10-21-12 Sermon

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10-14-12 Sermon

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Growing through the Desert Seasons 

Essentials for Growth – Part 1

10-14-12 Sermon

 

We’re kicking off a new series on spiritual growth this morning.  To start all of that off, I want to talk today about meeting God, and growing spiritually through the desert seasons of life. 

 

To get us started I want to ask you a question.  Can anybody tell me what the largest desert in the world is?  Somebody guess.  Any other guesses? 

 

Antarctica is the largest desert in the world.  You say how is that possible?  That’s a real odd place.

 

It’s because a desert is not measured by heat.  A desert is measured by precipitation.  How much rainfall or snowfall happens in a year?  Any place that gets ten inches or less in a year is a desert.  The Antarctic only gets two inches of precipitation in a year. 

 

You say, wait a minute!  I saw the Penguin movie and I watch National Geographic and the Discovery channel.  I’ve seen those enormous blizzards and all of that.  How is that possible?

 

It’s because what you’re actually seeing is snow and ice that’s already been there for a long, long time.  It’s too cold to melt.  And it’s just blowing all over that enormous continent.  But the Antarctic actually only receives two inches of fresh snowfall precipitation in a year.  So a desert is measured by a lack of precipitation.

 

Another way you can measure a desert is it’s a place that has more evaporation than precipitation.  You didn’t know you were coming to science class today did you?  More evaporation than precipitation. 

 

The reason I‘m going into all of this stuff is because there’s a life metaphor here.  The desert that I want to talk about today is the desert seasons of the soul.  Because a desert can be a very, very hot, dry place.  But a desert can also be a very cold place.  And of course the desert can be the time when you’re just giving out a whole lot more than you’re taking in.  Anybody ever been through those kinds of deserts before? 

 

I want to talk today about how we can grow in the desert seasons of our life.  How do we meet the Lord when we find ourselves in a desert?

 

The Bible tells us that God spoke to a lot of people in their deserts.  He spoke to Abraham in the desert.  He spoke to Jacob in the desert.  He spoke to Moses in the desert.  You say, of course, they lived in the desert.  And that’s true; they lived in the desert.  But he spoke to them in the desert of their deserts.  In the wilderness of their deserts.  God spoke to Elijah in the desert.  He led Jesus out into the desert.  And many times he spoke to David, King David, in the desert.  We can read about these interactions that David had in his desert experience with God as we read through the Psalms.

 

I want us to look at one of those Psalms right now.  Psalm 63.  David wrote this Psalm when he was in the desert of Judah being chased by Saul.  Saul was trying to kill him.  So talk about being in the heat of things!  There he was – he was in the heat of things.  Here’s what David said: “Oh, God you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.  I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.  Because your love is better than life, [not because of your power and glory but because your love is better than life] my lips will glorify you.  I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.  My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.  On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.  [He’s up pacing the floor in the middle of the night – just like we do.  I think of you through the watches of the night] Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.  My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.” 

 

He says earnestly I seek you in a dry and weary land where there is no water.  Does that sound familiar to anybody?  Ever found yourself in one of those places where you feel spiritually dry?  Where life just seems barren and fruitless?  And you’re just dying for a taste of the water that God would have to offer you. 

 

I believe that some of us are probably in desert seasons right now.  You might be in one of those deserts where the heat is turned up.  And everything is parched in your life.  Maybe the heat is turned up at work.  Maybe you’re in a financial crisis.  Maybe you’re in a family crisis.  The heat is turned up.  Maybe you’re being treated unfairly in a relationship.  Maybe you’re seeing all of the fruit on the vine withering away.  Everything that you worked so hard for is just withering and dying in the heat of what you are experiencing right now.  You look for comfort.  You want to hear what God might have to say to you so you go to the Word and you try to read your Bible.  But it’s just sort of like chewing on sawdust.  There’s just nothing there.  There’s no life.  There’s no fruitfulness happening in your life.  No rain has fallen in a long time.  So you find yourself living on memories of past encounters with God, wishing that life could be like it used to be.  Like it was when everything was wonderful.  In times like these oftentimes your prayer can be, “God!  Just get me out of this!  When is this ever going to end?”

 

Or perhaps you might be in a desert season in your soul when your heart has turned cold and it’s become hardened.  Maybe you’re just burned out.  You could be angry with God over something that God did or maybe something that God did not do.  And your heart is turning cold.  You’re burning out.  You’re losing your passion for life.  You’re losing your passion for God.  Your prayers are just hitting the ceiling.  And it seems like he has left you, he’s not paying any attention to you.  And in times like that your prayer can be, either “God, where are you?”  Or it might just be “God, I don’t even care any more.”

