You Cannot Separate Jesus from His Word
About this sermon
In “You Cannot Separate Jesus from His Word,” Pastor Dean Odle presents a Scripture-centered message about the authority of Scripture, faith, biblical love. Drawing especially from Acts 20, John 1, 2 Peter 3, John 8, the teaching emphasizes that Scripture is presented as the standard for doctrine, discernment, and daily obedience. Odle connects that foundation with the conviction that biblical faith trusts God’s character and acts upon His promises.
Chronological teaching outline
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Odle focuses on the authority of Scripture. The message argues that Scripture is presented as the standard for doctrine, discernment, and daily obedience. It connects this with the conviction that God calls believers to reject compromise and pursue practical holiness. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on faith while working through Acts 20. The message argues that biblical faith trusts God’s character and acts upon His promises. It connects this with the conviction that the church is called to recover biblical faithfulness instead of accommodating compromise. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on the authority of Scripture while working through John 1, 2 Peter 3. The message argues that Scripture is presented as the standard for doctrine, discernment, and daily obedience. It connects this with the conviction that biblical faith trusts God’s character and acts upon His promises. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on the authority of Scripture. The message argues that Scripture is presented as the standard for doctrine, discernment, and daily obedience. It connects this with the conviction that leaders are accountable to teach faithfully, serve the flock, and model the character they proclaim. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
Odle focuses on biblical love. The message argues that biblical love is demonstrated through truth, patience, sacrifice, and conduct toward others. It connects this with the conviction that the reality of final judgment gives urgency to repentance, salvation, and faithful witness. The practical emphasis is to practice patient, truthful love in relationships and conflict.
Odle focuses on a biblical foundation while working through John 8. The message argues that a durable Christian life must be built on Christ, sound doctrine, and obedient response to Scripture. It connects this with the conviction that baptism is examined as an act of obedience and identification with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. The practical emphasis is to respond with honest repentance and concrete obedience.
Odle focuses on faith while working through Hebrews 6. The message argues that biblical faith trusts God’s character and acts upon His promises. It connects this with the conviction that repentance involves turning from known sin and bringing conduct into agreement with God’s word. The practical emphasis is to respond with honest repentance and concrete obedience.
Odle focuses on the authority of Scripture while working through 1 Peter 2, Job 23. The message argues that Scripture is presented as the standard for doctrine, discernment, and daily obedience. It connects this with the conviction that biblical faith trusts God’s character and acts upon His promises. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
Odle focuses on salvation while working through Hebrews 4, Hebrews 5. The message argues that salvation is presented as God’s work in Christ that produces a changed life and continuing faith. It connects this with the conviction that believers are warned to test persuasive claims and religious appearances by Scripture. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on family discipleship. The message argues that faithfulness in the home requires instruction, loving correction, protection, and a consistent Christian example. It connects this with the conviction that thankfulness remembers God’s mercy and guards the heart from entitlement and complaint. The practical emphasis is to examine the heart, receive correction, and finish faithfully.
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i want everyone to just bow your heads close your eyes for a minute and just tell jesus just tell jesus something from your heart this morning that you love him or just declare his goodness or he that he is holy just take a few moments and really in your own words sometimes we just sing songs but you just need to worship jesus from your heart so lord this morning i just worship you lord i thank you lord you're holy you're holy holy holy you are good lord there is none like you lord we worship you this morning we thank you we thank you lord god that this the blood of jesus was shed when we didn't deserve it the blood of jesus was shed to cleanse our sins and wash them away and to make us holy in your presence to give us a hope that we can be in heaven with you one day lord and and that we can live with some power on this earth and that we don't have to be like everybody else we don't have to live in the sin and the evil and the wickedness we don't have to be like the world lord we can be like you want us to be god we thank you for the power and the grace and the help to live the christian life lord to walk with you in intimacy to know you to hear your voice to be led by the spirit to have the gifts of the spirit flowing in our lives father we thank you for every good and precious gift that comes from heaven god i pray in the name of jesus that this morning as we get into your word as we look at the bible as we study it god i pray that you would open our eyes that you would give us ears to hear lord jesus you said many people would have ears but they would not hear and so lord we pray that you give us ears to hear and hearts to understand so that we can understand your word and be saved and be delivered and be sure that we are ready to go to heaven when we die father we thank you we worship you this morning we give you the glory it's in jesus name we pray amen and amen amen praise god we take your bibles this morning every i hope everybody brought a bible you're going to need it today or look on with somebody um anyway i hope this is not too loud out there but well we'll knock it down a little bit as long as we get it recording good um just want you to start off we're going to turn to acts chapter 20. we're going to be in quite a few places in the word this morning some things i want you to learn here and i've kind of some of these things i've touched on over the last year you know that this is um this sunday is our one year since we
- 0:03:00
