TRANSFORMATIONS
From the beginning of history until the middle of the 1800’s most communication was by letters, flags, signal fires.
It was the invention of the telegraph that by Samuel Morse in 1837 that changed everything. From this simple idea – an electric pulse – our world has become smaller and much more interconnected.
I have witnessed many of these changes. As a child I grew up with a large black telephone on a table in the living room. It was owned by the phone company and there were actually four different homes on the same party line. I’m not sure – it has been a long time – but I’m pretty sure that the ring signal for the Stacy home was one long and one short. You could either dial the number – there were no push buttons – or you could dial 0 and ask the operator to connect you to your party. Oh, there were only 5 numbers to dial, too.
Long distance calls were a huge deal. You would answer the phone and the person calling would immediately identify themselves and then say, “I’m calling long distance.” They did that so you would get the person being called to the phone as quickly as possible. Long distance phone calls were very expensive – usually 5 or even 10 dollars – which in 1956 was a lot of money!
Now we have cell phones with no long distance charges anywhere in the country, voice mail, email, instant messages, and text messages. But I’ve noticed that when it comes to text messages there is a similarity between them and that old long distance phone call.
I’m not too big on texting… so I’ll let Tyler explain how it works.
Messages from God
God: u there?
God: wnt 2 tlk?
God: msg 4 u
How texting and getting messages works – how it demands our attention
Today we want to talk to you about the foundational spiritual discipline of listening to God
Touching God is not that hard. In fact it’s easy. The challenge is taking the time to do it – consistently.
Part of it has to with the importance of changing our understanding of prayer.
Prayer is an almost universal practice. According to George Barna, something in the neighborhood of 94% of people in America pray. But most of our prayers involving asking God to DO something. Our prayers are always do…, bless…, provide…, help…, change… fix… and the requests just go on and on.
Maybe… Just maybe we should be looking at this differently. Think for a moment – we have a God that cares so much about us that he created a beautiful world for us to live in. We have a God that cares so much about us that when we were separated from him by our rebellious and selfish actions He sent his only begotten son to redeem us and make a way for us to come home. We have a God that cares so much about us that He has given us his Holy Spirit to dwell in us and to make us alive eternally. Is it possible… In fact, is it likely that God wants to say something to us? What if God is trying to say something to me?
Most critical piece leading to transformation – the word of God
We want to get you into the word of God – every day.
Two Reasons People Don’t Listen to God
It’s too hard
Don’t do anything hard.
Hard is doing stupid things in your teens and 20’s that you pay for in the 30’s
Hard is making bad value jud
Hard is making a bad marriage
Hard is raising kids without
It’s not hard to read and understand some literature
I don’t believe it
Do you read the newspaper because you believe it? I don’t think so!
Go home and start looking at all the magazines you read. Do you only read them because you believe them? Ten ways to make your man love you! 15 ways to work off that tummy. 100 ways to make a million dollars by the time your 35 years old. I don’t think so!
What about books and movies. Do you
We don’t read magazines because we believe them – we read them because they are interesting and we learn something.
You don’t have to believe it – just read it
The Bible has shaped our world – you owe it to yourself to read it and understand it.
Psalms 119
97 Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.
Let me tell you what David said about the Word of God in his life.
Before we start it would be good to point out a few things about David and his time. He wrote this poem hundreds of years after the time of Moses – who wrote the Bible in David’s time. In fact David only had eight books – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Judges, and the book of Job. This is the only literature he had that came from God.
And yet he writes, “Oh, how I love your law!” Separated by a distance of hundreds of years – yet it is so relevant that it is as fresh as a flower just cut from the stem.
David not only loves God’s law – it is what he thinks about all day long. When I read this it makes me think about what runs through my mind all day long. It’s usually cluttered with the latest price of gasoline, the newest headline about the presidential campaign, the pressing need to get the laundry washed, the beds made, the dishes in the dishwasher, the bosses latest agenda – that can’t possibly get done in time, the paper that must be written, the child that rebellious, the bills that are piled in the corner of the kitchen counter, and the broken lawnmower – in that order.
What fills your mind? What do you meditate on all day long?
Psalms 119
98 Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me.
Then David says that God’s commands “make me wiser than my enemies.” When God’s law fills my mind I not only have knowledge but the ability to use that knowledge to advantage. Wisdom is so much more than information – and it never leaves you once you have it. Wisdom is with you all of the time.
Psalms 119
99 I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.
Insight: ability to related unrelated things in such a way that you see things that other people don’t see. They see dots – but you see the picture. You have more than the academics in your life. You have wisdom – ability to use knowledge well and insight – the ability to connect unrelated things to produce new knowledge. The more familiar you are with God’s statues, God’s word, and God’s law the smarter you are and the more common sense you have.
Psalms 119
100 I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.
As you talk with your elders – they are amazed at your understanding. You become one of these people that older men and women look at and say – I wish I knew half of what you do at your age.