 

Maybe there are some of you who are in one of those desert seasons where you’re just giving out way more than you’re taking in.  There are too many commitments, too many expectations.  You’ve got too many plants in the ground and only so much water.  There’s so much demanded of you and only so much of you to meet those demands and you’re getting to the point where you’re saying, “I’m empty.  I’ve got nothing left here.  Everything of life has evaporated away.  And even when it does seem like some kind of refreshment has come it’s sucked out of my life before I can even enjoy anything of it.”  The joy of your life goes away in times like that.  Your prayer might be “God, I don’t have anything to give any more.”

 

If you’re in one of those kinds of deserts I have news for you today.  That’s what I want us to unpack and see what the Scripture says about those experiences of life.  Because if you’ve never been through one of those deserts, trust me!  You will be.  Most of our life is either spent in one of those; on our way out of one of those, or on our way back in.  That’s just the way life is.  We have to know how do we meet the Lord there.  How can we grow in the desert season when it seems like nothing is going to grow anywhere in our life?

 

There are generally three questions that we ask when we go through this.  The first question we ask is, “How in the world did I get here?  How did this happen?  Why is this going on?”  The second question we ask is, “What am I supposed to do in this desert?” And, the third question is, “How am I ever going to get out of here?  When is this going to end?” 

 

I actually want to answer that question first.  The answer to the question, when am I going to get out of here?  It may be a little hard to hear.  But the answer is: you’ll get out in due time. 

 

Here’s why I say that.  You don’t want to be in a hurry in a desert.  When God wants to teach you a lesson, when he wants to say something to you and he’s brought you into a desert season, you don’t want to be in a hurry.  Because if you rush your way through, you might miss something.  Learn to pray in desert seasons, “God, you just take as long as you need to take because I don’t want to do this again.  I want to get the lesson the first time.” 

 

There’s beauty in the desert that you may not see in other places.  But you have to take the time to look at it, and to take in the beauty of what is happening in that situation.  There is life in the desert but sometimes you just have to look for it.  Sometimes it’s hard to see.  So you don’t want to be in a hurry.

 

While you’re waiting for the season to end don’t stop doing the right thing.  It’s very easy for us to just give in and say, “I’m just tired of this.  This isn’t working.  God is ignoring me.  Why am I even bothering to try to talk to him?  Why am I even bothering to come to the Word or to come to church?”  Don’t give up on doing the right thing. 

 

Look at this verse from Galatians 6.  “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”  At the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  There is a promise there.  And you need to take God at his Word.  Don’t give up.  You will reap a harvest at the right time.

 

But the question still remains.  How did I get here?  Why is this happening to me now?  Is God mad at me?  Have I done something wrong?  Has he just forgotten me all together? 

 

I believe it’s most likely if you’re a follower of Jesus Christ that you’re in the desert because God brought you there.  Just like he led Elijah into the desert.  Just like he led Jesus into the desert.  He has brought you into a desert season because there’s something he wants to say to you and there’s no other place that you could hear it – unless you were in this situation right now with all the other things of life out of the way.  He’s trying to get your attention.  God brought you here for a specific reason to say something to you right in the middle of your crisis.

 

Listen to these words from the book of Hosea, 2:14-23.  Hosea is this little book in the Old Testament and what’s happened is God’s people have been disobedient.  And so he’s got to bring some correction into their life.  But listen to what he says.  “Therefore I am now going to allure her I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.”  “There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.  [I’ll talk about the Valley of Achor in a minute.]  There [in the desert] she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.  [In other words when she was first set free.] In that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master’.  I will remove the names of the Baals [the Baals were idols –false gods.]  I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked.  In that day [in the desert] I will respond, declares the Lord.  [That word “respond”, the Hebrew word is the same word we read a couple verses earlier “to sing.”  He says in the desert she will sing to me and in that day he says here I will sing back.  I will respond, I will sing.]  I will [sing] to the skies and they will [sing] to the earth and the earth will [sing] to the grain, the new wine and oil.  And they will [sing] to my people.”  The Lord says I’m going to lead her into the desert and in the desert, in the dry and weary land I’m going to give her back her vineyards.  There in the Valley of Achor he says she will sing to me and I will sing back to her and cause her land to flourish. 

 

There’s a promise of fruitfulness and restoration that will take place in the desert.  Not after the desert.  You see, God is not on the other side of your trouble waiting for you to figure it out and find your way through.  He says in the middle of it all, that’s where this restoration is going to take place.  Your desert experience may seem like a place of barrenness.  But God says he will make it a place of fruitfulness.  God is about to do something in your life in this desert.  He is on his way to meet you in your crisis. 

 

He says he will turn the Valley of Achor into a door of hope.  Let me explain what the Valley of Achor is all about.  We first read of the Valley of Achor back in the book of Joshua.  In Joshua, chapter 6, that’s where they took Jericho.  You remember the song?  “Joshua fought the battle of Jericho and the walls came tumbling down.”  They go into Jericho.  They win this battle in Jericho.  They have had an enormous spiritual victory.  Because to the people in those times and actually it’s very much true today, a physical victory was a spiritual victory.  When the people of Israel won the battle against the people in Jericho it was the God of Israel defeating the gods of Jericho.  So they have his huge spiritual as well as a physical victory.