started this church one year ago first service was january 11th last year and of course it's january 10th but uh one year we've had our ups and downs we've seen people come and go and uh you know the bottom line is that some of you i know have been growing in the truth you have been growing in the word of god you've been growing spiritually some of you've been filled with the holy spirit some of you have been brought out of some some sins and habits that you didn't really realize how god felt about him and god uh revealed it to you through his word and changed your life and there's some things i believe i believe everyone in here one day we're gonna have a testimony service and i believe everybody will get to to share some way that that god's touched you this last year we've seen people healed miraculously healed we've seen people delivered from demons we've seen some god do some things so you know i'll tell you what [Applause] anything good that you can get from god's a good thing right there's a lot of people out there asking and not receiving so anything good that we can get but i told you acts chapter 20 and i don't really know what i'm going to call this this morning i don't know if we're going to talk call it uh doctrine or what but we're going to look at some of the things that you have to believe that you need to know that you need to be settled on um i guess one of the things that came to me when i was in prayer and the lord started showing me this was just the issue of of how you cannot separate jesus from his word and y'all heard me say that over this last year that that you cannot separate jesus from what he taught if you say you love jesus or you follow jesus but you deny or reject or teach things contrary to what he taught then you have denied him and you have rejected him and i think the word i'm going to get in to show you the scriptures make that very clear but something we have to understand that when i say the word doctrine some people think now that doctrine that's a bad word but all that means is basically a system of instruction or teachings or beliefs and for us for christian for christians there are certain fundamental doctrines that you don't stray from you don't you don't get away from because if you do stray from certain fundamental doctrines then you have strayed from jesus and you are in danger now if that wasn't true there wouldn't be so many warnings by the apostles and by jesus himself not to stray from the word of god not to stray from the truth okay now like let me give you an example of of an essential or fundamental doctrine that we can't stray from one of the fundamental doctrines of christianity would be the deity of jesus that jesus is not just the son of god
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he's not just a good man he's not just a prophet he is god manifested in the flesh now that doctrine is clearly established by looking at old testament scriptures and new testament scriptures and understanding fully from genesis to revelation that jesus christ is god manifested in the flesh now if anyone comes along and says that they follow jesus and yet they deny that jesus christ is god manifested in the flesh they have denied jesus no matter how many times they say they follow jesus do you understand some of those people would that would fall into that category would be jehovah witnesses mormons um muslims uh you know even muslims say that jesus was a prophet of god it says in the quran that jesus was the son of god but the problem is is they don't believe that he is the one true god who created the heavens and the earth so they have denied jesus christ coming in the flesh just the term christ and you've heard me say that christ or messiah means that god came in the flesh but so that's a fundamental doctrine now let's look at a doctrine that's not necessarily fundamental or would necessarily mean that you were departing from jesus now there are a lot of different views in the church world about when the end times are coming when the raptures come now i believe we're very close to jesus second coming but whether a person believes that the rapture is at the beginning of the tribulation or the middle of the tribulation or at the end or somewhere near the end or whatever you know people have different beliefs on that but that's not an essential doctrine i mean the essential doctrine of jesus coming again is but of when and how all that's going to play out we're just doing the best we can to study out when there are things that aren't clear or they're symbolic we just do the best we can but it's not going to determine whether you believe the rapture is at the beginning of the seven year tribulation or you believe it's at the end or middle or whatever that's not going to determine your eternal salvation but what you believe about some of these the fundamental doctrines that we're going to look at this morning what you believe about these things will determine where you stand jesus said if you're ashamed of me and of my words i will be ashamed of you and this is real simple you don't separate god from his word right i'm going to show you where paul warned so acts 20 we'll start here about the this these serious issues about departing from from christian teaching sound doctrine christian teaching fundamental foundational truths of christianity and this is paul went to the to the city of ephesus and the church was started there with just 12 people paul started out with 12 okay and he was there for three years now i don't we don't know how many it grew to in the three year period but paul was only in ephesus for three years okay and bef when he got ready to leave
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ephesus this is what he said to them now we're going to go to acts 20 and go down to verse 17 and it says and from my leaders he sent uh to ephesus and called the elders of the church and when they were come to him he said you know that from the first day that i came into unto asia after what manner i have been with you at all seasons serving the lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and my temptations or trials which befell me by the lying and weight of the jews and how that i kept back nothing that was profitable to you but have showed you and have taught publicly and from house to house testifying both to the jews and also to the greeks repentance toward god and faith toward our lord jesus christ and now i go bound in the spirit unto jerusalem not knowing the things that shall befall me there say that the holy ghost witnesses that in in every city saying that bonds and afflictions will abide in me how would you like that prophecy from the lord knowing that every city you go into bonds and afflictions are going to happen to you but that was paul's prophetic word he said but none of these things move me neither count i my life dear unto myself so that i might finish my course with joy and the ministry which i received of the lord jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of god and now behold i know you all among whom i have gone preaching the the kingdom of god shall see my face no more so he's telling the the the church at ephesus and the people he pastored and people that he you know that he led to the lord he said you're not going to see my face anymore he said wherefore i take unto you record this day that i am pure from the blood of all men. he said no blood's on my hands why for i have not shunned or i have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of god take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the holy ghost has made you overseers to feed the church of god which he has purchased with his own blood for i know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock and also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years i ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears so paul's final words to the church of ephesus was i have declared unto you the whole gospel i have declared unto you the truth about repentance toward god faith toward the lord jesus christ and he even gives another little thing about jesus being god when he says the church that he purchased that god purchased with his own blood and he says but beware he says after my departing they're going to come in wolves among you that are going to twist they're going to speak perverse things and that word means twisted things they're going to twist the scriptures
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