"With All of My Heart"
(Part 1 of 4)
Sunday, November 1, 2009

Introduction:
1001 Humorous Illustrations- p.214, #552- There is a story of a married couple named Ole and Olga who lived on a farm in Iowa. Olga felt that her husband didn’t show her enough affection, and at times doubted his love for her. One day when she was feeling increasingly concerned, she blurted out: “Ole, why don’t you ever tell me that you love me?” Without batting an eye, Ole simply responded: “Olga, on our wedding day I told you that I loved you, and if I ever change my mind, I’ll let you know.”
Sometimes our relationship with God is this way: “God, I know you can’t always see my love, and I don’t tell you too often, but if I ever change my mind I’ll let you know.” This morning we are starting a 4-week series on: loving God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. As Mark 12:30 tells us,
".....you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' "
Hopefully, this series will help us to see how we can give our all to God.

I. Three truths about the heart: (Leviticus 17:11; Matt. 15:19-20; Romans 10:9-10)
Let’s first look at 3 truths about the heart… Truth #1..
1. God created our hearts as the chief organ of physical life- The heart is
what pumps the blood and keeps us alive. As we are told in Leviticus 17:11,
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood...." The heart occupies the most important place in the human system. Truth #2…
2. God knows that our hearts are defiled- Matthew 15:19-20, "For out of
the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person....." The Bible talks about the heart as a place, as the seat of our thoughts, will, and emotions. From our heart is where all the deep feelings exist. If our heart becomes bad, this is what will lead us to sin. Truth #3..
3. God can change the heart- Romans 10:9-10, "Because if you....believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified....” When we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior, our heart is changed, and we give ourselves over to the truth of who Jesus is, and to the truth of what salvation brings. We go from being a sinful, selfish person, to being a person who seeks to live as justified in Christ. We cannot fully love God until our heart is changed. Once our heart is changed, we can then move to a place where we begin to understand what it means to love God.

II. Four ways to Love the Lord with all your heart- (Matthew 6:19-21, 25:21; Luke 14:26; Romans 2:15; Psalm 37:4)
Next, let’s look at 4 ways to love the Lord “with all your heart.”
1. What we treasure shows where our love is- We are told in
Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
If we want to show God that our heart has been fully given to Him, then we need to treasure God and the things of God. We do this by not holding onto things too tightly. We do this by not being selfish in our nature. We understand that we have been given gifts (our money, our time, our talents, our possessions) by God, and that God desires for us to use these gifts in ways that not only benefit ourselves, but that benefit others.
As parents, we try and teach our children how to share. We ourselves need to not forget this lesson. It is important to share all of the gifts God has passed on to us for the glory of God! Now this is much easier to say than it is to live out. Here are a some important questions in regards to this: Question 1- Do we loan things to others, or are we afraid to do so because we fear something might happen to it? This happened to me just a couple of weeks ago. Someone needed to borrow my alto saxophone for their child, because he needed it the next day for school, and they didn’t have enough time to get one for the next day. In the end I let them borrow it, but I felt the tug of my selfishness causing me to initially wantto say “no.”
Question 2- Do we follow God’s command and give 10% of our money to God’s work? I can honestly say that Tami and I do. It is in our budget, and therefore we don’t need to worry about it. Question 3- Do we use our possessions to help others? For example, you have a car, do you use it to help others when they need your help?
These question help to get us thinking about how we are selfish in our behavior, or not.
How does being unselfish show that we love God with all of our hearts? Because in truth, what matters most is not our possessions, but those things that are eternal. You may have heard the saying: “He who has the most toys when he dies, wins.” But a better saying goes like this: “He who has the most toys when he dies, still dies.”
EXAMPLE: 1001 Humorous Illustrations- p. 215, #554. There is a story of a wealthy oil man who was very enthusiastic about his new bride, but sometimes he wondered whether she might have married him just for his money. So one day he asked: “If I lost all my money, would you still love me?” To which she answered: “Of course I would still love you. Don’t be silly. But I would miss you.”
We have to be careful not to love God just because we believe God will bless us, or believe God will give us things. What should be important is the relationship itself, and by showing our love for God by the way we love others. By giving back in this way, we show our commitment, our loyalty, and our love to God. Our material possessions can get broken, they can wear out, or they can even be stolen. But the works we do for God will be with us eternally; they will make an eternal difference!
2. Our relationship with God is our most important relationship- Luke
14:26, "Jesus said to them, `Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.' " This verse in Luke can sound pretty harsh. The Greek word used here for “hate” is the word “miseo.” It is used to show a relative preference of one thing over another. By using this word, what Jesus is saying is that the love we have for God, the commitment of our hearts to God, should so overwhelm the love we have for anyone or anything else, that it would be like the difference between love & hate.
Now, obviously God gave us our family, our friends, and our life itself, and said that it was all good. To love God with all of our heart, means that we must be a disciple, and to be a disciple means to commit ourselves first and foremost to God and to God’s work. We cannot let our love for others deter us from doing the work God wants done; the work God calls each of us to do. We see this happen all the time; people get excited about their faith, and they want to serve God. In time, however, they feel a pull away from this excitement by their family or friends, and they start getting less and less involved in church and in doing God’s work! THIS MUST NOT BE. God wants our best effort; our total effort to His work.
3. Our faithfulness to God: using talents, gifts, abilities- In Matthew 25:21
we read these words from Jesus: “Then the master will say, ‘Well done good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’”
As a fruit tree does not produce fruit for its own consumption, but for the consumption of others, so our gifts and talents are given to us for the benefit of others. As the eye, mouth, and ear are placed on the body to work together and complement each other, so each of our gifts are meant to work together to complement each other. And I believe that as we serve God faithfully, God will give us more gifts to be used for His glory.
What was the result of the servant using his talent? He doubled his stock. By putting his talents to use, he gained more talents. This is true for us, that as we use our talents, we will understand more and more how to use our talents, and thus bless others, but we will also be exceedingly blessed by God through feeling good about our lives, and by God giving us other blessings as well.
Let me give you an example- Every so often Tiffany will want to help Tami out when she cooks. Now this isn’t necessarily a help to Tami, because she has to slow down and show Tiffany how to do things. But as Tami nurtures this desire of Tiffany’s, in time it will become a true gift, where her desire to help will actually benefit those whom she is helping. In fact, there may come a time when Tami can take a night off and Tiffany can cook the dinner!
Going back to Matthew 25:21, what is the master’s response? The master said these words: “Well done good and faithful servant.” The servant was showing faithfulness to the call of using the talents, and was given words of encouragement and acceptance. The words of encouragement and acceptance were not just for the fact that he doubled his stock, but I think even more because of the faithful effort given. And yet, there was a reward given as well: the servant was given a place of honor in sharing the goodness and happiness of his master.
How does this show love of the heart? Because when we live this way, we are living as God created us to live. Our life-blood is flowing through the body so that our bodies, our lives, can be fruitful. In our faithfulness, we show our commitment to God, we show our thanks to God, and we bring glory to God.
4. Deeds done willingly- The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 2:15, "Since
they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts...." There is a big difference between doing something because you have been told to do it, and doing something on your own because you want to do it. Any parent who has heard the words “I love you” from their child, not as a response to you saying it, but spoken out of the blue from the heart, because they feel it at that moment, will tell you the joy that is felt from this experience.
In Romans 2:15 Paul is saying that we will be judged by the law because of our sin. And so to try and avoid judgment or punishment, we seek to do what is right. But inevitably we will fail, we will sin, and judgment will come. But in Christ, we have been saved from this judgment through our faith.
Our love is shown to God, in that, as a response to the love that God has shown to us, we begin to want to do what is right; we begin to want to love as God loves; we begin to want to do good deeds, not because we will be rewarded or acknowledged for our efforts, but because that is what our heart desires. Our heart has been changed to be like the heart of God. As Psalm 37:4 tells us, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
We seek to follow the laws of God, not because of fear of being punished if we fail to live up to the law, but because the law of God has been written on our hearts. We seek to follow the law of God because we have come to love the law of God and how it keeps us on the right track. We understand that God’s law is given to us for our benefit, and for the benefit of others.