 

Now you come to Joshua 7.  In Joshua 7 they’re facing another enemy.  They’re facing this little tiny place called Ai.  It’s so small it only has two letters in its name – A and i.  That’s where the next war is going to take place.  A little, bitsy place.  They’re thinking no problem.  This is going to be easy.  So they come up against Ai and they lose. 

 

Now you see Joshua.  He’s lying on the ground, flat out on his face, and he’s crying out to God.  He’s going “How could this have happened?  Where were you?  This is not possible.”  God says to Joshua, “What are you doing on the ground?  Get up!  There are idols in your camp.”

 

What had happened is when they went into Jericho, God said destroy everything.  But a man named Achan took some idols and he hid them in his tent.  Because of his disobedience, because he had taken these idols and hid them in his tent, they lost their war in Ai.  God says “Joshua, get up.  There are idols in your camp.”

 

The place where all of this happened was called the Valley of Achor.  And Achor literally means “trouble.”  The valley of trouble.  So when you come to Hosea where God is speaking to his people, they know their history.  He says I will turn the valley of Achor, your valley of Achor, into a door of hope.  I’m going to turn your valley of trouble into a door of hope.

 

Let’s think about a door.  What is door?  A door is a passageway.  It’s the way to get from one place into another place.  When God wants to bring you into something new, he first had to bring you out of something old.  That passageway very often goes through a valley of trouble.  Sometimes that’s how God has to do it.  He brings us through a valley of trouble.  But here in Hosea, in this desert, God says I’m going to turn your place of trouble into a place of hope.  There is a promise.  God says I’m not going to abandon you there.  Your valley of trouble is not a dead end.  It is a passageway – into a place of fruitfulness and restoration.  There in the desert, he says, I will restore your vineyards, your fruitfulness, your wealth, the blessing in your life.  I will bring it back in the desert.  Not at the end, not at the other side – right in the middle of it all.  There’s a promise of God’s fruitfulness and of his restoration in that experience.

 

Then he says there in the desert you will sing as in the days of your youth.  As in the days you were first set free.  Even in the place of suffering.  In the desert there is a promise of a restored joy in your life.  God says I’m going to put a song back on your lips.  He’s promising fruitfulness.  He promises hope.  He promises joy in the middle of your desert season.  Your desert is not a place of barrenness.  God is going to turn it into a place of fruitfulness. 

 

But what are you supposed to do while you’re waiting for him to do that?  Because your desert season may have been going on for a long, long time.  What am I supposed to do while I’m waiting for God to answer and to fulfill all these promises?

 

We find that answer in the book of Isaiah.  In Hosea we learn how we get into a desert.  In Isaiah we learn what we’re supposed to do while we’re there.  Look at these words from Isaiah 40: “A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.  And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, [in the desert] and all mankind together will see it.  For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”  In the desert prepare the way for the Lord.  Make a highway. 

 

What are you supposed to do in your desert season?  Make a way for the Lord.  Why?  Because that’s where he’s going to meet you.  He is on his way into your situation.  God will infuse his presence into your situation.  He’s on his way to meet you.  He’s not going to leave you in it.  He is not abandoning you in it.  He’s on the highway to meet you.

 

So we have to prepare the way for that to happen.  There are things we have to do in our own hearts and minds to prepare for God’s arrival.  How do we then prepare to meet the Lord in the desert?

 

I want to give you five things you can do.  Some very practical things that you can do while you’re waiting for the Lord’s arrival.

 

1.  Expect to meet him there.

 

Everything we do for God has to be done in faith.  The Bible says it’s impossible to please God without faith.  Expect to meet him in your desert.  If he says he’s coming, take him at his word.  Believe that God is who he says he is.  Believe that God will do what he says he will do.  He led you into that desert because he wants to say something to you.  He wants to meet you in that place.  God has promised in his word in Isaiah 45, “I would never tell you to seek me in vain.”  So you’ve got to expect him.  You’ve got to look for him.  David says earlier in Psalm 5 “I pray and I wait in expectation.”  You don’t wait in doubt.  You don’t wait in fear.  You wait in faith.  You wait in expectation on the Lord, looking for signs of his arrival.  Looking out on the horizon to see if he’s coming.  Looking for the dust of his feet to say, he’s on his way!

 

One of the lessons you can learn in deserts is that when God is silent it’s because he’s listening.  So talk to him.  Let him hear your voice.  Tell him what you feel.  Tell him what you think.  Tell him what you’re facing.  Tell him all about it.  He already knows but he wants to hear from you.  Let this be a time where you are connecting with him in prayer on a regular, constant, ongoing conversational basis. 

