Simple Sermon Series
Simple
Pt. 1 – Disciples?
by Steve Ely
- Introduction
Some things are complex and complicated. Rubix Cubes. Algebra. Or maybe better said . . . math. Why do people in horror movies go into barns and cellars. Why do people in action movies never take the gun of the person they disarm when there are more bad guys to face. Women.
However, faith was never supposed to be complex or confusing. Man has this propensity to make things harder than they should be. When Jesus arrives on the scene man had severely complicated matters. In fact, they had taken the 10 Commandments as easily understood as they were and they had “clarified” them until now there were 613 laws. They had developed the Mishnah which was an oral tradition of commentary on the Mosaic Law that introduced additional, man-made rules that “built a fence” around the Mosaic Law so people wouldn’t even come close to breaking God’s commandments. This had 63 subsections. For instance, on the idea of keeping the Sabbath they had 39 categories of forbidden labor which are prohibited by this commandment and under these categories dozens of other kinds of labor that were forbidden. Complex. Confusing. Jesus walks into this crushing environment and systematically tries to simply everything. Once when asked to make commentary on the already commentaried to death Commandments, He simply says there are two great commandments. Love God and love your neighbor. Jesus made it simple. We should too.
That is what we are going to try to do over the course of the next few weeks. Let’s go back to basics. Let’s make sure we focus on what matters. We could take time and try to be profound and deep. However, too often we are simply educated beyond our level of obedience and certainly beyond our level of experience.
One of the simplest truths we learn is one of the ones that we forget and when we do the ramifications on our actions/behavior and thought life is dramatic and often devastating.
Mark 1:16-20 (NIV)
As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
In Mark 2, the scene is repeated and He calls Levi – tax collector.
By the time we arrive in Mark 3, Jesus has chosen 12 disciples to be with Him.
We don’t even understand that Jesus is turning the system of the day on its head. The first way He did this was who He chose as His disciples.
Each village/town had a synagogue. The Temple had been destroyed so since they couldn’t get to the temple, they brought the temple to them. The synagogue was more than just a place of worship. It was their place of education. So, all the 5-10 years old boys and girls go to House of the Book to learn Torah. Then all 11-12 years old boys go to a great interpretation – learn how to apply Word. Then at 13 years old – Bar mitzvah a rite of passage. Then the “A” students looked for a rabbi. All the other boys entered their father’s business. The fact that all the men that Jesus called/picked/chose were involved in their father’s business tells us they flunked out. They didn’t excel. They weren’t good students. They showed no promise in religious things. The second important thing is that in the system of the day the disciple selected the rabbi. The 13-year-old would attach himself to a teacher who he wanted to become like. Not just learn what he taught but to become like him in character. However, Jesus, the rabbi, chooses His disciples. The Chosen One chooses these men to follow Him.
The good and simple news is that Jesus continues to choose! He still seeks people others would cast off and cast aside. He still selects the unselectable. In fact,
1 Corinthians 1:26-29 tells us this . . .
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence.
Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”
Then again in . . .
Ephesian 1:3-6
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Why are those portions of Scripture important when we consider whether we are disciples?
- We need to remember who did the choosing.
Despite our shortcomings and unworthiness, Jesus added us to His team. Overlooked and outcasts in society. Less thans and unwanted He still gathers us. Why is this an important thing to know? It should fill our hearts with joy! He first loved us. We were handpicked. Selected. We weren’t worthy. But it should also fill our hearts with humility! If we did the picking it would lead to pride! We didn’t choose Him He chose us! While we were still sinners.
We also need to remember this because there will be days when we are facing difficult situations that we won’t feel chosen. However, we need to remember that our chosenness has nothing to do with feeling . . . Feelings are great liars. Feelings are important in many areas but completely unreliable in matters of faith. Paul Scherer said, “The Bible wastes very little time on the way we feel.” We live in an “age of sensation.” We think that if we don’t feel something there can be no authenticity in doing it. But the wisdom of God says something different: that we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting.”
Just because we don’t feel chosen has no bearing on the fact that we are chosen! Remember we are chosen!
- Chosen leads to choices!
Being chosen forces us to make choices. You can be chosen and refuse to really follow. Being chosen leads to choices. There are many choices that we must make once we have been chosen but I want to just keep it simple and focus on 1 thing that if done will take care of the rest.
The #1 choice we must make is to obey
This is the single most important choice and the one all others hinge on. We must make a conscious decision to obey.
The disciples had to make that choice. Remember when Jesus found them on the seashore frustrated because they had fished all night but caught nothing? Jesus gives them odd instructions . . . wrong time of day – cast your nets again. Fishermen being instructed on fishing by a carpenter! They start to make excuses but then obey and a great harvest comes.
Disciples make decisions in spite of feelings, their own wisdom or even experience and they obey.
In the Old Testament, the whole story is an account of God trying to get His people to obey. David knew that with God obedience is better than sacrifice and nothing changed in that regard in the New Testament.
Jesus drives home the importance of obedience in the life of a disciples by saying . . .
John 14:15 – If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you.
John 15:10 – If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. (So if you we don’t keep commandments we don’t remain in His love?)
Simply put disciples obey. We don’t look for loopholes or for how much we can get away with and still stay in right relationship. Close following requires complete obedience.
One man rightfully said, “We have disconnected obedience from faith, producing a default gospel that is eating the life out of our churches.”
Our fallback position must become “Even so lord we will do as you say”. Our level of discipleship will be determined by the depth of our obedience.
When you have choices and you will let’s keep it simple . . . simply obey. Every other choice you have must be weighed out through this choice. If it comes down to my way, the world’s way, what’s right, what’s wrong, preference, tradition, influence, trend, socially acceptable I will stop and weigh it out in light of my choice to obey Jesus!
We call Jesus Lord because that term is more socially acceptable. His disciples often called Him “Master!” We don’t like that term. However, let that sink in! Master. Maybe we need to let Jesus become Master in our lives! We need to ask ourselves, “are we really disciples?”
Simple
Pt. 2 – Study
by Steve Ely
- Introduction
Some things are complex and complicated. Politics. The sport called Cricket. Defining the word “the”. The human brain. Cats.
However, faith was never supposed to be complex or confusing. Man has this propensity to make things harder than they should be. When Jesus arrives on the scene man had severely complicated matters. So, last week I challenged you to really ask yourself if you are truly a disciple. Remember we said disciples are disciples because they choose to obey. This leads me to a conclusion. If we are going to be disciples, then not only must we follow the example of Jesus but of the first disciples. If they were disciples because they obeyed, what did they do? Let me pose this question another way. In recent years a local church has defined “disciple” in what may be one of the best and most succinct ways. They say a disciple is a “fully devoted follower of Christ.” I think they are right. But my question is what then is a disciple devoted to? Fortunately for us we are told.
Acts 2:42-47 (NIV)
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
We are clearly told exactly what the disciples were devoted to. The very first one is that they were devoted to the apostles’ teaching. Man, I wish we had record of those lessons don’t you? I so wished we had a document where their teachings were written so that we could devote ourselves to those teachings! I say that tongue in cheek because we do. What those early disciples were hearing we can read. It is what we call Scripture.
So simply stated the disciples were devoted to study of Scripture. In fact, Paul comes along and instructs those of us who want to obey to devote ourselves to this same practice.
2 Timothy 2:15 (AMP)
Study and do your best to present yourself to God approved, a workman who has no reason to be ashamed, accurately handling and skillfully teaching the word of truth.
So, the early disciples and then Paul giving instruction to his disciple Timothy reveal that disciples should study.
Disciples study.
Most of us after school have an aversion to the concept of study. So, we have substituted listening for learning. Notice it didn’t say listen to the Word to grow in ability to handle the Word. I am not discounting the necessity and benefit of hearing the Word. However, too many of us only want to learn from someone else’s work. The result is we simply don’t study like we should. We tend to become lazy. We expect to be spoon fed.
One of the issues is that the earliest trick the enemy used against us is the one he will continue to use. He approaches Eve and says “Is that what God said?” That challenge leads Eve into failure and sin simply because she didn’t know what God said. So often just because we don’t study, we don’t know. And our lack of study results in the fulfillment of the truth in Hosea 4 which states, “My people perish or are destroyed due to lack of knowledge.”
In the Yosemite and Yellowstone Park’ s there are signs that say, “Do not feed the bears”. Most people think the signs are to protect people. The signs are to protect the Bears. If they depend upon the tourists for food, then in the fall, they starve to death. Every year the Rangers must remove the dead carcasses of bears who were so dependent upon the Tourists for food that they forgot how to find food for themselves. If we don’t feed on the Word ourselves, we wind up like the Bears, dependent upon pastors, teachers, podcasts, or TV preachers for “food” and we spiritually starve to death.
A recent survey revealed that most Americans don’t know first-hand the overall story of the Bible—because they rarely pick it up,” One of the researchers said, “Even among worship attendees less than half read the Bible daily. The only time most Americans hear from the Bible is when someone else is reading it.” He went on to say “Americans treat reading the Bible a little bit like exercise. They know it’s important and helpful, but they don’t do it. Americans are fond of the Bible but don’t read it.”
Disciples study! Why?
There are all kinds of reasons I can give you light, direction, protection, healing, provision, promises, etc. But let’s keep it simple today. We must study for two reasons . . .
Study shows us Him.
John talking about Jesus states that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. So, Jesus was the literal embodiment of the Word of God. So, when we study the written Word, we get revelation about Jesus. We said last week that a disciples would follow a rabbi not just to be with him or just to learn his teaching but also to learn his character. It is as we read the Word that we learn the character of the One we are trying to follow. If we don’t study the Word, then we can’t really know The Word.
Remember, I told you feelings are liars and the truth is our experience can lie to us as well. Too many of us rely on liars to give us a revelation of Jesus. We meet the true Him in the Word. It is His Word that gives us a reliable and clear picture of who He is. If we don’t know His Word someone can tell us untruths about Him that sound right but aren’t true. Too often we allow others to paint the picture of Him rather than seeing the picture that He drew of Himself. We must study so we, as sheep, will know the voice of the Shepherd. Scripture says His sheep will know His voice, but you can’t know His voice if you don’t study His talk! Through His Word He speaks for Himself rather than through the filter of someone else’s voice/thoughts/feelings.
Too many of us claim to Jesus while at the same time we’re not devoted to His Word.
The daily saturation in the Word produced disciples. The disciples were the disciples because they were daily disciples and disciplined by the Word.
Study shows us . . . us.
Not only do we study to get a clear picture of Him. We study because as we read the Word . . . The Word reads us.
Hebrews 4:12 NIV
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
God means what He says. What He says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey.
As we study, we get a clear picture of what is in us and what needs to change. Until we study, we can’t be obedient to change because we don’t know if there is change needed. Ever met anyone who had no self-awareness? They were rude, angry, calloused, bitter, sarcastic and didn’t even know it? If we read the Word the Word reads us and points out things that need to be addressed in our lives in order for us to change, clean up and become more like the One we are reading about.
How many times have you been reading when illumination takes place and the Scripture suddenly addresses you?
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. (2 Tim. 3:16)
We must be trained in righteousness because without His Word we get trained in religion and rules!
If we want to be disciples, we must study! We must become devoted to study. We can’t be satisfied with simply listening. We must dig into His Word so we will know Him and so we will know us!
How much are you studying? Not concerned how long. New Christian start somewhere like John. Seasoned Christian start anywhere.
Simple
Pt. 3 – Pray
by Steve Ely
- Introduction
Some things are complex and complicated. Tax Code. The scoring in boxing. Relationships. The fascination with pumpkin spice!
However, faith was never supposed to be complex or confusing. Man has this propensity to make things harder than they should be. When Jesus arrives on the scene man had severely complicated matters. So, we have been trying to get back to the simple things Jesus called us to do. I have been asking you to wrestle with whether you are really a disciple. We said disciples are disciples because they choose to obey. A local church has properly defined “disciple” in what may be one of the best and most succinct ways. They say a disciple is a “fully devoted follower of Christ.” I think they are right. But my question is what then is a disciple fully devoted to? What are the simple things these first followers did? Fortunately for us we are told.
Acts 2:42-47 (NIV)
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had a need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
I talked last week about study. I am not going to discuss the fact that they devoted themselves to fellowship because I have talked to you probably 50 times over the last 10 years about our need for one another. Although I do believe it is worth noting that fellowship is mentioned 3 different times in this passage. So, we see another thing the disciples were devoted to.
The record indicates that . . .
Disciples pray.
I am probably just like you when I hear someone start a teaching or a sermon on prayer because I think we all feel inadequate in this area. I usually leave one of those teachings feeling like my prayer life will never meet the “standard” and therefore another attempt is made, out of guilt, to become the defined prayer warrior! I don’t want that to happen out of today’s message. If we make things complex, then we tend to gravitate to eloquent prayers. However, Scripture declares in James 5:16 that it is the effectual fervent prayer not the eloquent prayer that availeth much! So then, how do we make sure our prayer is effective? In order to do that I want us to look at the two types of prayer that I believe that Jesus and the disciples modeled for us.
Disciples pray consistently.
Luke 5:16 (NIV) – But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
One of the reasons that the disciples devoted themselves to consistent prayer is that their rabbi modeled a consistent prayer life. Parents – Selah.