Conclusion:
SO WHAT WILL BE THE RESULT IF WE LOVE GOD TOTALLY WITH OUR HEART IN THIS WAY? The result will be that we will have a heart that is in communion with God. As the psalmist says in Psalm 9:1-2, "I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart. I will tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High."
Gladness, rejoicing, and singing will happen in our lives when our hearts are in tune with God; when we love God “will all of our heart”. And even more, our lives will be pleasing to God and to all who encounter us, because our love for God is transferred through our thoughts, words and actions.
As Psalm 19:14 says- "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my
heart be pleasing in your sight. O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer."
Come, let us love the Lord our God with all of our hearts! Amen.

“The Secret Ingredient of Success”
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Gospel of Luke, 13:1-9

Introduction: Let’s say you need to get a job. You put your resume together to show all the experience and talent you possess. You make sure it looks great and says what you want it to say. You don’t want any embarrassing mistakes; Right? Well, here are a few real-life excerpts of mistakes that made it into people’s resumes:
1. Dear sir. I am a rabid typist. (Stay away from her)
2. I’m a quick leaner. (I’m not sure how this benefits her in the job, but OK)
3. I seek challenges that test my mind and body, because the two are usually inseparable.
4. Here are my qualifications for you to overlook.
5. Hope to hear from you shorty.
Q. Do you know what it takes to make it in life? To be a success?
This morning we are going to look at three qualities that will help us to be a success: the right attitude; hard work; and the right power behind us.
In Luke chapter 13, Jesus told a parable about a man who owned a vineyard. In that vineyard was a fig tree; a fig tree with no fruit on it. In Luke 13:7 the man was told- “Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?”
Time and time again Jesus showed His impatience with those who do not take advantage of the opportunities that God has given them. God desires for us to produce fruit with the life we have been given. While for each of us that fruit will be different, there still is the expectation that fruit will be born. The questions each of us should ask is: What in life do I need to accomplish? Where is God leading me to make a difference? Where is my passion?

