Yeah, look around. Tell somebody you missed them
this week. Let them know that you are praying
for them and their sickness, right? And so you
may hear it in my voice. We just came off of
prayer and fasting, and every year by the time
the Christmas feasting is done, my flesh... is
never looking forward to it, but my spirit is
always in anticipation for the week of prayer
and fasting, and I was not at all feeling spiritual
during prayer and fasting. I was down with COVID.
I missed the prayer nights. I was so bummed,
and I wasn't feeling like, God, I got to preach
in a couple weeks. I need to hear from you, and
all I can do is shiver under the covers. And
so I was, though, reading as I've been beginning
my new Bible reading program for this year. I
was in the book of Job. There's nothing like
starting out your Bible reading program in the
book of Job. But when you do the chronological
study, right, Connie, that's where you really
are beginning. And so I was in the middle of
Job, and I came across a verse, and immediately
my spirit was quickened. And so I want us for
a few moments today, it's very simple, and I'm
reading this out of the Christian standard here,
but in Job 22, 22, it says, receive instruction
from his mouth and place his sayings in your
heart. And I was struck by that, especially considering
that the context of this verse was the book of
Job. This was a man in suffering, right? Everything
had been taken from him. He was a man in suffering.
And here in the middle, we have this verse, receive
instruction from his mouth and place his sayings
in your heart. Last Sunday in Petersburg, Derek,
we all love Derek. You all have to say yes because
his sister Izzy is over there. Derek, who's at
College, I had him preach for us in Petersburg.
And so he did a great job. It was 18 minutes,
which was one minute faster than the last time
he had preached it. But it was so full. Wasn't
it, Vanessa? So full of good things. I said,
Derek, you've got to slow down just so we can
digest what you've brought to the table. And
I was just, as we were worshiping and those words
were coming forth today, there was one thing
that Derek said. He said, when we worship in
suffering, it is not denial. Right? We're not
denying that everything is going wrong in life
when I worship. So when we worship in suffering,
it is not denial. But worship in suffering is
defiance. I was like, oh yeah, that was my big
takeaway. I only needed 18 minutes to hear that.
Because I thought of the number of times that
I stood in that front row. All my life I've been
a front row worshiper. It's the best place to
be. And there's room for others. But I remember
in moments standing, God, my husband thinks he's
dying. God, I don't know if this child in me
is going to come out with a heart that is healthy.
And I remember those, and I say it to you often,
my most significant moments of worship, because
it's in those moments that I did feel defiance.
Satan, I don't care what you're doing. I don't
care what the circumstance is. I'm going to worship,
right? And there's that defiance that kind of
arises out of that. I was like, man, Derek, that
is so good. I'm going to worship in defiance.
And there's some of that that has to kind of,
You know, you kind of got to get a little bit
of a backbone for that in a way, spiritual backbone
to say, I am not subject to this life. I am not
subject to the enemy and his opposition. I'm
not subject to situations. I will worship. I
will worship. And so Job is a great lesson in
this. And so I want us, for a few moments today,
there's two parts to this verse, right? So we're
going to spend a few moments in the first part.
Receive instruction from his mouth. I hope you
have a notebook today. Should I be taking notes?
If not, I can find you one. Pull out your notebook.
Receive instruction from his mouth. We just came
off prayer and fasting, and we often talk about
prayer, don't we? We often talk about intercession
and making requests before the Lord. And we quote
the verse, you have not because you what? Ask
not. And so when we think about our prayer lives,
we are often thinking of that. I better start
asking. I better start requesting. I better come
boldly into throne room to make my request known.
And that's good, and that's proper, and that's
right. However, how many of you have a friend
or a family member that is a talker? How many
of you, that is you? And in those conversations,
you can't hardly get a word in, right? They're
just talking, talking, talking. It's a, Todd.
Catherine and Todd will need marriage counseling
following this. I'm pretty sure Todd's not the
talker. She forgives him. When you are talking,
talking, talking, at what point are you able
to stop and listen? And so my question for us
today is, what does your prayer life look like?
