How Jesus Speaks Through My Experiences
Series: Hearing Jesus Speak Today
August 29, 2010
I’m sure you’ve heard the story about the guy who was trapped on the roof of his house during hurricane Katrina. 1st, his neighbor came by in a row boat and asked if he needed help. He said, “No thank you… Jesus is going to save me.” 3 hours later, a rescue team came by in a boat, and invited him to get in. He said, “No thank you… Jesus is going to save me.” Night came and the waters rose. The man climbed to the top the chimney. A helicopter searching for survivors hovered over, shined the spotlight on him, and one of the rescuers yelled out, “Hurry! Take the rope ladder!”. Again he responded…“No thank you…Jesus is going to save me.” The flood waters continued to rise, and the man was eventually swept away and drowned. When he got to heaven, he complained to the Lord, and asked Him…”Lord! Why didn’t you save me?” The Lord said, “What are you complaining about? I sent you 2 boats and a helicopter!”
A lot of people are just like that man! Jesus is speaking to them through their experiences…but they’re not listening. In fact, they’re refusing the help He’s sending them! They’re expecting (even demanding) Him to speak to them in a certain way, all the while ignoring what He’s telling them to do! See, the truth is, Jesus does speak to us today… sometimes through His Word (the bible as we said last week) and sometimes through the things we experience…but we may not be hearing. It’s like the verse we read from Job 33:14 last week.(READ)
Jesus can use an illness, a tragedy, a trial, even a success to speak to us. The trick is… learning how to recognize and interpret what He’s saying through whatever we’re experiencing. See, because if you’re not careful, you can misread what Jesus is saying to you through your experiences and never hear what He’s trying to communicate. It’s possible for you to think that every negative situation, every trial, every obstacle you run into is Satan trying to attack you. (and that may be a part of it)…but if you’re not careful, you’ll be so busy gritting your teeth and blaming the devil, you’ll never hear what God is trying to tell you. People misinterpreted what God was trying to communicate all the time in the O.T. For example…
• In the book of Haggai around 520 B.C. the people of Israel were under a divine curse because they’d disobeyed God and stopped rebuilding the temple. They weren’t lazy, they were just too busy building nice homes for themselves. At 1st, things went along pretty well. God didn’t seem to mind… but then things got real bad. 2x’s God used Haggai to warn them. Their circumstances were telling them that they were ticking God off… but they wouldn’t listen.
• During the time of Malachi, many of God’s people were experiencing economic disaster. Pests were devouring their crops and their investments were failing. They never put 2 and 2 together, but Malachi explained to them that their trials were a message from God that they’d been neglecting their obligation to tithe, so he withdrew His protection from them.
So is that the situation we’re facing now in the U.S. today? Is God withdrawing His protection from this country because of our rejection of Him… or is this just a normal economic cycle we’re going through and it’s not Him at all? How can you tell if Jesus is talking through your circumstances or not? Because, let’s be honest… a lot of times people will use situations to try and tell us what God is saying, when He’s not saying that at all. So how do you tell the difference?
2 ways…
1st… Your Bible Knowledge… your knowledge of who God is, and the way He works is made very clear in the bible. If you know what it says, it’ll act like a filter to help you discern whether Jesus is speaking through this experience or someone else is. See, Jesus will never violate the Words He’s spoken in the bible. He’ll never contradict Himself. So when you match what you “think” He’s saying, with what you “read” Him saying in the bible they should line up! If they don’t… what you “think” He’s saying, isn’t Him! For example… if you think Jesus is telling you accept a certain job…but that job requires you to break the law somehow, it’s not Him… because Jesus would never tell you to be dishonest or break the Sabbath.