This is why Paul would come along and say in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 – Pray without ceasing. The Greek word for “without ceasing” doesn’t mean nonstop — but actually means constantly recurring. Paul would come back again in Colossians 4:2 and give us a command – Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
Simply put to be a disciple we must have a consistent – ongoing – personal conversation with Jesus. Communication will determine your connectedness! We used to judge whether someone was praying by whether they attended prayer meetings. However, the private ongoing dialogue with Christ in every situation, circumstance, and moment and life is the real indication of discipleship.
How consistent in your prayer life? Do you catch yourself talking to our Rabbi on an ongoing manner? How many hours of each day do we neglect the opportunity to speak to Him? Are you constantly checking in? Are your prayers proof of desire towards Him?
We talk about the fact that sheep know the Shepard’s voice, but I want to flip the script. Does the Shepard recognize your voice? Is He familiar with it? There are people in my life that never have to identify themselves when they call. I don’t need caller ID because through frequency and consistency I have become familiar with their voice. Disciples carry on an ongoing conversation with Jesus.
Disciples prayed persistently.
Consistent and persistent sound and are somewhat similar. However, persistent prayer is something that disciples must also develop.
Persistence is an acquired skill. You learn to endure. You learn to hang on. Your strain and struggle develops strength. Why is persistence necessary? Persistence in prayer says that I believe who you are even when who you are hasn’t brought the results I desire to see.
One man said that God works through persevering prayer to 1. To purify our desires. Sometimes we may want the right thing for the wrong reasons. 2. To prepare us for His answer. A premature answer might cause us to glory more in the gift than in the Giver. 3. To develop our life and character. One of God’s greatest priorities in prayer is the work He desires to do in us. 4. To bless us with a more intimate relationship with God.
Jesus talks about persistence in prayer on two occasions. In Luke 11, after Jesus responds to the request by His disciples to teach them to pray He gives them Lord’s Prayer and then says . . . “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
Then again in Luke 18 by telling a parable. Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ 4 “For some time he refused. But finally, he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
Jesus makes it clear that disciples simply must develop a never give up attitude in prayer. Even when what we see in the natural doesn’t indicate change, we continue to persist in prayer. Too many of us give up in prayer and by so doing we also say we are giving up on God!
Spurgeon once said, “If you will give him no rest, he will give you all the rest you need.”
Alexander Whyte said, “If you find your life of prayer to be always so short, and so easy, and so spiritual, as to be without cost and strain and sweat to you, you may depend upon it, you have not yet begun to pray.”
Our microwave lifestyle has robbed too many of us of the ability to slow cook in prayer. Persist. Hold on. Ask and keep asking!
What do you need to ask for and about again? Who do you need to bring before the Father again? Learn to endure in prayer. Become tough in prayer. Have you allowed what your eyes see to cause you to give up?
The disciples would have been taught how to pray in synagogue (school) and yet they ask Jesus how to pray. Why? Was it that the consistency and persistency of His prayer resulted in the power they saw and therefore they wanted to know how He prayed? Has anyone asked you to teach them to pray? The prayer life I am most attracted to is the one that is consistent and persistent. It is that type of prayer that others will mimic!
I want to challenge you to simply become more consistent . . . Moment by moment, set daily times if needed and persistent in your prayers! Disciples pray!
Simple
Pt. 4 – Worship
by Steve Ely
- Introduction
Some things are complex and complicated. People’s choice in music (Bob Dylan). The cloud (all this stuff up there somewhere and somehow, we can access at will). Commitment to soap operas and reality shows. Oklahoma weather.
However, faith was never supposed to be complex or confusing. Man has this propensity to make things harder than they should be. When Jesus arrives on the scene man had severely complicated matters. So, we have been trying to get back to the simple things Jesus called us to do. I have been asking you to wrestle with whether you are really a disciple. We said disciples are disciples because they choose to obey. A local church has properly defined “disciple” in what may be one of the best and most succinct ways. They say a disciple is a “fully devoted follower of Christ.” I think they are right. But my question is what then is a disciple fully devoted to? What are the simple things these first followers did? Fortunately for us we are told.
Acts 2:42-47 (NIV)
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had a need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
I talked about disciples being devoted to study. We mentioned fellowship, and last week prayer. These men and women gave their lives to these things. The final thing I want to see in the simple approach the disciples had was that devoted . . .
Disciples worship.
You will remember that last week I said that we when we hear someone talk about prayer we tend to check out because we have heard about it so much. It that is true regarding prayer it is true a thousand times more in regards to worship. We are in a moment of history that may be the most saturated with worship resources than any other era. And yet it is my contention that we have a few issues in spite of the availability of worship.
- We have turned worship into a spectator sport. We watch other people worship and we say we have worshipped. Never open our mouth or sing a song but because we listened to them sing, we treat worship like we treat football/basketball teams . . . they played but we won.
- We are apt to get caught up in worship of worship. So that it becomes about style and preference rather than the object of the worship.
So, if we want to become fully devoted disciples, we must learn some things about how disciples worship!
Disciples are holistic in worship!
I thought about how to say this and I could have just as easily said, “the disciples worship as a lifestyle.” But we are too familiar with worship as a lifestyle statement without actually embracing it. So, I chose the word holistic which means ” characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole.”
Worship was a part of their everyday experience and life. It wasn’t reserved just for Sundays. Nor was it confined to involving music. Notice in our text there is no mention of their praise being connected to music. It simply says they praised God.
You know I have no issue with music. That isn’t the point. The point is their worship wasn’t defined or determined by accompaniment. There are times when you have no band. No worship team. No sound track. Paul and Silas worshipped in the dungeon and there weren’t recessed Bose speakers in the ceiling cranking out Bethel Worship or Tye Tribbett. Yet the silence didn’t drown out their worship.
There are basically two types of worship that the disciples involved themselves in as worship became holistic in nature. Paul addresses these two types of worship in
In Colossians 3:16-17 . . .
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Paul addressed corporate worship . . .
Paul knew that as worship becomes a part of our daily experience that we lose the need to be coerced/prodded to worship. Worship becomes second nature or natural and it also becomes essential to our growth. In fact, Paul says that corporate worship is necessary because we teach and encourage each other as we worship. We need to worship together! There are instructions on how and when to worship. There is strength and courage that comes when we worship together!
However, Paul also addresses personal daily worship . .
Our view and understanding of worship must expand until we simply see our entire, our whole life as worship.
“Cause every task of your day to be a sacred ministry to the Lord. However mundane your duties, for you they are a sacrament.” — Richard Foster
Foster is simply reiterating or restating what Paul taught! Your daily life is the real platform of worship. In fact, I believe it is as we learn to worship in the daily routines of life that we are prepared and positioned to come together and not only minister to the Father but to one another.
Church members worship on Sunday. Disciples live a worship lifestyle that bleeds over to Sunday!
How much worship do you do outside of Sunday morning? I didn’t say singing. I said worship. As disciples we must devote ourselves to giving affection and attention to the One we are following.
Disciples are persistent in worship.
If you were here last week, then you may say wait you repeated what you said about prayer. I know. On purpose. Because the record indicates that the disciples learned to worship in spite of rather than when it was comfortable or convenient. Just as too many of us give up in prayer too many have allowed the convenience of worship to whittle away at our ability to persevere worship. By being unable/unwilling to worship in the tough times of life we elevate what we are facing (at least in our minds/spirits) into a higher place of power and attention worthiness than God! What was true about their prayer life was equally accurate in regards to their worship life.
We like the lesson that God is sovereign and turns setbacks to triumphs. However, we must also learn the lesson that if He doesn’t turn things around His praise worthiness is unaffected and undiminished. Our devotion to worship is based on who we worship not what we face! If God can only be worshipped when things are going perfectly, then you have a God who is no longer sovereign and in control! Or you have a God you are trying to manipulate and hold hostage! I will only worship you when you do what I want!
Stop just a minute and think about what the disciples were facing while they develop this commitment to worship . . .
While they worship, they were being persecuted, tortured, imprisoned, rejected, stoned scattered and excommunicated. What they faced deepened their worship. They had learned the worship toughness of Job. Job was blessed. Rich. Prosperous. Fine family. Full bank account. Then he lost it all. Kids killed. Livelihood lost. Sickness rather than strength. His response . . . “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” God is to be praised when He gives me everything my heart desires. But as a disciple I will be persistent in worship even when He takes away. His praise worthiness isn’t affected by Him giving or taking.
We must learn to make what the writer of Hebrews calls “a sacrifice of praise!” That is more than just when it isn’t convenient, or when they didn’t sing my song. I will make a sacrifice and worship anyway! That is petty. A sacrifice is a sacrifice when it costs us something! A sacrifice of praise means worship when it makes no sense, when I would rather be bitter, when I would rather blame, when I don’t have time, when I don’t have the strength, when I am sick, when I am broken, when I am down, when it didn’t turn out like I wanted. But I am a disciple and disciples worship!
How devoted to worship are you? How devoted are you to personal moments of praise? How devoted are you to spending time at His feet? How devoted to corporate worship are you? Does any excuse keep you away. Is it a priority or an option?
I want to mention this. We haven’t paid any attention to the last verse. As a direct response to the disciples being devoted to study, fellowship, prayer and worship God added to the church daily. May I point out the obvious just so we don’t miss what is right under our nose? Growth was granted when the disciples were simply devoted to what was important. Perhaps if disciples are distracted by the trivial, mundane, complicated, even good things but not these things, then growth is not only missing but unlikely! It is these things that set them apart and caused others to want to be a part.
Outed Sermon Series
“Outed”
Pt. 1 – Get Out
by Steve Ely
Text: Deuteronomy. 32:11
“Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions.” NIV
“He was like an eagle hovering over its nest, overshadowing its young, Then spreading its wings, lifting them into the air, teaching them to fly.” Message
I want to read to you a portion of Scripture that is oft quoted. It is part of Moses’ last song before he is taken by God. This one statement gives us a glimpse of how God deals with His people! How He deals with us! He rouses his young. He waketh up his nest.
Introduction:
It is a safe place. Warm. Cozy. Secure. Comfortable. The boundaries are marked – defined by the outside edges of their living quarters. It is their home. It is their world. It is all they know. It is all they care to know. It is their nest. Food is found here. Camaraderie is found here. Peace is found here. Every need is met. Every desire accommodated. It is their place!
And yet, the day comes that the mother hen or the momma eagle, as referenced in the text, does the unthinkable. She stirs up her nest. What was a comfortable place now becomes a prickly, sticky, sharp, pointed, untenable enclosure. She forces the maturing chicks to the edge. No longer safe. No longer cozy and secure. No longer comfortable. They want to stay there, but she won’t allow it to happen because she knows that for their own good, she must push them to the edge. She knows that they are born to fly and soar. She knows they are destined to explore. If she doesn’t do her job and “out” them the nest will become a prison. The nest will no longer be an incubator but will become a coffin! The day has come that they are pushed out for their own sake and for their own good!
We like things to be safe. We like things to be warm. Cozy is our compass. Security is our standard. Much like chicks in the barnyard we want to remain in our cocoon of comfort and we refuse to venture to the edge. Church is our nest. It is our defining boundary. We huddle together for warmth and protection. We fight venturing out to the world around us. We allow the nest to become a coffin!
According to Deuteronomy God stirs His nest! God must have a split personality or something because in one instance we are told that God wants to gather us under His wings like a mother hen gathers her chicks. He wants to protect us, love us, and comfort us. But then in Deuteronomy, we get another glimpse of God; we are told that He wants to force us to move beyond the enclosure! He wants to out us!
What does outed mean? If someone outs you, they expose you for who you really are. They tell on you. They pull back the covers and let others get a glimpse of the real you. They pull off your mask. They force you to face the truth!
I probably need to warn you that I am going to out you today! But before I out you I need to out me!
I am comfortable in here! I know how to do this. I know how to do church. I feel safe here. The people I love are here so there is often no sense of urgency to go outside these walls. I often see outreach as a duty (what we are supposed to do to be considered a “real” church) rather than an incredible opportunity. Church, if I am honest, on many days has become about me! Did I get my needs met? Did I get my spiritual fix? Did I get my praise fix? Did I get goose bumps? Did I get to use my gift and did I use it well? I am in the nest. I like the nest. I want to stay in the nest.
I have wrestled with the messages I am preaching during this series because they are some of the most uncomfortable, I will ever preach. And because if I am not careful, I will employ every trick I have ever learned to listen, but not actually apply them to my own life! I am outed this morning!
As an eagle stirs up its nest! You must be outed too! We need to be awakened. I hope you become uncomfortable right now.
When I realize that 99.5% of you will never lead one person to Christ it tells me that you are too comfortable in the nest!
When I realize that the average church in the USA spends $250,000 a year and only wins one person to Christ then the nest has become a coffin!
And then we raise our brood to conduct business the same way! Less than 33% of teenagers shared their faith with another person in the last 12 months, and half of all the youth ministries in America did not win one new convert to Christ last year.
Every church should be full this morning. There ought to be people standing in line to get in. Let’s get personal with it this morning. Our church should be full today. Yet, most of you have no sense of urgency about the fact that there are empty seats which equates to lost souls remaining lost! Your needs are met. You’re comfortable. You’re safe. Your eternity is secured, but what about them?
