In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of responding to the word of God. He refers to Genesis chapter 1, where the earth responded to the word of God and something happened. The speaker explains that if Christians respond to the word of God by accepting, believing, and obeying it, their lives will be transformed. He highlights that God works in our lives slowly, day by day, to remove chaos and shapelessness, and to make us more like Christ. The speaker also emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit and the word of God working together to bring about change.

We want to think about the Word of God, which gives us power to be overcomers in our battle against Satan, and which gives us strength to face every situation in the future. The Bible is the Word of God. It was written by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is food for our soul, and for a Christian who has come to faith in Christ and been born again, just like a baby cries out for milk as soon as it is born. A true Christian, if he is to grow spiritually, he needs this food of the Word of God. I want to turn you to a verse in 1 Peter chapter 1, where it speaks of what the Word of God does in us initially. It says in 1 Peter 1.23, You have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but which is imperishable, the living and abiding Word of God. Many people feel when they have made a mess of their life, I wish I could live my life all over again. And that is exactly the opportunity that God offers you when He says, you can be born again. Think if you could start your life all over again as a little baby, and with no record of your past failures. It all wiped out. That is what it means to be born again. Your past is wiped out and you are born a second time. And that wish that you had, oh, I wish I could start my life all over again, God says, I can fulfill it for you. That is what happens when we receive Christ into our life. And it says in this verse that this new birth takes place through a seed, just like your physical birth also began with the seed of your father. In the same way here, it says here spiritually, the Word of God is like a seed which brings you to new birth. In what way? You believed that Word. You responded to that Word of God which said that Christ died for your sins. You accepted the Word of God which said that you are a sinner. You believed that Christ rose again from the dead. And you were born again. You received His Holy Spirit by faith, because that was God's promise given in His Word. And through that Word, you've come into a new relationship with God. And then it goes on to say that now that you are a newborn baby, the same Word of God which was like a seed which fell into your heart and brought you to life, the same Word of God now becomes like milk for the newborn baby. In 1 Peter 2, verse 2, it says like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the Word that you may grow in respect to salvation. A newborn baby needs to grow. And God has not forgiven us our sins in order that He might just take us to heaven. He wants us to grow, like it says in this word, with respect to salvation, to be increasingly saved from all the corruption that is in our nature, that we have inherited from Adam, our first father. The selfishness and the pride and the arrogance and the bitterness and the jealousy and the impurity and wickedness, we've got to be saved from all these things. They don't disappear the moment we are born again. When we are born again, it's like a new life that has come into us. And that life has got the potential to overcome all these evil habits. But we must grow. You know, like a little baby, when it's born, it has the potential to become a muscular giant. But it's not going to grow into that if it doesn't eat its food or drink its milk. It has to be fed and it has to eat its food in order to grow. And this is the mistake that many Christians make. They think once their sins are forgiven, they've received the Holy Spirit, that's it. There's nothing more. Well, there's a lot more. You're just born. Can you say once a baby is born into the world, that's it? There's nothing more for the baby? Well, that baby will die if you just leave it like that. In fact, one of the first things that a baby does as soon as it's born is it cries. From the very first day, it longs for milk. There's a tremendous cry. You've heard babies screaming for milk. That's the way a true Christian cries out for the Word of God. For God to feed him through His Word. Now, if a baby does not cry out like that, we could say that baby is sick. Or it's about to die. Healthy babies will always cry out for milk. All the time. And a healthy Christian is one who's crying out for God's Word to feed him. It says here, as newborn babes long. There must be a tremendous longing in us for the milk of the Word of God. The Word of God is milk that helps us to grow to salvation. In the beginning of the Bible, we see a beautiful picture of this. In Genesis chapter 1, we read of the earth being in a chaotic state. The Bible says the earth was formless, empty, dark. And that's the condition of humanity. Away from God, also. Formless, empty, and dark. That's what we were when we were in sin. And how did God change this chaotic, formless, empty, dark world and make it into such a beautiful world that at the end of Genesis chapter 1, God says, this is very good. How did God do it? You see, two things. It's very important for us to see it in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 2. First of all, it says the Spirit of God moved upon this earth. All of God's work begins with the Holy Spirit moving upon a chaotic situation and trying to redeem it, trying to solve the problem. But that was not all. We read a second thing. The Word of God went forth. The Spirit of God moved and the Word of God went forth. These two always work together. The Spirit of God and the Word of God. And what did the Word of God say? Let there be light. That was a word. And as soon as that word went forth from God's mouth, light came. Again, we read the Word of God saying, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters. And the heavens were created. And then God said, let the waters be gathered together and let the dry land appear. And the earth was made. And so we find that every time a Word of God went forth on the first day, on the second day, on the third day, something happened. Something of the chaos was changed. The whole earth was not changed in one day. It took six days. Not because God takes time. God could have changed it in a moment. He could have made the whole earth beautiful in one moment, with one word. But He's trying to teach us something in the very first page of the Bible. And that is, God works in our lives slowly. Day by day by day. Each day He wants to do something in us to remove the chaos, to remove the darkness, to remove the shapelessness, the unchristlikeness in our life. In the New Testament, in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4, and verse 16, it says, our inner man is being renewed day by day. On the first day there should be a change. On the second day there should be a change. On the third day. And throughout our lifetime, God wants to change us little by little by little by little by little till a day comes, the end of our life, when God can say, very good. I've been able to complete my work in this man. Now the sad thing is, with many Christians that doesn't happen. Because they don't respond to God. You see, in Genesis chapter 1, when the word of God went forth, the earth responded. And so something happened. And so if you respond to the word of God as it comes to your heart, something will definitely happen in your life. If you accept that word, if you believe that word, if you obey that word, something will definitely happen just like you read in Genesis chapter 1. Every day something happened and God said it was good. And God's will for you is that every day you should receive some word of God into your heart that's going to produce some change in your life. That is why the most important thing for you to receive every day is the word of God more than your food. You remember in the first temptation that Jesus faced in the wilderness. He had fasted for 40 days and the devil came to Jesus and said to him, Why don't you turn these stones into bread? You are hungry. You will die if you don't eat. And it's true. If you have not eaten food for 40 days and you continue like that, there is a possibility if you are dying too. But Jesus replied saying, and I want to paraphrase his words in Matthew chapter 4, verse 4, what Jesus was saying to Satan was it's more important to receive the word of God than to eat food. Have you read that word? Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from God's mouth. What he is saying is it's more important to receive the word of God than it is to even eat food. Now how many Christians are there who believe that? Who believe that it is more important for me every day to receive the word of God for my soul, for my spirit, than it is to receive food for my body. We all know the value of food for our body. We know that we will not grow and we enjoy food. We enjoy good food. Why is it many Christians don't enjoy the word of God like that? Because they have not understood its value. You know like little children sometimes. Little children don't understand the value for food. You tell them to eat, they don't eat. You tell them to drink milk, they don't drink milk. Sometimes father and mother has to force them. It's like that with many Christians. But once you understand the word of God is the thing that can make you grow, that can make you strong, that can make you overcome Satan. If you submit to it, your life will be transformed from chaos to beauty. It can change your whole life if you begin that habit from today. Will you make a decision today to read the word of God, believe it and obey it every day?