Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm Podcast.
We are a Bible -believing church located in beautiful
British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part
of the Christian Fellowship Ministries with 3
,000 churches around the world. We are a church
focused on world evangelism, discipleship, and
church planting. Here we will share recent sermons
from PHSA Church and other sermons from throughout
our fellowship. I'm Pastor David Bickford, and
I will be your host for this podcast. I thank
you for listening today, and we hope these messages
are a blessing to you and bring you closer to
God. Hello, and welcome back to the Potter's
House Salmon Arm podcast. I am Pastor David Bickford,
and I am the host of this adventure. Give a little
bit of announcement. We are having our conference
this week in the fellowship down in Prescott,
Arizona. So this would have been last week if
you're listening this Sunday. So what you can
expect is I'm going to be putting up some of
the sermons from the conference that occurred
last week, your time this week as well. So you'll
be additional podcast content this week as I.
cut and paste those into the podcast format.
So yeah, that should be pretty exciting. I've
listened to most of the sermons, and they're
just powerful words of God, and so you're going
to be able to enjoy those as well in this stream
as well. So today's message, though, is you can
talk to God, but do you listen? And our text
that we're going to be using is 1 Thessalonians
5, 16 through 18. So if you have your Bible,
you're following along, then great. If not, you'll
hear the Word of God. when we get to that point
in the message. So, be still or hear. In his
book, Directions, author James Hamilton shares
this insight about listening to God. Before refrigerators,
people used ice houses to preserve their food.
Ice houses had thick walls, no windows, and a
tightly fitted door. In winter, when the streams
and lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice were
cut, hauled to the ice houses, and covered in
sawdust. Often the ice would last well into the
summer. One man lost a valuable watch while working
in an ice house, and he searched diligently for
it, carefully raking through the sawdust, but
didn't find it. His fellow workers also looked,
but their efforts to proved futile. A small boy
who had heard about the fruitless search slipped
into the ice house during the noon hour and soon
emerged with the watch. Amazed, the man asked
him how he found it. He said, I closed the door,
the boy replied. I laid down in the sawdust and
I kept very still. Soon I heard the watch ticking.
So often the question is not whether God is speaking,
but whether we are still enough and quiet enough
to hear. Yes, Jesus assures us that our heavenly
father always listens to us. But do we really
listen to him? Do we follow the instructions
of Psalm 46, 10? Be still and know that I am
God. So I think it's a pretty interesting illustration
for us to use as kind of a jumping off point
for today's message because I do believe that
we all battle this in ourselves. I know myself,
I listen to a lot of music. I listen to a lot
of podcasts. I listen to them at two times the
speed typically because I feel like there's just
so much to learn, so much to listen to. I find
myself, though, oftentimes being stuck. not willing
to just take a step back and sit in silence.
And oftentimes that's why we need our time in
prayer and quiet meditation with the word of
God, because we're so busy. We're so used to
just filling ourselves with input that we're
not quiet enough to actually listen to that small
stirring voice that is God speaking to us. So
let's look at our text in 1 Thessalonians 5,
16 through 18. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing,
give thanks in all circumstances for this is
the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. There's
some very basic core tenets to a successful Christian
life. I said this many times and I will continue
to repeat this for as long as I'm alive. This
is something that I will routinely use when I'm
pulling an altar call or when I'm witnessing
one -on -one. It's the simplicity that seems
to be often overlooked in our society and even
in many churches today. Often we come to Christ
in a period of desperation. We cry out to God
in prayer. In our turmoil, we might even open
up the Bible. We scour the word of God looking
for something or anything that will help us to
understand why life is so hard, where is God,
or who am I, or countless other things that we're
going to reach for. Why is it then that this...
Once a situation has passed, we're so quick to
leave behind the word of God or stop in our prayer
life or stop listening for that small, still
voice of the Lord in our life. Alfred Brendel
said, the word listen contains the same letters
as the word silent. This is a battle for all
of us, whether we are new believers or seasoned
saints, we all battle against entropy. The word
entropy can be defined as the gradual decline
in disorder. It can also be a sign of lack or
sign of a lack of order or predictability. We
battle this because we are fallen creatures.
