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Rick Renner Podcast (Audio)
Wednesday - Can God’s Word Change Your Life?
00:28:30
Join Rick today and discover how God’s Word can renew your mind, heal your emotions, and completely transform your life.
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This program is made possible by the giving of the God called partners of Renner Ministries. Get ready for a teaching that feeds your spirit and your mind where the Word is the anchor in uncertain times and doctrine doesn't bend to culture. We keep it simple but dive deep, revealing a truth that strengthens us, a love that emboldens and a mission that touches world. Let's join Rick Renner. Welcome to today's program, my friends. I've been waiting for you. And today we're going to return to this series which is what Jesus said about the final say so of God's Word. My son Joel calls this the red Letter series because I'm going to do a series of teachings based on the words of Jesus and every one of them is going to be called what Jesus Said about and then we fill in the blank. This week we're looking at what Jesus said about the final say so of God's Word. And my friends, it is just so encouraging. But this is a five part series. It comes in all kinds of formats with a wonderful, wonderful study guide so you can read all the material while you're seeing or hearing the series because that really helps the revelation and the information to get down deep inside you where it will change you. And I'm so excited to tell you about a book that changed my life by Kenneth E. Hagin called the Authority of the Believer. I read it very early in my life and I've read it and read it again and again. It is so wonderful because it really establishes what kind of authority you've been given in Jesus and it shows you what happens when you take serious the final say so of God's Word. And it is the authority of the believer. And this week, every day this week, we're giving to you as a gift a beautifully designed confession sheet with all kinds of confessions about the Word of God. It's beautifully designed. We did it just for you. You can go online to download it or you can call us if you wish and we'll send you a beautiful hard copy. But if you wanna know more about all these resources, just go online. You can call the number that is on the screen or you can go to our website store and when you reach out to us, please let us know how to pray because we're praying for you anyway. But when you tell us how to pray, we're much more effective in our praying and we really do want to pray with you. And we'll pray with power. We'll pray scripturally and Jesus will really do what needs to be done. But this series is called what Jesus Said about the Final say so of God's Word. So we need God's Word. And as we study today, so reach for your Bible. We always use the Bible in this program and we're believing for a revival of the Bible in the church and for the verse by verse teaching of the Bible to be restored to the pulpit. But today and tomorrow, we're going to see the results of obeying the word of God. This is part one, tomorrow will be part two. But I want us to return to the Southern Baptist Convention pledge for a Vacation Bible School. And I'll tell you a funny story. Very early this morning, of course, I'm in Moscow. And so when I woke up early this morning, it was already the evening in Oklahoma. And I took this pledge from Vacation Bible School that I grew up with. And I texted it to my sister and I said, rhonda, tell me, where did this come from? She said, vacation Bible school. She said, I can still say every single word of it. And I'm telling you that when we were kids in the summer, I waited for vacation Bible School. Did you go to Vacation Bible School? And the moment came when we all marched single file into the main auditorium of the church and took our seats. And then we would all stand up and we would pledge allegiance to the Christian flag. And then we would pledge allegiance to the Bible. And here was the pledge of I pledge allegiance to the Bible, God's holy word. I will make it a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path, and will hide its words in my heart that I will not sin against God. And little Ricky Renner and all the other kids together we would verbally make this pledge to the Bible. And I've just got to tell you, I have lived my whole life doing my best to to fulfill that pledge. I haven't always done it right. I don't think anybody does it perfectly. But it's really been my aim to live by the final say so of God's Word. And today I want us to return to a verse which we've been referring to in every one of these episodes, and that is in Matthew 5:19, where we have Jesus enormous respect for the scriptures. Jesus saw the Scriptures as the final say so of what God had to say on every subject. And of course, Jesus himself is called the word of God. But when you come to Matthew 5:19, Jesus said, Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach others so he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. And the word break is very interesting. We usually think the word break means to break something, but actually in Greek it is the word luo. And the word luo means to loosen or to relax. It means to let something slip or to loosen your grip. And it pictures a non serious attitude. So here's a person who one time had a firm grip on the word of God, but now he's loosened his grip and now he has a non serious attitude. And therefore maybe he's going to obey it, maybe he's not going to obey it. The word of God doesn't have the final say so in his life like it once did. And then Jesus goes on to say, whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments. The word least means even the tiniest commandments. And the word commandment is very important because it gives us Jesus view of the scripture. In Greek it is the word. And I'm going to share this with you today and again tomorrow because this is so important. The word intole, which here is translated as the word commandment, is a compound of two Greek words, the word in and the word telos. The word in means in as something that exists in a certain form. And the word telos describes completion, maturity or perfection. But when you compound this into the word intole, it means the word of God exists in a complete perfect state. It is absolutely perfect. However, the word