 

Here’s the second thing you can do…

 

2. Start planting seeds now.

 

 If God is going to restore your vineyards then you’ve got to plant seeds.  Start planting seeds now because nothing grows until the seeds are planted.  Plant them right now in the middle of your desert season.  That means get into the Word of God.  The Bible tells us that the Word of God is like a seed that’s planted into the soul.  You need to get into the Word.  To just rest for a while in one passage, maybe even just one verse.  Let it begin to take root in you.  But get the word of God into you.  This is spiritual food.  It’s sustenance.  But it’s also a seed that eventually will grow and will bear fruit.

 

There are all kinds of opportunities to get the seed of the word of God in your life.  Be sure you are regular in worship.  Come and join our bible study at Mr. Henry’s house.    Go to a Christian bookstore and pick up a book that will help you grow.  When you hear about another church having a midweek series of teachings go and hear those teachings.  Just take these opportunities to get the seed of the word of God into your heart.  It may take time for those seeds to germinate and bear fruit.  But nothing’s going to bear fruit unless you plant the seed first. 

 

So expect to meet God in your desert and plant the seeds of the word right now while you’re going through it.  Here’s the third thing to do…

 

3. Eliminate unnecessary distractions.

 

 In a season of crisis you’ve got to be focused.  There are distractions that will get in your way, that will block your view.  If you’re supposed to be looking for God’s arrival you want to get the things out of your life that block your view or that distract you from your focus.  A time in a desert needs to be when you focus, where you’re just looking for him.  So you’ve got to get these distractions out of your life.

 

The unnecessary distractions are not necessarily bad things.  They’re just not necessarily necessary.  There can be all kinds of things that are unnecessary distractions. 

 

Clutter in your life can be an unnecessary distraction.  It keeps you from focusing.  What am I supposed to look at next?  What am I supposed to do next? 

 

Or noise.  That’s another kind of clutter.  Unnecessary noise.  We just always have the radio on.  Always have the Ipod going.  Always have the television on in the background.  There’s always got to be noise around and maybe it’s just because we’re afraid of the silence.  We’re afraid of what we might really hear if we just took the time to listen.

 

Unnecessary distractions can be just too much going on in your life.  You’ve got too many commitments, too many yeses.  All kinds of things pulling at you that are distracting you from focusing on God.  In the desert seasons you have to carefully parcel out your resources.  So you need to learn to say no. 

 

Categorize everything into two categories.  What’s important and what’s not important.  Then only do the things that are important.  So the rest of your time you can spend looking for God.  Making yourself available, getting ready for him to come, spending time in conversation with him and in his Word and with his people.  Get rid of those unnecessary distractions.

 

Here’s a fourth thing you can do, just like in the Valley of Achor.

 

4. Search your heart for idols.

 

 God has said in verse 17 of the Hosea passage that “I will remove the Baals [the idols] from your lips and no longer wilt their names be evoked.”  Search your heart for idols and get them out of your life.

 

See this verse from the book of Jonah, a fascinating verse that is so very telling of the cost of idols.  “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”  And in 2 Kings 17 the Bible says this, “They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.”  You’ve got to search your heart for worthless idols.

 

Here’s the question to ask yourself.  Is there something that I’m still holding on to that is causing me to forfeit the fullness of God’s grace in my life?  Is there something that I have not let go of yet?  And because I have my hands full of the wrong thing I can’t get my hands full of the grace of God.  Idols can be anything that we put between ourselves and the Lord.  Idols are the things that we look to first.  That we look to first for direction, we look to first for self worth, or for security.  That’s what idols are.  Those are things that we sacrifice to.

 

Idols can be the remnants from your past that you’re still holding on to.  An idol can be something that somebody said about you.  And that has become the filter through which you see all of life.  That has become the place where you go to find fulfillment and approval.  It’s very likely that that idol is a lie.  Somebody said something about you and you’ve spent the rest of your life trying to prove them wrong.  Or you’ve spent the rest of your life trying to make them happy.  They’ve become an idol to you.  And because you’ve so sacrificed to that idol you’ve forfeited the fullness of God’s grace in your life.  What sacrifices are you making?  What idol are you still worshipping? 

 

An idol can be an area of deliberate disobedience to what God told you to stop doing or maybe something he told you he wants you to do.  But you’re saying no.  And that thing becomes an idol.

 

An idol can also be unforgiveness.  Because the person that you’re holding that grudge against has become the focal point of your attention.  When you’ve got your hands gripped around somebody else’s throat, your hands are not available to receive whatever it is that God wants to put in them.  That grudge, that person, has become an idol in your life. Look at the sacrifice that you’re making.  Is it worth it? 

 

An idol can also be the face that’s looking right back at you in the mirror.  Maybe you are your own God, making your own calls.  Nobody’s going to tell me what to do or how to do it.  I’m a self-made man.  I’m a self-made woman and look where it got you.  Your life is a mess. 

 

What idols are you sacrificing to?  “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that would be theirs.” 

 

So how do we get out of this?  How do we break the grip that we have on these idols?  Here’s how you do this.  By starving your passion for it. 