I am convinced that most of us attempt to rape the Bride of Christ and use her to fulfill our selfish, self-centered desires!! My praise, my needs, my wants, my comfort, my nest!
Why doesn’t it bother you that the people you have lived next to for years, classmates that you spend hours a day with, coworkers that know most of your life story, and family members that you have influence over are not here or in some church this morning? Why doesn’t it bother us that we can go decades without personally leading someone to Christ?
You are outed! I stir the nest this morning. Your hearts should be broken.
I can hear what some of you are thinking right now. You are thinking what we need is a revival that will draw people. Or you are thinking what we need are miracles to take place, signs and wonders, manifestations, that would cause people to come? Really? I am all for miracles, signs, wonders, manifestations. I pray for those to happen every week. But don’t we already have the most incredible miracle to show them? Haven’t we already witnessed the most incredible sign, wonder and manifestation? God came in the flesh and lived like us, died for us, and wants relationship with us? That is a miracle. That is a miracle that should drive us and should draw them (if I be lifted up – not if miracles are lifted up, manifestations although legitimate)! The key is that they must be able to see Him! We must make Him seen! If we won’t get out of the nest and talk about, live about, share about that miracle what difference would all the flopping on the ground, foaming at the mouth, bucking, hair standing up on the back of your neck miracles make?
The truth is most of us have enough God to make us comfortable, but not enough God to talk about Him or to be dangerous to someone else’s sins or sickness! We have as much of Him as we want!
I am praying that a divine discontent will take over our lives beginning this week. I am praying that what used to satisfy us will no longer satisfy us but frustrate us. I am praying that we will no longer be able to live our life where we drive to church on Sunday and then drive home only to repeat the process week after week and it never impacts anyone around us. Padding the nest, shifting our position in the nest, but never getting out of the nest! I am praying that through the power of the Holy Spirit that by the time we finish this series you will be outed. Uncomfortable. In fact, that is what Jesus came to do. We know He came to comfort the uncomfortable. But I want you to know that He also came to make the comfortable uncomfortable! We are too comfortable.
I know it is comfortable in here. No one is more comfortable in here than me. This is a nest that I built for myself! It looks, sounds, feels like this because this is what is comfortable to me! But I am declaring to you today that I have been outed. This isn’t about me! It is supposed to be about them!
I am glad you enjoy Passion. I am thankful (more than you will ever know) that you call this home. I sincerely do hope that all of your needs are met here. I genuinely do hope that you get your praise fix here. I do hope that you get your spiritual questions answered and I try to make sure that you leave every Sunday nourished and encouraged. But I also hope you know that once you have made a commitment to Christ that it is no longer about you! It is about them! Quit being disappointed when your wishes/demands aren’t met! You have Him, what more could you need? Passion is for you but not about you!
We’re NOT called to be consumers…but contributors! The question must change in this church from “What is in it for me?” or “What did I get out of it?” or “Is this my style” or “Does this push my buttons” to “How can I serve?” and “How can I reach out so others will have their needs met too?” and “How can my church invade the rest of my life so that others will invade my church?” For most of us church is what we do, it isn’t who we are. It is one hour of duty or thought each week. The only people who are really making a difference in the world are those who grasp the kingdom concept and understand that once we meet Jesus His kingdom should consume our every thought, our ever action, our every minute, and our every motive.
We are called to reach the world through serving it…not screaming at it, ignoring it, or hiding from it!
I am not the first to out disciples. Very quickly I want to point you to Matthew 10:5-16.
Jesus outs the 12. They hadn’t been with him very long and yet He outs them. Wouldn’t it have been more comfortable for them to stay with him? Wouldn’t it have been safer with Him? Wouldn’t they have enjoyed life more with Him? They didn’t have to worry about provision He could multiply. They didn’t have to worry about sickness, He could heal. Staying in the nest would have been better except for the fact that He stirs the nest! He refuses to allow them to stay in the nest forever.
He gives them simple instructions. You can read them for yourself in Matthew. I just want to quickly summarize His instructions. They out us as well.
- Go to the lost.
Didn’t say wait on them to come to us. Go. That requires leaving the nest. That requires being uncomfortable. That requires rubbing shoulders. That requires more than just an hour of your time each week. That requires you to live your life differently! Gather. Grow. Go! The church gathered is actually a time of preparation for ‘being the church’ outside of its walls.” Told to go and then make disciples. Not commanded to stay and make disciples. If we stay in the nest, it is difficult to make new disciples.
We must go to the lost!
- Show them heaven.
Heal the sick. Raise the dead. Drive out demons. In other words, He is saying to the disciples, what you have seen done, do. The same power you operate with in the nest, operate outside of the nest. I’m glad you can pray, prophecy, handle demons when you are in my presence, but are you operating with the same power out there? Do we ever show them heaven or just more of what they always see? Our time in here is a practice field for the real game! If all we are going to do is practice, but never play the game this is futile! - Produce peace.
Jesus says very clearly to enter a house and let your peace rest on it! He didn’t say let my peace rest on it. You should have peace on you! How many of us stir things up so badly that people dread us showing up? How many of our co-workers dread working with us because of the drama? Stir your nest today. If there is drama everywhere you go you may need to take a look at the common denominator! Where is your peace? If there was ever anything this society needs right now it is some folks who know how to bring peace to people’s lives! - Expect rejection and get over it.
Jesus tells them that everyone won’t listen. But he also says don’t sweat it either. Dust your shoes off and go on. It isn’t the end of the world. They aren’t rejecting you; they are rejecting Him! Why do we fear rejection so badly if it isn’t about us but about Him? Our worth and our legitimacy as a believer isn’t wrapped up in who we win, it is wrapped up in that we tried to win!
I mentioned earlier that it seems like God has a split personality. The truth is this morning both glimpses of God, the one where He is like the protecting, loving, and comforting and the one where He stirs us up and kicks us out of our comfort zones, are correct and true. They are not mutually exclusive. We have just become deceived to believe that we can only tap into His comforting, protecting, loving side inside the nest. I want you to realize this morning that as we go out, we will see and tap into more of God’s love, comfort, and protection. There is nothing to keep you safe from in here! Out there is where we are meant to be!
III. Close
We are being outed this morning. I want you to think about why you are here! Is this about you? Or is it about Him and them? Are you a consumer or a contributor? I want you to think about who is not here? I want you to think about what you are going to do about that! Has this church invaded your entire life or is it just something you do on Sunday?
“Outed”
Pt. 2 -Confusing Words
by Steve Ely
Introduction:
Last week I challenged you that God does indeed want to make us uncomfortable. He desires us to have a nest to which we can retreat every so often for comfort and revitalization. However, He absolutely refuses to leave us here or allow us to become satisfied with a spiritual experience that is “nested”. He “outs” us and requires us to go to the lost! We are too comfortable here! There are too many empty seats and no urgency to do anything about it. I challenged you to think about who isn’t here and what are you going to do about it? I have been praying that you would be very uncomfortable this week.
I want to continue “outing” us this week. If you missed I remind you that “outed” is the idea of exposing you for who you really are. It is basically tattling or jerking your chain. Pulling back the covers and letting others get a glimpse of the real you.
This morning I want to talk about confusing words. Many folks say that English is the hardest language in the world to learn because words can have multiple meanings and because so many words are so similar. For instance, the very title of today’s message exemplifies this truth. When I say confusing words, you think about words that you don’t understand. They confuse you. However, what I mean by the statement confusing words is when we use one word mistakenly thinking we are using a different word. We confuse their meanings. Like the words: reigns/rains; pail/pale; tail/tale; fairy/ferry. Homonyms. These words are confused because they sound the same.
However, there are words that are confused because we believe they mean the same thing.
I am convinced that there are two words that we have certainly confused. The first word that we rely on is the word love. We throw it about glibly and without much thought. We love our house. We love our car. We love our spouse. We love Jesus. May I suggest to you this morning that we have castrated the word by overuse. We can say it and it means absolutely nothing. You can tell me you love me and then your manifestations tell me the truth. “I love you”, but I talk bad about you, I mistreat you, I avoid you, I won’t touch you. Then the truth is you don’t really love me. Think back to dating days for just a moment. How many people told you they loved you, but their actions told you something else? Remember the one who won your hand in marriage – did you say yes because they told you they loved you (if that was the standard you would have said yes to everyone you dated) or because they showed you, they loved you? I know we need to hear it – spouses tell each other right now – mom and dad tell child right now. I love to hear those 3 words. Julie and I have a pact that we won’t go to sleep without telling each other that. So, I want and need to hear it, but the truth be told I would rather see it. Isn’t that true with our children? Tell me you love me but clean your room. Tell me you love me but take out the trash. It takes both. Our actions either validate or invalidate our words. Emerson “outs” us when he said, “What you do thunders so loudly in your ears that I can’t hear what you say!”
I want to “out” you this morning and suggest that the word we should be using because it has more meaning, is more revealing, and more accurate is the word serve.
I want to “out” us this morning and our misuse of these words!
TEXT: John 1:1-2, 13:1-5, 21:15-17
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.
The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.
These passages out us. Let me explain.
We are taught in Bible College that the writers of the Gospels all had different agendas. Matthew and Mark both write their books from a Jewish point of view in order to point to Jesus as the King and as the Messiah. Luke writes as a historian and points to Jesus as the savior of the entire world, not just the Jews. In each of these books the writers point strongly to the humanity of Jesus. He was one of us. However, John seems preoccupied with convincing us of Jesus’ deity. He doesn’t give us the genealogy of his natural mother and adoptive parents as the starting point of his narrative. Rather, he immediately begins pointing to and declaring Jesus’ deity – In the beginning was the word and the word was with God. And yet, this author with all of his efforts to convince us that Jesus was God and with all the effort to expose Jesus’ Godness, he exclusively, tells us that Jesus served in his final moments on earth – after taking 12 chapters to convince us that Jesus was in fact God in the flesh, he now shows us that Jesus steps down from the pinnacle of His deity throne and takes a towel. He passes over all the other human moments and focuses on this one as the one glaring example of his humanness. He gives us a glimpse into Jesus’ life and ministry by showing us that true leaders come down and serve. Notice the phrase – now shows them the full extent of his love – shouldn’t that phrase have been reserved for the cross? His willingness to dethrone himself and wash their feet reveals a servant heart!
Then the writer takes us into this account of Peter’s interaction with Jesus after Jesus’ resurrection. The passage in John 21 has been preached to death. Jesus asks Peter if he loves him 3 times and 3 times Peter answers. Sermons have been preached on how significant the 3 times are because Peter denied Christ 3 times. Preachers have looked at the terminology for love that Jesus used compared to the terminology Peter used and said that Jesus is using one word for love and Peter until the end isn’t using the same word and therefore not matching Jesus’ level of love. All well in good. But I think we have missed the important lesson. It was a lesson Peter, the one who tried to stop Jesus from washing his feet in the earlier narrative, should have already grasped, but apparently still has not laid hold to.
According to the dialogue that Peter is having with Jesus, Jesus is trying to drive home the truth that love demands and requires action. Do you love me? Peter responds, “Yes I love you.” Jesus 3 times comes back with action. Then do something about it – feed my sheep.
Listen to me this morning, the lesson that Jesus taught by washing feet and that he drives home to Peter is that love repeated verbally, even repeated repeatedly, is never an adequate substitute for service! In fact, it is service that substantiates and validates the love.
We are lying to ourselves and to our world if we say that we love Jesus, but we either refuse or fail to serve. If our songs of love don’t transform into acts of service, we are wasting our breath!
Most of us hide behind love as an excuse not to serve or as a substitute for service. We have deceived ourselves into thinking that if we say the word love that translates into and is credited as service. You never see that more clearly than in church. You ask people what they think about Jesus and they will say the love Him. Oh, I love Him. I am so in love with Him. And yet, you can’t get them to serve!
The truth is this morning that most of us are more than willing to love, we are just unwilling to serve! Loving is easy. Serving requires that we leave the comfortable and secure confines of our nest and expose ourselves to dirt and hurt!
We want to love Jesus. We want to worship Jesus, but we refuse to do what Jesus did!
We use the word too much! The difference between us and Jesus is that He actually acted out love. We just talk about it. He served – healing, touching, feeding, reaching, talking, doing.
We love . . . how? What solid, tangible, real way do we love? Love is measurable by service. Our community should be better because we are here, right? Are we here to serve them or are they here to serve us?
“Most people use the city to build a great church; rather use your church to build a great City.”
I have a few questions for you this morning!
Is there much joy in the city because of us? In Acts 8, Philip goes into the city of Samaria and declares the word of the Lord and the writer says there was much joy in that city! Who is happy this morning because we are here? Would anyone weep if we closed? Or would people say just another startup that couldn’t make it?
The truth is this morning the only way we can bring joy to a city is by serving that city!
The truth is you can’t be around Jesus for very long and not wash something. We avoid the stinky areas of people’s lives and Jesus grabs a towel and a basin of water and not only gets close to the stinky areas He handles the stinky areas. He touches them. Love isn’t real unless it is manifested in tangible ways. It is one thing to love the people that walk in here that all cleaned up and smell really good, but what about those we think stink?
Jesus is calling us to the level of service He operated at in Philippians 2:5-8, 15
Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion. Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God.