telos also speaks of reaching the ultimate end of a thing or maturity. And therefore the word intole. The word commandments describes the perfect commandment and one's obedience to it enables him to attain a level of completion, maturity and perfection that is inherent in the word of God. And God's word is intended to lead me and to lead you into completion, maturity and perfection. That's what the word of God will do if you allow it to have the final say so in your life. But Jesus says, the one who breaks even the least of these commandments, the one who lets it go, he has a non serious attitude, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. And that word least means are you ready for this? The most insignificant, the most insignificant in the kingdom of heaven. So if you've got a non serious attitude toward the Bible and God's word, my friends, you're in a very bad category. But then Jesus continues in verse 19 and says, but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. And the word do is a form of the Greek word poieo. Now this word poie is where you get the Greek word poietes. And the word poietes is the word for a poet. It's one with a creative flair. Well, you've got to carry that into this word do. The Greek word poieo, it means not just to do, but to creatively do. And it really means that there are times when we have to find a way to obey the scripture. We hear what the scripture says. We may even say, how do I apply that to my life? We've got to find a way to do what the Bible says. And you're going to find out today that when you obey the Scriptures, the result is it really release power in your life. And this source says, whosoever shall do and teach them, teach them. The word teach means to teach by principle or to teach by example. But the person who does the scripture, the person who teaches the scripture, in other words, it's not just something he confesses, but he actually carries it out in his life. Jesus said that person will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. And the word great is a form of the Greek word magus. It means great, magnificent, or very significant. So if you want to be significant in the kingdom of heaven, then you have to believe that God's word has the final say. So in your life. But now I want us to jump over to James, chapter 1, verse 21. James was the half brother of Jesus. Now if you don't have the Riv Commentary book of James, you need to go online to get it because it will really enrich your understanding of the book of James. But we're going to go to James, chapter 1, verse 21, where James is speaking about the word of God. And James, who is the half brother of Jesus, was raised in the same home with Jesus. The difference was that Jesus and James had different fathers. Jesus father was God and James father was Joseph, but they did have the same mother. But when you come to James, chapter one, verse 21, James says, receive with meekness. Listen to this, the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. And the word receive that is used here is the word. And this is really important because the word means to take quickly or to take readily. It means we're to quickly take the Word of God. We're to readily and warmly take the word of God to take with a receptive and welcoming attitude. Thus we must readily and quickly welcome God's Word into our heart and into our mind. We're not to resist it. We're to roll out the red Carpet and take the word of God into us. And he says we are to do it with meekness. Now, when most people hear the word meek, they think of someone that's weak, somebody that's lowly, somebody that's not very forthcoming and bold. But my friends, that is a complete misunderstanding of the word meek. The word meek is from a Greek word which pictures meekness and humility. But people wrongly assume that a meek person is a weak person. But the Greek word for meekness actually describes, listen to this. A strong willed person who has learned to submit his will to a higher authority. That's what makes him meek. Rather than continue in his own way of thinking and choose, he chooses to set aside his own opinions and to lay aside what he thinks and feels in order to submit to someone else's authority. And this is very important because it means when the word of God first comes to you, your life experience may not agree with it. In fact, your life experience may, may contradict what you see in the Bible. And that's why you've got to receive it with meekness. You've got to say, all right, I feel one thing. My experience tells me one thing. But the Bible says something different. And I'm going to allow the word of God to have the final say. So in my life, and therefore I'm choosing to lay aside my experience, to lay aside what I believe to be a contradiction. And I'm going to bend my brain and I'm going to force myself to think the word of God, it's gonna have the final say. So in my life, it is the ultimate submission and the bending of your will to receive the word of God. Do you see how different that is from what most people think of the word meek? But then it goes on to say the engrafted word. The engrafted word. The word engrafted is the Greek word emphuton. And listen to what it means. It signifies something that is planted in a person at a later time in life. Or it pictures something planted inside a person that he did not originally have at the time of birth. For example, maybe a person has an organ transplant. He's had an organ that's failed, say a kidney. So he has a kidney transplant. It's not his kidney, it's a kidney that came from somewhere else, but he can't live without it. It is implanted. And it's very interesting that in the medical field, when a person receives an organ transplant, or let's keep with our illustration, a kidney transplant, the first thing the body tries to do is reject it. Now that is amazing. He can't live without it. And if he accepts the kidney, it will prolong his life. But in order for him to accept that kidney, he has to go on a medication for the rest of his life which enables his body to accept kidney that that kidney will normally function. And if he stops the medication, the body will likely begin to reject the kidney, even though it has the power to prolong and to save his life. That man has to decide, I'm going to do whatever is necessary for this implanted organ to function in my life. All of this is very important