come in that has actually become a tradition of men because the Word was not rightly divided. I'm not judging, don't get me wrong in this because many of these are my own experience where I was doing it incorrectly. If you would, let's go ahead and join our faith together. Heavenly Father, I ask you for light, revelation of your Word, even as we go through this series, help me to express your Word, rightly divided, specifically your oracles, the way you have presented it, the way you meant it without tradition. I ask you for your help, help each and every person listening to this, understand more about your truth and how to rightly divide the Word of God. In the name of Jesus, amen. So what does that mean, rightly dividing the Word? It's vital to know the truth of the Word of God because there is a direct correlation between understanding Scripture and experiencing victory over darkness, victory in every area of our lives. If you believe the wrong thing, you will live the wrong way. You won't experience everything that God has for us. Darkness, Satan, the deceiver, he exists and lies half truth where he creates confusion, strife. And we want to make sure that we have the truth planted in our minds, in our hearts, that we live by the truth that sets us free, amen. Satan comes immediately to try to steal the Word, the truth that is planted in us before it gets

settled deep into our hearts. Understanding God's Word and understanding it correctly keeps the truth of the Word of God in our heart where Satan cannot come in and steal it. He wants to get us off the path, the path that God has to prosperous, to bless us, amen. There are many partial truths that are very subtle and we're going to go into a few of those. Some of these deviations or errors can be deadly, spiritually and physically. You know, for example, I am a pilot and I fly jets all over the world. If I'm flying 500 miles an hour and I'm five degrees off on my heading, so I'm supposed to be going north 360 degrees and instead I'm going at a heading of 005 on a on a compass. And I fly for 11 and a half hours at 500 miles an hour. The plane that I'm flying right now will do that. So if I take off from New York and I'm going to go to, let's say Jerusalem, about 11 and a half hours later, I'm expecting to be in Israel and if I'm five degrees off, I will end up in a rocky airspace with potentially having missiles come at me shooting me down. The same thing goes with the Kingdom of God. A little deviation from the Word of God over a long distance over a long period of time can greatly affect the end result or the destination we're going to. So there's times we have to make course adjustments to get back into course where we're going. The autopilot and the jet is making thousands of them continuously. We want to stay on the straight and narrow, on the course that God has set before us. Amen? In 1983, Korean Airlines flight 007, straight off course for 200 miles. Now, we just talked about being 500 miles off. They were 200 miles off course when a Soviet fighter shot them down. They left in a Boeing 747 from Anchorage, Alaska, and they were headed to Seoul, South Korea. They had some errors, some mistakes, and they were flying over Soviet military installations that the Soviets considered sensitive. Even though they knew it was a commercial airplane, they still shot it down.

A few degrees off, or getting off track for a short period of time, is not as critical as over a long period. Oh, it can still cost you your life. But you continue down a road for a long destination, a long duration. You get way off course. Many of these subtle changes in course have crept into the body of Christ to differently nominations, different groups, and they have become man's ideas, and they've resulted into traditions. We're going to talk about what happens to traditions in the body of Christ, traditions that come into our lives, because these traditions will keep us from reaching the destination God has from us, from victory, from protection, from peace, from joy. Many of these traditions are actually out of ignorance, and that word ignorance comes from the same root word that we get ignoring. Yes, some of it is due to just flat out and out understanding it, so we're going to break down some of these traditions. Some of these areas that have become unrightly dividing the word, so we can rightly divide them. Some of it's due to flat out ignoring what the word says. I don't want to live that way, I don't believe it, you choose not to, you choose to ignore it. That's dangerous. And then there's just a lack of understanding the word of God. Haven't been taught, haven't seen some things. I am learning every week, hallelujah. I'm so thankful for revelation that the Lord has given me through His Word, through preachers, through my pastor, amen. Well, Mark 713 says, making the Word of God of no effect through your tradition, which you have handed down in many such things you do, no effect. That means there's no power, there's no good results, amen. And if you're in a church, year after year, not getting results, it weighs on you, wears

