Blessings of Following Christ
#2 – We Get to Meet with God
Revelation 3:20
October 28, 2007
NOTE: THE ME/WE/GOD/YOU/WE FORMAT USED IN MY MESSAGES IS BORROWED FROM ANDY STANLEY’S BOOK, "COMMUNICATING FOR A CHANGE."
Me: I’ve been a follower of Jesus for 25 years now. Lord knows I haven’t always been the best follower, and I’ve blown it more times than I can count. I’ve still got a ways to go in terms of maturity in Christ and in wisdom.
One of the greatest truths that I have come across in my life with Christ was the truth that Christ loves me so much that He was not only willing to die for me, but that He wants to spend time with me.
I look at the mirror of my soul and sometimes all I see is garbage. He’s cleaned me up and forgiven me, but sometimes all I can see is the bad stuff, and I have to wonder – “Why would He, the Holy One, want to spend time with me?”
We: Have you ever felt that way? Many of you have; maybe most or all of you.
Or maybe you can look at it this way: we see someone we really admire and we think, “There’s no way that person would ever want to hang out with me.” And when they look at us or call us by name, we’re wondering why they would bother to know our name.
So we come to God and we wonder, “Why would God want to spend time with me? Why would He want to hang out with a broken-down imperfect person like me? Obviously He’s got others He’s rather hang out with – you know, those guys who have it all together spiritually and can quote whole books of the Bible in the original languages and dress just right and never have a bad thought or questions about stuff in the Bible. Or never complain when people don’t use their turn signals.”
Ever thought that?
Well, my hope for today is let you know that Jesus loves spending time with us – not just here on Sunday mornings, but daily, in the quietness of our daily living.
It’s the truth, and if you’re not really able to grasp that, then I just ask that you hang in there for a bit, okay?
God: Revelation 3:20 –
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
This verse is often used when talking about a person’s need to open their lives to Christ so they can have their sins forgiven and be given a home in heaven.
But the context of that passage doesn’t say that at all.
In the book of Revelation, chapters 2 and 3 contain letters Jesus dictated to seven churches. The church in Laodicea was one of these churches.
The church in Laodicea was characterized by their total apathy toward God. They just didn’t care one way or the other.
They were proud of their material wealth, but they were spiritually bankrupt, and because of that, they were lukewarm toward God and the things of God.
Have you ever gone to a water fountain and started to drink, but the water was lukewarm? What’s your first reaction? To spit it out, right?
Well, that’s God’s reaction to the lukewarm Christians in Laodicea – He says in verse 16 of this chapter that He is ready to spit them out of His mouth. Yikes.
But in verse 19 He says that those He loves He rebukes and disciplines, so He’s saying that He still loves these people and wants them to live for Him.
And that’s where verse 20 comes in. He wants these people to renew their love and commitment to Him by renewing their intimate relationship with Him by spending time with Him.
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
This is not an evangelism verse – it’s a “Jesus wants to spend time with you” verse.
For years I used this verse when sharing the gospel, and many of you are familiar with the famous painting that shows Jesus knocking at the door and there’s no latch, meaning that the person inside needs to open the door.
And while it’s true that Jesus wants to come live inside you by His Spirit, this verse isn’t about that. It’s about the fact that Jesus wants to actually be part of the Church and its people.
I don’t know about you, but the fact that Jesus wants to spend time with me just totally blows me away.
Because I know myself – and I know that I’m not always the best guy to hang out with! Folks, there are times when my wife can’t stand being around me – and yet Jesus says He wants to come in and be with me. How cool is that?
Allow me to read you a portion of a booklet entitled, “My Heart, Christ’s Home,” which deals with how Jesus comes to live in us when we’ve put our trust in Him for salvation.
He likens his heart to a house, with all sorts of different rooms – the living room, the library, the closet, bedrooms, the attic, and so on.
“From the dining room we walked into the living room. This room was intimate and comfortable. I liked it. It had a fireplace, overstuffed chairs, a sofa, and a quiet atmosphere.
He said, ‘This is indeed a delightful room. Let us come here often. It is secluded and quiet, and we can fellowship together.’
Well, as a young Christian I was thrilled. I couldn’t think of anything I would rather do than have a few minutes with Christ in close companionship.
