Today we have set aside as a day of prayer and fasting. We began our 24 hour vigil at midnight last night and it will go until midnight tonight (so if you just heard about it this morning you are still in luck). We are preparing ourselves, our church, our community, for a God visit during our upcoming 40 Days of Community. This summer, as we went through the book of Acts, we noticed was that about every time God worked in powerful ways (people receiving healing, church coming together in unity, people trusting in Jesus Christ) we read how it was preceded by prayer, and many times fasting is included in that. When God’s people are in concert together in prayer God responds. When we accompany our prayer with fasting, we are unlocking another spiritual tool. Fasting, of course, is choosing to abstain from food for a period of time for spiritual purposes. When we fast we are letting God know we are serious about our prayer, because we are willing to abstain from something in order to see God work. We are not twisting God’s arm to answer, we are just demonstrating our sincerity to him, the desire of our heart. Fasting also helps us free up more time for prayer because we can pray when we would have been eating (if you want to know more about fasting there are copies of guidelines in the back for you to take).
We don’t want our 40 Days of Community to be just another program on the church calendar, something for us to keep busy this fall, one more thing to cram into our already busy schedules. The reason we are doing the 40 Days of Community, encouraging everyone to be part of small groups (meeting in the church or homes), is because we believe it will help us move closer to God, closer to each other, and help us impact the lives of others in our community. We don’t want to just talk about being in Christian community, we need to live it out. "Do not just be hearers of the Word, but doers." Every part of the 40 Days is important, the weekend services, the small weekly groups, the community service project (to name a few) to get the full experience. But it won’t be successful without our participation and our prayers. As John Wesley once remarked, "God does nothing but in response to prayer." Our prayers, our seeking God’s face, pave the way for the work of the Holy Spirit. I encourage you to be in prayer with us today and in the weeks ahead for a God visit.
Preparing for a God Visit
Let’s say an important person was going to come to your house. [Ask someone to name their favorite musician]. Let’s say, so and so, called you up out of the blue one day and said, "I heard that you are a big fan of my music and I am passing through the area sometime in the next week, and I was wondering if I could stop at your house and visit with you for a while." What would you do? First, you would probably call all of your friends and say, "you’re not going to believe this," and tell them the story. But what would you do after that. You would probably look around the house and see all the things that need to get done. The linoleum floor hasn’t been swept and mopped in a while, the carpets haven’t been cleaned, and look at all the dust on those shelves. What are you going to do with a celebrity coming to your house? You would probably prepare for their visit wouldn’t you? Since you don’t know exactly when they are coming you begin to get on it right away. For some reason we could live with all that filth before, but now there seems to be a reason to clean up. I remember when we first moved here, we liked having a weekly Bible study at our house because it forced us to clean up.
What if the guest we are expecting is God, what should we do? Prepare.
In the OT the people of Israel, God’s chosen people, had miraculously escaped from the hands of slavery from the Egyptians, by God’s mighty hand and they fled to the desert guided by a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. After two months they arrived at a mountain called Sinai. Moses, their leader, went to the top of the mountain to meet with God. God told Moses he was going to personally visit the people in three days, and he said "Go down and prepare the people for my visit. Purify them today and tomorrow...(Ex. 19:10, NLT)."
I realize God is always near us. He promises never to leave us or forsake us, and as Christians we believe he lives within us by his Holy Spirit, yet sometimes our relationship with God grows distant, and we aren’t experiencing God as fully as we should. When I talk about a God visit I am referring to the power of God’s Spirit at work in our life, church, and community.
Are we prepared? Are we ready for a God visit, and I am not talking about the return of Jesus, I am talking about the power of the Holy Spirit?
Other than prayer and fasting, how do we prepare ourselves for a holy visitation, where God will show up in a powerful way during the coming 40 days of community?
Looking With Expectation
The story of Zacchaeus helps remind us what it means to prepare ourselves for a God visit. One day Jesus was going through the town of Jericho and a rich tax collector wanted to check Jesus out for himself, but because there was such a large crowd and he was so short he couldn’t see over the crowd. What’s a wee little man to do? Give up? Head back home? He had heard about Jesus, his healing, his teaching, the rumors that he was the Messiah, God’s Son, and he wasn’t going to give up that easily. Perhaps he was curios, but I don’t think this was his sole motivation because a curious person would have likely given up. But Zacchaeus was so driven that he actually was willing to suffer embarrassment by climbing a tree to get above the crowd. Why embarrassment, men wore robes in those days (I’ll let you think that one through).
Zacchaeus wasn’t a believer or follower of Jesus yet, but he reminds me of that component of a God visit whether one is a believer or not yet. It’s an expectation, an inner desire to see Jesus. It’s also like that woman who had suffered from internal bleeding for years, doctor after doctor couldn’t help her problem, but she snuck up behind Jesus hoping, expecting that if she secretly touched the hem of his robe God’s power would heal her. It’s that hopeful, sometimes desperate, expectation of experiencing God at work in our life.