We are being challenged to become servants who will lead – not leaders who will serve – humility isn’t thinking less of yourself – it is not thinking of yourself at all.
This morning I “out” you.
- We must begin speaking with our actions!
Words aren’t enough! - Our “greatness” scale must change.
We cannot judge each other’s greatness by our gifting or by your worship. We want to pedestal folks based on those things. What reveals greatness and should garner our respect and esteem is our service. You aren’t great because you can preach, sing, dance, hoop, shout, but if you can serve. What did Jesus say, “If any among you want to be great – love?” No serve! The Son of Man (our example) came with love – God so loved the world – but that love turned to service – He so love the world that he gave! Jesus did love, moved to tears, moved by compassion, but he also tells us whey came, He came to serve not to be served! - We must develop a culture of service in the nest that then moves out of the nest.
Scripture teaches us to prefer our brothers over ourselves. Serve one another. You know how I can tell who gets it? Just watch and see those that serve without being asked to do so. Many of you do that. Others don’t. If the thought when you see trash on the floor in here is – that isn’t my job. Then when you see “trash” out there you will pass by without touching! - Service is what must distinguish us!
I am not talking about what sets us apart from other churches. Our worship does that. I think our Pentecostal side does that. Hopefully the preaching does that too. No, our service should set us apart to the world!
Martin Luther King said it best, “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s “Theory of Relativity” to serve. You don’t have to know the Second Theory of Thermal Dynamics in Physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love, and you can be that servant.” “Life’s persistent and most urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
He went on to say this, “If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning.”
I am afraid that the Mormons are out loving us. I am afraid the Muslims are out loving us.
What is it that is supposed to be our distinguishing mark?
They will know us by our “?”. Our love. Just because we say we love? If that was the case, they would know us well. They will know us when love becomes a verb and we act it out? It is our service that stands in stark contrast to our culture’s self-centeredness, apathy, and lack of care. Our service opens their eyes, if only for a moment, to catch a small glimpse of a savior on a cross dying out (not living out) ultimate love!
I out you this morning. If your hands aren’t marked by service, then you don’t love Christ at the level He requires His disciples to love. Say I love you all you want, but until it shows up on your hands it is meaningless!
Bill Hybels said, “I would never want to reach out someday with a soft, uncalloused hand — a hand never dirtied by serving — and shake the nail pierced hand of Jesus.”
Look at your hand. Is there any dirt on it? Is there any residue of service on it? Is there any mark of love on it?
III. Close
We are being outed this morning. Last week I asked you to think about who is not here? I want you to think about what you are going to do about that! Has this church invaded your entire life or is it just something you do on Sunday? This morning I ask you another question. “Do you love Him?” If so, how does your level of service answer that question? Does He need to repeat the question again and again until our life answers correctly?
God give us a church full of people who have water wrinkled hands. Who although they have been given all power will take up a towel and wash feet.
“Outed”
Pt. 3 – Preached to Death
by Steve Ely
Introduction:
Well we are at week three in the “Outed” series. I have said some pretty mean things to you. You should be bleeding a little. Things like, “We are too comfortable in here. It should bother you that there are empty seats around you. It should bother you that you can go decades without winning anyone to Christ. That this church is for you, but it isn’t about you. That saying that you love Jesus repeatedly doesn’t make it true if our service doesn’t substantiate and validate that statement. If there is no dirt on your hands, then there is no love in your heart!
Most of you are probably thrilled to get to this week. If you can just make it through today some of us are thinking “I can go back to my nested condition”. Like an eagle I am going to stir up the nest this morning! I refuse to let you settle back into comfortable!
I want to draw your attention to Acts 20:6-12 . . .
We sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and came to them at Troas within five days; and there we stayed seven days. On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered together. And there was a young man named Eutychus sitting on the window sill, sinking into a deep sleep; and as Paul kept on talking, he was overcome by sleep and fell down from the third floor and was picked up dead. But Paul went down and fell upon him, and after embracing him, he said, “Do not be troubled, for his life is in him.” When he had gone back up and had broken the bread and eaten, he talked with them a long while until daybreak, and then left. They took away the boy alive, and were greatly comforted.
A few thoughts. Paul was a great preacher. Most of us would have stood in line to hear him. He would have been on all the popular Christian magazines of our days. He would have had his own TV show. But Paul had preacher disease. He was long-winded. He began preaching to the folks and preached until midnight. Notice if you will there were no miracles that took place during his message. He preached for hours. In fact, he preached so long that a young man who was sitting in the third story window fell asleep and fell out of the window to his death. The meeting broke up for a few minutes and Paul embraced him and then went back to preaching till dawn!
Here is the truth that I want you to catch = he preached all night long and the only thing it produced was death. I can preach to you week after week for hours on end and it can drone on and on and even put you to sleep and never see any life produced. In fact, we walk past the dead to hear more preaching.
But notice if you will, that it was when Paul embraced the young man that the young man came to life. If we are not careful, we will keep having church and people all around us will continue to die and nothing will change until we embrace them to life. There are people laying in the street dead and ya’ll want me to keep preaching, but the world won’t be changed by my preaching. It will be changed by your preaching! You may say, “I’m not a preacher!” Yes, you are! Your embrace is your preaching and it will bring them to life.
So, I am kicking you out of the nest this morning! We need to stop doing church and be the church.
I am dismissing you to go out and embrace them.
How? I asked you last week to bring $20. I told you that you would leave with your cash. I didn’t say you would get to keep it after that. The ushers are bringing you cards that have our church name on them and a list of ideas that you can use to embrace people and give them a glimpse of Jesus. There are some here who don’t have $20 – take them with you. Pray for divine assignments with people.
I am asking you to come back at 12:45 – that gives you an hour to do this. We will come back and take a few minutes and share some of our experiences. Let’s see if we don’t see God work outside our nest!
Don’t hang out in the lobby! We are locking up. You are outed!
Help Sermon Series
HELP!
Pt. 1 – The Help Prayer
by Steve Ely
- Introduction:
(Help by the Beatles)
Help, I need somebody,
Help, not just anybody,
Help, you know I need someone, help.
When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody’s help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I’m not so self-assured,
Now I find I’ve changed my mind and opened up the doors.
Help me if you can, I’m feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won’t you please, please help me?
And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,
My independence seems to vanish in the haze.
But every now and then I feel so insecure,
I know that I just need you like I’ve never done before.
Have you ever been there . . . In need of help? When I was younger, I never needed anybody’s help in any way and then I realized that help was essential. Do you remember when you were young and thought you knew it all and could do it all? The Beatles had this awakening and encapsulated the cry that we all utter at some point. . . “Help!” However, I think the word “Help” is so overused that we underestimate its power! David used this word on at least 9 different occasions in the Psalms and each time it was part of a simple and yet profound prayer. Here are a couple of examples.
- Text
Psalm 18:6
In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.
Psalm 109:26 – Help me, oh help me, God, my God, save me through your wonderful love.
Simple prayers – HELP! Nothing eloquent or impressive about these prayers they are simple desperate calls for God’s assistance. These prayers offer great hope to us because they teach us several things.
- The Help Prayer
- It is the perfect prayer!
The simple prayer of help needs no elaboration or explanation. It is simply perfect because with one word it sums up the need, the emotion, the desperation, and the expectation! It is suitable and applicable for every situation. It is appropriate for good days and bad days. It can be prayed in life-or-death situations or in moments of simple resistance. It covers catastrophes as well as a common bad day. Its power isn’t diminished by the situation. The scope of the word grows/shrinks to match your need. - It fits any person.
It not only fits any situation, it also fits any person. Sinner or saint. Well-spoken or simpleton. Regardless of education, station in life, learned or unlearned, saved or unsaved. It is a universal prayer. We have all and will all pray this prayer at some point in our life. King or fugitive it works. Hero of the faith or forgotten sideliner it still fits. That is important because some of you feel inadequate when you are addressing God, the Maker of the Universe! You hear others with all of their rhythmic rhymes and eloquent words and the temptation is avoid praying because you can’t match their prayers. May I teach you how to pray? HELP!!!! - It is the most answered prayer!
There is unexpected help, which we will discuss next week. However, most help comes as a direct result of a request. In fact, I would submit that many of us don’t get help because we have failed to request it.
All you have to do is go back and examine the life of Christ and consider all of the miracles (divine intervention or help) and think about how many of those moments of help took place as direct result of a prayer/request for help. He turned water into wine due to request from His mother. He healed the blind as a direct result of request. He healed the lepers due to a petition to help. He calmed a storm because disciples cried out for help. He fed the 5,000 because they let it be known that they were hungry. He heals Jairus’ daughter because he asked Him to do so.
We have not because we ask not! Perhaps you haven’t received the help you desire because you have failed to request the specific help you need! If you need help request it today!
There are 4 very important things we need to know about receiving help from God.
- Getting Help
- God still wants to help!
We hear David cry for help, but we must also see that God responds with assistance. He testifies of this in Psalms 118:12, “I was pushed back and about to fall, but the LORD helped me.”
We read the multiplied account of God’s intervention into the lives of the Children of Israel. We read occasion after occasion of parted seas, food on the ground, victories in the face of impossible odds, healing from sickness and then we turn to the New Testament. Everywhere Jesus went He helped. In fact, in one passage it says Jesus healed all their sick. He helped with healing. He helped with taxes. He helped defend the defenseless (woman caught in adultery). He healed bodies. He healed minds. He healed souls. He healed families. He healed finances. He met every need found in the human condition. He helped!
Some of you have forgotten that He still wants to help you today! We quote the passage of Scripture that teaches us that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. However, we fail to apply that truth to the help equation. God helped Moses so He will help you. He came to David’s rescue; He will come to yours. He backed up the 3 Hebrew Children; He will come to your aid as well. He healed the sick. He will heal you. He provided for the hungry, He will provide for you! You have to not only know this truth, but embrace, believe, trust, depend on, and have faith in the fact that God still wants to help today! His help didn’t come to an end at the end of Revelation. He still looks for ways to get involved in and intervene in your life today! Don’t give up. Don’t discount God’s ability or desire to come to your rescue!
Lee Ielpi is a retired firefighter, a New York City firefighter. He gave 26 years to the city. But on September 11th, 2001, he gave much more. He gave his son, Jonathan. His son was a firefighter as well. When the Twin Towers fell, Jonathan was there. Firefighters are a loyal clan. When one perishes in the line of duty, the body is left where it is until a firefighter who knows the person can come and quite literally picks it up. Lee made the discovery of his son’s body his personal mission. He dug daily with dozens of others at the sixteen-acre graveyard. On Tuesday, December 11, three months after the disaster, his son was found. And Lee was there to carry him out.”
Your Father has made it His personal mission to care for, carry, uncover, and dig out, His son’s body. He won’t give up. He won’t quit. He will dig through your collapsed and crushed world to find you and bring you assistance. Hang on! Believe! Trust! Hope.
Some of you right now don’t believe that or are unsure about this because you are saying in your mind “I have asked Him to help me and He hasn’t.” Some of you are thinking, “I have depended on Him and He has failed me so I don’t know if I believe that God will help me or not.” So why doesn’t God help? In order to receive help you must learn the next two things.
- We must come to the place where Jesus in our only option rather than only one option!
Many of us don’t see God’s hand at work in our life is because we treat Him as one option rather than as the only option! We don’t really rely on Him. We don’t really live our life as if He is the only way out. We say we depend on Him for provision, but we live as if we are our hope and answer, so we trust our job more than we trust God. We refuse to tithe because we really aren’t sure the God option works. I can figure out this thing better than you can God. I can manage my 100% better than He can manage the 90%. We have more faith in our 401K than we do in Him. We seek His healing power only as an afterthought. We seek counsel from every other source and then ask Him at the end if He has any ideas or thoughts on our stuff.
Jesus always responds to the cry of desperation. Go ahead, search Scripture and find one time where Jesus responds to someone who had other options. You won’t find one. The woman with the issue of blood, the lepers, the lame, the dead . . . they had no other options. Doctors had tried everything, the family had lost hope, and all possible solutions were spent. Likewise, search Scripture and find one example of Jesus turning a deaf ear or ignoring the cry of a desperate person. You can’t find one. Jesus always stopped in His tracks when He heard the cry of desperation! Could it be that the reason that we aren’t receiving help is because He hasn’t really heard a cry of desperation, but a cry that says, “If you can help me fine and if not fine, I will find another solution to this issue or problem?” I will come to you and hope for answer but make plans in case I don’t get one. Could it be that our lack of desperation results in a lack of deliverance? Maybe all of our contingency plans reveal a lack of genuine trust, faith and reliance. Jesus comes through when He is our only hope!
Maybe if we would get really desperate for financial health Jesus would show up and teach us how to find it. Maybe if some of us would get desperate for our marriage to be healthy we would get the assistance we need. Jesus never responds well to “Oh by the way . . .” Some of you need to recognize this morning that unless Jesus shows up, your situation is hopeless. There is no other option! Maybe if some of us were desperate enough we could stop Jesus in His tracks with our cry!
- Recognize and accept His help!
Maybe, just maybe our issue isn’t that God hasn’t helped. Perhaps our issue is that He has already done so and we have just failed to recognize or accept the method of His help! Maybe the reason you feel like He isn’t responding to your cry for help is because God hears your cry and shakes His head in frustration because He has already sent the answer and you have snubbed your nose at the answer He has given.