 

Let me explain that.  We worship the idols that we worship because we have a passion for them.  We sin because we have a passion for them.  How do we get rid of an old passion?  By getting a new passion. 

 

[Sara and Peg at summer camp illustration]

 

You get rid of an old passion by getting a new passion.  What you do is you feed the new passion.  And when you feed a new passion you starve an old passion.  Because you can only go one of two ways.  You can only go right or left.  You can only go forwards or backwards.  You can only go up or down.  You can’t do them both.  So when you feed a new passion you starve an old passion. 

 

If you want to get rid of your passion for your old idols you’ve got to feed a new passion for God.  Feed on the Word of God.  Get into a small group and feed on the fellowship of the body of Christ.  Come into the worship service and let God hear your voice.  Turn your heart to him in worship and feed your passion for God.  When you do that you begin to starve the passion for the old idols.  The things that you realize, those don’t matter any more.  Why was I even hanging on to them?  Look what it cost me now that I see my new passion, my passion for God. 

 

Starve the old passion  and you feed a new passion.

 

When you’re in the desert, expect to meet God because he’s on his way.  Plant the seed of the word in your heart.  Eliminate the distractions – go on a hunt, a relentless hunt, searching for any idols that are still in your life.  Then here’s the final thing, the fifth thing you can do…

 

5. Sing to the Lord. 

 

Look at what David said in Psalm 63.  “With singing lips my mouth will praise you.  I sing in the shadow of your wings.”  And again in Hosea 2:15 “In the desert she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.”  Keep a song in your heart.  There is a spiritual dynamic of keeping a song in your heart to the Lord.  It’s an important thing for us to understand.  Because when we sing to God, when we sing worship songs to the Lord, it’s actually a way to stay in an attitude of prayer.

 

You know when the Bible says, “pray without ceasing,” that’s a really hard thing to do.  But if you keep a song to the Lord in your heart it keeps you in this attitude of prayer.  If you think about the worship songs that we sing here at church, that we were singing even this morning, most of the lyrics are vertical.  They’re sung to God.  They’re a song in prayer.  When you keep a song to the Lord in your heart, it keeps you focused.  It keeps you in an attitude of prayer.  So just sing to him. 

 

It doesn’t matter if you don’t think you can sing.  God gave you your voice; if he doesn’t like it he can give you another one.  It doesn’t matter.  Sing to the Lord.  Sing in you car.  Sing in the shower.  Sing whenever you want to.  But keep that song going in your heart.

 

The thing about a song is that it involves your body, it involves your intellect, and it also engages you in an emotional level.  Your whole person gets invested in what that song is and it helps you to focus.  You’re not having a little American Idol competition in your car.  You’re trying to stay focused on God.  You’re looking for the Lord to come. 

 

Jesus said in John 4, he’s talking to the woman at the well, he said, “The Father is looking for worshippers.”  So if you’re in the desert and you can’t find God just stop what you’re doing and worship him.  And he will come find you.  Because the Father is looking for worshippers.  Like a good shepherd he will hear your voice in the wilderness, the voice of a lost sheep and he will come and find you and meet you right in your crisis. 

 

You’ve just got to set your focus on the Lord.  Get stubborn about it.  Call out to him.  Let him hear your voice in prayer and in song.  Look for him in his word.  Plant those seeds deep in your heart because they will bear fruit.  God will bring restoration and fruitfulness.  He will restore your vineyard.  He’ll put a song back on your lips.  He’ll put joy back in your heart.  He will fill you once again with hope for the future that God had planned for you.  And it’s going to happen in the middle of your desert experience.  Whether your heart is in the heat of all things or whether your heart has turned cold or if you’re just at that point where you’ve just given out way more than you possibly have taken in and you just feel empty and barren.  You do these things and watch the Lord come to you and meet you in the middle of your crisis. 

 

Then look again at the end of that passage in Isaiah.  In the desert prepare the way for the Lord and right there in the middle of your desert the glory of the Lord will be revealed.  “…In the desert… the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.” 

 

In other words everybody’s going to sit up and take notice.  Something happened.  Everybody is going to notice it.  “For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”  And what the mouth of the Lord has spoken the hand of the Lord will accomplish. 

 

Prayer:        Father, I now pray for this entire congregation, for every person here, for every household represented.  For every person in a desert or on their way out of one or on their way in.  For anyone whose heart is hardened or cold or empty.  Lord, I pray that you would send the rain of your Holy Spirit to flood them, to soften the hardened ground.  To quench the thirst of their parched lives.  Lord, would you water the seeds of your word, the seeds of hope and faith that are buried in their hearts?  Would you bring fruitfulness and restoration to them?  Would you fill their hands with blessing?  Would you fill their homes with peace and love?  Would you fill their minds with wisdom?  Lord, come and meet your people today.  Meet us in our deserts and restore us, I pray.  In Jesus name.  Amen. 