when it comes to the word of God, which here is called the engrafted word, which means when the word of God comes to you again, it may contradict your life experience. You weren't born with that truth in you. When the word of God comes to you and you readily accept it and you take it into your heart, it may be very different from what you've experienced in your life. And you've got to say, I'm going to receive it, I'm going to adapt it. I'm going to let this word function in me. I'm going to bend my brain, I'm going to think the word. I'm going to allow the word of God to have the final say. So in my life it is a decision to receive the engrafted word. And James says, if you'll do this, it is able to save your soul. And the word Abel is importantly the Greek word dunami. It's a form of the Greek word dunamis, which is used to picture the assembled forces of an army whose combined strength enabled them to push back enemies, take new territory, and to achieve unrivaled victories. This word was also used to describe a force of nature such as an earthquake, a hurricane, or a tornado. And the use of this very specific word, which here is translated as the word able in the King James version, means the power resident in the word of God has the divine ability to drive back wrong thinking and to release a torrent of power in a person's life. If he will bend his mind and his will to receive it, he's got to decide. The word of God has the final say so in his life. And if he will do that, and if he'll receive the implanted word, it will release divine power to change. This verse says his soul. And the word soul is a Greek word, psuche, the plural form of the word psuche. It describes the mind, the will and the emotions, and guess What? That's where most of your problems are. It's in your head, it's in your mind, it's in your will, it's in your emotions. But when you bend your brain to say, I'm going to give the Word of God the final say so in my life, it releases a torrent of power from that Word that you've received and has been engrafted into you. And the power in the Word of God begins to change your mind, your will, and your emotions. And when your mind, your will and your emotions are changed, your whole life is changed. I think that is just amazing. And the riv of this portion of James 1:21 says it like this. You'll really need to bend your brain and your will to conform to whatever God has made clear is the truth. Even if you don't agree with it, like it, or it contradicts your past religious training or personal life experiences, you have to turn from whatever has held your thinking captive and throw open the door to receive the truth that's only recently been planted in your heart. And if that word is foreign to what you've been taught in the past or contradicts your life experience, you must decide to receive it with a warm and receptive and welcoming attitude. And if you do, you'll discover that this Word has been planted within you. And within it is the divine power to completely deliver and entirely liberate you and deal with everything going on inside your soul. It will completely clean up your mind and set your thinking straight. That is amazing. That really is a very good interpretation of the Greek words which are in James 1:21. But then we go to verse 22, and in James 1:22, James continues to say, but be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving your own self. Let's focus on that phrase, hearers only. Hearers only. In Greek it describes an individual who audited a class rather than take the class for credit. He had no intention of applying what he heard. And such people attended the class but had no plans of implementing what was heard. And such individuals were really known to roam from meeting to meeting and class to class because they enjoyed special speakers. They liked the excitement of hearing something new that they hadn't heard before, and they liked to gather new information that made them look knowledgeable in the eyes of other people. But by using these words, hearers only, this verse irrefutably means there is a category of Christians who audit church or who audit the hearing of the Word of God. But they have no plan to put what they hear into practice. They just audit the Bible or they audit church. They're not really there for credit. They have no intention to put it into practice. That's what these words, hearers only means. James knew that's what it meant. These people were famous. They were famous for just going from one class to another, from one meeting to another, but they had no intention of ever doing anything with what they heard. Well, the power is released when you begin to submit to it. When you in meekness bend your brain to it and say, it's going to have the final say. So in my life, I'm going to do what it says. And according to Jesus in Matthew 5:19, if you will do it, it will make you very significant in the kingdom of God. But then James says in James 1:23, for if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, all he does is hear. He's just auditing it, but he's not doing it. He's like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. The word natural face means the face he was born with. The word glass describes a mirror. He's like a man looking at the face he was born with in the mirror. Every morning. Well, every morning, most of us look into the mirror to look at the face we were born with. And very often we see things we wish could be corrected. But According to James 1:24, this person beholds himself and goes his way. He beholds and goes. He doesn't do anything about it. But According to James 1:25, if you want the defects to be fixed and if you want your life to be changed, you gotta do more than look and go. According to James 1:25, you gotta do something about it. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. And this is where we're gonna start when we come back in the next episode. But, my friends, you need to give God's word the final say so in your life. And you need to align yourself under it and determine you're going to obey it. Regardless of what you feel or what you think, you're going to bend your brain. You're going to think the word of God and give it the warmest reception you can. And in doing so, you're going to release a torrent of power to change your mind, your will and your emotions. Amen. I'll Be back in just a moment and I'm going to pray for you.
