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Step Into His Word

STEP INTO HIS WORD Text: Hebrews 4:12–13 Advent Week 1: Hope

  • You want Christmas to feel magical, the Santa Claus vibe, the “It’s a Wonderful Life” glow, but if you’re not careful, in four weeks you’ll pack all of it back into the same plastic box it came out of. And what are you left with? A bigger waistline, a couple worn-out family traditions, and a soul that never got touched./// Because fabricated Rudolph-movie magic can’t give you hope.
  • No amount of treats, movies, presents, lights, or get-togethers can fill an empty hopeless soul.
  • Only the Word can. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and the Word is still alive and active today to fill the longing of your soul and give you hope in this life. 
  • If you want this Christmas to actually change you, step into the Word.///
  • Because the story doesn’t start with magic, it starts with the Word becoming flesh.
  1. Step into the word that still speaks today.
  • Why should you step into this word? Heb 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful.
  • Lets lean into Christmas this year. You are going to be singing these songs. How about this year you actually listen to the words you are singing. THE WORD APPEARED AND STILL SPEAKS
  • O Come All Ye Faithful: Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.
  • “Word of the Father” equals Heb 1 “now in flesh” equals Jn 1:14. “appearing” equals Advent.
  • The Word Became Flesh and the Word Still Speaks Today is the Hope of Christmas.///
  • The Word that became flesh is still alive and speaking, and only His Word can carry you.
  • THE WORD is what SUSTAINED ISRAEL IN FUTURE HOPE while waiting for messiah
  • God spoke a future hope through his word 740 years earlier through the prophets.
  • Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
  • God spoke hope long before they saw hope, and His Word held them while they waited
  • THE WORD SPEAKS TO YOU TODAY RIGHT NOW to give HOPE IN YOUR LIFE if you let it
  • John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.
  • When the Word arrived He was alive, and He is still alive today speaking through His word.
  • THE WORD SUSTAINS YOUR SOUL NOT JUST YOUR  temporary STOMACH hunger
  • What does it mean to step into the word and be sustained by it?
  • It is stepping into what God speaks so you can know who He is and who you are in your soul.
  • It is stepping in by reading, listening, and following His word when your soul is hungry
  • Practically- that means you go to the word when you’re empty, not the pantry///
  • Deu 8:3 Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.
  • Man shall not live by bread alone. You can fill yourself at a holiday party, eat everything , and still drive home empty because what you filled your stomach with didn’t feed your soul.
  • Stepping into His word is believing and ingesting His truth as your source. Living by the word
  • THE WORD WILL SUSTAIN YOU THIS SEASON IF YOU STEP INTO IT BUT YOU HAVE TO
  • If you want the purest hope that will feed you through everything, step into His word.
  • If you skip the Word this season, you will miss the entire point of Christmas.
  • Christmas will fill your schedule, but only the Word will fill your soul///
  • Make it a daily and weekly habit. It will sustain you and give you the hope you are seeking.
  • This is why we built the weekly devotional. Not as content, but as bread.
  • Find it on the app or the site. Use it. It will fill you.
Step Into His Word
  1. Step into the word because the word can change you. 
  • The Word Is Living and Active. It gives a hope that cuts, heals, and transforms. Hebrews says it is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
  • Old Testament prophetic hope says the same thing.  Jer 23:29 Is not My word like a fire? says the Lord. And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces.
  • New Testament right now hope is Heb 4:12. The same sword. The same fire. The same hammer. But now embodied in Christ, the living Word.
  • What does that mean? It means God’s Word has always been able to encourage, correct, and direct, but now that living hope has arrived in the Christ child and is available to you right now.
  • The Word speaks down to the innermost parts of your being. Soul and spirit. Joints and marrow. 
  • The deepest places no human can reach./// the secret places of your heart and mind
  • The places you can’t fix with holidays, gifts, vacations, or coping mechanisms.
  • And you’ve experienced this. Scripture healing your heart, convicting your mind, restoring your soul to the Savior. Times when you’ve been empty and the word filled you up. 
  • People ask why these books made it into the New Testament and others didn’t. Because these were the ones that changed people. When these were read and preached, lives changed. 
  • 2 Tim 3:16–17 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
  • This Bible that you hold in your hands is God Himself speaking. And when He speaks, it gets down into the deepest parts of your soul if you will step in.
  • Everything meaningful in life requires full embrace. You can be married and never experience intimacy. You can have a career and never do anything transcendent. You can go on vacation, take pictures, and never actually drink it in. 
  • The Word of God is no different. If you skim it, avoid it, or let it sit in your passenger seat, it will never change you./// You have to read it and let it read you. Simple bible plan not enough
  • How does the Word actually change you?
  • See it as pure. Psalm 12:6 The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
  • If you constantly argue with the Word to defend your flesh, you will never be changed by it.
  • Your whole life will be fighting God. Justifying divorce, immorality, sin, disobedience.
  • See it as a change agent. John 17:17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
  • When you align your life to the demands of God’s Word, you change. Plain and simple. 
  • read  you should do or not do something, and you submit, and the Holy Spirit transforms you.
  • See it as life. John 6:63 The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life.
  • See it as salvation. James 1:21 receive The implanted word that is able to save your soul.
  • The word is Jesus, and His words will free you from sin and give you hope.///
  • If you see the Word as a chore, it wont give you hope. It becomes a task, not a transformation.
  • But if you let the Word cut what needs cutting and heal what needs healing, you will find hope for things you thought were dead. 
  • The Word never wounds to destroy you. It wounds to heal you///
  • What you’re facing right now is not a death sentence when you step into the Word.
  • And this is where it turns. Many people avoid the Word because the Word reveals the truth we don’t want to see.
Step Into His Word
  1. Step into the word because there is truth you need to see
  • THE WORD EXPOSES WHAT WE TRY TO HIDE
  • Hebrews 4:13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight. All things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.///
  • The reason people avoid the Word of God and the incarnate Word is because the Word reveals things about God and about them that they do not want to face. Its PAINFUL
  • It is painful to realize what needs to change about you, but its exactly what the Word does.
  • Many people avoid reading the Bible or preaching because they do not want to hear truth.
  • Even worse, some sit under the Word and their hardened hearts never receive it
  • THE WORD HAS ALWAYS REVEALED THE HEART