“He promised, ‘I will be here early every morning. Meet me here, and we will start the day together.’
“So morning after morning, I would come downstairs to the living room. He would take a book of the Bible from the case. We would open it and read together. He would unfold to me the wonder of God’s saving truths. My heart sang as He shared the love and the grace He had toward me. These were wonderful times.
“However, little by little, under the pressure of many responsibilities, this time began to be shortened. Why, I’m not sure. I thought I was too busy to spend regular time with Christ. This was not intentional, you understand. It just happened that way.
“Finally, not only was the time shortened, but I began to miss days now and then. Urgent matters would crowd out the quiet times of conversation with Jesus.
“I remember one morning rushing downstairs, eager to be on my way. I passed the living room and noticed that the door was open.
“Looking in, I saw a fire in the fireplace and Jesus was sitting there. Suddenly in dismay I thought to myself, ‘He is my guest. I invited Him into my heart! He has come as my Savior and Friend, and yet I am neglecting Him.’
“I stopped, turned and hesitantly went in. With downcast glance, I said, ‘Master, forgive me. Have You been here all these mornings?
“‘Yes,’ He said, ‘I told you I would be here every morning to meet with you.
“‘Remember, I love you. I have redeemed you at great cost. I value your fellowship. Even if you cannot keep the quiet time for your own sake, do it for mine.’
“The truth that Christ desires my companionship, that He wants me to be with Him and waits for me, has done more to transform my quiet time with God than any other single fact. Don’t let Christ wait alone in the living room of your heart, but every day find time when, with your Bible and in prayer, you may be together with Him.” (Robert Boyd Munger, My Heart Christ’s Home, InterVarsity Press)
You: Here’s the deal that I think Jesus wants to make, and the point I want to make today:
Open the door to personal time with Jesus.
Spend time with Jesus on a regular/daily basis, reading the Bible and praying.
Some people call these times “devotions,” others call them “quiet times,” “private worship times,” or whatever. The term isn’t important. The fact that you do it is what’s important.
Come to those times ready and expecting to hear from Him. Come in humble submission, listening for His Spirit speaking to you through the Word of God.
There are some great tools you can use to help you get started, or to just help you rejuvenate what you’ve got going already.
I’m working on a bulletin insert that you can use to help you get started that has information about the how’s and why’s of having personal time with Christ. I hope to have it ready by next Sunday.
Aside from just being able to spend time with Jesus (as if that’s not enough!), let me give you some reasons that you should consider spending time with Christ on a regular or daily basis.
Have you ever just done something out of habit, and when you really start to think about what you’re doing, you realize that you’ve never really given much thought as to why do it?
That’s what happened to me as I was working on this message. I came up with just a ton of reasons why a personal devotional life is so important. Allow me to look at just a few of them.
1. Meeting with Christ alone allows us to refresh our spirit.
Matthew 11:28-30 –
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Sometimes life just gets overwhelming for us. Tragedy, natural disasters, sick and whiny kids, crabby customers and bosses, money problems, family struggles, and all sorts of stuff can get us down.
And the weight of all these things can just crush us. We’ve all been there, and some of us are there right now.
When we’re spending time with Jesus in the privacy of our hearts in His Word, we can cry out to Him, unloading our burdens onto Him.
He promises here to come alongside us and help bear those burdens.
How often I have faced what looked like overwhelming circumstances and it was all I could do to just get alone and cry, begging God to intervene on my behalf.
And it’s in those times that I have found Jesus there, comforting me, reminding me that I’m not alone and that He’s there with me.
That doesn’t mean that my problems go away – especially if they’re the result of my own doing.
But it means that Jesus doesn’t abandon me when the going gets tough. He’s there.
2. Meeting with Christ alone prepares us for the challenges of the day.
We all face challenges and distractions during the day, as well as temptations. Yet all through the day we are to seek to be Christlike.
Because we are weak in and of ourselves, and because our sinful nature wants to lead the way in our lives, we need to spend time with the One who can give us the strength of will and of body to live a life that is pleasing to God. Personal time with Jesus helps that to happen.
