Staying Sharp

Nuggets and Video from 1/29 Message:

• Staying Sharp:  The authority of the Word in our lives.
• Our God wrote the end from the beginning!  
• Getting things in order - first things first.
• It's a fight to keep things in first place.  
• Hebrews 12:1-2 - We are to lay aside the weights, or put them away.  There is one answer for sin and that is to repent.  Acknowledge the sin, call it sin, and turn from it.  1 John 1:9 says God is faithful to forgive us when we repent and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  
• The enemy is after two things in our lives: The Word and our relationships.  Don't disconnect from the God relationships in our lives - the ones who faithfully bring His Word to us!  Hebrews 10:25
• Proverbs 27:17 - God's people are to be together and are to sharpen one another.  There is no sharpening happening in our lives when we neglect being together as God directed His people to do. 
• Genesis 3:1 - From the very beginning, Satan came to steal the Word of God from Adam and Eve, to cast doubt and cause reasonings regarding the Words, the direction, the commands spoken to them by God, and to cause them to question God's character and motive.
• The devil is crafty, manipulating, and comes with thoughts.
• 2 Corinthians 11:3 - "But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by His craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."
• God's Word and the obeying of it is simple.  God said.  That's all we need to know.  
• When being tempted in the wilderness, Jesus Himself answered it every time with "It is written".  We can trust what is written!
• The Bible is the way.  The Word is the way.  Jesus is the way!
• 2 Cor 2:11 - We are not ignorant of Satan's devices/thoughts.  
• Any thought that comes that questions or tries to reason in any way what God has said is a device and thought from Satan.  We are to cast it down!  
• We make it difficult on ourselves when we toy with God's Word, when we think about it and reason it out.  It's simple.  God said.  
• In our house, we don't question God's Word.  No matter what we want, we ask "What does the Word say?" We keep in mind that God has the end in the mind.  He knows the end from the beginning, and His plans and His ways are good for us!
• We pray the following prayers for others:
  • Colossians 1:9-10 - For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God . .
  • Ephesians 1:17-19 - that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power . .
• When we come under the authority of God, of His Word, we experience Him as Father, then eventually as Friend. 
• Beyond Church is having a huge impact and reaching many people for the Kingdom of God!