What does your prayer life, Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, da -da -da -da -da, what
does it look like? Are you a talker? Are you
a listener? Do you ever stop to listen? Or do
you just talk, talk, talk, talk, God's ear off?
Right? What does your prayer life look like?
One of the most famous men in the realm of spiritual
formation is Dallas Willard. He's got the classic
book, The Celebration of Discipline. It's an
awesome book. But he says this, it is much more
important to cultivate the quiet inward space
of a constant listening than to always be approaching
God for specific direction. Now, I'm going to
say that again. It is much more important to,
and this word cultivate is a key word there.
To cultivate means we have to do something to
make this space. To cultivate the quiet, inward
space of a constant listening than to always
be approaching God for specific direction. When
I read this, what I immediately thought was,
this is the difference between striving and abiding.
The difference between striving and abiding.
When I am constantly coming to God for, God,
I need direction. God, I need answer. God, I
need this. God, I need this. There's sometimes
a striving in that because we're contending for
something. But I feel like what he's talking
about is more the place of abiding with God.
And when you're in a place of abiding, I cannot
live in my household with my family and not hear
what they say. They talk, right? And so abiding
means I'm not just always talking to God. I need,
I need, I need, I need, I need help. I'm desperate.
Ah! That can be what sometimes that feels like
because we're so worried and concerned. What
he is saying here is, listen, there's a space,
an inward space in our spiritual lives where
there is a quiet place of hearing God, of listening
to God. And it's impossible to be a listener
if you are a talker. We think we can do multiple,
we can multitask, but you cannot multitask talking
and listening if you're really going to hear
what is being said. And so I believe that there
is, we should contend for the victory. We sang
it today. There is that place of contending for
something, of believing for something. But I
believe there's also this place. That is a quiet,
just, God, what are you saying? And this is the
place that I want us to spend a few moments talking
about today because it's not an easy place for
us in our Western culture. And so in 1 Samuel
19, verse 11, this is the account of Elijah.
Now, we are a Pentecostal people. And previous
to this encounter with God, Elijah has the encounter
with the 400 prophets of Baal, or if you remember
that. If you don't know that account, you should
look it up in 1 Samuel and read it. It's amazing.
He's the one prophet of God and all these other
Baal gods that he's up against in competition.
We're going to call down fire from God, and we're
going to see whose God is alive. And so they...
call on their God, and nothing happens. And so
Elijah steps up to the plate, and he says, bring
on the water. Anybody try to start a fire with
wet wood? He's like, pour on the water, on the
fire. I'm not going to make this easy for God.
And he calls down fire, right? And then all of
the prophets of Baal are killed. And then, so
he just has this experience. Oh, yeah, that would
be a great Pentecostal experience, wouldn't it?
Us Pentecostals would be like dancing around
the fire with Elijah. Yeah! Where we find Elijah
next, though, is facing Jezebel and running out
of fear for his life because he's afraid she'll
kill him. And I love that God, what he does for
Elijah is he says, Elijah, it's time to take
a nap. I'm going to give you some food, too.
Here's some food, and here, take some sleep.
I love that. And out of that place, then, Elijah
gets up and runs for 40 days to a cave. And it's
in the cave. I mean, a cave doesn't sound like
a great place to be, right? After this great
mountaintop God experience of calling down fire
from heaven, he's alone in a cave. And it's in
this place that God begins to speak to Elijah.
And it sets Elijah up for some of his final assignments
from heaven of anointing a new king and anointing
a new prophet. And so it's in this place that
God meets with Elijah and says to Elijah, go
out and stand on the mountain in the presence
of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains
apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord.