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God's Word is not optional. It's a law to us, just as it was to Jesus. In Rick Renner's new series, what Jesus Said about the Final say so of God's Word. You will learn how fully surrendering to Scripture brings the full power of the King into your life. In this series, Rick teaches that God's Word must be your final authority in every decision, that obedience to God's Word opens the door to his creative power and blessings and more. This powerful series is available in digital or physical formats starting at just $11. In addition to this teaching series, we are offering you the book the Believer's Authority by Kenneth E. Hagin. A deeply impactful classic about the power and authority available to all believers when they act on the Word. The believer's authority can be yours for just $10. As our free gift to you. We also want to offer you your own copy of the beautifully designed Pledges to the Word of God print filled with declarations about the Word of God. Don't miss this special offer, the series what Jesus Said about the Final say so of God's Word, the book the Believer's Authority and the Free Pledges to the Word of God. Print. Call the number on your screen now or go to Renner D. Call or go online now.
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This is Rick Renner and I want to say thank you to those of you who are partners. You're helping us to do our part in fulfilling the great commission to take the Gospel and the teaching of God's Word to the ends of the earth. And one major focus of mine has been the riv, which is the Renner Interpretive Version of the New Testament. To do a new interpretation of the New Testament takes reams of hours, literally thousands of hours of studying and studying and studying the original language of the New Testament and then figuring out a way to express it in words which people understand today and to bring all the flavor and all the nuances of those Greek words into an up to date interpretation. That's the riv. And I want to say thank you for for your gifts because of what you give. It allows us to focus on the teaching of the Bible and to take the teaching of the Bible to the ends of the earth. And what you are doing is really making a difference. And if you're listening to me today and you're not a partner yet, I invite you to become a part of our partner family. Our partners really are family to us and together we are making a difference in people. So if you're a partner, I say thank you. And if you're not a partner yet, I invite you today to join us as we take the wonderful teaching of the Bible to the ends of the earth. Today. We have covered a lot of material and I didn't get to everything. So we're going to pick up here when we come back tomorrow. So please don't miss tomorrow's episode. But I'm teaching this series called what Jesus Said about the Final say so of God's Word. It comes with a wonderful study guide. And I've been telling you about Kenneth E. Hagin's book called the Authority of the Believer. That's a book that changed my life. And I'm telling you about it because I believe it will change your life as well. And right now we're giving to anybody who reaches out to us a beautifully designed sheet of paper with confessions of about the Word of God. And we want you to have it. You can download it by going online or if you wish, call us and we'll send you a hard copy. But by going online or by calling us, you can find out about these resources and you can also let us know how to pray for you because we want to pray for you. We really do. And I want to pray for you right now. So put your hand on your heart if you're having a problem in your mind, your will and your emotions. Today we have discovered the way to get your head changed to get your emotions fixed. And Father, I pray in the name of Jesus, you would give us an attitude of meekness that we would bend our brains and choose to submit our will and our thinking to the Word of God. Until finally the Word of God, the engrafted word in us, begins to release a torrent of power to change our souls, our mind, our wills and our emotions. In Jesus name, amen. Oh, I can hardly wait till we continue tomorrow. But remember, Ecclesiastes 8:4 says, where the word of a king is, there is power. Hey friends, this is Rick Renner, and Denise and I are coming to the United States for a brief trip and we want to invite you to come to some of our meetings. On Sunday, April 19, will be ministering at Vertical Church in West Haven, Connecticut with pastors Ken and Kathy Vance. Then on Wednesday through Sunday, April 22, 26, I'll be speaking at Perry Stone's wonderful 2026 Prophetic Summit in Cleveland, Tennessee. Then on Sunday, May 3, I'll be speaking at Resurrection Life in Granville, Michigan. With Pastors Duane and Jeanne Vanderclaek. Friend if you can come to any of these meetings, Denise and I would just be so thrilled to see you. But please go online or give us a call to make sure none of the dates or times have changed. If you've never received Jesus as your Savior and Lord, now is the time for you to experience a new life. Jesus has to give you. Pray this prayer with me right now. Lord, I repent of my sin and receive you as my Savior and Lord, wash away my sin and make me completely new. I thank you that my sin is removed and Satan no longer has any right to lay claim on me. I faithfully promise that I will serve you as my Lord for the rest of my life. Amen. If you just prayed the prayer of salvation with us, would you please let us know by going to renner.org salvation we would love to connect with you. Thank you for joining Rick Renner today. For more information about Renner Ministries and product resources, visit renner.org this program was made possible by the giving of the God called partners of Renner Ministries.