on you. So you're like, this doesn't work, it's not real, and you people have quit over that. Now I want you to get the result of being the doer of the word by rightly dividing it, amen. Some of these have become sacred cows in the church. And so during this series, I'm expecting all of us to see some sacred cows that have been developed in our lives, and these cows need to put down. We need to hear that cow go, woo, and be put down, amen, taken out. We need to rightly divide the Word so that we speak it properly. We believe it, we decree it, we establish a thing, and we see the power of the Word of God working in our lives with blessings, protection, increase, amen. So a couple of things we're going to go over is some statements and what they really mean and who said them in the Bible. For example, the Lord giveth and the Lord takeeth away. Well, you just never know what God's going to do. And one that's become real popular, God is in control, prayer changes everything. God in his mysterious way knew best, well it's my truth, it's your truth, it's their truth. God needed another angel in heaven. We're going to talk about it, some healing topics, such as Paul Storm. You know, in the church I grew up in, if he didn't understand what was going on with somebody physically, it was, well God must be teaching them something by giving them that disease, that cancer. Well, the Lord will heal him if it's his will. I'm like poor old Job. Let go and let God. These are all things that sound good, but they have some error in it and when we're gonna get into each one of these, whenever it comes to rightly dividing the word of God.

Amen? One thing to do when you're rightly dividing the word of God is ask three questions. Who said it? Who did they say it too? What is the context? What are they speaking about? Don't just take a little piece of scripture and a little piece of scripture and a little piece of scripture and put it together, you will get off. Everything in the Bible was said, but not all of it is truth. Not all of it was God speaking. Amen? For example, you hear this frequently, "Oh, they could have sold that and given it to the poor." Well, who said that in the Bible? It was Judas Iscariot. The trader, he betrayed Jesus. And why did he want it sold to the poor? Because he was the banker over the account for Jesus' ministry and he was stealing it. Jesus didn't say it. Paul said, "Don't work, don't eat." He was talking about directly about able-bodied people who refuse to work and spent their time as idol-busy-bottered bodies, begging for money, holding signs on the street corner saying, "Give me money whenever these, right across the street,"

a company that said, "We will hire you. We need you to help us move packages to load trucks, to wait on people." But they refuse to go work. So you want me to work and give you my hard work money for you whenever you're too lazy? That's what he's talking about. When reading the Bible in order to rightly divide the Word of God and to clearly separate what belongs in the old covenant of the law and what belongs to the new covenant of grace, we need to understand these three items that I mentioned. Who said it? Who did they say it to? What is the context? What are they under? Are they, is it in the New Testament? The Old Testament, amen? Because we are under the new covenant. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah, we're not under the curse of the law for those of us who have been saved. When people quote the Old Testament passages without appropriating the cross of Jesus in their interpretations, they make it seem as though the cross of Jesus Christ made no difference at all. No, without Jesus dying on a cross and dying for our sins and raising from the dead, none of this would matter because we'd all be going to hell. He paid for our redemption. Thank you, Lord.

See, this leads to misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the Bible. We need to read everything in context of what he came to do, what he accomplished on the cross, what he has done for us and that those of us who have received him, that we have been made righteous and right standing with him and we have all the promises of God, amen? Now, if you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I encourage you to receive him and receive all the blessings and goodness. In rightly dividing the word, we also have to take note of who Jesus was addressing when he spoke. Amen? Some of this may stretch our ideas, but we need to come back to the Bible, the written Word of God and ask ourselves, where is the Scripture? Where is it? And rightly divide it, rightly interpret it. Write proper context, amen? New channels and politicians have become pros at twisting words, meanings, and misleading people in what someone said or meant. We want to know what God said, what he meant, and how it applies to us, amen? We need to be proficient at rightly dividing, understanding the Word so we get the results of the Word of God. Only doers get results, amen? If you're doing it wrong, you're not going to get the right results. So we want to make sure that we are doing the Word right, understanding it right, interpreting it right, amen? Well, you may say, I already know the answers to these things. Well, pride, unwillingness to receive correction