And when separated from God, we tend to fall
back into old habits and routines. How do we
overcome the slide backward in our life and salvation?
How do we contend towards sanctification? The
answer is perseverance. Yes, persistence. Yes,
but what actions do we need to contend to keep
in place? The answer in the Word of God is to
live a life of prayer, to live a life in the
Word of God, the Logos. Jesus is the Word of
God, and we abide in Christ by abiding in Him
and connectedness with the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. So we pray, we read, and we
listen. And that brings me to my first point,
which is pray. Salvation begins and ends with
prayer. What do I mean when I say that? Well,
when we get saved, it is through the recognition
of our sin and the acceptance of Jesus as our
Savior. This is done through prayer and by faith.
We start our journey by stepping out in faith
and placing our trust in Jesus. So prayer is
at the center of the Christian life, but it seems
that it's oftentimes the first thing that we
neglect after coming to Christ. We move from
salvation to entertainment almost immediately.
For example, you pray for salvation and God moves
in your life. This is tremendous. So you start
to surround yourself with all things Christian.
Russell Brand recently became a Christian. He's
a famous actor and comedian and different things.
But this was after many other attempts to find
peace through other religions and lifestyle choices.
So when you look at Russell, he is wearing all
sorts of crosses and surrounding himself with
all sorts of Christian music and paraphernalia
right now. And I'm not making an argument against
Christian music or Christian entertainment. I'm
simply sounding the alarm that this is not where
you will find peace. Our Lord is not in the stuff.
He is in our hearts and we find peace in him.
So when you deal with new converts, whether they're
famous new converts or just, you know, someone
off the street. We have to remember to keep the
core tenets of Christianity, the core tenets,
basically. Keep the foundation, the foundation,
and that is Jesus Christ. All this other stuff
is great. It's nice. It's, you know, it's totally
fine. But you have to remember to keep doing
the simple things as well, because prayer develops
peace. In Philippians 4, 6 through 7, it says,
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything.
By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known to God. In verse
7, it says, And the peace of God, which surpasses
all understanding, will guard your heart and
your minds in Christ Jesus. So one, prayer helps
us to manage our anxiety. Two, prayer helps us
to foster thanksgiving. And three, prayer protects
our hearts and minds. The power of prayer cannot
be understated. The beauty of prayer is that
it can be done anywhere. We can tap into the
power of God when we're sitting waiting for an
appointment. We can pray when we are exercising,
driving, you name it. We have every opportunity
to tap in into God through prayer. Prayer is
also a lifeline for our souls. In Luke 18, 1
through 8, the parable of the persistent widow,
it says, and he told them a parable to the effect
that they ought always pray and not lose heart.
He said, in a certain city, there was a judge
who neither feared God nor respected man. And
there was a widow in that city who kept coming
to him and saying, give me justice against my
adversary. For a while he refused, but afterward
he said to himself, though I neither fear God
nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps
bothering me, I will give her justice so that
she will not beat me down by her continual coming.
And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous
judge says. Will not God give justice to the
elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay
long over them? I tell you, he will give justice
to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son
of Man comes, he will find faith on the earth.
So then we have to ask ourselves, how do we pray
with purpose? Well, part of that is that consistency
is king. It's key. You know, it's a key component
of our prayer life is that we consistently do
it. The Bible tells us to do it unceasingly.
And so that's imagery is that we are always praying.
We're praying with our actions. We're praying
with our words. We're praying with our thoughts.
We're constantly trying to bring our needs before
God, but we're also bringing our praise before
God in prayer. We also have to pray with expectancy.
You have to train yourself through faith to pray
with the belief that what you're praying for
is going to happen. So this is something that
we want to extrapolate a little bit because in
this day and age today, everybody has these ideas
of being a visionary or when you think about
something hard enough, it's going to happen in
your life. And part of that, From a Christian
perspective, it's fine. If you're praying that
God will bring about your prayers, if they're
in line with his will, that's all fine. The danger
is if you start to think that if you will it,
it will happen in your life. That's different.
