Spending Time With God

Spending Time With God

Luke 5:16

Primary Purpose: To encourage the congregation to set aside daily time with

God.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt got tired of smiling that big smile and

saying the usual things at all those White House receptions. So, one evening

he decided to find out whether anyone was paying attention to what he was

saying. As each person came up to him with extended hand, he flashed that

big smile and said, “I murdered my grandmother this morning.” People would

automatically respond with comments such as “How lovely!” or “Just

continue with your great work.” Nobody was listening to what he was saying,

except one foreign diplomat. When the president said, “I murdered my

grandmother this morning, the diplomat replied softly, “I’m sure she had it

coming to her.”

I would if he sometimes treat God the same way. He’s talking, but are

we listening. I want to encourage you this morning to set aside time with

God daily to listen to His voice.

I heard a 21st Century version of Psalm 23 today. It goes something

like this:

The clock is my dictator, I shall not rest.

It makes me lie down only when exhausted.

It leads me into deep depression.

It hounds my soul.

It leads me in circles of frenzy, for activities sake.

Even though I run frantically from task to task, I will never get it all

done.

For my ideal is with me.

Deadlines and my need for approval, they drive me.

They demand performance from me, beyond the limits of my schedule.

They anoint my head with migraines,

My in-basket overflows.

Surely fatigue and time pressure shall follow me

All the days of my life.

And I will dwell in the bonds of frustration, Forever.

There are several good reasons to have a quiet time with God.

1. Because God created you to know Him and to have fellowship with Him.

Jesus aid in John 15:14-15 that he no longer calls us slaves or servants, but

friends. We are no longer in darkness but in privilege. In the Old Testament

God was approached once a year in the Holy of Holies. It was a fearful thing

that you might not live through. It was also very dark. Inside the veil where

the ark of the covenant was was complete darkness. You couldn’t see your

hand in front of your face. God was fully of mystery and hard to know. God

is not like that for you and me. He wants you to know Him.

I heard a pray from a man named Ken Gire that I want you to think

about:

Help me to realize that it was not the healthy who reached out to you.

They bunched up in crowds, but it was those who suffered greatly who

reached out to grasp you. It was the people in the streets, not in the sitting

rooms of society that groped for your garment. It was needy people. People

with outstretched arms. People with empty hands. people who had nothing

to offer but the faith that you could make them whole. I confess, O Lord,

how often I have followed in the crowd pressed around you. Yet how few

times have those brushed with you changed my life? I have touched you, but

only in the rush hour of religious activity. Sunday after Sunday I take my part

in the crowd as i sit through the service. I sing the hymns, hear the sermon. I

read my Bible, say my prayers, give my money. I attend the right seminars,

tune in to the right programs, read the right books. How could I be so close

your presence yet so far from your power? Could it be that my arms are

folded? Could it be that my hands are full? I pray that if my arms are

complacent, you would unfold them in outstretched longing for you. And if

my hands are full, I pray that you would empty them so that I might cling to

you.

In Charles Dickens Tale of Two Cities there is a story about how much

God wants to have a friendship with us. Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton

are two people who become close friends. Darney happens to be thrown into

a dungeon and faces the guillotine the next morning. Carton, on the other

hand,is a lawyer by profession, has piddled away his life through loose living.

Carton hears of Darnay’s predicament and through a series of circumstances

gets himself inside the prison. There he switches clothings with Darnay and

the next morning faces the guillotine while his friend escapes to freedom.

This is a picture of what Christ did for us. Jesus said, “Greater love has no

man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends!” (John 15:13)