There is at least one illustration in the Bible when this happened. Naaman gets the remedy that he desperately needs for his leprosy and gets angry and left to his own hard headedness would have failed to get healed just because He disliked the means of the solution. Dirty river no way! That seems crazy. Would you take that trade any day? A little dip in dirty water for clean skin. A little dirty water to get rid of my day’s AIDS disease. The truth is we are a lot like Him.
We desperately cry out to God to help with our finances and yet we won’t sell the new car even though the monthly payments are absolutely killing us. All because we have wrapped our identity up in that vehicle. God says, “Here is your answer. I have provided a means for rescue.” And we turn down the dirty water.
We desperately cry out to God to help us in our dysfunctional marriage and then an opportunity comes for counseling or accountability and we snub our nose and treat the answers as dirty water. That’s too hard, takes too much effort and then we continue to cry out and for some weird reason God seems to be deaf.
We cry out for healing and God gives us the opportunity to change whatever it is in our lifestyle that is feeding the sickness and we keep puffing away, or eating away, or drinking away and wonder why the God of healing refuses to restore our health!
We cry out to get closer to God and our boyfriend/girlfriend or friend cut off relationship with us and we are so wrapped up in them that we miss the very answer to our prayer. They distracted us and God intervenes and we miss His intervention.
If you don’t think that happens, remember the instance in the New Testament where a group of desperate people gather to passionately cry out for God to help their highly esteemed brother in the faith, Peter. He has been wrongly incarcerated and they need God to intervene. God does. Peter miraculously walks out of jail free. Peter shows up at the house where they are desperately praying. He knocks on the door. Rhoda answers the door, sees the answer to their prayers literally standing there and then proceeds to slam the door in his face!
How many of us are at this very moment slamming the door in the face of God’s answer to our cry because we don’t like the form, fashion, shape, cost, flavor, taste, pain, or discipline it would take to access the answer? Some of you to quit praying, quit fasting, quit crying out and open your eyes, heart, and mind to the answer that God has already sent your way.
I will tell you that God is unlikely to send another answer until you accept the one He has already sent. He sent Jesus as the answer to man’s sin problem. Most men didn’t recognize or embrace Him as the Messiah. Their lack of acceptance didn’t cause God to come up with another plan or send another solution. God doesn’t have many back up plans. He hears our cry, sends a solution, and it is up to us to accept that solution!
Some of you are so busy praising and praying that you can’t even recognize the answer to your prayer. Get off the floor and open the door. Some of you have so boxed God into your idea of how the answer should come that you are missing the answer that has come! Some of you have so boxed God into an instantaneous miracle that you won’t even clue into the gradual process He is providing for your rescue. We want help, but too many of us dictate that help be given on our terms.
What if His help comes in an unexpected or unwanted form? What if you want help and He spits! What if you want sight and His solution is Spit Therapy? We have got to come to the place where if there is power in the spit then let it rain on me!
Recognize and embrace His answer!
- You may be someone’s help!
You may very well be God’s help wrapped up in flesh. We hear people cry for help and then sit back and wait for God to do His deal. His deal may already be done in you. Find a need and fill it. Become someone’s answered prayer today! I think too many of us underestimate our role in God’s ability to answer prayers. He sends us! He uses us! Someone’s help is contained in you. If you don’t respond they will blame God. They should blame you . . . God responded. Don’t let someone go without God’s help because you were unwilling to be God wrapped in flesh!
HELP!
Pt. 2 – The Help Place
by Steve Ely
- Introduction:
(Help by the Beatles)
Help, I need somebody,
Help, not just anybody,
Help, you know I need someone, help.
When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody’s help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I’m not so self-assured,
Now I find I’ve changed my mind and opened up the doors.
Help me if you can, I’m feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won’t you please, please help me?
And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,
My independence seems to vanish in the haze.
But every now and then I feel so insecure,
I know that I just need you like I’ve never done before.
It seems the older we get the more we realize that we all need assistance. So, we talked about the Help prayer. It is perfect for any situation, any person, and is the most answered prayer. Jesus was constantly giving assistance to those who requested it. He turned water into wine due to request from His mother. He healed the blind as a direct result of request. He healed the lepers due to a petition to help. He calmed a storm because disciples cried out for help. He fed the 5,000 because they let it be known that they were hungry. He heals Jairus’ daughter because he asked Him to do so. We need to request that assistance.
There were instances where no one asked for assistance and Jesus showed up and helped.
- Text
Mark 16:9
Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven devils.
Luke 8:26-31
They sailed on to the country of the Gerasenes, directly opposite Galilee. As he stepped out onto land, a madman from town met him; he was a victim of demons. He hadn’t worn clothes for a long time, nor lived at home; he lived in the cemetery. When he saw Jesus he screamed, fell before him, and bellowed, “What business do you have messing with me? You’re Jesus, Son of the High God, but don’t give me a hard time!” (The man said this because Jesus had started to order the unclean spirit out of him.) Time after time the demon threw the man into convulsions. He had been placed under constant guard and tied with chains and shackles, but crazed and driven wild by the demon, he would shatter the bonds. Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “Mob. My name is Mob,” he said, because many demons afflicted him. And they begged Jesus desperately not to order them to the bottomless pit.
Luke 22:47-51
While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.
III. The Help Place
- Help came to the unlikely/unexpected place.
Her name was Mary and she came from the town of Magdala, hence the term Magdalene. This Mary was the victim of a terrible, terrible evil. Possession by one devil would be bad enough, but her body had become the home of seven. We are not told what happened in her past that caused her to open herself up to demon possession. All we know is that her life had been arrested by evil. Mary Magdalene was living a helpless life, a hopeless life; she was a woman in terrible shape, a horrible case. Obviously, she was bound with something stronger than chains, for the iron that bound her was the powerful arms of hellish demon spirits that wrapped Mary of Magdala in their invisible grip. Mary could not help herself; she could not defend herself. She was enslaved.
Mary’s condition is an important element of the story and certainly the most prominent feature of this account. However, there is a secondary feature of this story that is also worthy of our focus. Although Mary’s situation was terrible, we must look past her condition to see her location. The Great Physician, wearing a peasant’s robe, at some point visited Magdala incognito. The little village was positioned on the northern edge of the Sea of Galilee. It was a totally inconspicuous place. It commanded no strategic importance to Rome or to Jerusalem. It was a forgotten town. It was a proverbial little, one traffic light, blip on the map. It certainly wasn’t a destination for sight seers and most definitely not for a Savior. Jesus came to Magdala. It was an unlikely place to find the King of Glory! He went to an out of the way place. It was an unexpected place to find the Light of the world. He arrived there unsought. It is probably true that no one in Magdala was looking for Him. I’m convinced Jesus went to Magdala for one purpose and one purpose only, to look up a woman named Mary – and He found her. Please note that He found her; she did not find Him.
This should encourage you. You find yourself in an out of the way place. You are in a condition spiritually that you don’t expect to find God. You are so far from Him that you feel like it would be unlikely for Him to show up. You find yourself isolated and don’t think He can find you. You may not even be looking for Him, and you probably haven’t asked Him to show up, but guess who is coming to dinner? Jesus will travel to out of the way and unlikely places. He will walk in unexpected and unrequested to help you! Right when you least expect Him . . . expect Him to show up.
He will go out of His way! I want that to sink into your spirit. He will change His travel plans. He will detour from His normal travel patterns to come to your rescue!
Some of you feel forgotten, overlooked, unnoticed, unwanted, your chains grow tighter, your sickness grows stronger, your condition deteriorates daily and Jesus will pack a sack lunch and reroute to get to you! If you are in an unlikely or unexpected place keep an eye pealed for an uninvited, unsought, unexpected visitor who will bring freedom and healing! Help is in your village. Help has come looking for you! He can and will find you! And not only will He find you He will change you! The Lord had visited her little town uninvited, looked her up, freed her from Satan’s grip, and 18 months later gave her the high honor of being the first witness of His resurrection. Unexpected grace came to an unexpected place!
- Help came to the impossible place.
Luke paints the portrait of an impossible place. Darkness so black that a cemetery is the canvas of choice. Bondage so severe that it can’t be bound. If there was ever an impossible situation it was this one. Can you fathom the depth of the evil that must have invaded this man’s soul? In Mary’s case, we know the number of demons that lived in her . . . 7. In this man’s case, the number is so high that when asked his name he responds, “Mob” or “Legion”. If you take the typical meaning of the word “Legion” it would indicate that there were anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 demons residing in this man. This may be the worst case of bondage and torment recorded in Scripture.
This man had been offered assistance. Others had tried to control him. They had tried to watch over him. However, on every occasion guards had been lost or perhaps driven off as they ran for their lives. Chains had been shattered and clothes had been abandoned. This was an impossible situation.
Some of you are facing mountains of financial challenges. You have tried everything the experts have said. You have utilized every Dave Ramsey trick in the book. Some of you are facing physical issues that have the doctors scratching their heads and you ducking yours. No remedy seems to be available. No solution seems to be the final prognosis. Some of you are in a relationship that seems damned. No amount of counseling seems to help. Adjustments have been made and nothing has changed. Hearts are hard. Hope is gone. Hands have been thrown up and vows thrown out. It may seem like it is over.
How impossible is your place? Has all assistance been given that man can give? Has every stone been overturned? Has every logical effort been made? Good news! You are in the perfect place to meet the God who not only can but loves to walk into and overturn the impossible! This account is the worst-case scenario. It was a bad environment. The surroundings weren’t ripe for redemption. There was no chance! And that is the powerful news . . . Jesus’ help isn’t limited by or weakened by the environment you live in or work in or by the impossibility of your situation. The impossible bowed its knee instantly to the presence of Jesus on that day and can do so again on this day! And once again He didn’t seek help . . . help sought him!
- Help came to the touchy or tense place!
If there was ever a scene that was fraught with tension this, is it. The disciples are on edge and ready to fight. The soldiers are armed to the teeth and ready to exert force if necessary. It was dark, hard to see, adrenaline was flowing, fists were clenched, and weapons were grasped. One wrong move and a full-on street fight would erupt. And the wrong move was made. Peter snaps and snips. You could tell he was a fisherman and not a solider because if he had been trained in the art of hand to hand combat the blow would have been better placed and he would have killed the servant rather than just slicing off his ear. Do you really think he was just trying to wound him? It was a touchy place. It was a tense place. Blood had been spilled. Pain had been caused.
Ever been in this place? Some of you are there now. Every word must be measured. Eggshells have become your carpet of choice. Tension in every look. One wrong word could end it all. Job could be lost. Love may be abandoned. One wrong glance could cause everything to spiral out of control. One wrong decision and everything could come crashing down. Maybe you didn’t cause the tension or the touchiness, but now its web engulfs your thoughts and your life.
Uninvited and perhaps even unwanted Jesus walks into the touchy and tense place with tenderness and healing and disarms the situation. He helps and heals what was severed or cut off. Some of you are tense because of what has been cut off from your life and Jesus is about to walk into that situation and restore what was severed. Was peace cut off? Was hope snipped away? Was your heart spliced in two? Was your joy surgically removed by a misplaced blow? Jesus is about to walk in and with one touch restore what was lost! He will walk in and remove the tension!
What place are you in? You may feel like you are living in an unlikely place. You may feel forgotten and overlooked. You may feel isolated or ostracized. Perhaps you are in an impossible place. Maybe every solution has been sought and failed miserably. It may appear that your lot in life is bondage, life spinning out of control, totally unreachable! You are so beyond help that you would even welcome chains because that would at least give some boundary to your misery and pain. Perhaps you find yourself living in a tense or touchy place? Every nerve on edge. Every word scrutinized. Blows have been struck. Wounds have been inflicted. Regardless of where you find yourself Jesus has walked into your place today. You may not even be able to ask for help anymore. You may have asked and been disappointed so many times that you have given up hope. But hope is here because He is here. He is in this place. His presence can change hell to heaven. His presence can put your place on the map. He can make a cemetery a dressing room. You are in the Help Place!
David, who knew how to pray the “Help Prayer”, would shout to us about the “Help Place” in Psalms 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” He is ever-present right in the middle of your trouble! There isn’t a day that goes by that His presence isn’t on sight and on the scene to bring help!
Pray
Pray
Pt. 1 – Intimate
by Steve Ely
- Introduction
Prayer is one of the foundational elements of Christianity. Folks that don’t consider themselves Christian and have no intention of ever embracing Christ know that prayer is a basic tenant of Christianity. And yet, as one man said, “Of all the duties enjoined by Christianity none is more essential and yet more neglected than prayer.”
A relationship with Christ minus prayer is like trying to grow wheat without planting seed or construct a house without a foundation. You can’t separate the two. However, as foundational, essential, and basic as prayer is to our walk with Christ most of the people I talk to fall into one of two categories when it comes to developing a prayer life: a. confused or b. frustrated.
They are confused on how to pray. The mechanics of prayer baffles them. They find themselves stumbling around with seemingly no ability to communicate or to listen. Frustration results from silence, failed attempts at carving out substantial time for dialogue with God, or they have mastered the mechanics of prayer but feel no real connection or communion with God.