Do you remember how Jesus, at the age of 12, amazed the elder teachers in the temple? What amazed them was his understanding, his wisdom, and his insight – and that all came from his knowledge of God’s ways.
David goes on to speak not only of wisdom but of obedience…
Psalms 119
101 I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word.
One of the most important lessons we all need to learn when it comes to God’s law is the importance of submission – or to put it bluntly to learn the discipline of obedience. We all want to know why things happen in our lives but sometimes we only learn about the why’s of life after we’ve have submitted to God’s law. I heard it put this way recently – “To understand why… submit and apply”
Often it’s only after we have been obedient that we see with clarity the things that God would have us understand. It is obedience that brings wisdom, insight, and understanding.
ILLUSTRATION:
Psalms 119
102 I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me.
David goes on and says when I open your word – God himself teaches me. Imagine one-on-one training from the creator himself. God speaks to you directly from the scripture. What would it be like for a young engineer to sit in a classroom with the man that first designed the Mackinaw Bridge? What is it like for a physicist to have Einstein as his professor, an artist to have Van Gogh as his art teacher or a cub reporter to have William Hurst as his mentor? Imagine what it was like for 17 year old David Archaleta to have Andrew Lloyd Webber as his voice coach.
David is in awe that the almighty creator God is teaching him His ways. This is why it is so important that we listen to what he has to say to us through his word.
Think about it for a minute. You really do have a text message from God. He is your teacher! Are you listening?
Psalms 119
103 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.
Your law shapes my values, my world view and my priorities. Your word changes the shading of every color on the palette. It is that important.
Now comes the words that you know and have heard many times before. Say them with me…
Psalms 119
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
David – wrote this 100’s of years before he came along.
He says “My” feet… “my” path… this is intensely personal. This is as real and as authentic as it gets.
This world is a dark alley – and God’s word is the light you need to get through it without getting hurt!
This isn’t theology and Greek and Hebrew. This is as simple as a candle in a scary place.
David was an ordinary guy. He was a shepherd boy who used a stone to kill a giant named Goliath. This was a simple man who learned to express his heart in music and word while sitting on a hill surrounded by sheep. This was a courageous man who took up the sword of a warrior to lead the people of God to many and great victories. It is this man that says to God – your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light for my path.
This principle still works today…
David and Goliath
45 David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head.
1 Samuel 17:45-47
David and Goliath
Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”
1 Samuel 17:45-47
This is a guy text! Following God is not a namby-pamby easy way.
Charles and Andy Stanley: Charles had his son Andy memorize this scripture. In fact, Charles said if Andy would memorize this passage he would pay him! Andy said, I’m in! Andy thought it was pretty cool – blood and guts. But then he asked his dad why? Why do you want me to memorize this scripture?
The reason was so that this would be part of his spiritual resources and strength in the days of his battles against the ungodly Goliath’s in his life.
Do you mind if I preach a little to the men here today… You Father’s - you need to give your boys some respect and spiritual significance that comes only from God. You need to give your daughters some acceptance and love that comes only through God’s word… for your daughters you might want tell them about Esther rather than David – less blood and guts – but just as much courage!
The important piece is to get into the word of God and let God shape your heart and life.
When I Don’t Touch God
I Study the Bible all the time… but it’s important to get into the word for what God has to say to me.
I magnify the weaknesses of others and overlook my own.
Suddenly more and more of my problems are their fault. When my world is my focus I see all the broken pieces, the cracks and shortcomings in the people around me. When I read the word it changes my perspective about me – and the people in my world.
I evaluate all I see as if this is all there is.
When I’m detached from the word – the world starts getting bigger and badder.
News Junkie – Fox; CNN; NPR; - It’s my Dad’s fault – he’s a news junkie too. What I have noticed is that when I am focused on the news that this is all I think about – and it gets depressing. I worry about the economy, the price of a gallon of gas, the latest polling data and the most recent earthquake with all of the loss of life – who wouldn’t get depressed.
This past Wednesday I started reading in 2 Timothy. In chapter 1 verse 7 I read these words: “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” I want you to know that those words stuck in my head the whole day.
Now I ask you – which is better to have in your head – a pile of depressing news or God’s word that says he did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline! The first fills you with dread and fear. The second gives you freedom and a spirit of exultation.
I close my hands around my possessions.
My sense of selfishness and lack of compassion is tightly related to my view of my possessions – and my view of my possessions is directly related to what is in my mind. The fear, the depressing news, and the endless possibilities for loss close in on me and I start to tighten my grip on the stuff in my life.
But when I read God’s word – I read that he says “trust me.” When I look around – I think “what if?” but God’s word says “trust me”, “follow me”, “put your faith in me” and somehow I find that I start to loosen my hold of my possessions.
I hold on to my anger too long.
I take myself way too seriously. I get a better view of life when I see it through God’s eyes.
When I understand that my forgiveness is based on my willingness to forgive those who hurt me… it really does help me to let loose of the anger in my life.
Psalms 119
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
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