will keep you from rightly dividing the Word. So just that attitude tells me that there's things that you need to change. Amen, I'm not saying it applies to everybody here, but I believe there are people there. You know, I grew up in a, in a background. And I see that in every group, every denomination, every camp where people have allowed traditions to come in, the camp or the group that I'm in have allowed traditions to come in. We're going to talk about that a little bit. What it talks when we get into believing, if we're truly believing for something and what it's based on. Matthew 13 verse 15, "For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing and their eyes they have closed." Who closed them? They have closed their eyes. So are your eyes closed? You're not going to get much out of it if you close your eyes, plug your ears. No, you need to be open to the renewing of your mind. Transformed by the Word of God. Amen. Years ago, I was in a service. I was sitting on the second row on the end and I fell asleep. I was snoring man and our pastor's wife told the guy in front of me, the associate, to wake me up. I mean, I'm just, he reached back up, touched my leg. I went like this whenever he went me up. Slobber came out of my mouth, went flying over everybody in the front row and landed right by our pastor's foot while he was sharing. So of course, it's on TV, high def. Everybody starts laughing. I was not getting much out of that service. Oh, I didn't intentionally close my eyes. I just flown back from Russia to Missouri and I've been up for like 30 hours. I shouldn't have even been there. Matthew 13 verse 15 says, "Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears. Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them." In other words, see, hear and be healed. Amen. God is ready to heal you, but you must be ready and willing to receive. Believe in miracles, hallelujah. You need to ask yourselves, I do this frequently. Do I need to make changes in this area? And most likely, if you're like me, yeah, there may be several, some of them may be larger than others, but none of us have made it to Christ-like perfection, which means change. Change to get more like him, get more results. Amen. Covers all areas of our life. Matthew 13 verse 16 says, "But blessed are your eyes for they see in your ears, for they hear. The blessing allows or empowers me to see, to understand, to perceive, to hear in multi-dimension spiritual and natural." You say, well, what does this have to do with rightly dividing the word? Well, as we trust God, we believe to see, have our eyes open, our ears open.

We're going to rightly divide the word and we're going to grow. We're going to come up higher and higher. We're going to come out of issues living in victory. Amen. Let's say this together. I am blessed and the blessing upon my life helps me see and understand and become a doer of the word, getting the result of the word, living in victory. That's who I am. I am blessed. Amen. Continuing on, let's jump down to Matthew chapter 13 verse 18 says, "Therefore hear the parable of the sower." When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, here's what? The word of the kingdom or the king's domain, the word of the king, Hallelujah, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. So the enemy can snatch away the truth that sets us free if we have a lack of knowing, a lack of understanding. So we're going to get into the word in this series in some of these areas and have a better understanding of what God said, what his word said, what he meant, and how to apply it to our lives. Amen. Properly understanding the scripture is vital to stability, well-being. Amen. Isaiah 55 8 says, "For my thoughts," God's talking, "for my thoughts," what are his thoughts? They are righteous thoughts. "For my thoughts and not your thoughts," he's talking about, and hear about the unrighteous man in verse 7. Isaiah 55 8 goes on to say, "nor are your ways my ways, so our thoughts are not his thoughts and our ways are not his ways." Verse 9, "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Walking in God's ways raises the standard of God in our lives, raises up the quality of our life. Amen? We must know his ways and rightly divide the word. So the series is based on two scriptures. Mark 7, 13 says, "Making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down in many such things you do." So some of the things we're going to talk about are traditions that have made the word of God of no effect in our lives. Taking the power from working in our lives. The power is there, but by traditions we get to a point where we remove that power from working in our lives. In the second scripture, 2 Timothy 2, 15, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Rightly divide the word of God of the word of truth. Rightly dividing keeps you in the middle of the road. And as we get into the word more, we're going to get more truth. Amen? Truth that is new to us. Not new truth, it's been there for millennia. But truth that adds to our understanding. Not replacing truth. If it's true, it's true. We're going to add to the truth that we currently know. You can't have a truth that contradicts another truth. One of them is not true. Every truth must agree with other truth. They cannot be in contradiction.