Now, he 2nd way Jesus will help you to discern His voice from false voices is through His Spirit. For 3 ½ years Jesus had been physically present with the disciples. He was their teacher, their counselor, their protector. But after He resurrected from the dead (and later ascended into heaven)… He promised to send His Holy Spirit to do what He was no longer there physically to do. Jesus continued to be their teacher, counselor and protector… only now He wasn’t doing it through His PHYSICAL presence…He was doing it through His SPIRITUAL presence. In John 14,15 and 16 Jesus called His Spirit… the Spirit of Truth, because He would live in each of his followers and do 5 things…
1. He will teach you all things (John 14:26)
2. He will remind you of everything I have said (John 14:26)
3. He will testify about me (Jn.15:26)
4. He will guide you into all truth (Jn.16:13)
5. He will tell you what is yet to come (Jn.16;13)
In otherwords, if you’re a Christian this morning, you have the infinite, all powerful person of Jesus Christ living in you right now…teaching, reminding, testifying, guiding, and telling you the truth about the past, present and future! Wow! See, you don’t have to wonder or be nervous about Jesus speaking to you through the daily events of life…because He’s living and working in you right now! Helping you to hear and discern His voice through your circumstances. And believe me… He KNOWS how to get your attention!
Now, I don’t know about you… but I always have an easier time accepting the advise of someone who has actually experienced something vs. someone who just read about it in a book! I mean would you rather have your heart operated on by a surgeon who just graduated from medical school, but had never done a heart surgery… or from a Dr. who had graduated medical school but has done 10,000 heart surgeries? I want you to know that Jesus wants to speak to us not as a novice in life…but as someone who’s actually experienced what we experience. He knows what He’s talking about, because He’s already GONE where we’re GOING!
So, I want us to look at what Jesus is saying to us in 5 different life experiences (and remember… He knows what He’s talking about, because He’s been there…
1. When I’m prospering, Jesus says… THANK ME
Not every situation Jesus uses to speak to us is bad! In fact, most of the time they’re pretty good! Jesus loves to bless us. And when He does…whether it’s with a wonderful marriage, or great kids, or a new house or car. We shouldn’t arrogantly think it’s because we’re such good, talented people. It’s because He’s good…not because we are. Jesus’ blessings are a result of His mercy and gracious character and so we should be quick to thank and praise Him for them.
Unfortunately, most of us ignore what Jesus is saying to us when things are going pretty good. Oddly, we tend to listen to Jesus better, when things aren’t going the way we planned. C.S. Lewis said it best…“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” In otherwords…when things are going great, Jesus is talking to us… but we don’t listen very well! We’re so busy living our lives, his voice sounds like a faint whisper. Then, we can always hear Jesus speaking to us through our consciences…He’s there talking to us about how we treated our kids or our spouse. He’s there talking and guiding us about our next career move…but if we’re not careful, we’ll take His voice for granted. BUT…when we’re hurting, when we’re suffering…when we’re experiencing trials of any type… all the sudden we perk up! Our pain makes us hyper-sensitive, listening desperately for even just a ‘peep’ from Jesus! Lewis says that pain has this amazing way of wake us up from our spiritual laxidaziness!
It’s in those times…
2. When I’m suffering, Jesus says… “LEARN FROM ME”
In Heb 2:10 we find this amazing verse, that at 1st doesn’t make any sense. It says, “In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.” Who’s “the author of salvation” this verse is talking about? It’s Jesus! The bible here is telling us just how much Jesus had to become like us in order to win our salvation…even to the point that “he was made perfect through suffering”. You say, “I thought Jesus was already perfect”… and He is, in a moral sense, but this word is actually talking about being “experientially” perfect. Like I said before… there are some things you can’t learn through a book… you have to experience them! Jesus had to experience suffering to be fully mature. And that’s what suffering does… it matures us! It teaches us deep lessons we could never learn any other way. And most of the things we learn…are about ourselves. See, we can fool ourselves into thinking we’re great, godly people… but it’s not until we actually go through a deep trial that we really find out who we are!
Times of suffering are great times of learning. In case you haven’t heard them, let me give you the “Rules for Being Human” … if you haven’t committed these to memory yet… you should!
#1 In life, you will learn lessons
#2 There are no mistakes – only lessons.
#3 A lesson is repeated until it’s learned.
#4 If you don’t learn the easy lessons, they get harder.
#5 You’ll know you’ve learned a lesson when your actions change.