That's where you're turning yourself into God
and you're not allowing for God's timing to happen
in your life. So we pray with expectancy, but
not with a spirit of demand. So we're praying
that God's going to do something because we know
that he wants to help his people. He wants to
help his children, but it is in his timing. So
even though we expect it, we don't know when
all these things will necessarily come to fruition.
And then thirdly, we pray without ceasing because
we are expecting something to happen. But just
like the parable that Jesus gave us about the
widow, we are going to continue to pray because
God loves us and we are showing him. that we
believe with expectancy, but we also love him
and we want to pray that he is unceasingly because
he tells us to. So then life -changing conversations
at its core, prayer is simply this conversation
with God. But never forget that it's also more
than that. It's a connection to the very one
who breathed life into us. If we want to know
who God is and the secrets to life that only
he has, we must learn to pray without ceasing.
I had a conversation with a Buddhist monk. A
few times now, but several weeks back is when
it started during our Saturday outreaches. And
he kept thinking that there was some sort of
intermediary between the eternal, as he would
call it. And and ourselves. And he was trying
to say that Jesus was this was this arbiter,
if you will. But I kept telling him that, no,
Jesus is very God. Jesus is God. It's part of
the Trinity. And so we do not have an intermediary.
We are directly connected to our God. We can
pray. We can communicate with our God directly.
He was confused because in his faith, it's all
inwardly focused. It's all about yourself. They
try to say that it's selfless, but in reality,
it's very selfish. Because it's all about you
and you having that change internally. Whereas
we as Christians, we don't believe that this
change can happen by us. It is only through the
grace and grace alone in Jesus Christ. But anyway,
so we have to remember when we're doing this
and praying without ceasing that we're going
to make a plan to pray. We need to set time aside.
If you're just starting out, then set five minutes
aside to pray daily. I even had a talk because
you guys know I have a day job as well. So I
was talking to my boss and we were talking about
fitness and stuff like that because I struggle
to exercise probably too much, but every day
because in my 30s, I was very weak and I was
very sick because of some of the damage done
to my body from my time in service in the Marine
Corps. And what I noticed is that if I exercise,
I'd be sore, but I was actually in less pain
than when I was just not exercising. And so what
did you do? What I did is I just had to start
doing something. And so you start with the littlest
amount that you can get away with so that it's
not like a big issue. And when I was talking
to my boss about this, I said, just do five minutes.
You know, and I said, you could go out and buy
two 15 -pound dumbbells and just do five minutes
of whatever. And he's like, I've got a whole
gym at home. And, you know, we had a good laugh
about it because he's got an entire gym at home,
but it's like. Just set aside five minutes. And
that's the same thing you can do with your prayer.
Just start with five minutes. But because then
what's going to end up happening is you're going
to pray and it's going to be 10 minutes before
you know it. And as you have that interaction
with God, you're going to end up lengthening
that time or you're going to end up doing multiple
times throughout the day. You're going to eventually
get to that point of praying unceasingly. You're
going to continue to build on your success. As
you pray and you have answers to prayer, you're
going to write it down and you're going to log
your wins. This is a very, very useful thing
because you're going to see God working in your
life. He's going to be opening up doors. He's
going to be helping you and strengthening you
and increasing your faith. And then God is our
father. So you're going to, you're going to eventually
learn to enjoy this process, you know, because
God's love, God loves us and wants this relationship
with us. And it's going to continue to build
that relationship of your life. It's going to
help you with wanting to witness. It's going
to help with wanting to share the gospel because
now you have a real connection to God, the father,
and you're going to want to tell people about
it. You're going to want to tell people, you
know what? I was sick and I was praying and God
healed me. Or, you know what? I was my, my. My
brother's in a really hard spot, and I started
washing it in prayer, and the next thing you
know, he's this or he's that. We were in a financial
bind, and I was praying about it, and just in
the last nick of time, God gave us what we needed,
and he helped us. These are all things I hear
throughout our fellowship, these just miraculous
prayers that are answered by pastors and disciples
within our fellowship, but it's also things I've
seen in my own life, and we need to be able to...
