One of my favorite parts of Readers’ Digest is the section entitled “Word Power,” a list of about twenty words with multiple choices for definitions. I’m usually humbled by the results. But it can be more humbling if we were to test our Word Power from scripture. Jesus, in his first temptation, where the devil tempted him to turn stones into bread, quoted Deuteronomy 8:3,

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

In fact, Jesus defended himself against all three temptations by quoting scripture. He found power for his life in the Word of God. If that was true for Jesus as the Son of God, how much truer it is for us. And the bible is not shy to claim such power. The writer of Hebrews says that

“The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (4:12)

Few people would disagree about the power and the importance of scripture. It continues to be the runaway bestseller in bookstores all over the world and particularly in the United States. But there is a problem. Pollster George Gallup writes,

“Americans revere the Bible - but, by and large, they don’t read it. And because they don’t read it, they have become a nation of biblical illiterates.”

George Barna, the guru of church demographics gives some research concerning what people really know about the bible.

a. Three in four Americans cannot name the four gospels.

b. Many professing Christians cannot identify more than two or three of the disciples

c. 60 percent of Americans can’t name even five of the Ten Commandments

d. 82 percent of Americans believe “God helps those who help themselves” is a Bible verse

e. 12 percent of adults believe that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife

f. A survey of graduating high school seniors revealed that over 50 percent thought that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife

g. A considerable number of respondents to one poll indicated that the Sermon on the Mount was preached by Billy Graham

Who did preach “The Sermon on the Mount?” Just checking! Baptist commentator, Albert Mohler writes,

"We will not believe more than we know, and we will not live higher than our beliefs. The many fronts of Christian compromise in this generation can be directly traced to biblical illiteracy in the pews and the absence of biblical preaching and teaching in our homes and churches."

This generation must get deadly serious about the problem of biblical illiteracy, or a frighteningly large number of Americans--Christians included--will go on thinking that Sodom and Gomorrah lived happily ever after.

Let me give you three quick words about the Bible, if it is going to have power in your life. First you have to KNOW it. That means you have to read it. Our generation thanks to television and the digital age is becoming less and less print driven. We watch more and read less. If you are not the reading kind and are more of the listening kind, get the Bible on CD, DVD or table. Pop the word into your player on the way to work. And memorize even a verse a day, and it will bless your life. Know the Word. Second, to have a powered up life, you have to GROW in scripture. The Bible is inexhaustible and adaptable, able to speak to us freshly at every stage of our lives. What you knew ten years ago from scripture is good, but it needs updated. Surely God has a fresh Word to speak to you. Grow in the Word. Lastly, SHOW out the Word. If we are not willing to obey God’s Word and demonstrate it in the world around us, then we cannot call ourselves Biblical Christians. There are many people who can quote the Bible scripture and verse, but do not live it. The Bible is meant to be an integral part of how you think, speak and act. The only thing that may be more epidemic than biblical illiteracy is biblical malpractice. Know the Word. Grow in the Word. Show out the Word. Three basics for powered up living.

Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, is actually a song about God’s word with 22 verses, a verse for every letter in the Hebrew Alphabet. Each chapter has 8 verses for a total of 176. Today’s scripture lesson is the first two verses. According to Psalm 119, the first power that knowing, growing and showing God’s Word gives you is the power to be righteous. You can’t have a powerful output to your life if there is not powerful input. The Psalmist sings, “Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD.”

If you ever get the chance, I invite you to attend a Pre-school and Kindergarten or Parent’s Day Out chapel. The children are responsive and terrific. After they have sung, they then do their pledges – the Pledge of Allegiance, the pledge to the Christian Flag and the Pledge to the Bible. The pledge to the Bible finishes with vs. 11 in our scripture lesson, “I will hide God’s Word in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.”

That’s not just good for little children; it’s good for all of us. And here I suggest that just as the children begin their day connecting with God’s Word, that we do the same. Our encounter with God’s Word becomes a compass that always keeps us aware of where true north is. God’s Word becomes your spiritual and moral GPS.

Then Psalm 119 gives us another power from God’s Word, the development of a heart that seeks after God. The Psalmist sings, “Blessed are those who keep his statutes, and seek him with all their hearts.” Jeremiah cried out from God’s heart, “If with all your hearts you truly seek me, you shall surely find me.” (29:13). Knowing, growing in and showing out God’s Word is not a mechanical head trip.

In My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers tells the story of how the baby deer tracks its mother. The fawn puts its front paw right where the back print of the mother leaves off. For that fawn, losing track of his or her mother will mean getting in trouble with mom and some disciplinary action. The mom doesn’t want the fawn to get lost or get into trouble.

One of the most fun things we did as children in the winter snow was try to track my dad, putting our boots right where Dad’s had been. Of course, his stride was longer than ours and we really had to stretch. Sometimes, we fell because our strides weren’t as big. We laughed as we got up and shook ourselves off. It was great fun tracking Dad. And by the smile on Dad’s face, it was great fun for Dad, too. Sometimes, I’m still shocked to see how much my life tracks Dad’s. Yes, I think that’s what it’s like to know, grow in, and show out God’s Word. We are tracking our heavenly Father and it brings joy for us and joy to our heavenly Father at the same time.

So I ask you, this morning. Are you developing a heart that searches for God, that tracks Him. In that there is power and joy and it comes mainly from encountering God’s Word. And let me saw a special word to parents and grandparents on this one. There is a Phillip, Craig and Dean song that we had Rodney Parker sing awhile ago at a baptism that sings, “Lord, I want to be just like you, because he wants to be like me.” Model for the next generation a seeking heart, model a passion for knowing, growing in and showing out God’s Word.

Yet one more way that we find power through the Word is through memory. The great fault of the children of Israel was their forgetfulness. They would forget the Lord, forget who they were, and so forget their purpose as God’s children. The Psalmist sings, “With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth.” It is a natural hazard for us to forget.

In the funeral for Linda Wilson this past week, the choir was invited by the Wilson family to sing “God Shall Wipe Away All Tears,”a challenging song that they had not sung for at least 10 years. The choir gathered an hour early to rehearse, to recount what they had once known, and to bring new members along. Some said, “It’s too hard. We can’t do it.” Others said, “Let’s do it.” And we were all witnesses as the choir sang as well as they ever have. Rehearsal in the power of God’s Spirit worked.

The Choir showed us a model for living the powered up life. We rehearse and recount God’s Word and, in the power of the Spirit, we are reminded of who God is, who we are and what our purpose is.

The closing word of verse 16 is this: “I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your Word.” None of us willfully says, “I will neglect to know, grow in and show out God’s Word.” It just happens, what people call “benign neglect.” To overcome our tendency toward benign neglect, it takes active intentional effort. The natural thing is to become so distracted and consumed by the things and demands around us that God’s Word is simply left out. I invite you to schedule God in so that we might have power to be righteous, power that comes from having a heart focused on God, and power that remembers when everyone else forgets. And then it will not be Sodom and Gomorrah that live happily ever after, but you and yours who will know joy that’s beyond words and life that is abundant and forever. Why be powered with anything less?

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