Over the course of the next few weeks, I want to talk about prayer and let’s see if we can’t move past confusion and frustration with peeks into Scripture that may assist. I want us to start with one of the most revealing prayer meetings ever recorded in Scripture. In fact, it is the last protracted, pull away prayer sessions that Jesus will have while on earth. It is also a time of prayer that reveals some important things regarding the intimacy of prayer!
- Text
Mark 14:32-39
They came to an area called Gethsemane. Jesus told his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James, and John with him. He plunged into a sinkhole of dreadful agony. He told them, “I feel bad enough right now to die. Stay here and keep vigil with me.” Going a little ahead, he fell to the ground and prayed for a way out: “Papa, Father, you can-can’t you?-get me out of this. Take this cup away from me. But please, not what I want-what do you want?” He came back and found them sound asleep. He said to Peter, “Simon, you went to sleep on me? Can’t you stick it out with me a single hour? Stay alert, be in prayer, so you don’t enter the danger zone without even knowing it. Don’t be naive. Part of you is eager, ready for anything in God; but another part is as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire.” He then went back and prayed the same prayer. Returning, he again found them sound asleep. They simply couldn’t keep their eyes open, and they didn’t have a plausible excuse.
III. Intimacy Revealed
Moments before the most painful and horrendous hours of His life Jesus takes time to pray. The famous and oft painted scene of Jesus kneeling next to a rock so burdened and overwhelmed by what is about to happen that sweat turns to blood teaches us three things about the intimacy of prayer that we must know.
- You are intimate with who you pray to.
Hear the intimacy of this phrase . . . papa! Jesus’ prayer reveals the relationship He had established with who He was praying to!
“Those who know God the best are the richest and most powerful in prayer. Little acquaintance with God, and strangeness and coldness to Him, make prayer a rare and feeble thing.”
This is why prayer is so important! You can’t become intimate with a God that you don’t pray to. In fact, you can worship and not be intimate. Go back to the story of Elijah at Mt. Carmel and you see fanatical worshippers who are willing to dance, shout, even cut themselves to show their devotion, but there was no intimacy. Elijah, with no elaborate or overt acts of worship, and a 66-word prayer presses into the heart and hands of God.
The time you spend in prayer dictates your intimacy level with God. Although I do believe in set aside moments of prayer, I also believe one of the most effective and missed types of prayer is the “without ceasing” prayer. Daily, moment by moment, minute by minute awareness and recognition of His presence that leads to constant conversation about the common things and complex things of life.
Jesus practiced specific times of prayer. However, you also see the conversational relationship He had with the Father when at the tomb of a friend He simply talks to God, as He hangs on the cross He talks to God, as He walks along a path He talks to God, daily moments of intimacy.
I think too many of us run from prayer, discount the importance of prayer, and separate prayer to a special class of people called prayer warriors because we are convinced that we can never become disciplined in long, secluded seasons of prayer. So since we miss the prayer meetings we assume that we aren’t prayer warriors. And in the frustration, we miss the daily talks with God! The truth is God just wants to talk frequently and commonly throughout the day!
In your life with whom do you feel the most intimate? Those with whom you are in constant contact. The person who calls and there is no need to ask, “Who is this?” because you are so familiar with their voice. The person with whom it is unnecessary to stop conversation and give background information because they have been so intimately involved in your life that they already know that information.
The conversation is just a continuation of what you have already talked about. Each time Jesus returned to prayer after confronting His disciples He simply hit the unpause button and picked up where He had left off. How often do we let what should be a pause button become a stop button because we aren’t intimate enough to pick up where we left off?
Are you in constant prayer to the point that you have a …. papa, first name basis, family level of intimacy with God or when you pray does it feel like you have to start all over from the beginning.
We should be so intimate with God that our prayers should simply be “to be continued” prayers. A never-ending conversation with Him.
Your intimacy level is not determined by prayer meetings, but rather by prayer lifestyle. Take God into your car, your job, and your hobbies. You will know if you are as intimate with God as you should be when someone asks you, “Who were you talking to? I saw you in the car next to me and you were talking to someone, but no one else was in the car!”
- You are intimate with who you pray for.
The truth is our prayer list reveals a good bit about us. It reveals who you are intimate with because if you are intimate with someone you will be compelled to pray for them. You will be so intimately acquainted with their needs, pain, concerns that you will pray for them. Your prayer list also reveals your heart and your compassion level. Do you only pray for you? I am convinced that most of us spend too much time in prayer for me and mine and never move to a deeper place of prayer which is you and yours.
If you want to develop a deeper relationship with others . . . if you want to be connected, then begin praying for them.
If you go back to Jesus’ extended prayer, which He prayed moments before He went into the garden, it reveals the intimacy He had with His disciples. It is found in John 17 and is 26 verses long. Out of the 26 verses Jesus spends 20 of them crying out to God for His disciples. He asks God to keep them, give them joy, unity, and that He will sanctify them. His intimacy with His disciples dominated His prayer. Whose needs dominate your prayers? Whose situation dominates your prayers?
I challenge you to open up your prayer list. Lengthen it. Broaden it. Get so intimately involved in folks lives that you can actually pray for what they need.
Too many of our prayers are too self-focused and therefore we have no intimacy with anyone else because we can’t get past us!
- You are intimate with who you pray with.
I want you to stop and think about Jesus a second. Son of God. Ability to raise the dead. He can discern hearts and even knows the thoughts of men. Divinity in the flesh. The Word that created all things from the beginning and the Word that will continue until the end. And yet, Jesus needed prayer partners! Jesus wasn’t content to pray in isolation! He gives us a glimpse of His heart because He involves others in His prayer life.
So here is the million-dollar question . . . if Jesus needed people to pray with what do you need? I am thankful that in your private prayer time God shows up and miracles take place. I am thankful you share those intimate moments with our maker and you are energized and discover intimacy with Him. However, Jesus shows us that we must also find intimacy by praying with others!
You may grow very close to those you vacation with. You will grow close to those you carpool with. You will grow intimate with those you eat with. However, there is a supernatural bond that can only take place as you pray with someone. It is the people that you share needs with and pray with that will be attached at a soul level. You need that type of intimacy with someone. This takes relationship to a depth that cannot be achieved any other way. When we learn to pray with someone else it forces us to become transparent and real with that person. It moves us beyond surface relationship! You can attend this church and never become intimate with anyone if all you do is talk to them. It is when you take time to look someone in the eyes and say, “What can I pray with you about?” that intimacy is gained. Entrance is granted into each other’s hearts.
Who do you pray with? Who prays with you!
Prayer is about intimacy! Prayer is the basement of our life. It is the ground floor. It is the foundation for intimacy with God and each other!
Do you have a strong and secure foundation?
Pray
Pt. 2 – Prayer Patterns
by Steve Ely
- Introduction
Last week we began to talk about prayer and how it is essential in our lives as Christians. It is the foundation of communication with God and with others. Your prayer life reveals your intimacy levels. Who you pray to, for and with reveals how “deep” you are in your walk with your Father and with His followers! In fact, when someone tells you they prayed for you they have just given you the greatest gift they could ever give you.
My prayer is that over the course of the week you spent some intimate time talking to God. I also trust you prayed for and with someone else.
Today I want to go into a different passage that I believe shows us some things about prayer that would really help change our prayer life from “Thank you for this day, bless mom, bless dad, talk to you later” type of prayers.
The passage I want us to examine is found in Luke and is a very abbreviated form of what we call the Lord’s prayer. Jesus gives us a pattern!
- Text
Luke 11:1-4
One day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, “Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” So he said, “When you pray, say, Father, Reveal who you are. Set the world right. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.”
III. Patterns
- Prayer is a learning process.
It is interesting to me that the disciples realized that they really didn’t know how to pray. They asked for training and instruction. They weren’t satisfied or content with their present level and ability to communicate with the Father. This inquiry reveals to us the need to learn to pray. You don’t get saved and suddenly have a master’s degree in prayer. We are all in the learning process of prayer. Each of us must learn to pray!
My concern is that many of us never try to learn or improve in prayer. We are still praying at the same level and depth that we did when we got saved 10 years ago. When your child is 2 you don’t mind him/her communicating simplistically (give me, hold me, change me), but when they are 23 you expect them to be able to carry on a mature and multi-faceted conversation. Why should our prayer life be any different? Some of us need to examine our prayer life closely this morning. Has your prayer life matured? Is it deeper? Are you learning to more effectively communicate with the Father?
Is anyone trying to learn to pray like you? Something about Jesus’ ability to pray intrigued the disciples to want to know what He knew. If you want to know if your prayer life has matured one way to know is if when others hear you pray, they want to be around you to learn. I am not talking about being able to impress them with fancy language or your eloquence (all you have to do is hang around preachers to pick up this skill). I am talking about when someone hears you pray, they recognize your connection to the Father and they want to learn that.
I can still remember as a boy going past my parent’s room late at night and seeing my dad kneeled at the side of the bed and hearing the depth of his prayer. I often reflect on hearing Dr. Beacham pray in the office. These men made me want to learn to pray!
So, Jesus honors their hunger (as He will yours) and gives them instructions on how to pray.
- Pray God be revealed.
Jesus could have started off by saying pray for world peace. Pray for economic stability. Pray for miracles. However, His first instruction was to pray that God would reveal Himself. Jesus knew that the many of the things that we spend significant time asking for and pleading for would be resolved if we would simply get a revelation of God!
Need provision – get a revelation of God as your provider.
Need healing – get a revelation of God as your healer.
Need peace – get a revelation of God as a peace speaker.
Need protection – get a revelation of God as the one who will never leave or forsake you.
I think our prayers often reveal a lack of revelation! Our lives, our outlook, our perspective, our priorities, our problems would dramatically change if we had revelation.
Lack of revelation leads to lack of preparation, separation, participation, and sanctification! Our narrow revelation of God leads to a shallow experience with God!
I challenge you during your next prayer time to ask God to reveal Himself in your life, in your kids, in your marriage, in your checkbook.
- Pray the World Right
Jesus instructs us to pray for our world to be set right! He doesn’t say sing, criticize, or rail the world right. We underestimate the ability of our prayers. Before we pray for our world . . . we are told to pray for our world! Our prayers must be “other” oriented. Our prayers are too confined to us. Our prayers must expand beyond us and ours to the world around us!
Our needs become smaller when we view them through the lens of world needs. Maybe that is why some of us never pray for others. Maybe we are so self-centered that we want to remain the focus of our attention!
Let’s determine in our prayer life to start with the needs of others! To put the pain of those around us before the needs of our own lives! Remember what you make happen for others God makes happen for you. As you pray for others it always seems that God then causes someone to pray for your need.
Prayer leads to action! When we begin to pray for the needs of others, we will be prompted to take action! We may very well be the answer to the prayer we are praying! Praying for someone’s need is one of the greatest gifts you can give someone.
- Pray for our needs.
Most of us have a handle on this. We know how to pray for our needs. What we fail to master is the placement of that prayer. It comes after we have praised. It comes after we have prayed that God would reveal Himself which reveals our deep-seated dependency on Him. It comes after we pray the broader prayer for others. For most of us our prayer over our needs dominates the time and scope of our prayers. We never get past our shopping list of requests. Jesus says simply state our basic needs (3 square meals) and then move on knowing that our Father will hear and respond.
Are your needs the prominent feature of your prayers?
- Pray for forgiveness and protection.
There are several important things I want to draw your attention to here: - There should be constant checks to make sure that we are living forgiven with the Father and with others.
Johnny had been misbehaving and was sent to his room. After a while he emerged and informed his mother that he had thought it over and then said a prayer. “Fine,” said the pleased mother. “If you ask God to help you not to misbehave, He will help you.” “Oh, I didn’t ask Him to help me not to misbehave,” said Johnny. “I asked Him to help you put up with me.”
Too many of us have been forgiven once but fail to continue to live forgiven. We just want God and others to learn to put up with us! We need to check to make sure we aren’t misbehaving in the eyes of God so that we won’t misbehave in the eyes of others!
- Living forgiven demands that we live forgiving!
It is absolutely essential that we pray our way into offering forgiveness at the level at which it has been offered to us!
I find way too many of us demand forgiveness, but never extend the same forgiveness to others. I am finding that forgiven people seem to be the most offendable, angry, revenge-oriented people on the planet! Jesus said forgiveness should be our calling card!
Some of you need to spend some time in this type of prayer! You desperately need the forgiveness quotient to go up in your life! Who do you need to forgive?
If we don’t forgive, then we feel exposed and vulnerable and wonder why, not realizing that our own spirit of unforgiveness exposes us to gaps in protection!
- Forgiveness positions us for protection by keeping us safe from us!
Forgiveness stands in the path of protection. Notice the order! Forgive and then comes protection. I think we underestimate the power that forgiveness and unforgiveness has in our lives.
Jesus followed up His instruction to pray that we will be forgivers with instruction to pray that we would be kept safe from ourselves!
Jesus acknowledges that there is an enemy out there and that we need to be protected from Him. However, He makes it clear that our #1 enemy is not out there, it is in here! What we tend to blame on the enemy should be blamed on us. Due to unforgiveness, silly choices, sin, and our own hard headedness we can derail our walk with Christ faster than the devil ever could!
The Bible teaches us to give credit where credit is due. Many of us are giving the devil way too much credit! He doesn’t do as much to us as we do to ourselves! Take the credit you deserve!
