In 1990, Robert Seiple, at that time the president of World Vision, writing in World Vision Magazine, wrote this personal account. “In 1915, a Russian Armenian was reading his Bible when he was beheaded. I saw the Bible - large, thick and well used. Inside was a reddish stain that permeated most of the book. The stain was the blood of this man, one of more that a million casualties of a religious and ethnic holocaust.”

We are continually challenged by the legacy our forefathers have left to us. A precious and costly legacy. A legacy of endurance as nation - victorious living in the midst of overwhelming circumstances - a legacy of commitment to their faith as Christians.

Our forefathers lived believing in the supreme authority of the Bible over their lives. To them - the Bible stood above governments - above clergy - above the church and her traditions. It was supreme in authority and the words of the Bible were trusted and read - even in death.

In the Armenian Evangelical Confession of Faith, Article 3, adopted in July, 1846 - this statement of our forefather’s belief is recorded. “We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and are a revelation of His will to man, and the sufficient and only rule of faith and practice.”

What importance do we place on the word of God in our lives today? How can we live victorious in the word of God?

1 Thessalonians 2:13-16 - the Apostle Paul is writing to the church in Thessalonica: “For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God - the word of God being what Paul taught the Thessalonians from the Old Testament and about Jesus Christ - and today we would add to this the New Testament - the entire Bible - For this reason we constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.”

There are three statements here that we want to focus on. First - the Thessalonians RECEIVED THE WORD OF GOD.

I recently read a quote from Martin Gross’ book, "The End of Sanity." Here’s the quote, “Blatantly irrational behavior is rapidly being established as the norm in almost every area of human endeavor. There seem to be new customs, new rules, new anti-intellectual theories regularly foisted on us from every direction. Underneath, the nation is roiling. Americans know something without a name is undermining the nation, turning the mind mushy when it comes to separating truth from falsehood and right from wrong.”

Imagine if our society were an umpire in a baseball game. Back before World War II - a baseball umpire would say, “There’s balls and there’s strikes, and I call them as they are.” There’s absolute truth. A few years back there was shift in our society - an umpire would say, “There’s balls and there’s strikes, and I call them as I see them.” Truth is found in one’s own experience - “As I see it.” Today, and umpire would say, “There’s balls and there’s strikes, and they’re nothing until I call them.”

That’s where our society is today. No truth exists unless we create it. 60% of all adults in America today believe that, “nothing can be known for certain except the things you experience in your own life.”

Everything is relative: morality - law - customs - religion. Its all what we individually create it to be. There is no God but man and who we each individually create God to be. Its no wonder that mankind is as deluded and confused.

Jesus said of God’s word, “Thy word is truth.” (John 17:17) God’s word is the absolute truth about our lives and how they’re to be lived - about what is right and what is wrong - and what God expects of us. Today, amid all the confusion of our society, we desperately need God’s truth - His word - to govern our lives.

We could sit here for hours talking about God’s word. And, I could present reason after reason - proof after proof - of why God’s word is God’s word. But, the bottom line is that at some point we need to receive God’s word.

That’s the way the Thessalonian Christians experienced it. Paul began to teach and share with them. And, as he spoke to them they were conscious that what they were hearing was far more than just the words of Paul - the words of another of man’s philosophies or ideas about life. They were hearing the word of God - and they received it.

Second statement we want to focus on - in verse 13 - notice that the Thessalonians not only received God’s word but they also ACCEPTED GOD’S WORD.

Many people today - even Christians - look at themselves the same way travel brochures describe San Francisco - you know those tourist booklets with pictures that are in hotel lobbies. Have you ever read through a travel brochure of San Francisco?

I’ll tell you what you won’t find in it. You’ll never find a paragraph that says, "Although it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, San Francisco has a huge homeless population. You can drive almost anywhere and see people living in squalor, misery, hunger and heartache. This city is also noted as one of the most immoral cities in the world.”

We probably won’t find that in a travel brochure. Instead they talk about the Golden Gate Bridge, the beauty of the Bay, the wonder of the redwood trees, and the glories of the history of San Francisco, while they ignore the hurt and the heartache.

God’s word speaks the truth about what is really going on in our hearts. Outwardly we may be the most beautifully moral and upright person - for years a devoted - faithful attendee and supporter of the church. But, inwardly we can live in sin and fear and guilt and heartache.

Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword , and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The word of God cuts to the deepest part of who we are. It exposes our sin and demands change. Like salt poured into an open wound, that hurts. It offends our pride and intellect.

It would be so easy to get up on Sunday morning - get dressed - drive to church - and bypass the Service of Worship - going straight to the Coffee Hour - just avoid church altogether. We could avoid going to Bible study or avoid spending time personally reading and studying God’s word. Maybe that’s easier. When we come inside - we experience God’s presence - hear God’s word - and if we’re honest with ourselves - we need to change. We all need to change. And change is hard.

To accept God’s word means that we allow it to examine our hearts and to allow God to use His word to bring change to our lives. Hard? Yes. But, that leads to the victorious life.

2 Timothy 3:16 and 17 tell us that the word of God is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man - or woman - of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” That’s victory in life.

Third statement that we want to focus on - going on in 1 Thessalonians - Paul writes in verse 13 - you received God’s word - you accepted God’s word - so that it “performs its work in you who believe.” GOD’S WORD IS PRODUCING A CHANGE IN YOUR LIVES.

Most of us are familiar with the story of “The Mutiny on the Bounty.” In the 19th century - mutineers took over the ship HMS Bounty - set their captain - Captain Bligh - adrift in a lifeboat - and ended up finally on Pitcairn Island - in the South Pacific. We don’t often hear much about what happened to them after they landed. For the most part, these mutineers were rough - tough - godless sailors. Together with the wives they brought with them from Tahiti, they spent their days on Pitcairn drinking - gambling - swapping wives - fighting with each other. All this led to murders and suicides. In 1808 when the island was rediscovered by the American ship Topaz - living on the island were the descendants of the mutineers and only one lone surviving mutineer - John Adams.

John Adams - when he left England aboard the Bounty - had been known as “Reckless Jack.” He was a thief - a criminal - who had learned to survive on the streets of London. Adams was one of the most active mutineers - part of the group that seized Captain Bligh.

But on Pitcairn Island - rummaging through his trunk one day - he found a Bible that his mother had put there. He began to read it, and soon it changed his life. When that island as rediscovered in 1808 John Adams was known to be kindly, wise, deeply religious - the moral leader of the islanders. On Pitcairn - because John Adams began to teach God’s word to others - there was no jail because they had no crime. They loved God and they loved each other. God’s word had totally changed their lives and their society.

Notice how Paul describes the change produced by God’s word - verse 14: “For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea - you began to act and live like children of God - like the church of Jesus Christ - how? - for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost.”

In Judea - the Jews persecuted the Jews who had come to Christ. In Thessalonica - the gentiles persecuted the gentiles who had come to Christ. Paul says, these persecutors are displeasing to God - piling up their sins and God’s wrath against them. But, Thessalonians - regardless of the circumstances of your lives - which are hard - you are victorious.

To be a Christian in today’s confused society is becoming increasingly more difficult. And, we could give example after example of this. But, Calvary Church - Christians of the Bay Area - when we receive and accept God’s word - and His word begins to change us - we live pleasing to God - not in His wrath - we live in His strength and power and wisdom and victory.

Beaten - jailed - shipwrecked - left for dead - the list of Paul’s struggles - his persecution - his opposition - in life - the list is long. He died - beheaded with a sword - by the order of the Roman Emperor Nero.

This was the same Paul who wrote these words to the Church of Rome: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, ‘For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:35-37)

That’s victorious life - victorious despite our circumstances. That’s the life that Paul traveled all over the Roman Empire to share.

On October 16, 1982, Badger Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin was packed. More than 60,000 die-hard University of Wisconsin supporters were watching their football team take on the Michigan State Spartans. What was odd - regardless of what was happening on the field - who was winning or loosing - there were bursts of applause and cheers and shouts of joy from the Wisconsin fans - completely irrelevant to what was going on in the game.

It turns out that seventy miles away the Milwaukee Brewers were coming from behind to beat the St. Louis Cardinals in game four of the 1982 World Series. Many of the fans in the stands were listening on portable radios and responding to something completely different than their immediate circumstances.

We have this choice in life. Who will we listen to? The fuzzy thinking of our no-absolute-truth society or God’s absolute - final - authoritative word?