Jesus may be speaking to you through your suffering this morning. What’s He saying? Is He telling you that you need to learn patience? Is He pointing out an area of weakness? Pride? Jealousy? Materialism? Is He trying to help you work through an emotional wound you received as a child? Believe me… if you’re suffering… Jesus is talking. Because He never wastes a sorrow. The question is…Are you listening?
But Jesus not only speaks to us in our sufferings, He also speaks to us in our troubles…and do you know what He says?
3. When I’m in trouble, Jesus says… TRUST ME
God uses trouble to teach us to trust Him. Trouble (and it’s twin brother…“trials”), are situations designed by God to draw us closer to Him. We need to learn that they’re not designed to hurt us; they’re designed to help us. How many of you know that ‘good times’ don’t have the ability to change us for the better? I mean, if life were a ‘cream puff’ and all we experienced was comfort and ease… we’d be nothing more than selfish, spoiled brats. I remember a “reality show” they had a couple of years ago where they show the life’s of kids who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth. They spend a day with Nicole Hilton (of the famous hotel chain) and others, as these shallow, self-absorbed & petty material girls strut their way through life. God doesn’t want to raise brats, so He allows what He calls ‘trials’ to enter our life’s to stretch us & cause us to grow. Romans 5:3-4 tells us how it all works“…trouble produces patience, and patience produces character, and character produces hope”.
Get this… in life… God is far more interested in what you are, (your character), than He is in what you do (your career). Know why? Because you’re not taking your ‘career’ to heaven, you’re taking your character. That’s what’s going to last. And so God says, “The goal of life is character not your own personal comfort”. Now, until we understand that, life isn't going to make much sense. If you haven’t figured this out yet, all kinds of problems are going to come into your life. And when they do…you have a choice. You can either be a victim or a victor! You know what some people favorite wine is? “Why me Lord? Why is this happening to me?” If you (erroneously) think that life is supposed to be all about comfort and happiness…you’re in for a big disappointment.
And if you’re trying to artificially make it happy through drugs, alcohol, or any other drug of choice… then you’re in for an even BIGGER disappointment!
Someday (if you trust in God’s plan of salvation) you’re going to be in a place with no problems, no suffering, no pain. It’s gonna be great! But this isn’t it! We’re not there yet! And if you keep thinking you’re gonna have heaven on earth...this will become a HELL on earth. This isn’t the place for comfort. This is the place for character development. For that to happen… troubles produce patience, patience produces character, and character produces hope. Would you write this down in your outline? Every problem has a purpose.
It doesn’t matter whether you caused it, somebody else caused it, the devil caused it… or who caused it; every problem has a purpose. And what is that purpose? It’s to make me like Jesus Christ… to build character in my life.
Jesus wasn’t exempt from trials in His life. In fact, His greatest trial was the night He was crucified. He knew what He was going to have to face the next day, and the knowledge of the pain He was going to have to endure, was tearing Him up inside. He was going to die a horrible death by crucifixion, and the question was, “Would He trust God? Would He trust that His Father knew what was best for His life, even if it meant an extremely painful death? And so He went to a place called Gethsemane. He took His disciples to a grove of olive trees, and under the stress of carrying the weight of the world, He asked them to stay with Him while He prayed. (READ Mark 14:32) Jesus wasn’t too proud to admit, “I need you guys right now, would you mind hanging out with me while I go over here and pray?”
So he goes a few yards away and the bible says that the turmoil in His heart was so great it almost crushed him. (Mark 14:34) This is major trouble! Some of you are saying, “I know the feeling of wondering if I could make it another day.” But notice how Jesus responded to trouble in the next verse… READ Mark 14:36. Jesus, taught us that when we’re going through trouble, it’s OK to say to God, “God I don’t like this”, “God I want you to take it away!” That’s exactly what Jesus was saying. But that’s not ALL He said…He also said, “Father, if this is what’s best for You, and if this is what’s best for me. Your will be done in my life”.