Some of you just need to ask God to protect you from you! You are self-destructing. You are repeating patterns. You are falling in the same places. God help me! God fix me! God change me!
Pray
Pt. 3 – Prayer Walls
by Steve Ely
- Introduction
We have talked about how prayer reveals our intimacy levels. We are intimate with who we pray to, for and with reveals how “deep” you are in your walk with your Father and with. Then last week we discussed pattern. How many of you have been consciously praying the pattern? God be revealed. God set our world right. God meet my basic needs. God help me to be forgiven and forgiving. God protect me from me and the enemy. This pattern pulls at the heart of God. If we are going to pray, then we might as well pray like God!
There is an obscure passage of Scripture found in a book in the Bible that most people don’t read very much because of its dark and dreary inclination. But hidden in it’s 3rd chapter is a statement that describes with supreme accuracy most of us and how we feel when it comes to prayer. The writer is discussing his relationship with God and his prayer life and he makes this statement:
- Text
Lamentations 3:8-9
And though I cry and shout, he has shut out my prayers. He has blocked my way with a high stone wall.
Or perhaps even more like us in the Message translation:
Even when I cry out and plead for help, he locks up my prayers and throws away the key. He sets up blockades with quarried limestone. He’s got me cornered.
III. Blocked and Stopped
Have you ever felt like this? Have you ever felt like God was not only not listening, but perhaps was shutting out or throwing out your prayers? Have you ever felt like shaking your fist at God and asking Him why He refused to listen and respond? Ever felt like your prayers were blocked and stopped? I know that is the case in my prayer life at times. What I have discovered is that according to Scripture there are at least 3 reasons why our prayers are locked up, shut out, and stopped. We have direct control over 2 of these blocking factors. The third is out of our hands but must still be recognized and factored into the equation of our prayer life!
- The Wall of Iniquity
The first wall that can block and stop our prayers is revealed clearly and multiple times in Scripture. Listen to:
Psalms 66:18 – If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: (If I had been cozy with evil, the Lord would never have listened.)
Proverbs 28:9 – He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. (God has no use for the prayers of the people who won’t listen to him.) – Can you blame Him? I don’t have a lot of patience when my kids won’t listen to me. When they ask my advise and then won’t do what I told them to do why bother listening or answering?
Isaiah 59:1-3 – Look! Listen! God’s arm is not amputated—he can still save. God’s ears are not stopped up—he can still hear. There’s nothing wrong with God; the wrong is in you. Your wrongheaded lives caused the split between you and God. Your sins got between you so that he doesn’t hear.
Your hands are drenched in blood, your fingers dripping with guilt, Your lips smeared with lies, your tongue swollen from muttering obscenities.
Did you see the wall? Our own regard for iniquity. Our own sin blocks our prayers. I hate these passages of Scripture! My sin keeps God from hearing me! The silence I endure is my fault.
This is why I am constantly challenging you to live pure. I know it is hard. It is a constant struggle to keep our mind stayed on the Lord, to capture the mind of Christ. However, your prayer life depends on it. I know God responds to the cry of a sinner because He responded to mine. However, if we believe the Word then it is those of us who are His children, the saved, that He doesn’t listen to if we have regard for iniquity. That is a higher standard. Didn’t say we had committed sin just regarded it. You can block your own prayers! We build walls that defeat and stop our own prayers!
I want to challenge you this morning . . . if you are faced with unanswered, blocked, stopped, prayers and if silence is like a canopy over your head you may need to examine whether or not Isaiah 59 (you ought to go back and read the first 15 verses) doesn’t describe you. Perhaps, if we would simply repent, get our mind right, drop iniquity like it was hot, then at the same time we would turn the key and release our prayers and find our answers, direction, and provision!
- The Wall of Injury
There is a second wall that can block our prayers. This is another wall that we hold the key to. It is the wall of injury. Jesus was clear. Jesus left us no room for negotiation. He set it as a law of the kingdom that when you approach the altar injury can keep you from being heard! Listen again to Matthew 5. Don’t give yourself permission to dismiss its instructions. Don’t justify injury and block your prayers! Listen. . .
Matthew 5:21-24
“You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill. “This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God.
When you come to the altar and remember. Isn’t it interesting that we typically remember at the moment we begin to approach God? Injury between you and someone else can stop your prayers! Injuries interrupt!
Some of us are suffering in silence because we refuse to do the hard and painful work of reconciliation. Earthly relationships can block your heavenly relationships! Our unity has more bearing on our ability to communicate with God than we realize. Jesus himself recognized the key ingredient of unity. He prayed that unity/love would invade our lives because He knew that without it we would come to the altar with no ability to hear or to be heard.
If we are not careful injury builds a wall around our prayer life and stops clear communion and communication. Who has you boxed in? You can’t work things out with God until you first work things out with them!
- The Wall of Silence
I think one of the biggest mistakes we make in our prayer life is that we mistake silence for lack of response. Silence is part of prayer! There are several reasons prayer is sometimes walled in silence. - God is silent at times because we pray contrary to His will.
He is silent because our prayer doesn’t demand a response because He has already responded in His Word and we have failed to read that Word or heed His Word. When your kids ask you a question that they already know the answer to do you feel compelled to respond? Sometimes silence is simply God shouting, “I have already spoken!” - However, there is another reason for silence and that is interference.
This is what Daniel experienced. In Daniel, 10 the Bible accounts for a prayer session in which Daniel prays and doesn’t receive any answer for 21 days. An angel appears to Daniel after the 3-week delay and informed him that he had been held up by enemy resistance.
The enemy can and will interfere with our prayers. However, the great truth in that account is found in Daniel 10:12. Daniel is informed that from the moment he humbled himself and began to pray his prayers were heard!
That should encourage you! There are some of your prayers that you have prayed months and perhaps years ago that are still alive and still in the process! Don’t give up. Don’t mistake silence for a lack of response! It may be that your answer is simply delayed or detoured, but the answer will come! Hold on. Believe. Trust. Walk in the assurance that interference doesn’t equate to interception. Interception is a turnover. Interception means going the other way and defeat. Interference only equals delay!
Silence requires more discernment. Is silence a response? Or is silence a result of interference. What it isn’t is lack of interest!
- Close
Pray is often walled in, stopped and blocked. What we must determine, if our prayers are going to be effective, is am I fighting my own prayers by regarding iniquity or injury or is my prayer blocked by interference?
Silence never gives us license to take matters into our own hands unless that silence is a result of iniquity or injury. Then we must step up and tear down those walls so that we can press through to the communication that we so desperately desire and need!
Quiet Games
Quiet Games
Pt. 1 – The Silent Treatment
by Steve Ely
- Introduction
It is a scam. A ploy. I am convinced it is nothing more than a well disguised trick to get a momentary respite and break from the barrage of sound that emanates from a classroom full of rowdy 2nd graders. I am talking about my least favorite kid’s game. It can’t hold a candle to the beauty and intricacies of games like freeze tag, duck duck goose, or Simon Says. It is empty of the adrenaline rush of red rover, red rover or dodge ball. It is the quiet game. A contest to see who can go the longest without saying a word or making a sound. No action. No movement. I didn’t like it then and lo and behold the disdain for the game has carried over into my adult life. My dislike of the silent treatment probably directly ties to my lack of appreciation for the quiet game.
Here is the problem . . . One of the facts of life as a believer is that there seem to be long seasons of silence when we deal with God. God seems to love the quiet game and seems to be the world’s most skilled player. I much prefer the moments when I hear God clearly. I much prefer the seasons when at every turn God’s voice is easily discernible and recognizable. The issue is that more times than not I find myself in Deuteronomy 5:22 – “He spoke in a tremendous voice from the fire and cloud and dark mist. And that was it. No more words.”
Times when you hear Him, every service, every sermon, every moment in the altar is anticipated and exciting because it like you have a direct hotline to heaven and then NOTHING! You make no changes. You listen just as intently and silence suffocates. A ceiling of brass. Unreachable. Untouchable. Seasons of prolonged silence. Whether it is a 400-year silence like the Israelites experienced or a 4 month silence the truth is I hate it when it seems like God is playing the quiet game!
Over the course of the next few weeks, I want to walk us through how to hear God! We know that hearing Him is essential for life because we have been told that we don’t live on bread but on the Word of God. If it is His Word that sustains us, then it absolutely imperative that we learn how to hear.
- Text
1 Samuel 3:1-10
The boy Samuel was serving God under Eli’s direction. This was at a time when the revelation of God was rarely heard or seen. (1 Samuel 3:1 – And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision.) One night Eli was sound asleep his eyesight was very bad—he could hardly see. It was well before dawn; the sanctuary lamp was still burning. Samuel was still in bed in the Temple of God, where the Chest of God rested. Then God called out, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel answered, “Yes? I’m here.” Then he ran to Eli saying, “I heard you call. Here I am.” Eli said, “I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.” And so he did. God called again, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, “I heard you call. Here I am.” Again Eli said, “Son, I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.” This all happened before Samuel knew God for himself. It was before the revelation of God had been given to him personally. God called again, “Samuel!”—the third time! Yet again Samuel got up and went to Eli, “Yes? I heard you call me. Here I am.” That’s when it dawned on Eli that God was calling the boy. So Eli directed Samuel, “Go back and lie down. If the voice calls again, say, ‘Speak, God. I’m your servant, ready to listen.’” Samuel returned to his bed. Then God came and stood before him exactly as before, calling out, “Samuel! Samuel!” Samuel answered, “Speak. I’m your servant, ready to listen.”
- His voice must become precious again.
We focus on God speaking to Samuel and miss the context that surrounds what we are reading. What we are reading when God calls Samuel’s name is the breaking of a long silence. Eli, the high priest, and his sinful sons had quieted God. This quiet game teaches us a powerful lesson . . . God grows quiet when we don’t obey obvious Word. God grows quiet when His Word becomes ordinary. When we hear God’s voice, we must obey so that the channels of communication remain open! However, whether you hear daily or are in a prolonged period of silence we must position ourselves in an attitude of honor and esteem towards His Word. Is His Word precious to you? Do you value His voice above other voices? I realize that in this passage the use of the word precious is another way to say scarce. However, if we would learn to treat His Word as if it is scarce, then we would learn to hear Him when He speaks softly. It is because we treat His Word as if it is common or normal that causes us to miss it. - We need sound advice.
For all of Eli’s flaws and shortcomings he does give Samuel sound advice. Somehow, despite his own spiritual blindness and inability to hear God himself, he realizes that the voice Samuel is hearing is God and so he instructs Samuel to posture himself to hear.
God is speaking. In fact, we are told that (Slide 22b) God is consistently speaking. In Matthew 4:4, Jesus tells us, “Man shall live not by bread alone, but by every word coming out of the mouth of God.” In the King James it says every word that proceedeth out. It carries the idea of a continued action. In other words, God has spoken, is speaking, and will continue to speak. So God is consistent in His speaking. Would to God that we were as consistent in our hearing.
He is also speaking persistently.
Whether it is the example of the prophets of old, the canopy of Scripture that we have at constant availability, or the deluge of preachers we have access to we can very easily conclude that God is persistent in speaking. Samuel experiences this. He misses God’s voice not once, not twice, but three different times. He has strike 3 he should be out, right? God can find someone else to talk to but once again, a fourth time, the persistent voice of God comes back and addresses Samuel again. How many times have you missed His voice? Your schedule, your pain, your distractedness, your hardheartedness, your stubbornness and opinions, the crescendo of other voices have caused you to miss His voice. The good news is that even though those things can cause us to experience a quiet season God will persistently speak.
So, silence is a result not of God not speaking but our refusal or failure to correctly position ourselves to hear. We can rest in His consistency and persistency and reposition ourselves correctly and hear.
Elijah learned this lesson in the cave in 1 Kings 19. A fire passes by but no voice of God. A whirlwind but no voice. He soon discovers that there are seasons in your life when you must slow down, lean in, focus, and you will hear the consistent and persistent still small voice of the Father. Let me give you some sound advice today. Listen again. Listen intently. Shut off all other noise. Don’t make the mistake of equating not hearing to not speaking. He speaks! We must learn to listen better!
- God throws His voice.
We often think we are experiencing the silent treatment when the truth is God is simply throwing His voice.
Three times God calls Samuel and he is absolutely convinced that it is Eli calling his name. So, he jumps up and interrupts Eli’s sleep to report for duty only to discover that it wasn’t Eli who called him. Samuel thought he heard Eli but was hearing God. My question is could that be because at times when he heard Eli he was in fact hearing God?
Samuel’s experience teaches us that God is the world’s most accomplished ventriloquist! He talks but His lips don’t move. He talks and other people’s lips are moving. Samuel shows us that God’s voice often sounds familiar so if we aren’t careful, we miss it.
Here is a truth we need to learn God actually speaks through people whose voice we do recognize.
Too many of us miss God’s voice because we refuse to hear it when it is disguised in someone else’s voice. That is especially true if the voice He uses isn’t one we prefer! That is especially true if the voice He uses isn’t one we esteem!
Think about the situation Samuel is in. Eli isn’t a righteous priest. He is a carnal, sinful, lazy, used up priest and yet Samuel mistakenly thinks God sounds a lot like Eli!