We have a tendency to get so comfortable in our relationship with Jesus that we take it for granted. We don’t look with expectant longing to see him, to spend time with him like we used to, to worship him regularly.
So hear was Jesus walking through the crowd, hundreds of people around him, people with very real needs, people who were curious who came to see what all the hubbub is about. And yet his eyes fall on one man, who was so desperate to see Jesus that he climbed up into a sycamore tree. Even though the two had never met before, Jesus walked right up to him, he knew his name, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately, I must stay at your house tonight." No time to clean, no time to prepare a meal.
Of the hundreds of other people around the Son of God, why did Zacchaeus receive a God visit?
Was it because he demonstrated expectation?
Take Inventory of our Spiritual Life
Jesus headed off with Zacchaeus to his house. We can only imagine what was going through Zacchaeus’ mind. You know how it is when someone invites themselves over to your house and you weren’t prepared, it’s kind of uncomfortable. Poor Zacchaeus, no time to clean up, and no time to cover up anything. There was his life in full view, exposed to Jesus, he couldn’t hide anymore. I doubt it was the dishes he left out for breakfast, or the condition of the floors Zacchaeus was concerned about. I suspect what was on Zacchaeus’ mind had more to do with the lifestyle Zacchaeus chose to live. Living in the finest home, having the finest clothes, the finest food, all acquired by swindling his neighbor by skimming off their tax bill. Didn’t Jesus say something about loving our neighbors?
When I was a student pastor in Kentucky and we were doing some door to door ministry on the road which the church was located. I remember at one home in particular we introduced ourselves, and Kentucky people being kind like they are (that Southern hospitality thing), they invited us in. It was humorous to see them scramble around in the background hiding all the beer cans (this was a dry county) and any other objectionable material, with exclamations of "preachers here" to warn others in the house to take care of any overlooked items and to be on their best behavior.
Zacchaeus wasn’t just confronted with his greed, he faced with the reality of his spiritual decay which led to his greed.
You better believe as Zacchaeus and Jesus were walking together up to his house, he was taking a quick Spiritual Inventory. You know when a business does an inventory in a way it�s a reality check it�s saying here�s what we have and here�s what we don�t have. We know Zacchaeus did a spiritual inventory because when people complained that Jesus was hanging out with a "sinner" because he had swindled people, Zacchaeus did an amazing thing, he offered to give half of his belongings to the poor, and return anyone four times what he had taken. Zacchaeus realized his life was way off track with God and his priorities. He realized he had allowed greed to shift his priorities away from where he was supposed to be.
1. Repenting of our Sins
Zacchaeus had to get honest with Jesus about his spiritual life if he wanted to get back on track with God. Zacchaeus repented of his greed. "NIV Luke 19:8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."
Imagine if Jesus were to walk in here right now and say to you, "I am coming to your house right now." No time to call your spouse on the cell phone to warn them. Would Jesus see anything which would bring us embarrassment or shame? Would Jesus see a life demonstrating to Jesus our priorities? What if, when we got there, Jesus were to ask to look at our calendar, our blackberry, our computer, what would he see? If he asked to look into your checkbook would he see our financial priority on supporting his work in the church and mission? I say all of this realizing, of course, Jesus has already seen them, but we need to be reminded that if we are going to experience God at work among us it begins with doing a reality check of our spiritual inventory.
I want to ask us to do the same thing spiritually to take a spiritual inventory an honest assessment right now and just answer the hard question, "Where am I with the Lord right now in my own relationship?" If I want to be in the right place in my heart to let God to a great work in my life I need to have an honest assessment about my relationship with God.
How is my relationship with God? Perhaps you’ve been involved in the church and doing things but if you are honest with yourself you know your heart has been drifting away from Him. As we take time this morning for communion, it is a time for us to just stop and ask where is my relationship with God, and if there is anything blocking my relationship with God? Is there some sin I have been clinging to or have I just drifted and I need to come back in my relationship with God? I hope your heart’s cry is the cry of David in Psalm 51 when he says "Create in me a pure heart, God, and make my spirit right again."
When Zacchaeus did his spiritual inventory he owned up to the fact that greed was his particular relationship buster. It separated him from God, from others, it isolated him. He had everything he needed, except what was most important. He didn’t just say he was sorry for what he did, he repented, he made it right. Is there something we need to get rid of?
NIV 2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
We won’t have a God visit without humbling ourselves before God and being honest about our need for him. The more we think we can do it on our own, the less we will see God manifest.
Communion
Communion is a time where we prepare ourselves for the Lord. The Apostle Paul wrote
NRS 1 Corinthians 11:28 Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. We are told to examine ourselves, and ask ourselves is there anything I have done against the body of Christ, fellow Christian believers? Have I not treated someone in love? When we have done something against the body of Christ