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9-30-12, Part 3 of Your Work Matters to God

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GROWING SPIRITUALLY AT WORK

Your Work Matters to God

Part 3

09-30-12 Sermon

This morning I am going to continue our series about how your work really does matter to God.  And today I want to specifically talk about growing spiritually at work.  Not only does God want you to be a witness for him at work, he wants to use your work situation to enable you to grow spiritually. 

First of all if you’re a Christ follower and you’ve been walking with Jesus for a while and you understand about the reality of God wanting to be involved in your life 24/7, then hopefully this will be a reminder to you that He hasn’t stopped that involvement.  You’ll be encouraged today. 

You may be among those here today who would say,  Yeah, I’m doing this thing and I’m walking with Jesus but I make a lot of mistakes still too.  I want to be spiritual but I don’t really see myself as spiritual enough.  I don’t really see myself as involved enough.  I’m going to get involved in a ministry.  I’m going to!  As soon as I get better at this thing!  I’m going to follow the Lord as soon as things are a little more cleaned up in my life. 

Let me tell you something:  Neither you nor the church have that kind of time.  You’re going to have to get involved in obeying God before you’re all cleaned up and ready to go.  You just don’t have that kind of time.  You will spend approximately forty percent of your life at work.  How depressing is that!  About 150,000 hours you’re going to spend on the job.  God wants to use those hours to your benefit.  He wants to leverage your work in order to produce spiritual growth in your life and mine. 

The idea of carrying your faith into the workplace and allowing God to work in you and through you on the job is one of those things where you can sort of put up a wall and say, Wait a second!  I really have a lot more work to do in my spirituality outside the job before I take it on the job.  I’m not ready to go public with this thing.  As soon as I go public with it I’m going to blow it on the job and say or do something and people are going to go, “What? a ‘Christian’?”  Or they’re going to hit that hot button of Hypocrite.  I know me and I’ll fail at this.  But, the good news is God uses imperfect people to accomplish His perfect will.  You’re imperfect – God can use you. 

The question is do I allow God access, that kind of the back stage access of my heart on the job?  That’s a scary proposition giving God that kind of green light.  The last thing we want is to kind of set ourselves up to have our coworkers judging us on our spirituality.  Or worse yet, be viewed as some sort of completely out of touch Christian nerd. 

It may be true that many of your co-workers don’t take seriously the idea of going to church or being a Christian.  The media hasn’t really helped us a whole lot in this.  There’s really nothing in between when it comes to Christianity.  So to go public means to be pigeonholed.  To be put in some sort of category by people that you really do respect, who you want to think well of you-- that can be a difficult thing. 

There’s also another group.  This other group says going public with my faith, letting God use me on the job, having Him work in me and through me in that environment--  Some of you might go, I would but I’m shy.  So you think you have the “I'm Shy” hall pass.  “But God, I’m shy!  I don’t have to do anything because I’m shy.”  Whatever!  There is no hall pass for shyness.

Romans 8:29 “From the very beginning God decided those who came to Him should become like His Son.”  God’s goal for my life and yours is that we would be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.  So what’s my job have to do with that?  How is God going to use my job?  Why is my job so important? 

Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord and not for people.”  So whether you’re a secretary or a salesman, a stay at home mom or a CEO, you and your work matter to God.  Whatever you do matters to God.  And He wants to use that time at work and leverage it for spiritual growth in your life.  It’s all of your life that He’s interested in.  Forty percent of your life spent on the job?  Certainly He’s not going to let that not be used.  It’s a huge chunk of life.  God wants to work in us and through us to grow us spiritually.

Three ways He can get that done.

1.  God uses pressure to change my trajectory.

He uses pressure to change my direction, my focus.  Then once He does that He begins to reset our priorities as well.  Stress and pressure can really be an indicator that my priorities are out of order.  If I’m feeling stressed it means that I’ve probably taken on some responsibilities I shouldn’t have taken on.  When I’m feeling under pressure it means that I’ve stepped forward and accepted responsibilities that are none of my business.  And people who do that, they get ticked at everybody else for not helping them out enough to take care of the responsibilities that they have accepted that they never should have.  They’re saying, “I’m co-dependent.  Join me!” 

No!  Don’t take them on in the first place.  Ephesians 5 “Live life with a due sense of responsibility.”  Having said that, some of you may have this sense of responsibility on steroids.  You want to be responsible for everything.  If something’s not getting done it’s falling on you and you’re worried about it.  Have any of you come from a long line of worriers.  Any of you professional worriers?  Or your parents?  You grew up with one?  By sitting here worrying about stuff is accomplishing a great deal… of nothing. 

On the other side of that we also don’t take responsibility for the stuff that should have been ours in the first place.  We are a nation that says it’s not my fault.  We want to blame everybody else.  It was the government or my parents or my spouse’s problem, the kids, the boss, the co-worker.  These are all the reasons I react the way I do.  It’s somebody else’s responsibility.  Somebody else’s fault. 