But the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind,
there was an earthquake. But the Lord was not
in the earthquake. After the earthquake came
a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And
after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah
heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face.
and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
We think that God speaking to us is going to
look and sound a certain way, and sometimes we
miss it, because the truth is that God's voice
is not always an obvious thing. It is a voice
that we have to learn to know in our life. And
that comes with intentionally listening for the
voice. But if we're so busy always talking, talking,
talking to God, that we're never exercising our
ears to hear. This voice that is powerful enough
to create the universe. His voice. His breath
created the universe. Yet it's a voice that we
have to tune ourselves to. It's a voice that
we have to learn. Jesus said it, didn't he? He
said, my sheep know my voice. Have we made room
in our prayer life? to know the voice of our
shepherd. I want you to think about your prayer
life in terms of a pie chart. How many of you
like pie charts? Pie charts are nice because
they give you a quick overview of something,
right? And so if you have your notebook, you
can make yourself a pie chart. Otherwise, I want
you in just the palm of your hand to make yourself
a little pie chart. And I want you in that pie
chart to divide it, to divide it into two, the
ratio of your prayer life that you would say,
I spend this much time talking, I spend this
much time listening. I just want you off the
top of your head, 10 seconds. I want you just
to, hmm, I spend a quarter of the time listening
and three quarters of the time talking, whatever
it is. If you're really honest, maybe you would
say, I spend 99 .9 % of the time talking. And
I might listen a little bit, but the truth is
that when I'm listening for God, it's, oh, I
want an elder to pray over me and give me a prophetic
word. You know what I'm saying? I'm not talking
about that kind of a voice. I'm talking about
you, your spirit knowing, Abba, Father. Your
spirit knowing the voice. of your father. You
don't need any other man to speak for him, you
knowing the voice of God. And so how, that sounds
so good, but how do I practically do this? I
feel a little passionate about this because we
live in a world that is pushing in on you. We
live in a world where you are constantly hearing
the world. You have it on your phone. You have
it on your TV. You have it on your devices. It's
unending noise of this world pushing in on you.
And so there is in us, what word did we hear?
Cultivate. It is in us to develop space. to hear
the voice of our God. It is in us to say, I'm
making room to hear from you. This is why we
talk about families making room around a dinner
table. Why? So they could actually, in the busyness
of life, hear one another talk to each other.
What do we do as families in that moment? We're
making space for one another. And so today when
we are talking about how can I cultivate a space
in my life, in my prayer life, to hear from God,
it's really not that hard. We do it by giving
ourself to the Word of God, your Bible. We do
it through stillness. This is hard. This is hard
for a lot of people to be still, to stop being
busy, to stop, oh, I'm so busy, I'm so busy,
I'm so busy. That is the world's voice speaking,
that this is the expectation of successful people
to be busy. When the word says to be still, and
what? No, I'm God. Be still. How do I be still?
When do I stop? Even in my prayer time, I'm not
being still. I'm asking, I'm asking, I'm asking.
And God is just saying, would you just be still
for a minute? Just stop for a minute. Quiet.
Many of us don't like to be quiet. To turn off
the noise. To turn off our phones. You can turn
off your notifications. I don't tell that to
Darren. I tell Darren to turn on his notifications.
But most of us are so attached. We're at the
beck and call of every outside voice that we
cannot stop and be quiet. Even in our prayer
time, I've got to play worship music. I love
worship music as much as the next person, but
there is a place in my prayer life where it has
to be silent. I don't need another worship leader
worshiping for me. Do you know, I'm not a worship
leader. I'm not gifted musically. But when I'm
walking and I don't have any other noise going,
do you know what often starts coming out of me?
Songs. Songs, I'm like, wow, this could be kind
of a good worship song. I'm not gifted in music.
The worship team would probably laugh at me.
But if I have worship music playing, is that
going to happen? No. But in that moment of quietness,
There arises out of me a song that nobody else
on earth is singing to the Lord. It is my own.
It doesn't belong to anybody else. This is my
worship and my worship alone. But if there's
noise, if there's not quietness, that can't happen.
And so it's not difficult. but it does require
us pushing back. It does. I love Peter Drucker
is a leadership guru, and I love it. He maybe
oversimplifies it, but he says this, listening,
which is the first competence of leadership,
is not a skill. It is a discipline. All you have
to do is keep your mouth shut. It's very simple.
Sometimes we just need to keep our mouths shut
so that God can open his and begin to release
words to you and begin to release his instructions
to you. All we have to do is keep our mouths
shut. I think it's interesting in the book of
Job because if you read through the book, We
were in chapter 22 when we read our text. And
all through the middle of Job, he has his friends
talking, right? His friends have input. They're
all going back and forth trying to figure out
why Job has everything going wrong in his life.