I. The Right Attitude- (Luke 13:6-7; Colossians 1:3-10)
a. Faith- As we think about the first ingredient for success, “the right
attitude,” we need to talk about faith. Faith is important, but why is it important?
The apostle Paul knew that faith in Jesus Christ was the most important thing, because when we have faith in Christ, we are led to seek out the will of God for our lives. As we are told in Colossians 1:9-10, “9For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.” Paul uses phrases like: “KNOWLEDGE OF HIS WILL.” “LIFE WORTHY OF THE LORD.” “BEARING FRUIT IN EVERY GOOD WORK.”
These things can only happen when we have faith in the Lord, because when we have faith in the Lord we have the right attitude to seek to live as God has created us to live. And when we live the way God has designed for us to live, we will have success because we will be confident that Jesus Christ is who He says He is and can do what He tells us He will do.
Colossians 1:4-5- “4because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— 5the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel.”
Here are some wonderful words of faith from children: (Children’s Letters to God, compiles by Stuart Hample and Eric Marshall)
1. Donna says: “We read that Thomas Edison made light, but in Sunday School they said you did it, God. So I bet he stoled your idea.”
2. Jeff writes: “Dear God, it is great the way you always get the stars in the right places.”
3. And Eugene says: “Dear God, I didn’t think orange went with purple until I saw the sunset you made on Tuesday. That was cool.”
b. Fruit- Having the right attitude also means for us to make “bearing
fruit” a priority in our lives. The idea of our lives needing to be fruitful is mentioned often in the Scriptures. We have not been put on this earth to be lazy and negligent, but rather to make a difference; to bear fruit. This is why the owner of the parable (who represents God) was upset over the tree not bearing fruit. The tree’s purpose was to bear fruit, and it wasn’t fulfilling its purpose. For us to be successful in our lives, means that we need to bear fruit. We don’t have to have extraordinary talent to bear fruit, we just have to believe and seek out the talent we do have, not letting others discourage us.
The well known tenor opera singer ENRICO CARUSO was once told by one of his music teachers: “You can’t sing. You have no voice at all.”
Beethoven’s music teacher said about him: “As a composer he is hopeless.”
The author of the book “Little Women,” Louisa May Alcott, was told by an editor: “You are incapable of writing anything that would have popular appeal.”
Walt Disney was once fired by a newspaper editor because he was thought to have no “good ideas.”
If these people would have listened to their detractors, they would have never accomplished anything with their lives!
c. Giving- Thirdly, the right attitude is about having a spirit of giving.
Jesus tells us in Acts 20:35, “..’It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Jesus came to give His life as a ransom for many, so Jesus knows what He is talking about. The person who gives of themselves will be much more blessed, much more successful in the eyes of God than the one that doesn’t.
Illustration- David Livingstone was a Scottish Baptist pioneer medical
missionary and explorer in Africa. He heard about the many people in Africa who had never heard about Jesus Christ and so he decided he would become a preacher/doctor to tell people in Africa about Jesus. He began to help people who had never seen a white man. When he died he was buried in Westminster Abbey, London, England; a place saved for kings, queens, statesmen and heroes. David had a brother named John. John became a very successful businessman. When John died he left a great deal of money. David however died penniless. Yet it is David, not John, who is remembered today for his great works.
David Livingstone was one who gave of his life to others, and made a tremendous impact not only for this world, but for many who will go to heaven because of his efforts!!

II. Hard Work- (Luke 13:8-9; Isaiah 6:8)
Luke 13:8-9 we read, 8" 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. 9If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' "
We see here that the vinedresser, when challenged, was willing to work harder to get
the tree to produce fruit. Now it is important to note that in this parable, Jesus is not expecting the fig tree to produce bananas. Jesus is only asking that the fig tree accomplish what fig trees ought to accomplish—bear figs!
We all have different gifts. Some can sing, some are creative, some are artistic, some are mechanical, some are business minded, some can cook, and so on. The secret is to find our abilities and put them to good use. But in using them, it is important to work hard and to give our best.
Illus. “Make Me Like Joe,” More Hot Illustrations, p. 114. (Story of a drunk who was saved at a Mission, began to volunteer there and became known for a giving person. One night the Director had an altar call, a man came forward and said: “God, change me. Make me like Joe.” The Director said: “Don’t you mean make me like Jesus?” To which the man asked: “Is he like Joe?”)
When we use our abilities to make a difference/ and work hard at it with a good attitude/ we will impact the lives of others; we will bear fruit for the Lord through our example.
Illus.: October, 2005 Stewardship Magazine, “3 Boys Who Were Talking about Inheriting from their Father when he died.” (Oldest son wanted his father’s fraternity watch; middle son wanted his father’s special ring; youngest son wanted his old checks. The other 2 looked at him and asked: Why, the other 2 asked? Youngest son said: “Because on each check is a record of dad’s expenditures and purchases. Each check is an autobiography of dad’s life. His dreams, and hopes, and desires.”
We work hard for our money, and how we spend it shows us what is important, and what kind of success we have in life. We work hard for our money, but that money should be used in the right way. God makes it clear that 10 percent of our hard earned money is to go to the work of God!
The prophet Isaiah is asked this question by God in Isaiah 6:8: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And Isaiah answers the Lord with these words: ‘Here am I. Send me!’”
We must understand that it is not just about working hard. We can work hard, but in the wrong ways. It is about leaving a testimony of your life that shows you answered the question ‘Who will I send’ with the words, ‘Here I am, Lord, send me.’ If we bear fruit that does not honor God, in the end our work will not be successful.