In otherwords, He surrendered to God’s plan. He was saying to His heavenly Father, “No matter what I have to endure, if it fulfills Your purpose in my life… I’ll endure it!” Bring it on! Now here’s the point. When you are going through trials… Jesus is speaking to you. And you know what He’s saying? TRUST ME completely, even when it looks like things are falling apart. You’re going to have to learn to trust God completely just the way Jesus did. Because God is using that trouble to teach you how to trust Him. See, it’s easy to trust God when everything’s ‘hunky dory”. But the real test of your faith is, “How close do you stay to God when you don’t feel so good?”
So, the next time you get into some troubles, don’t ask, “Why is this happening to me?”,… because you know why. God is teaching you to trust Him. He’s giving you the choice to trust Him. What’s the alternative? Bitterness. Anger. Rebellion. Because if becoming like Him isn’t one of the purposes of your life, you’re going to resist and life is going to be very difficult to understand.
Now, let me give you a helpful hint, to help you endure the trial when it comes. 3 simple words… Remember the reward. See, the bible says that in eternity God is going to reward your character development. READ 2 Cor. 4:17. Paul says, “What we’re going through isn’t going to last, and even if it lasted a lifetime, that’s nothing compared to the number of years you’re going to spend in eternity.” I love this verse in the Message paraphrase. It says this, “These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times and the lavish celebration prepared for us.”
When I read this verse I think of Robin McQuisten. Her husband and her had been married for only about 5 years, when she had a brain aneurysm. As a result, she was the entire left side of her body was paralyzed . One day she was attending a women’s bible study and someone noticed that was a little chilly. They asked, “Robin, are you comfortable?” And I want you to listen to her response, because it’s the response we should all have when it comes to living in this world… she said, “I won’t be comfortable until I get to heaven”. If you’re overwhelmed by your trial and troubles this morning, don’t be discouraged. God isn’t through with you yet! He’s making you more like His Son. Just, remember the reward! Spiritual maturity is realizing we’re not living for the here and now, God is getting us ready for eternity!
The 4th kind of experience we all go through (and Jesus went through too) is temptation. When I’m tempted… here’s what Jesus is saying to me…
4. When I’m tempted, Jesus says, “OBEY ME”
Listen, God uses our temptations to teach us to obey Him. Now I think it’s important to be real clear about the difference between a temptation and a trial. Whereas trials are designed by God to develop us….temptations designed by Satan, to destroy us. God never tempts us to do evil. The Bible makes that very clear… but He is able, (because of the greatness of His power) to use Satan’s temptations for good in our lives.
Temptation always provides a choice. And when I choose for God rather than choosing for Satan, His evil plan for me is ruined and I start to grow in my life. So if you think about it, God uses temptation to help us make the choices that are necessary to develop character in our lives. Now, did Jesus face temptation? You better believe He did! He faced greater temptation than you or I could ever imagine. But yet, the bible tells us He never sinned. (Contrary to what some books like “The Davinci Code” say, Jesus never eloped with Mary Magdalene!) /// Right after He was baptized (at the beginning of his public ministry), Jesus went through an intense 40-day period of temptation in the desert. Look at what the Bible has to say in Matthew 4:1. (READ) Now, if Jesus faced temptations, guess what? You and I are going to face temptations, too! In fact, because of His temptations, we can learn a few truths that will keep us from falling prey to them!
1st of all, remember that it’s not a sin to be tempted. Jesus never sinned, yet He was tempted. Martin Luther used to say, “You can’t keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair,” (That is, if you have enough hair for them to build a nest in!). So, it’s not a sin to be tempted. 2ndly, remember that all of us are tempted in basically the same ways. The Bible says we’re all tempted in the same common ways. (READ I Cor 10:13.) One of the things Satan likes to do to trick us, is to make us feel like our temptation is bigger and stronger than everybody else’s. We think, “I must be really bad because I’ve thought of this thought that nobody in all of human history has ever thought of.” Sorry, but when it comes to temptation, everybody is a plagiarist! There’s nothing new under the sun. You’re no more novel than the toddler who thinks they’re the first one to come up with the idea of sticking a green bean up their nose! When it comes to sinful thoughts… we’ve all done it!