 OT prophetic hope Psalm 139:23–24 Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my anxieties, and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

  • THE WORD SEES YOU RIGHT NOW (AND THAT IS HOPE)
  • New Testament right now hope Hebrews 4:13 All things are naked and open before God.
  • David hoped the Word would show him where he fell short so he could walk in eternal life.
  • Hebrews says this same living Word gives you that same hope today.
  • Can you live a full life without fully knowing God and fully knowing yourself? no
  • Here is the danger of Christmas: People want the baby in the manger, but they do not want the Savior with the sword of the Spirit./// they want the starry night and not the cross
  • The same baby in the manger is the same Savior who sees all of your everything.
  • Here’s the other part- GOD DOES NOT JUST SPEAK TRUTH, HE SEES TRUTH
  • Proverbs 5:21 The ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He ponders all his paths.
  • God speaks and sees.1 Cor 4:5 God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of hearts. John 3:19–21 Light has come, but men loved darkness because light exposes. But those who do truth come to the light so their deeds may be clearly seen.
  • EXPOSURE BEFORE GOD BRINGS HEALING, NOT SHAME. MUST BE EXPOSED///
  • Step into His Word and let God expose what needs to be exposed. (irrigating a wound)
  • Not so you can be embarrassed before people, but so you can be healed before God.
  • God wants you to be seen by Him so He can change you, but change requires exposure.
  • Psalm 19:12–13 Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep me from presumptuous sins.
  • It takes going to the secret place and being honest with God about where you really are.