And finally, finally, we get to chapter 40. Because
in like 38, I think 38, finally God steps up
and starts to speak. And when God starts to speak
in the book of Job, I mean, what else is man
going to say? And Job finally gets this as well.
And he says in verse 3 of chapter 40, Job answered
the Lord, I am unworthy. How can I reply to you?
I put my hand over my mouth. Maybe that's just
what we need to do sometimes, put our hand over
our mouth. He said, I spoke once, but I have
no answer twice, but now I will say no more.
And then over in chapter 42, God says, you said,
listen now, and I will speak, I will question
you, and you shall answer me. And then Job says,
ears have heard of you, but now my eyes have
seen you. When did Job receive the revelation
of God? When he finally closed his mouth and
just listened. Suddenly he had a revelation.
I had heard of you, God, now I see you. There's
something that happens when we hear the voice
of God that cannot happen outside of his voice.
His voice is creative. His voice is life -giving.
Faith comes by hearing his voice. And until we
hear it, it's secondhand. Well, I know he's spoken
to Candace. I've heard what he's told Candace.
I've heard what he's told Linda. But then you
hear God for yourself, and suddenly I have heard
of this God. Now I have seen God. Why? Because
you've heard the voice of God. We've got to stop
talking and listen. Just stop talking for a while
because the truth is he knows what you're going
through. He knows your situation. He knows details
you don't know about your situation. And so we
don't need to inform him, so maybe we should
just stop for a while and listen to what he has
to say. That's hard. It's hard. But it's easier
when you hear the voice. The hard gives way then
for the easy. And so we want to hear God. And
then the second part of that passage, it said
receive the instruction. So we've got to listen
for the instruction, right, from his mouth. And
then it says, and place his sayings in your heart.
You then are responsible for the instruction
that was given, right? And so I think of this
when, okay, we've moved now into the middle of
January. I don't know about you other gardeners,
but I've gotten my seed catalog. I've ordered
a second seed catalog. Although I'm determined
to just go through all the current seeds because
I have enough seeds that could feed the whole
church all summer probably. But, you know, I
can't help it. I get lured in by all these seeds.
And so those days a couple of weeks ago when
it was like spring, right, I was like, I know
my goal was to organize inside, but I got to
get out there. I got to get in the garden. I
still have a chance to plant garlic. I thought
I had missed my window, but I can plant garlic.
I can't even tell you the weeds that had become
trees in my garden. Listen, I could not, as much
as I loved the garlic seed and when it planted,
I couldn't just go out and put it in the garden.
I had to violently remove with a shovel, a literal
shovel, tree weeds. What was I doing? I was making
space for the garden to receive the seed. This
is the pushback that I'm talking about. There
are sometimes things in our life that we need
to get rid of if we're going to make room to
hear his voice and receive his instruction. And
I was thinking about this this week because I
had a customer come through my shop, and she
came through super early one morning. And I said,
oh, you're here really early today. She said,
yeah, band. an eighth grader and a freshman in
band, and they have to be at school at 6 .50
every morning. David, you're sitting there smiling
like you know what we're talking about here.
And I start thinking about this, and I think
about sports, because sports is no different,
right? Kids are out there practicing a lot of
times hours that you're all still in bed. And
what are they doing when they're out there practicing
band, practicing their football or basketball?
They are being coached. And so there's this voice
that they have attuned themselves to who is the
coach or the director. And so I thought yesterday,
the world has no problem. Calling for sacrifice.
Sports has no problem calling for your kids'
time and your money. Band, same way. No problem
asking for their time. You don't need to sleep,
growing kids. Yes, parents, $90 today. There's
no problem that they have in asking for that.