As a Christ follower you work for God and you and your work are absolutely vital.  This week He wants to use some of the pressure that you face in order to adjust some priorities.  Maybe give you a more balanced view of your responsibility instead of trying to carry the responsibility of the world.  How do you get started on that?  How do you get started on this whole idea of making a difference, being available, changing this trajectory of life so I can a have an impact on my job?  Not only in me but around me as well. 

Sometimes the single greatest impact on evangelism is an apology.  So often we could make real inroads into people’s lives if we would just say I’m sorry.  Instead of preaching an exegetical dissertation from the book of Romans.  Sometimes we just need to understand that an apology can be a very powerful thing. 

1 John 1 “This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you.  God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness we lie and do not live by the truth.  If we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”  Walking in light.  We’re saying, “Ok God, 24/7!  This is who I am.  I really am not that great in being a Christian.  I want to get better at it.  But I have a lot of room to grow.”  That’s a freeing thing to say. 

If any of you have thought  “I’m just not that spiritual.  I fail and I’m just not that great a Christian.”  Here’s what I want you to know: You’re right.  You pretty much not good at this, ok?  What you have to understand is that’s a great place to come to.  It’s freeing.  Then you can say, “Ok God, You’ve wired me in this way.  I don’t feel all that spiritual.  But I do want to know You more.”  You know what the “want to” is?  I want to know you more.  It’s called faith.  You’re looking for faith to be some other thing.  The want to is faith.  Now you just act on it.  It doesn’t mean you have to feel anything.  You act.  You have all the spirituality you need.  Don’t sell yourself short.  God’s working in you.  Be willing to say this is who I am.  That is walking in the light. 

That’s dangerous, by the way.  When you’re walking in the light and say, Ok God, what are we doing next?  It’s an amazing thing that begins to happen.  Your life is transformed and you begin a new adventure with God.

A second way that God will help you grow spiritually at work is…

2.  God uses people to change my heart

God uses people in order to work an amazing change in my heart.  The very thing that you don’t want to have happen is the very thing God wants to do.  He wants our lives to be integrated.  He wants us to be the same person wherever we find ourselves.  The very thing that God wants to use to get that done is relationships.  He wants to use the relationships in your life – the good ones and the difficult ones - in order to work this amazing change of heart.  

Is there anybody you don’t like on your job?  In every work place there are some very peculiar people.  Think about it.  Think about your job.  Any peculiar people?  If you can’t think of them it’s probably you.  God wants to use these people in order to increase your capacity for love.  He wants to use some very difficult people sometimes and there’s quite a process for that to happen. 

Romans 12 “If it’s possible as far as it depends on you live at peace with everyone.”  Aren’t you glad it says “if it’s possible”?  Thank God!  Frankly there are some people it’s just impossible to get along with.  They will not let it happen.  They will not ever stop griping.  They’re not going to change apart from the grace of God.  They’re whiners.  The Bible says, “as far as it depends on you.”  If it’s possible.  God is developing greater capacity of love in me. 

You know what?   “It’s not all about you.”  Part of spiritual growth is a healthy awareness of others.  Part of growing spiritually is understanding that it’s not about you.  And it’s having an awareness of the people around you, an ability to see below that disagreeable surface for the reason for the behavior that is so annoying to you at that moment or so hurtful.  I grow when I’m open for that kingdom business.  That’s part of that walking in the light. 

What you’re saying is, I’m walking in this light with God.  Somebody does something and my first response is I want to react because of the impact of what they just did on me, because it’s all about me.  Instead of taking a step further back and saying, “Ok God, what’s going on here?”-- Walk in the light.  The light is an amazing perspective giver.  We get to see below the surface.  God wants to empower us and let us in on what He’s up to.  He wants to use these people in our lives.  Are you open for that kind of kingdom business?  You’re going to have to put off your reactions to people’s lame behavior.  How do you do that? 

Romans 12 says “Live in harmony with each other.  Don’t try to act important but enjoy the company of ordinary people.  Don’t think you know it all.  Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.  Do things in such a way that people can see that you’re honorable.” 

A young man went to Eugene Bible College in Oregon.  This guy’s name was Wayne.  He relates a story about showing up the first day at the Bible College.  He’d been a Christian for just three months when he decided he was going to go to Bible College and he was going to preach the word.  He went to the Bible college and gets there and he’s pretty excited about it.  He shows up for his first class.  The professor says, “Turn to Jeremiah,” and he turns round looking for Jeremiah.  Who is he?  Then finally someone in the class goes, “Hey stupid!  It’s in the Bible!”  So he’s stumbling through.  Someone else goes, “Idiot!  You only have the New Testament.  Jeremiah’s in the Old Testament!”  So he gets done with that first class and is thinking, “I ought to get in my car and get out of here.  I shouldn’t be here.” 