Many people have bad attitudes, drugs, alcohol, eating, working out etc bc they refuse to just get real with God, let him show you what you need to see and receive the healing you need. 

  • Daniel 2:22 “He reveals deep and secret things.” He already knows everything about you.
  • He does not expose you to shame you. He exposes you to save you.
  • I have been brutally honest with God about sin. Loving it, wanting it, not wanting to stop it.
  • And what I found in honesty was grace, not judgment.
  • This scripture is not meant to scare you. It is meant to give you hope.
  • THE WORD REVEALS YOUR SIN SO CHRIST CAN HEAL YOUR SIN
  • When the Word exposes, the Word heals.///
  • When the Word convicts, the Word forgives.///
  • When the Word reveals your sin, the Word gives you a Savior.
  • This is what the Word does. It brings hope to us in spite of our sin.
Step Into His Word
  1. Step into the word because the word is our hope for now and the future
  • THE WORD GIVES YOU A RIGHT NOW HOPE AND A NOT YET HOPE
  • The hope of Scripture has two layers. Right now and not yet.
  • Right now the Word is your light, your strength, your clarity, your anchor.
  • the Word also promises a future glory, a final fulfillment that is guaranteed by God Himself.
  • The arrival of the Christ child was right now hope and not yet hope. it fulfilled prophecy, but it pointed forward to the cross, the resurrection, the return, and the eternal kingdom.
  • THE WORD PROMISED A FUTURE HOPE AND NEVER FAILED
  • Isaiah 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.
  • God’s promises remain when everything else fades.
  • For centuries God’s people held onto hope because the Word told them to. Even when they did not see anything happening. Even when circumstances contradicted their expectations.
  • THE WORD FULFILLED HOPE IN JESUS AND STILL GIVES HOPE TODAY
  • 1 Peter 1:23–25 The word of the Lord endures forever.
  • The same eternal Word that sustained the prophets brought new birth to you.
  • The arrival of Christ was thousands of years in the making. Four hundred years of silence from Malachi to Matthew. Four hundred years of waiting with no new prophet and no fresh word.
  • Yet the Word still sustained their hope. They held on because God had spoken.
  • GOD WAS SILENT, BUT GOD WAS NOT ABSENT/// This is why Hebrews calls us to hold fast
  • psalmist said- Psalm 74:9 We do not see our signs and there is no longer any prophet.
  • Waiting can feel like torment, but silence is not abandonment.
  • Habakkuk 2:3 Though it tarries, wait for it. It will surely come.
  • When God speaks, His word always comes to pass. This is our confidence and our hope.
  • THE SILENCE BROKE WHEN THE WORD ARRIVED/// and IT WILL ARRIVE FOR YOU
  • Galatians 4:4–5 When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son.
  • The hope Israel waited centuries for arrived in a manger in Bethlehem. The Word became flesh. Hope became visible. The promises became a Person.
  • THE WORD SAYS HOPE HAS COME AND HOPE IS COMING AGAIN
  • Hebrews 9:28 He will appear a second time for salvation to those who eagerly wait for Him.
  • Philippians 3:20–21 We eagerly wait for the Savior.
  • Titus 2:13 Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing.
  • If you stay in the Word, you stay in hope./// If you step into the Word, you step into a hope that is pure, eternal, and unstoppable.
  • THE WORD IS YOUR ANCHOR IN THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT
  • Hebrews 6:19 This hope is an anchor for the soul.
  • This hope is deeper than a holiday mood. Stronger than a Christmas movie. It satisfies your soul more than the best dessert on the table.
  • The Word gives you hope for right now. It gives you hope for tomorrow. It gives you hope for the future glory you will one day receive. But you must stay in the Word. You must step into the Word. Because the Word is alive, active, and speaking right now.///

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Faith and Victory Church
1302 A Street SE
Auburn WA 98002
Non Denominational
Christian Church
Faith in God Victory in Life
253-856-7077
welcome@faithandvictory.com

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