What does that mean? It means that when your wife is talking God may be throwing His voice and what you hear may sound like her but it is Him. That means when your parents . . . When your filthy mouthed, obnoxious boss, your annoying professor, your least favorite dorm mate or teammate, that preacher, that grandparent… God is speaking He just tends to throw His voice and we miss Him!
Whose voice is He using in your life? Some of us think we are ignoring mom and we are actually ignoring our Father. Some of us are turning a deaf ear to a recognizable voice and in the process, we are silencing God.
Listen carefully. Learn to respond like Samuel . . . “Speak, God. I’m your servant, ready to listen.” No qualifications like I will listen if you use my favorite preacher, my best friend, the one teacher I like. No simply speak and I am ready to listen. The tone of voice doesn’t matter as much as the source of the voice!
So today I want us to practice what we are learning. Let’s take some time and listen. Let’s quiet down and say “Speak, God. I’m your servant, ready to listen.” During this time, you may need to ask a recognizable voice for forgiveness because you took their God words for granted.
Quiet Games
Pt. 2 – Hearing Aids Pt. 1
by Steve Ely
- Introduction
Are you ready? OK, on the count of three. 1, 2, 3. Go! . . .
See it does my heart good to know that some of you aren’t any better at playing the quiet game than I am!
I love childhood games like Freeze Tag, smear the guy with the ball, Crack the Whip but my least favorite game was the Quiet Game. No sound. No action. No movement. I didn’t like it then and lo and behold the disdain for the game has carried over into my adult life.
But we have already learned that as a believer there seem to be long seasons of silence when we deal with God. If you haven’t experienced that, then just hold on that day will come. I much prefer the moments when I hear God clearly. I much prefer the seasons when at every turn God’s voice is easily discernible and recognizable. The issue is that more times than not I find myself in Deuteronomy 5:22 – “He spoke in a tremendous voice from the fire and cloud and dark mist. And that was it. No more words.”
So, what do you do when God is hard to hear? When your prayers bounce back? When silence isn’t golden but annoying? Having no ability to hear is terrible. The fact that as I age, I find myself saying “what” or “huh” more is bothersome. We know in the natural that when someone starts to lose their hearing there are two options one is we ask the people talking to shout louder or we invest in hearing aids. In dealing with God, we learned last week that He is consistently and persistently speaking. We also learned that He has a still small voice and He throws His voice so we may experience prolonged periods of silence if we wait for Him to raise His voice. So, I want to suggest to you that we must learn to embrace and employ hearing aids.
- Text
John 10:27
Jesus said this, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
Jesus says that those of us who are His sheep hear his voice. He doesn’t address quiet seasons so if He is expecting us to hear we should use every tool possible to better hear Him.
So what hearing aids are available to help me tune in to His voice so that I can follow?
The Bible gives us 7 hearing aids that are designed to help us filter or judge the leadings, promptings, counsel, and guidance of others. In the midst of a quiet season or stretch these hearing aids help us know how to proceed. I want to deal with 3 today.
- Scripture
This has been and will always be the foundation for hearing. All the other aids in hearing must be bounced off this because it is the standard against which all other voices are judged.
I am convinced too many of us discount God’s written Word because we have developed a preference for the convenience/easiness of His spoken Word. It is easier just to wait for it to be read to me on Sunday. However, we have forgotten that this Word was spoken and this Word overrules and is the foundation of all true spoken Word. In fact, some of us get in trouble because we don’t use the hearing aid of Scripture and since we are not versed in verses any voice that sounds like God can trick/mislead/misguide us. We must have an adequate scriptural underpinning to help us discern.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
We tend to not like this hearing aid because we have grown lazy. Not hearing His audible voice? Need direction? Need help? Need advice? Here it is in black and white, but you will have to dig. Quit chasing prophets and prophecies, especially if you haven’t spent any time listening to this! I submit to you that often times our seasons of silence are self-inflicted simply because we won’t open His written Word. If God never spoke again, then He has already spoken enough. Volumes of direction, guidance and principles that apply to every step of our life. How to live, who to marry, how to work, how to navigate relationships, how to mourn, how to rejoice, how to give, how to parent. It is all here. A wordless believer is a hearing-impaired believer. Consistent hearing requires consistent reading.
2 Peter 1:3 – For His divine power has bestowed on us absolutely everything necessary for a dynamic spiritual life and godliness through true and personal knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence! This Word contains everything you need for life and godliness.
So, you will struggle to hear God’s voice if you don’t know God’s Word! Know His Word and hear His voice. If you are in a season of silence, turn to His Word first! Not after you have tried every other voice.
- The Holy Spirit
John 14:26 – But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my Name, will teach you all things and will remind you everything I have said to you.
He brings everything Jesus said to our remembrance. Think about that statement. The Holy Spirit helps us recognize and remember the sound of Jesus’ voice!
The Holy Spirit is an essential aid in hearing the voice of God. That is why it is so essential for you to be filled with the Holy Spirit. As Pentecostals we have so often sold the Holy Spirit short as something that is just for good services or public gift displays. However, one of His key and forgotten roles is to help us hear more clearly. We focus on the speaking that the Holy Spirit does and fail to rely on the hearing that the Holy Spirit does.
Hebrews 10:15-16 – “But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us for after He had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds I will write them.”
I Corinthians 2:12 – Now we have received the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”
The Holy Spirit is a major hearing aid that we have turned into a major side show. We need to recalibrate and rely on the Holy Spirit to help us hear! I want you to experience the Holy Spirit not just so that you speak (in tongues) but so that you can also listen more efficiently.
- The Prophetic
I want you to esteem and understand that we wholeheartedly believe in words of knowledge, words of wisdom, and personal prophecies. We know these are gifts of the Spirit. So, we can’t dismiss or discount God’s ability to speak to us through someone else. We have been told, “Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good” (I Thessalonians 5:19-21).
There is nothing to fear. We simply know that the One who knows everything about us can use anyone He chooses to use to speak to us! Have these gifts been misused and abused? Yes! Have these same gifts been underused and as a result silent seasons drag out that should have been short lived? Yes! Does the prophetic take the place of Scripture? No! Does it supplement and assert the Word? Yes!
My question is who is suffering in silence simply because you won’t prophetically speak? What prompting, what leading, what simple truth are you being directed to give? As small or insignificant as it may seem that word may crash through the silence in someone’s life. Remember last week I told you God throws His voice. I think one of the most difficult truths to learn is that God’s voice can sound like me!
I think because of how the gift has been used it has scared us into silence. We must learn to allow the Holy Spirit to prompt and interrupt our daily conversations. You don’t have to stand up on your desk and declare thus sayeth the Lord! You can interact with people in a normal fashion and at the same time listen to the Holy Spirit and by saying what you hear Him say you can be used by God to end silent seasons in people’s lives. Again, it is absolutely necessary to have a foundation of Word before we try to speak for the Word.
So, do we chase prophetic words? No, but we don’t run away from it either. We embrace that God does use people including us to speak! The prophetic word can direct and correct! The prophetic word can confirm and affirm. We hear the voice of God through the prophetic when we balance it against the written Word and according to 1 Thessalonians 5:21, we sift through and cast aside weakness, wackiness, and what doesn’t matter without throwing out The Voice behind the voice. We cannot afford to be a non-prophet organization! May God begin to use each of us to speak accurately, correctly and regularly!
Speak Lord I am listening. I renew my commitment to hear you through the aid of your written Word, with assistance of the Holy Spirit and I will speak when you say speak and I will be careful to listen when I am spoken to.
Quiet Games
Pt. 3 – Hearing Aids Pt. 2
by Steve Ely
- Introduction
They would be enshrined in the childhood games hall of fame . . . 7-Up, Kick the Can, Musical Chairs but then there is the Quiet Game a perineal nominee for induction that would never get my vote. I hate the Quiet Game. No sound. No action. No movement. I didn’t like it then and lo and behold the disdain for the game has carried over into my adult life.
We are following the world’s most accomplished Quiet Game player. Ironically as big, loud, and overwhelming as God is it seems that He has an extreme affinity for the Quiet Game. So, once again my life seems to be captured in Deuteronomy 5:22 – “He spoke in a tremendous voice from the fire and cloud and dark mist. And that was it. No more words.”
A desire to hear Him clearly but it is a struggle at times.
We said in the natural when we struggle to hear there are only 2 options, we ask the people talking to shout louder or we invest in hearing aids. I told you that since God most likely won’t raise His voice that we should employ the use of hearing aids. Last week I read this statement to you that Jesus made . . .
- Text
John 10:27
Jesus said this, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
So, Jesus tells us that our ability to follow is directly connect to and controlled by our ability to hear. If we can’t hear then we will struggle to follow and it is also logical to realize that if we aren’t hearing we may think we are following but discover that we have gone astray. Therefore, we should employ hearing aids to help us hear clearly.
The Bible gives us 7 hearing aids that are designed to help us filter or judge the leadings, promptings, counsel, and guidance of others. In the midst of a quiet season or stretch these hearing aids help us know how to proceed. We have looked at Scripture as the foundation and standard for all other aids in hearing. The Holy Spirit helps us remember or recall what Jesus’ voice sounds like. The prophetic used in natural, normal conversation helps us help others and receive help in hearing God clearly. So, let’s continue.
- Godly Counsel
Two things to notice here. First, notice the order. We tend to try to run to people counsel prior to running to the counsel of God’s Word. We are opinion hungry and opinion controlled. We must get the order right because if God’s Word says something then all the opposing opinions are null and void. Second, notice I said Godly counsel! Some of us have counsel but it isn’t Godly it is confusing and, in some cases, carnal. Some of the counsel we get, and follow is nothing more than miserable people seeking company in their misery. Listen you can’t seek counsel about money from someone who is bankrupt. Relationship counsel from someone who has a proven track record of failure in that area. Life coaching from someone who has no life. We must seek the people that God positions in our life to bring Godly counsel. You should have counsel in your life. Go to folks who you can get biblically sound advice. If you only trust your own thoughts, choices, decision making ability, then you have a pride issue. If your voice is the only voice that matters in every discussion, then you are headed for seasons of silence and pain. How many of you know that stupidity can lead to silence too?
The wisest man who has ever walked the planet knew that being a one-man show was a recipe for failure. Listen to what he says in Proverbs 11:14 . . . “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.”
- Confirmation
The idea of Godly counsel and the 5th hearing aid which is confirmation drive home the absolute importance of being in relationship in the body of Christ. This reminds us that we will struggle to hear God clearly in isolation.
Remember we are told in Matthew 18 that there is power in agreement. If every solid, Bible centered person you consult is against what you are talking about it should cause you to pause and go back and reconsider Hearing Aids 1-4. When you are struggling to hear God you should seek confirmation before making any major decisions. This hearing aid is a safety net for you. Is there any pause from those you submit to? Is there any concern? This hearing aid has been abused too in an attempt to control. I am not talking about that . . . Again, the order is essential. But like the prophetic just because it has been misused doesn’t give us permission to dismiss the value of this hearing aid. Who do you have in your life that their “no” overrules every yes except Scripture’s or the Holy Spirit? Who do you have in your life whose “yes” overthrows every no except Scripture or the Holy Spirit? You need those type of folks!
- The peace of God
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful” (Colossians 3:15).
There is a key phrase here . . . The peace of Christ. Many of us have become experts at making our own decisions and then claiming the peace of Christ. We are comfortable with the choice and then we want to claim Christ’s approval simply because we have made up our mind. Too many of us are peaceful in choices that should be causing us to panic.
The peace of Christ cannot be found in choices that stand in stark contradiction to the Word. The peace of Christ cannot be found in choices that lower our standards of righteousness. The peace of Christ cannot be found in choices made from selfish motives.
The peace of Christ also addresses feelings. We know we can’t trust our feelings. Our feelings change/fluctuate/vacillate and are fickle. We feel like being married today but tomorrow when they forget to raise/lower the seat we don’t feel like being married anymore. The peace of Christ is a feeling, but it isn’t dictated or determined by our feelings. In fact, the power of the peace of Christ is that it will remain even when everything about a situation should make us feel like quitting, running, or bailing. Philippians 4:6-9 – “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” So peace is there when we guard our hearts but is also present based on what we are thinking on, what we have learned, and what we have been taught.
- Circumstances/Timing
This one is last but if we are not careful, we tend to push this aid to the front and center and in fact elevate it over the Word and the Holy Spirit. We cannot nor should we deny that God does in fact work behind the scene on our behalf. He is pulling strings and making arrangements for us. Paul says God is actively working things together for our good. We see this in action in Paul’s life in Acts.
“After these things he (Paul) left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and they were working; for by trade they were tent-makers” Acts 18:1-3
This relationship between Paul, Aquila and Priscilla — which happened as a result of circumstances — became one of the most important strategic partnerships in the book of Acts.
I believe strongly in the ordering of our steps. The One who knows us directs our steps! When we hide His Word in our heart it becomes a light for our path. We know and embrace the hearing aid of opened and closed doors. Our challenge is we can’t try to close or refuse to walk through doors He has opened. Likewise, we can’t force our way into doors He has closed! This one really needs to be used in conjunctions with the others and never as a standalone determination. Alone it isn’t fail proof, but in conjunction with the others as supplements you can walk into great opportunities and avoid serious pitfalls by hearing God through circumstances and timing.