And what are they doing? They are forcing the
kids to make space to hear from their coaches
and directors. There is something in us that
needs that kind of tenacity. If the world has
no problem asking for us to make space for them,
why do we have problems calling for us to make
space to hear the voice of our God? There's that
kind of ruthlessness that says, you know what,
that's all so temporal, and there's a place for
it, and I get it, but it is not the most important
thing, right? So we unapologetically, I even
today unapologetically call for you to make space
to put yourself under the voice of your coach,
the voice of your director, and hear what he
has to say about your life. Make the space. And
so in Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 11, we're
going to spend just a couple of moments in these.
passages that are going to move us to the New
Testament. But it says, now what I am commanding
you today is not too difficult for you or beyond
your reach. It is not up in heaven so that you
have to ask who will ascend into heaven to get
it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it. Nor
is it beyond the sea so that you have to ask
who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim
it to us so we may obey it. No, the word is very
near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart
so you may obey it. I have this verse written
in my kitchen. See, I set before you today life
and prosperity, death and destruction. For I
command you today to love the Lord your God,
to walk in obedience to him, and keep his commands,
decrees, and laws, that you will live and increase,
and the Lord your God will bless you in the land
you are entering to possess. This is an amazing
verse because the context of it is the law. right?
And we know that what the law does, it shows
us how much we cannot obey it, how much we cannot
keep it. But yet, in a way, this verse is foreshadowing
the new covenant. It is saying the reality is
God is wanting his word to be near to you. He's
wanting it in your mouth. He's wanting it in
your heart so that you can obey it. In fact,
If we go to Romans 10, we see him quoting it
in this passage. So he's going back and saying,
okay, here's what it said back in Deuteronomy.
Now here's the fulfillment of what he wrote about
in Deuteronomy. And so in Romans 10, 4, he's
talking about Christ being the culmination of
the fulfillment of the law. And he says, so that
there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
Moses writes this about the righteousness that
is by the law. The person who does these things
will live by them. But the righteous that is
by faith says, do not say in your heart who will
ascend to heaven, that is who is to bring Christ
down, or who will ascend into the deep, that
is to bring Christ up from the dead, but what
does it say? The word is near you, is in your
mouth and in your heart, that is the message
concerning faith that we proclaim is this, if
you declare Right? If you declare with your mouth,
Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that
God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Okay, so he's saying, what are they saying? Listen,
this is not beyond us. The ways of the Lord,
the word of the Lord is not so far off that we
have to go up into heaven to find it or down
into the deep to find it. No. It is near to you.
It is in your mouth, and it is in your heart.
And so this is why we declare with our mouth,
Jesus is Lord, and it's also in our heart. So
we what? We believe in our heart that Jesus is
Lord. This is so powerful because the truth is
that it says, It is with your heart that you
believe and are justified, and your mouth that
you profess your faith and are saved. So we see
the connection. Deuteronomy is the context of
following the law, which is impossible, but the
foreshadow of what is to come. Emmanuel, God
is with us. John chapter 1, Jesus became the
Word, and the Word dwells among men. The Word
has drawn near to you and I. It is in our mouth.
It is in our heart. Jesus, the living Word, is
near to us. This is not a God that's trying to
make it difficult for us to obey and follow him.
He's tried to make it as easy as he can to obey.
And so now Jesus said this. In Luke, he said,
when he was talking to the Pharisees, who like
to overcomplicate it and make it hard, the Pharisees
asked when the kingdom of God would come. And
Jesus said it doesn't come with observation.
They won't say see here or see there. It's not
a kingdom on this earth. For indeed the kingdom
is within you. The kingdom is within you. His
word is in our mouth and it's in our heart. It
is in us. And the heart of God is always, you
can read it in Isaiah 59. He says, I'm going
to put it in your mouth, my words in your mouth,
on your lips, on the lips of your children and
their descendants. In Jeremiah, he says, I put
the law in their minds and on their hearts, and
they will be my people and I their God. This
is a God that has always longed to be in close,
abiding relationship. He has words that he wants
to speak to us, but we have to begin to listen.
We have to change the dynamic of our prayer life,
and maybe what would it look like if we spent
a little more time listening? And so the question
today is, what fills our heart? And what fills
our mouth. Because maybe we need to make some
space for God. Maybe we've got some attitudes
that we need to deal with. Maybe we're so busy
listening to the world that we have no space
to listen to God. Receive instruction from his
mouth and then place his sayings in your heart.
