Tune In
Pt. 1 - Dead Air
I. Introduction
?Silence. It is the most dreaded moment for television and radio stations. It is avoided at all costs. Dead air. Dead air isn’t the result of being tuned in to the wrong station. There is no issue with the reception. It doesn’t signify faulty equipment on the receiving end. It is the output that is suspect. The point of origin isn’t originating anything. There is a period of dead air in Scripture. Heaven has gone silent. No broadcast. No communication. No instruction. No word. Ever experienced that? Maybe 2017 was a quite year for you. Perhaps you felt like you were tuned in as best as you could be. Your antenna was pointed at the correct angle and you were straining to hear. We have been told that the sheep know His voice. So, it isn’t that you are unfamiliar with His voice it is simply that He has not seemed to speak.
You want me to read the account of the silence? ....... I can’t it was silent. To fully understand we have to back up and realize that when Malachi came to a conclusion - what we call Malachi Chapter 4 - there was dead air. 400 hundred years of dead nothing. 4 centuries of a brass heaven. 146,000 days of no communication. 3,504,000 minutes of quiet. A nation that was accustom to “thus sayeth the Lord” moments and prophets who were constantly speaking for their God find themselves in a long, drawn out, seemingly unending cycle of dead air. Then we come to Luke 2. Luke 2 is the account of 2 people in Jerusalem who come into contact with Jesus as a 40 day old baby.
So out of silence this is what happens.
TEXT: Luke 2:22-38
(Message) Then when the days stipulated by Moses for purification were complete, they took him up to Jerusalem to offer him to God as commanded in God’s Law: “Every male who opens the womb shall be a holy offering to God,” and also to sacrifice the “pair of doves or two young pigeons” prescribed in God’s Law. In Jerusalem at the time, there was a man, Simeon by name, a good man, a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel. And the Holy Spirit was on him. The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died. Led by the Spirit, he entered the Temple. As the parents of the child Jesus brought him in to carry out the rituals of the Law, Simeon took him into his arms and blessed God: God, you can now release your servant; release me in peace as you promised. With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation; it’s now out in the open for everyone to see: A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations, and of glory for your people Israel. Jesus’ father and mother were speechless with surprise at these words. Simeon went on to bless them, and said to Mary his mother, This child marks both the failure and the recovery of many in Israel, A figure misunderstood and contradicted — the pain of a sword-thrust through you — But the rejection will force honesty, as God reveals who they really are. Anna the prophetess was also there, a daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher. She was by now a very old woman. She had been married seven years and a widow for eighty-four. She never left the Temple area, worshiping night and day with her fastings and prayers. At the very time Simeon was praying, she showed up, broke into an anthem of praise to God, and talked about the child to all who were waiting expectantly for the freeing of Jerusalem.
I can’t stress this enough - God hasn’t used a prophet in 400 years. Then Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the temple to fulfill their ritual duties of making a sacrifice of thanks for the birth of a baby boy. They are met by Simeon and Anna. Simeon and Anna are our teachers today. Their account teaches us some things about navigating dead air.
1. Dead air can’t be allowed to kill expectancy.
In Jerusalem at the time, there was a man, Simeon by name, a good man, a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel.
This is an incredible statement. After 400 years of silence it says that “Simeon lived in expectancy.” No requests answered. No prophetic declaration. No utterance of assurance. No profound word of hope. Just a man living in expectancy.
Some of us have experienced 4 months of silence and we are freaking out. Some after 4 weeks of no sound take matters into our own hands, complain of abandonment, and embrace anger at God for not talking. We begin to tune in to every other voice in the perceived absence of His voice. But not Simeon. He just keeps walking. He just keeps working. He just keeps believing. He continues to expect.
I want to challenge you today. This year may have been the quietest year you have ever experienced or endured. Dead air abounds. You have begged and longed for a word but nothing. We need to learn from a man who after 400 years of silence continued to tune in with expectancy. If you don’t expect to hear, then God could speak and you wouldn’t hear Him. If we are going to hear, then it is essential to develop an attitude and posture of expectancy even when trapped in a cycle of silence. This year’s silence can’t cause you to enter the next year with dread. Expect to hear! Posture yourself. Lean in. Tune in.
2. Dead air can’t be allowed to silence our promise.
The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died.
Simeon lived every day on the strength of a promise. He continued to believe because of a promise. He navigated dead air not by getting new words, but by holding onto the last word he received. He never allowed silence to silence his promise. Baby after baby held but silence. But when THE baby showed up he was ready because dead air didn't silence his promise.
How many of us out of a longing to hear God say something new dismiss or discount the last word He gave us? How many of us discard the promise we have already been given just because we haven’t heard anything new in a while?
Desire a new word but don’t allow silence to kill what you have already been told and promised about your life, your spouse, your kids, your job, your church, your future.
3. Dead air can’t be allowed to distract.
Anna the prophetess was also there, a daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher. She was by now a very old woman. She had been married seven years and a widow for eighty-four.
Look at Anna’s dead air situation. Her situation might possibly have been even more challenging than Simeon’s. Simeon had to fight through silence. He had to battle belief to stay expectant. Anna had to navigate dead air caused by pain to stay tuned in!
Scripture says she was married 7 years and then widowed for 84. Seven years of wedded bliss, security, dream life . . . 84 years of being alone, trying to survive, no societal standing, no rights, no protection, living a different life than planned and yet she doesn’t let her pain distract her from hearing, discerning and seizing a God moment.
Too many of us miss God’s promise simply because we allow what we are going through or have gone through this year to distract us. We become side tracked and tuned in to the turmoil and trouble and forget to hear Him. God help us to learn to allow pain to help us perceive more readily. May we learn to allow pain to peel away distractions. Pain can either disrupt our ability to hear or we can allow it to fine tune our hearing. So desperate for His voice, His Word, His message that the pain drives us to lean in and listen more carefully.
4. Dead air can’t diminish devotion.
Anna the prophetess was also there, a daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher. She was by now a very old woman. She had been married seven years and a widow for eighty-four. She never left the Temple area, worshiping night and day with her fastings and prayers. At the very time Simeon was praying, she showed up, broke into an anthem of praise to God, and talked about the child to all who were waiting expectantly for the freeing of Jerusalem.
Anna’s miracle moment was birthed from the routine. 84 years of a daily trip to the temple. 84 years of fasting and prayer was the recipe for breakthrough!
How many of us miss miracles and miss communication because we have allowed dead air to diminish devotion? The service He was going to talk to you was missed because you are tired of faithfulness and consistency. The messenger He sent goes home with the message undelivered because dead air distracted you from diligence.
I have watched too many folks who are enduring silence, dark nights of the soul, trouble, heartache allow those things to pull you away rather than drive you to. What should cause us to run to causes us to flee from the very things, place and people that He was going to use to speak to you. Silence causes us to skip. Difficulties cause you to detour. Dead air causes you to turn over and go back to sleep!
For you to hear you are going to have to lean in by remaining devoted. Diligence to daily duties may very well be the doorway to seeing deliverance or receiving direction. The ingredient needed to hear clearly is to be in place! Tune in! Get in place. Routine your way to revelation. Diligence your way to deliverance. Mundane your way to a miracle. The quieter it gets the more locked in I must get. The more silent it is the more likely you are to see me serving. I am tuning in!