It’s important is to remember that you & I will never outgrow temptation. You’ll never get to a point in your life where you become so spiritual (or so old), that you’re not tempted anymore by something. What Jesus’ experience in the desert teaches us is that within every temptation is an opportunity to do good, to make the right choice, to obey. Notice what Jesus did when he was tempted in Matthew 4:10. Jesus said (READ) Here’s the point. Temptation always tests whether you’ll serve God or you’ll serve yourself. It’s always a test of what I love the most in my life.
• When I’m tempted by money, it’s a temptation. “Do I love God more or do I love money most in my life?
• When I’m tempted by a wrong relationship, I’m faced with the question... “Do I love that person, or do I love God more in my life?”
• When I’m tempted to abuse drugs or alcohol, I have a choice to make… “Who do I love more? God or another drink?”
• When I’m tempted to just try and be comfortable in my life, it’s a temptation. “Who do I love more? My comfort or God?”
Resisting temptation and choosing to obey God isn’t a matter of duty… it’s a matter of love! Jesus said in John 14:21, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me”. Here’s the last experience we want to talk about, where Jesus speaks to us…
5. When I’m hurt, Jesus says…”FORGIVE THEM”
When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray He included these words in Mt.6:12, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtor.” Some versions use the word “trespasses” instead of “debtor”. Now what in the world are trespasses? Trespasses are situations designed by other people to hurt us. It’s when they step onto our private property and leave a doo-doo! Bearing the hurt of other people without retaliation is, without a doubt, one of the most difficult experiences we can ever have. That’s because it often involves being misunderstood, criticized, judged, or even in Jesus case, verbal and physical abuse.
Again, these aren’t good things. They’re evil things, and God’s not the author of evil. He doesn’t cause them, but amazingly He didn’t even protect His own Son from them.
Now, if God’s own Son was misunderstood, hurt, judged and abused. What makes you think you’re going to be let off the hook? When Jesus was on the cross He not only carried our sins, but He also endured enormous abuse from the people who were right there. Notice this first verse, Matthew 27:39-44. It says, (READ)
Look at the next verse to see Jesus response... “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive these people, because they don’t know what they are doing’”. In 1 Pet. 2:23 it says…READ. What was His response to trespasses? He yielded His right to get even. He absorbed the hurt. He put up with the pain. He responded to evil with good. The truth is in life you’re going to be hurt. This is not heaven. This is a fallen world. Everybody sins. You hurt other people. Other people hurt you. We hurt each other intentionally and unintentionally. You’re going to be hurt often in life, so if you’re going to survive, you’re going to have to learn to forgive. Let me ask you this… Can you learn how to forgive if you’ve never been hurt? No. You can’t learn to forgive unless somebody’s hurt you. Forgiveness is one of the primary qualities of God and He wants you to learn to become like Him. So there are hurts that are allowed in your life in order to help you do just that.
Again, let me give you two ways to make sure you grow instead of stagnate. When people hurt you (either intentionally or unintentionally).
1. Remember that God has forgiven me. The Bible says “Forgive others, just as God forgave you because of Christ” (Eph. 4:32). Listen, God will never ask you to forgive anybody more than you’ve already been forgiven by Him.
2. Remember that God is in control. When you’ve been hurt intentionally by somebody else, they may have meant it to hurt you, but God will use it for good in your life.
I’m absolutely convinced of 2 things: Your greatest testimony as a believer is how you handle hurt.
So let me ask you, “How do you respond when other people hurt you? Do you respond like Jesus did? Do you forgive, or do you fume?” If you’re in a situation where you’ve been hurt, do you hear Jesus saying… Forgive!? If you don’t, you’re not listening anymore! Look at this last verses on your outline. “We go through exactly what Christ goes through”. Here’s the good news. “But if we go through the hard times with Him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with Him.” (Rom. 8:17)
Now, I don’t know what you’re going through these days. But I do know whatever it is… Jesus is speaking to you. Will you listen?
• Will you thank Him in the good times?
• Learn from Him in the times of suffering?
• Will you trust Him in the hard times?
• Will you obey Him in the tempting times?
• Will you forgive others in the hurting times?
Let’s bow our heads.