III. The Right Power- (Colossians 1:11)

a. Accessing the power- Illus. “Blackout,” More Hot Illustrations, p.44.
(In 1965 at 5:18 p.m., there was a blackout in the New York area that affected 7 other states and the Canada as well. It covered some 80,000 square miles. It affected people in many ways: many were stuck in subways and elevators; over 200 planes had to be re-routed; a car dealer had to throw out 50 engine blocks because the high speed drills froze while boring piston holes; bakeries reported a loss of 300,000 loaves of bread which spoiled. The power outage lasted for 13 hours and businesses lost more than 100 million dollars.)
Like these businesses, if we are without the right power supply, we too will be limited in what we can accomplish, and we will lack the knowledge or desire to accomplish it. We are told in Colossians 1:11- “being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience.”
The right power comes when we have faith and are filled with the Spirit of God/ because the right power is the power of God. When the Spirit of God is living within us, it is then that we have the power to understand God’s will; to understand what we are supposed to do with our lives. It is when the Spirit of God is with us that we have the strength to endure and the patience to seek what we need to know to accomplish great things for God. We must access God’s power; the God who created all things out of nothing.
So how do we access it? Think for a moment of an electrical socket. You know that the power comes out of the socket. To access this socket we must plug in the cord to the socket. Then and only then will we access the power that we have available to us. The power we can receive from God is accessed in a similar way. We must plug in to access the power. I have talked before about connecting our spirit to the Spirit of God. This is the way we access the power of God; we must “plug in” to God’s Spirit. The obvious way that we do this is through prayer. But it is also in sensing God’s Spirit leading us, and following that leading. It is in letting the Holy Spirit convict us of our sin so that we will follow the right path. It is being obedient to what the Bible tells us to do. In all these ways we will access the power of God!
b. Putting it to use- But, it is important that we understand that we can’t
stop here. Having the knowledge of the power that is there, having the knowledge of what we are to do, is not enough. EXAMPLE: I have known my wife Tami for 19 years. For those of you who don’t know, my wife Tami is a great golfer. She got a full scholarship to college for golf. For a while she even taught golf lessons. She has taught me here and there over the last 19 years. I know much of what I am supposed to do to play good golf. The problem is taking what I know, and transferring it to my golf game. I have to apply what I know for it to do any good; for my game to improve.
The same is true for our lives. We have access to the knowledge of God and God’s will. We have access to God’s power. But if we don’t put it to use, then we will not play the game of life, like we should. We will be living by our own power or by some false power; we will be greatly limited in both forsight and practice.
So it is good that God does not just simply tell us His will without giving us the strength and ability to accomplish it. That would make for some very frustrating situations. And in fact, we often see Christians frustrated because they aren’t accessing God’s power, or they aren’t using what they know. They know what God is wanting them to do, but they are trying to do it on their own, and they struggle along, and then blame God for their lack of power. There is a short poem which says:
“Knowledge we ask not, knowledge You have lent. But Lord—the will, there lies our
deepest need. Grant us to build above the high intent-- To do the deed—the deed.”
The deeds we are to do/ the producing of fruit/ is done first by the knowledge God gives to us, but also by our living out the call God gives to us and letting God enable us to be successful with His guiding and powerful Spirit.

Conclusion: Example: “A psychologist named Ericsson” (He and his associates at Carnegie-Mellon University taught students how to memorize random lists. After 50 hours of practice, 4 students could recite back a list of 20 random digits after one hearing. One student could recite back 105 digits. But this memorization technique took him 400 hours of practice! If you met him it wouldn’t be right to say, “What a great memory he has,” but rather, “What great dedication he has.”)
Success comes from dedication, passion, and giving it our best. Spiritual success comes from our desiring to bear fruit, to work hard for the Lord, and by letting the Lord empower us. It is not a matter of opportunity, but of desire; desire to give one’s best to the Master. The desire to be what we were created to be and to make a difference. The desire to give of all of our resources (our time, our money, our possessions, our energy) to make sure that God’s work gets done and God’s will is accomplished.
If the Lord were to come to our church, would He say: “Cut it down, it is not bearing fruit?” I don’t think so. Are we doing all that we can to make sure our lives bear fruit and this church bears fruit? All Jesus is asking of us is that we be the best we can be as His followers. Commit to do this today not only for yourself, but as one who makes sure this church is the best it can be, and is bearing fruit for the Lord. Amen.

“The Culture of the New”
Mark 1:21-28; Sunday, October 18, 2009

Introduction: Think about the year you’ve had so far. What are some of the new things that you have experienced? In my life I have experienced Tyler graduating from sixth grade and moving to Junior High, Tyler moving up in baseball to the Juniors division (which is a bigger field and some new rules). Tiffany having a breakthrough in her being able to study and her doing well in school. Physical changes in my kids as they get older. Losing some church members to death. Adding the band to our service. I could go on and on…
I’m sure you have had many new experiences this year. And the truth is, life is always changing, and new is always coming into our lives. We’ve gone from records, to tapes (and 8-tracks), to CD’s. We’ve gone from VHS tapes, to DVD’s and now Bluerays. This morning I want to look at how “the culture of the new”, /
bringing new things into our lives can actually be a very good thing.