Place his sayings in your heart. I'm going to
ask if the team will come back up this morning.
God will answer your prayers. God will do extraordinary
things. How many of you have had God touch you
in a miraculous way, right? In one of those only
God can do moments that I love for, I believe
for, I pray for, I expect. But that's only one
aspect of our God. Our God wants to live and
to dwell with us. I believe that he wants us
to draw our ears close, anticipating his direction.
God, what do you have today? God, what do you
want to do this week? I was listening to a podcast
this morning and this quote that said, Jesus
is in our hearts, but grandpa is still in my
bones. Jesus is in our hearts, but grandpa is
still in our bones. We've been justified and
redeemed, right? But sometimes we've still got
a bit of that generational stuff in us, right?
Sometimes there are generational curses that
Jesus has to break. And sometimes we've not had
an example in our family line of a good father,
of a good mother. We've not learned how to be
good parents. We've still got grandpa's stuff
going on in our bones. And I believe that God,
his desire is for us to choose to lean in and
to hear from him on how to be a better parent,
how to be a better husband, how to be a better
wife, how to be a better son and a daughter,
how to be a better friend, how to be a better
worker, how to be a better steward. That isn't
always a supernatural changed in the moment kind
of a thing. That's the discipleship of being
a follower of Jesus. And when I come across great
people that I think are doing great things, and
I want to learn from them, when I get around
them, I don't spend all my time talking, do I?
I listen. I need to hear how you've done life.
I need to hear how you've walked with God. What
would that look like if we do that to God himself?
God, you created all this. You knit me together.
You have a plan and a purpose for my life. I
want to hear what you have to say about it. I
want to hear what you have to say about this
situation. My kid. This problem in my family,
my business, my finances, my health. God, I want
to hear what you have to say about it. And so
this week, your assignment, you ready? You have
an assignment. I want you this week to change
your pie chart. I want you this week to move
the needle on your pie chart. And I want you
to spend more time listening than talking. Just
for a week, give it a try. Just for a week, trust
that God knows what you're going through, and
so you don't have to inform him. And so just
for this week, just be quiet, put your hand over
your mouth, and listen. And just see what God
says. See how he tells you to pray for that situation.
See what instruction he gives. And so here's
what we're going to do this morning. It's a quarter
till, but see, we aren't governed by this world,
right? And so you can prolong your lunch a little
bit. And the team's going to lead us in a moment
of worship. And I want you to just create an
altar space. Maybe in your seat, maybe you need
to come forward to the altar. And I want you
to spend a few moments making space. I want you
to spend a few moments just saying, God, I've
had this attitude. God, I've been doing this
behavior that's not been good. But what we want
to do in these final moments is we want to create
space so that this week we can spend our time
listening. So that this week we can just give
ourselves to abiding with the Father and saying,
God, I've been speaking to you for 20 years.
I'm just going to listen now to what you have
to say. But first, we're going to deal with anything
that might be clogging up that inward life. You
might need to put some worship music away this
week and say, yeah, I love Brandon Lake, whoever
your favorite is. I love Stephanie Gretzinger,
if you want a good cry. But I'm going to even
silence that this week. And so I want you in
this moment just to ask Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit,
how do I make space this week to hear you? What
do you want to put your finger on that's been
occupying space that belongs to you, that belongs
to your instruction? that belongs to your sayings.
I want to just clear out closet space to make
room for your voice, to make room for your direction
this week, to say, God, I just don't know, so
I'm just going to listen. I'm just going to hear
what you might want to say to me this week. And
so let's just begin to turn our eyes, just kind
of forget right now about everything that you're
going home to today. Begin to put your gaze on
Jesus, the living word, Emmanuel, God with us.
I want you just to put your eyes on him right
now. And I want you just to open up your spirit,
open up your heart, open up your life, and say,
Holy Spirit, come in and begin to speak. Come
in and begin to speak. Come in and begin to speak.
And some of you, I feel like you do, you need
to make a move to the altar to present it before
the Lord, to release it before the Lord, a physical
act of releasing it before the Lord as we worship.
Just for a few moments, we're going to worship
and give space for him to come in and begin to
speak.