Now there is laws like the law of gravity and the law of lift. So both of them are true laws. Amen? But what comes up is coming down unless the law of lift says, okay, there's something more powerful causing it to lift like an airplane. They're Bernoulli principle. And so we must rightly divide the word based on what it says and understand it. Amen? Universities have taught that the world was flat for years. Not understanding what makes the seasons change. Why we have light for eight hours in one part of the year and 12 hours in another part of the year. They didn't understand great circle routes that we fly as pilots. And the fact of what the latitudes and longitudes really mean for years they didn't understand these things. Many people today still think that the globe is round. Just like this globe that's on my desk that looks round, the globe is actually a spear. It's actually not completely round. That's why we have the great circle route and lots and longs. If you don't understand that, I encourage you to do some research on it. Amen? You cannot say that there's a ditch on the right side, but there's not a ditch on the right side. Either there's a ditch on the right side of the road or there's not. Amen? There is an also truth, but it must agree. It must work in conjunction. Amen? Satan used scripture when he tempted Jesus. And Jesus said, "It is also written." If we use the word properly and rightly divide it, we will stay in the middle of the road. We won't get off in one ditch or the other ditch. Amen? All error is a result of a wrong division of the Word of God that requires us to spend time in the Word understanding the context, the meaning behind it. Amen? I encourage you to spend more time in the New Testament letters to find out who you are in Christ, what you have in Christ, what your future holds. In April of this year, 2026, I did a series titled "In Him." I encourage you to go back and listen to it. As scripture can be taken out of context and made to say almost anything, rightly dividing the Word, that means in the proper translation to cut strength. It means to interpret the verse in light of other scriptures. It includes being accurate and conveying God's true intent. It avoids twisting verses to fit a circumstance or a religious tradition or opinion. what we believe on our experiences because we've all missed it. We've all come short. We've all experienced things that is not God's will, God's plan. Amen. Matthew 22 verse 29 says, Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God." I want to know the word of God, the Scriptures, and experience the power of God. The King James version of Matthew 22, 29, it uses the words, ye do err. It means to go astray, to make mistakes. Ignorance will carry you off course. See the Sadducees, they didn't even believe in the afterlife, eternal life, been having life eternally in heaven. Why are you even going to church? Sound like a waste of time to me. They did not know the truth, so they did not experience the power of God, the blessings of God. They were just religious people that were living miserable lives. I don't want that for you or for me. Amen. They read the word of God but did not believe it and wanted to be seen rather than be doers of the word of God. So we need to watch ourselves, not get in pride. I encourage you to be open to the different items in this series that we're going to cover, some of those that I mentioned. And let's go back to what the word of God actually says. What it means in make adjustments. There's already things that I have learned in this study where I'm having to make adjustments.

See, pride comes before a fall and a fall means you're off balance, you're out of place, you're hurt. Amen. We want to stay in the straight and narrow living in the goodness of God. Amen. God has plans to bless you. He has plans to bring you up. Amen. But there's time for we need to change what our thoughts are, what we believe, what we need to ask ourselves, where did that even come from? There's things that I was taught as a child growing up. Oh, the Bible says, well, where is it? And does it really say that? We're going to get into a couple of those examples, things that I was taught that isn't even in the word or is totally contradictory. They took a piece of the verse and they modified it for their religious ideas. And I'm not judging them. I believed it for years and I didn't even verify it. Lord, have mercy on me. I want you to experience the power of God in our lives. Amen. The power that sets free, the power that blesses, the power that raises us up. Amen. Why are we going to church? Why are we doing any of this stuff if we don't believe it and we don't experience the truth of it? If you're not experiencing it, get into the word of becoming a doer of the word and let God bless you and experience it. Amen. Hallelujah. He has more for all of us. Hallelujah. Well, this is my candidate with living in victory. This is only the first message. I encourage you to stay hooked. We're going to get into a lot more. Remember, 1 John 5 4 says, "For whatever is born of God, overcomes the world." And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Have a blessed day.