I. Jesus Stirs us up- (Matt. 11:3-8; Mk 1:21-28, 2:5-12; Jn 2:12-17, 11:1-44)
Think about Jesus. When Jesus came, He challenged the prevailing culture in so many ways:
1. The temple- One thing is the temple. People were comfortable going to
the temple; for the most part comfortable with how things worked. The temple was the place that people would go to hear preaching and teaching and worship God. But then Jesus came and stirred things up.
When John the Baptist was in prison, some of his followers came to Jesus because they heard about Jesus’ ministry. And they asked Jesus if He was the One that they had been expecting; the Messiah. Jesus answers them in Matthew 11:4-5, “Jesus replied, ‘Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.’” They had not experienced all this before; it was very new for them. Jesus was not doing this in the Temple, but out where the people were. This stirred things up greatly.
But Jesus also stirred them up when He came to the Temple one day to see the money changers making a mockery of God’s house by making a profit off those who came to worship… we read about it in John 2:12-17, “After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days. 13When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!’ 17His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’” They couldn’t believe that Jesus would speak up to the money changers and religious leaders in this way! Things were definitely changing.
2. Demons- Along with this, Jesus was speaking with and casting out
demons. We see this in Mark 1:21-28, “They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 24’What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!’ 25’Be quiet!’ said Jesus sternly. ‘Come out of him!’ 26The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. 27The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, ‘What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.’ 28News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.” Up to this point the people didn’t know there were demons until Jesus told them! And they even responded to what Jesus did by talking about a new teaching with authority, and giving orders to evil spirits.
3. Salvation vs. healing- Because of what Jesus was doing, the Scriptures
tell us that people heard about Jesus, and were coming to Him for healing. They wanted to be physically whole. But Jesus had a different take on their predicament. When Jesus looked at them, He didn’t concentrate on their physical ailment, but on their spiritual one. Jesus knew that they were like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus knew that they didn’t believe in Him, the Messiah, the One sent to save the world from its sins. They were blinded to their real need: ETERNAL LIFE.
We know this is true of Jesus, because Jesus would disregard their first statement about being healed. A prime example of this is the familiar story of the paralytic and his 4 friends. The man, who was paralyzed wanted to be healed, but he couldn’t get to Jesus on his own. So he has his friends carry him to the house where Jesus is teaching. There is no room to get the man to Jesus, and so being desperate he has his friends drop him through the roof right in front of Jesus!
Let’s pick it up in Mark 2:5-12, “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ 6Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7’Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ 8Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, ‘Why are you thinking these things? 9Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? 10But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . .’ He said to the paralytic, 11’I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.’ 12He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’” The first thing Jesus says is “Son, your sins are forgiven.” The man illustrated faith, and through this faith Jesus forgave Him of His sins. Without our sins being forgiven, we will not be saved.
4. Not hurrying- I believe that most people, throughout the history of
our world, have lived with a sense of hurry. It is in our nature to want to see results happen quickly, to want to get to that next stage in life, to want to get married, or have a child. People in general are impatient. But Jesus shows us that God is not in a hurry. That is why Peter could say in 2 Peter 3:8, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” Peter reminds us that time to God is in many ways irrelevant. It is what happens over time that is important. And this is seen in the Bible time and time again: Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years to have a child; The Israelites wandered in the desert 40 years before God led them to the promised land; God’s people had to wait 400 years before the Messiah came to save His people.
And so Jesus helped the people to understand that a change was needed by not being so anxious or in a hurry about the things in our lives!

II. Find a way to understand- (John 15:15)
It is easy to fall in love with the whole idea of being a Christian. What greater
place could we be in than to be God’s child; God’s follower. But we have to understand that being a Christian is more than being in love with our faith, with our church, with our worship. Being a follower of Jesus Christ is about helping people to understand how “interesting” our God really is.
To do this we have to take the Scriptural version of who God is, not some watered down version. We have to let people know and come to understand that God is a powerful, amazing, personal, loving, faithful God. And yet it is more than just the transferring of accurate information. God wants us to share our life, share how we have come to trust Him, and share what it means to be in total surrender.
What’s interesting about God- So, if we were to ask the question, what
is interesting about God,? What might our answer be? I’m sure we could come up with a pretty long list, but for our purposes here this morning let’s just talk about 3:
a. God as creator- As I’m sure you know well, the Bible begins
by telling us that God created all things. In fact, we probably know it so well that it is easy for us to discount the importance of this. God existed before anything else, but decided to make a world, complete with land, and sky, and rocks and trees, and animals and humans. Of course, God took His time in regards to this process. God could have snapped His fingers, but instead the Bible says God took six days. The last thing that God chose to create was people; man and woman. And of course we know that this creation was done with care and intention: to make man and woman in God’s image, like God in many ways, above all the rest of creation!
Now as I talk about this, this is all familiar to you. You might even be losing your focus on what I am saying because you’ve heard it many times before. But there are many people who haven’t heard this information accurately, and from someone who knows this God they are talking about. So for it to be interesting to someone else, we have to keep it interesting for us.
b. God as savior- I find it very interesting to know who created
the world, and how it was created, and with the care and intention with which it was created. Along with this, we have more interesting information to pass on to people, and that is how God came to be our Savior in Jesus Christ. We all have a flaw, and that flaw is sin. We all do many things that are not healthy for us, or that help us to not live our lives well. We all do many things that keep us from being in a relationship with God, or from understanding the things of God.
As we talked about some last week, God came to redeem us, save us from our sin…Magic. We all have a curiosity about magic. That’s why there are so many of these shows in Las Vegas. It is interesting for people to watch and learn about. And as we think about what God did for us in Jesus Christ, it appears to be a bit of magic. See our sin, and now it’s gone. MAGIC. But it’s more than magic, it is MIRACULOUS. It is God at His best; His most interesting. And if we could help people understand this, then maybe they too would believe!
c. God as friend- But I believe that the most interesting thing is
that above and beyond God being our God, our Creator, our Redeemer, our Sustainer, our Lord, GOD IS ALSO OUR FRIEND. Jesus makes this clear to us in the gospel of John, 15:15- “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made know to you.” We are able to understand the things of God, the mysteries of God, the complexities of God/ because Jesus has taken us to this place. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, helps us to understand the things of the Father. Jesus has made it known to us. How exciting is this? People can know God. Even more, people can have God as their friend. People can have a close, loving, meaningful relationship with God, and we can make it happen by helping them to understand.