Listen to this great quote my Andrew Murray:
“Never forget for a moment that it is sin that has led to the great transaction between you and Christ Jesus; and that each day in your fellowship with God, His one aim is to deliver and keep you fully from its power, and lift you up into His likeness and His infinite love.” (Closer Walk Devotional, Walk Thru the Bible)
1 Peter 5:8 –
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Any of you watch those nature shows? Growing up, we’d always watch “Mutual of Omaha’s ‘Wild Kingdom,’” with Marlin Perkins. Remember that? We loved that show.
My favorite ones were those episodes where Marlin and whoever his assistant was at the time would go into dangerous situations to show people how those animals reacted.
They’d be wrestling huge snakes or alligators and stuff, and if you’re honest, you’re thinking, “I wonder if someone’s gonna get bitten or squeezed to death – that’d be cool!”
Well, one thing you can learn from these shows is about how lions pick out their prey from a herd of animals.
Which animals do they pick to kill and eat? The weak ones who fall apart from the herd, right? They’re the ones who don’t have the strength to keep up, or they’re simply not alert. And the lion just watches, waiting for the opportunity to pounce and kill.
They don’t go for the strong ones. You’ll never hear a lion go, “You know what? I think today I’ll go for the leader – the biggest one with the biggest horns.” They don’t work that way. They’re afraid of the big and strong ones.
Your enemy the devil is the same way. He looks for the weak and unaware, waiting for his opportunity to pounce and kill. When we only partake of Christ and the Word on Sundays, we’re weak – and we’re easy pickings for the enemy.
Time spent with Christ in the Word and prayer, on the other hand, makes us strong to be able to resist the devil and live for Christ, even when times are hard.
3. Meeting with Christ alone helps us become more like Him.
There is well-known truth of life that you become like those you hang out with.
That’s why the Bible warns against associating too much with those of corrupt character.
Obviously we need to be around those who don’t know Christ if we hope to influence them for Christ, but the idea is that if allow ourselves to be the “influencee” instead of the influencer, then we’re in danger of becoming like them instead of like Christ.
But if you make it a point to spend time with Christ on a regular or daily basis, then you allow yourself to be influenced by Him – and that’s always a good thing, wouldn’t you agree?
Romans 8:29 –
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Remember that quote from Andrew Murray I gave a few minutes ago? Here’s the last part again –
“His one aim is to deliver and keep you fully from its power, and lift you up into His likeness and His infinite love.”
It’s cool enough that He wants to hang out with you – but it’s even more awesome that He wants you and me to be like Him.
Here’s the last reason we’ll look at today:
4. Meeting with Christ alone prepares us to worship Him on Sunday.
I mentioned this last Sunday – that Sunday worship is best experienced by those who worship Monday through Saturday.
When you meet with Christ alone, without the distractions of the day, you can’t help but praise Him and grow to love Him more. And when we get into a habit of private worship, it makes this worship time on Sundays even more sweet, and it opens you up more to what the Spirit wants to do in you through this service.
Sunday is when we come together corporately, as a body, as the family of God, to raise our voices and hearts as one to Him, allowing Him to move among us as a group.
And He’s able to do that best when we as individuals are already raising our voices and hearts to Him in our devotional times.
We: Revelation 3:20 does address the church. And so I want us to think about the fact that we need to allow Jesus to be the focus of this church.
There are plenty of lukewarm churches in the area. They’re more concerned with themselves than they are about Christ and serving Him.
Let it be said of us that the Lord isn’t just someone we talk about because we’re supposed to at church, but rather that the Lord is our passion. He’s who we live for at all times in all places in all circumstances.
That can’t happen in lukewarm churches. Lukewarm churches are made of lukewarm people.
And who wants to be known as “The Church of the Spit-out Ones?” Not this cowboy, that’s for sure!
So let me encourage you one more time to allow Jesus into your life completely. To live with you in sweet fellowship – meeting with you, eating with you – being in relationship with you like no one else can.
The Savior wants to spend time with you. He wants to be spend time us as a body of believers.
How can we pass that up? It would be the height of arrogance and foolishness to do so.
So let’s commit to being a church where the name of Jesus is lifted high – in our hearts and in our worship service.
Let’s decide that we want to be people who welcome Jesus into our lives on a daily basis – because not only does He want us to, but because we need His presence in our lives if we hope to live for Him in holiness and Christlikeness, saying no to sin and yes to godliness.
Let’s decide to sit with the Savior.
Let’s pray.