He went ahead to his next class.  He got there and he’s obviously feeling a little more comfortable as he gets involved in some of the conversation.  He can see by some of the reactions that he’s probably going to say the right stuff.  At the end of the class the professor asked everybody to write a couple of paragraphs about themselves.  He did.  When he got back to this class he got his paper back.  There was a note on the bottom that said, “Thank you for being in my class, Wayne.  Your insight and contribution was so refreshing in our discussion times.  Your obvious zeal for Christ inspires us all.  I look with great anticipation for how God will use you for His purpose.”  Then he put on the bottom “The kingdom of God awaits you.”  He said he must have read it a hundred times that night. 

We tend to maximize the negative voices in our lives.  And we tend to minimize the positive.  We hear the negative voices screaming.  We need to learn how to deal with that.  Sometimes we think that’s the way it is and that’s the way you have to live.  You don’t.  You can learn to deal with this.

You need to get a lid for your heart.  Sometimes people say things and you just let it right into your heart.  You let it straight into your emotions.  You need to learn how to close that lid.  You need to learn how to open and close the lid of your heart and not let everything in so deeply that shouldn’t be there. 

A third way that God will help you grow spiritually at work is…

3.  God uses pain to change my character.

We all have our unique set of problems in our unique jobs.  There’s a resulting pain from those problems, those trials, those difficulties.  God wants to use those to help build our character.  That does not mean He authored the problems, trials and pain.  It simply means He’s willing to use those.  He will leverage those things for our spiritual growth.

Romans 5 says “We can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials.  They help us learn to endure and endurance develops strength of character and helps us to trust God more each time.”  God is far more interested in your character than in your comfort.  God is far more interested in perfecting you than pampering you.  I don’t really like either of those statements.  I’m very committed to my comfort and my pampering.  But every time I pursue that and it runs counter to God’s purposes in my life I find that my best efforts do not satisfy.  When I let Him do this transforming work in my heart it’s amazing but I actually end up where I wanted to be all along.  Fulfilled.  I was just pursuing it in a way that could never get it done.  The goal is that we be transformed and become more like Jesus. 

An elderly man asked a boy to go with him into the woods to cut down some hickory trees to make ax handles.  They soon came to several young hickory trees.  The boy said, These trees would make good ax handles.  Let’s cut them down.

The old man said, These trees in the lowlands have been protected from the storms which rage higher up.  Let’s go higher up where the trees have been rocked back and forth by fierce winds.  Those trees have been hardened by the storms and they will make much stronger ax handles.

Those who have been exposed to trials and temptations, who have been rocked back and forth by the storms of life are made stronger.  We can be more than conquerors through him who loved us.  God uses pain to change our character.

God can even use the temptations that you face to do that.  All of us face various temptations but there’s a whole new set of them that are unique to work.  You have a whole different group of temptations that show up there.  1 Corinthians 10 says “Remember the temptations that come into your life are no different than what others experience.  God is faithful.  He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it.  When you are tempted He will show you a way out so you won’t give into it.”  The temptations are common.  We all face the same kinds of temptation.  The solutions are also common as well.  You go to Jesus.  You ask Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit, give you the power to make the right choice.  Temptations are resistible.  And this scripture says God will give you a way out.  There is a way that God will make that even when I blow it the last chapter is not written.  As long as I do something – walk in the light.

Here is a definition for maturity :  Christian maturity is when: I'm a quicker repent-er than I used to be.  That’s Christian maturity.  Because if maturity means you won’t sin, then we have to become awesome actors.  Because you and I will continue to sin.  Fortunately God is in the business of forgiveness.  He can even use my failures to build my character.

The bible says: “I am sure that God who began the good work within you will continue His work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again.”  The most important thing that you’re going to bring from your job this week is not your paycheck.  It’s your character.  God has begun a work in you.  He’s committed to completing that work.  He wants to continue that.  He wants that backstage pass.  Would you give Him the full access pass?  It will conclude that forty percent on your job this week.  I challenge you to say, “Ok God, lights on, windows open.  I'm walking in the light.  I want to be a quicker repent-er than I used to be.  I want to give You access to change me.  In every way You want.” 

If you’ll do that, I have some exciting news for you.  The kingdom of God is at hand for you.  The kingdom of God is at hand!  It starts Monday morning.  What will you do with it?

Prayer:           Lord Jesus, I thank You today that You are absolutely committed to my transformation.  I thank You today that You love me so much that You’re willing to even use the pressures and the people and even the pain that I bring on myself to transform me.  Thank You so much that You’re willing to stop at nothing so that we can be together.  I pray for my friends today Lord who have not made that commitment to You yet, who have not stepped over that line of faith.  I pray Lord God that they would risk opening up to Your love.  I pray Lord that You’d help them.  I pray Lord that they would take a step towards You today in their heart.  I thank You for all that You have planned for us.  We give You full access.  We do so in Jesus’ name.  Amen.