III. Keeping Life Fresh-
a. Be content- Many people are bored with their lives. I believe
people get bored easily because they allow their lives to be mundane. They do the same things each day, every day. They have their habits (when they get up, how they get ready, what they eat, etc...). They go to their jobs, do their work, and then go home. So many people live very predictable lives. The older we get, the more we tend to slow down and plan less and get into a rut in the way we live. Now this isn't true for everyone, but I believe it is true in many ways for those who feel boredom.
To avoid this, we need to keep life fresh. But the question is: How can we keep our lives fresh? I think we can do this in a couple of ways. First, we can learn how be content with what we have. As the familiar verse, Philippians 4:12 says, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation..." How many days a week do we wake up not feeling content? How often do we get to the end of the day not feeling content? The answer is often. When we are content with our life, even the simplest of activities can be exciting. For me, just being with my kids, being with my family is exciting; we don't have to do anything special.
Our world pulls us into the thinking that we are lacking something. That is what sales is all about, getting you to think that you need something that you don’t have. And when you get to this place, it is hard to be content. Contentment is being okay with what you have, not thinking that you need something new. Now I know that this might sound like I am going against the title of the sermon, ‘The Culture of the New,’ but having to have new “things, gadgets, toys” in our lives is not what I’m talking about. The culture of the new is about the “newness” of God in our lives more and more each day. This is what will keep us feeling content. Once you go down the road of not feeling content, there is nothing material, nothing even in THIS world that will bring you contentment. Only in God can we be content.
b. Be proactive- Secondly, we should be more proactive in our
planning. We don't have to plan to do something new and fresh every day, but at least once or twice a week plan something that is fun. Plan an outing or a time to connect with someone you enjoy being with. Plan to learn more about God with a friend or in a Bible Study. Plan to bless someone through your actions. Plan to give of yourself to someone in need. There are so many ideas I could list here. But the key is being proactive; making it happen instead of waiting for it to happen. If you do these kinds of things regularly, not only will you have something to look forward to, but your life will feel Fresh because you know you are making a difference with your life.
We also need to be proactive in our growing in our faith. If we just allow ourselves to stay in the place where are at now, our faith will not be fresh. A stale faith can definitely keep us from feeling fresh and alive. As we grow in our faith, we will grow in our love for God. And as our love for God grows, how we live our lives will show this love to others. If you’ve ever met someone whose faith is fresh and alive, they have a magnetism about them that gets passed on to others. Wouldn’t it be great to be the kind of person who helps the lives of others to be fresh and alive?
Jesus was anything but predictable. I think this is one of the reasons He enjoyed His life so much, because He was out amongst the people, not knowing exactly what He would encounter. But He knew His Father was with Him, and He knew that as He walked according to His Father’s will, that all things would work for good. Jesus brought an enthusiasm of life to all He encountered.
And really, it’s this unpredictability of life that keeps us on our toes; keeps us wondering what’s next. Don’t let not knowing everything cause you to lose your excitement, or bring you frustration. Let it keep you excited about what God is going to teach you or do in your life!

Conclusion: I know that new things can make us uncomfortable. We are people of habit. We like to know how things are going to be. I can understand this. Every morning I set out the things on the counter in the same place. I have my routine; an order of how I get ready. But this isn’t always a good thing. We can get into a rut too easily. A once in this rut, it is difficult to break loose. This rut will cause us to lose perspective and excitement for life. Illustration: “The Ant and the Contact Lens,” There is a true story of a girl named Brenda who was rock climbing one day, almost halfway to the top of the cliff when the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens. 'Great', she thought. 'Here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight is blurry.' She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on the ledge. But it just wasn't there. At first she began to panic, but then she began praying: She prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens. When she got to the top she was more calm, but saddened because she couldn’t see the view clearly. She thought of the bible verse 'The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.' She thought, 'Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me.' Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they met another party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, 'Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?' After Brenda said ‘yes’ he continued: “Well, I saw an ant slowly moving across a twig on the face of the rock carrying something. It looked awful big for an ant to be carrying, so I looked closer. Upon further inspection, I saw that the ant was carrying a contact lens. I picked it up thinking I might run into to person whose contact lens it was!! Maybe you’ve had a frustration situation happen like losing a contact lens. Maybe your life is full of frustration and seemingly dead ends. Let God show you how your life can be new and fresh and exciting every day. Let God show you the little and big miracles He can do for You. Give this all over to God today. And live a life that shows other how interesting and wonderful God is. Amen.

“Hear My Voice”
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Gospel of John 10:22-30

Introduction: I want you to close your eyes for a moment. As you sit there with your eyes closed, I want you to try and see how many different sounds that you can hear…. (Pause for a few moments to let them take the sounds in). You probably hear the sounds of the cars passing by, maybe the hum of the sound system, somebody coughing or breathing, the pew creaking, and on it goes; the many different sounds.
This morning I want to talk about hearing God. Jesus tells us in John 10:27- “My sheep hear my voice and they listen.” This is a very important verse to not only understand, but to put into practice. To hear the sounds this morning, you had to concentrate and focus. This is true of our hearing God as well. We have to concentrate and focus on God’s voice, especially because it is not an audible sound. We have to learn how to hear God through the Bible, through our thoughts, through our feelings, through other people’s advice, through the different situations that come to us.

I. God’s Interacting with us- (Genesis 3:8-11; Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:24; John 10:15; Psalm 100:3; 2 Corinthians 11:28)a. From the beginning- From the beginning of time, when God created
the heavens and the earth, He designed it so that He would have interaction with us. That is why God created us in His image, with a spirit, so that we could connect spirit to Spirit. We see God’s interaction with Adam in Genesis 3:8-11, “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ 10 He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’ 11 And God said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?’”
Here we see that God is walking and talking with Adam and Eve; very interactive. God is having a discussion with them about why they are hiding, and how they know that they are naked. God is concerned with their state of being. And the open interaction that they had before with God has been damaged by the sin they committed. But the interaction is there.
If you were to follow the Old Testament, you would see God having interaction with His people in many forms; by dreams, visions, angels, a speaking donkey, nature, and on it goes. This interaction is a miracle between the human and the divine. God speaks to us! Dialogue is possible with God. And when you speak to God, you are not crazy. J
b. Through redemption- The interaction between God and humans
continues by God’s action of redemption. From that time when Adam and Eve sinned, and the interaction between God and His people was damaged, God designed a way for humans to be redeemed from their sin. God did not want to leave us in this state of sin, and knowing that we could not redeem ourselves, God sought to repair this damage.
Isaiah 53:6 lays it out for us, saying, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” There is no greater form of interaction than God coming to this earth, in human form, in Jesus Christ, to have all of our iniquity removed, and placed on Christ. The cross of Christ is the ultimate expression of God’s love and care for us; God’s desire to be in relationship with us; God keeping open the opportunity for us to dialogue together!
So Christ is the redeemer and we are the redeemed. This is God’s gift of love to us. As we are told in Romans 3:24, “They are now justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” It is because of the redemption that we are able to come to God freely and interact with Him. The Bible speaks a great deal about God taking on flesh in Jesus Christ so that God could redeem us from our sin.
And God’s concern extends not just to individuals, but to churches as well, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:28, “…I carry in my heart concern for all the churches.” Paul was a servant of God, and cared about the churches because he knew God cared about the churches. On so many levels, God seeks to interact with us!
c. By being His sheep- This miracle of interaction is seen in a third way,
and that is by the fact that we are considered by God to be His sheep. Here we have the analogy of God being our shepherd, and us being His sheep. We have already heard this mentioned in the Old Testament, when Isaiah talks about us being sheep that have strayed away. We also can see this in Psalm 100:3, “Know that the Lord is God. It is He that made us, and we are His; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”
And from the gospel of John, 10:15 we read, “Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.” Jesus is the Great Shepherd who cares for His flock. A shepherd gave constant care to His sheep, feeding them, guiding them, seeking them when they strayed away, and protecting them from wolves. To use this analogy for us, and God is a beautiful illustration of the closeness of relationship that exists. God is there for us every moment of every day.
As sheep, we are to take care to stay in close proximity with our Shepherd, God. We are to seek Him out for food, and entrust our lives to Him. There are so many things that can break that interaction with God, the biggest being Satan. Just as Satan sought to keep Adam and Eve from God through sin, so Satan tries to derail us in life and turn our focus to other things. That is how sheep went astray. They would lose their focus and start to wander, not paying attention to where they were going. In time, they would be away from the flock, away from the shepherd, away from the shepherd’s voice.

II. God’s Quiet Voice- (John 10:3, 27; 1 Kings 19:9b-16)

a. Hearing God through the quiet- There is a wonderful story in the
book of 1 Kings, chapter 19 about the prophet Elijah listening to God’s voice. Let me read it for you… “…And the word of the LORD came to him: ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ 10 He replied, ‘I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.’ 11 The LORD said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.’ Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ 14 He replied, ‘I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.’ 15 The LORD said to him, ‘Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet…’”
God is speaking to Elijah, and wondering why Elijah, a prophet of God, is hiding himself away. A prophet’s job is to be out speaking to the people, not hiding away! But Elijah expresses His concern for His life. This is not unknown to God, but God listens, and then instructs Elijah to go stand on the mountain. And Elijah proceeds to experience a powerful wind, an earthquake, and a fire, but God was not in any of those forms of nature. After the fire there is a whisper that is heard by Elijah. God chose to speak quietly to Elijah. God showed His great power in the earthquake, wind, and fire, but also His gentleness in the whisper.
So Elijah listens to the instructions of the Lord. God desires for Elijah to go to Damascus where he will anoint a king over Aram, and a king over Israel, and a prophet to succeed him. And Elijah heeds the voice of the Lord and obeys God.
How often do we have expectations that God will speak to us in great sounds or events, and then miss that God has spoken through a whisper or seemingly unimportant event? Probably many times! And how often have we forsaken going to God in honest, sincere, and concentrated prayer because other things were more important or because we were too impatient? Probably many times!
In a booklet entitled “Rhythms of Life,” (page 11; by Christopher S. Webb) there is a great quote about prayer that says: “…our tendency is to see prayer as a tool or a duty, rather than a way of life. We might want to reflect whether these small groups of people (their Monastics), who turn their entire existence into one long act of devoted attention to the presence of God, might not in the end turn out to be the lynchpins of history.”
The Monastics were people who gave themselves over to prayer and solitude. They often would be disconnected from society with the purpose of seeking to be in God’s presence regularly. To them, prayer wasn’t optional, it was foundational. If we are going to hear God, then we need to treat prayer as a way of life; it needs to become part of who we are, not something we do when we have a need!!
I know that for me I have had many times when God speaks to me through my thoughts, my feelings, my journaling, helping me to understand who I am, and what I am to do; affirming me in how I am living out my call. EX. I have had many times when God has put a person in my thoughts, and I pray for them, or contact them, only to find out that they are going through great difficulty. I could have put this off as a silly thought, but if I had, then I would not have been there for them.
b. Hearing God through others- But God chooses to sometimes speak to
us through others as well. Since God isn’t physically present in our lives, sometimes it can be difficult to hear the voice of God. We might think we know what God is saying to us, through our thoughts, through the Bible, through open and closed doors, but sometimes what we might think is right, turns out not to be God’s voice. And then you wonder why things aren’t going right; how did you not hear God’s voice?
Usually this voice will not be the voice of a stranger. I can’t imagine God having a stranger walk up to you and tell you what you need to do in your life. Obviously there would be a trust issue here. So we have to find those trusted Christian people who God brings to us to speak His message.
For me it can be the elders on Session, a Catholic priest friend, other Christian friends, other minister friends, and Tami. But God can use less obvious ways as well.
FOR EXAMPLE- Last Sunday evening my daughter Tiffany was wanting to go outside to play. She went down to the neighbors house to see if they could play, but they were doing homework and they couldn’t come out to play. Tiffany still wanted to go out and ride her scooter, so I decided to go out and read the paper as she rode around. I had barely gotten the chair out and sat down when one of the neighbors walked by. I realized that she was walking around the complex for exercise. This made me think about how I used to do that, but hadn’t done any walking in a few months. At that moment, I felt that God was speaking to me to walk. So Tiffany and I decided to do what we used to do regularly; go around the block. It is probably about a little over ½ a mile, and so Tiffany got on her scooter, and off we went. After we were done it felt so good to have exercised in that way. When I said to Tiffany, “we should do that every Sunday night,” Tiffany responded: “Maybe we could do it more than that!”
I know that this wasn’t an urgent matter. I do get exercise in others ways. I would have been fine had I not done the exercise. But I believe that God used my neighbor to speak a message to me, and I was glad that I chose to listen, even though the message wasn’t in words.
Example- Every other month I meet with a spiritual director for a couple of hours. I have found this to be an important and spiritually productive time. When we meet we don’t have a set objective. My director lets me speak about what is going on in my mind, my emotions, my experiences. And as I talk, she lets the Holy Spirit speak to her so that she might speak to me. I am glad that I have this avenue of seeking to hear God’s voice. I am glad that I have been led to this spiritual opportunity. And in a similar manner, I have been blessed to have the opportunity to mentor many of you. I am willing and available to mentor anyone who wants a clearer leading of God’s will in their lives, and the opportunity to hear God better.
Who might God use in your life to speak to you? How attentive are you to listening to the people God puts in your life? What about the more subtle ways that God speaks to you through people, are you aware of those? God will speak to us through others! As Jesus said, “my sheep hear my voice and they listen.”

Conclusion: How wonderful it is to know that God speaks to us. This is indeed a miracle, that we can dialogue with the God of the creation; that we can communicate without having to have God physically present in our lives. As a shepherd communicates with his sheep, even though they don’t speak, so God can communicate and interact with us. Whether it be in grand gestures, or a quiet whisper, God finds a way to make His will known to us. The question is, are we listening. “My sheep hear my voice, and they listen.”
Someone once said: “The greatest pain creates the best questions.” Meaning that God can speak to us and guide us even in our pain. Sometimes it is our pain that wakes us up and leads us to seek God, and listen to God. Sometimes it is our pain that causes us to ask the important questions of our life. Sometimes it is our pain that causes us to slow down, and be quiet long enough so that we might listen to God, or listen to those whom God puts in our life.
So I encourage you to not look at prayer as a tool to get what you want, but a lifestyle that helps you to interact with and communicate with your creator, redeemer, and Lord. Let us hear the voice of God, and listen. Amen.