to go through this process and continually remember
to go back to the beginning and back to the roots
of what we're doing. That brings me to my next
point, which is read. The second thing that most
new believers will do after praying the sinner's
prayer is they'll run out and get a Bible, or
hopefully someone who prayed with them gave them
a Bible. And this, of course, is an awesome thing
to do, and it's a right thing to do. The Word
of God is a two -edged sword. It's a powerful
tool, and it's the best book of all time. Much
of this section I pulled from a Focus on the
Family article, which is entitled Seven Things
to Look at When You're Reading Through the Bible,
because it is critical that we implement this
into our life. But when you read through the
word, you want to make sure that you're going
through it with an understanding of who God is,
the God that saved you through grace. So when
you're reading through the Bible, our God and
his relationship to grace is critical. The Bible
isn't primarily about us. but about God. The
scripture has much to say about human nature,
culture, and history, but it addresses all those
subjects solely with respect to God. Through
human language and the written word, God has
chosen to reveal himself, his character, his
power, and his purpose to us through the word.
He has told us who we are, why we're here, and
how we can be what he created us to be. He shows
us his desire to be in a living relationship
with him. And so the first question to ask when
reading anything in the Bible is, what does this
say about God? What does this reveal about who
he is and what he's done and continues to do?
How does this help me know him and trust him
and love him more? As far as grace, there's a
common misconception even among professing Bible
believers that the Old Testament is all about
law, whereas the New Testament is all about grace.
But in fact, the early heretic name Marcion went
so far as to claim that the two testaments portrayed
two different gods, an inferior god of judgment
in the Old Testament and a superior god of love
in the New. But the scriptures themselves will
have none of that. Of course, the Old Testament
echoes with a repeated description of God as
a compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and
abundant in his steadfast love. And while Jesus
is full of grace and truth, he also spoke at
length about judgment and raised the bar of righteousness
to include motives of the heart as well as outward
actions. Both Testaments portray God as an eternal
and unchanging. His law and his grace forever
intertwined, his love and his judgment meeting
at the cross of Christ. To read the Bible is
to discover and trace that braid of divine justice
and kindness through all its turns, arriving
at a perfect expression in the person of Jesus.
You also can see in the Bible the difference
between beauty and challenge. God is beautiful
and he's designed the universe to reflect his
beauty. It makes sense that... His written word
would do likewise. It's full of this amazing
grandeur, the glory of our God, but also moments
of quiet intimacy to melt the heart and comfort
the soul. It illustrates a world that's fallen
and yet enjoying the kindness and care of its
sovereign Lord. No accident, God has chosen.
It's no accident that God chose to record a significant
chunk of his word as a historical narrative in
poetry rather than as didactic instruction. He
designed it to appeal to the whole person, the
heart and the imagination, as well as the mind.
To read it any other way is to miss at least
part of the message. And then where do we see
the challenge? Well, the essence of idolatry
is the desire to domesticate God, to make the
creator more like his creation. easier to comprehend
and control. But the God of our universe won't
fit into our boxes, whether personal, cultural,
or theological. In fact, he declares that his
ways and his thoughts are as far above ours as
the heavens are above the earth. I heard this
talked about a little bit when I was listening
to something else yesterday, was the idea of
idol worship, little carbon images. I think it
was one of the conference sermons from last week.
Whenever you're creating an idol of anything,
you are taking it into yourself, this idol or
this idea of an idol, a God that will only give
you what you desire. Because then it becomes
less about the God, our God, our Heavenly Father,
that one true God, and more about creating or
crafting something that will just... Tickle our
fancy and give us what we think is best for ourselves.
So in essence, when you're partaking in idol
worship, you're making yourself your own God.
So it was an interesting idea, and I thought
that was a pretty nice little idea that was in
that sermon. But it's not surprising then that
God's word should contain things not only difficult,
but at times downright disturbing. What those
things are will vary depending on the assumptions
of each culture, but they'll always be present
for people in the 21st century. The Bible's sexual
ethics, its tolerance of slavery in the ancient
world, and its portrayal of genocidal warfare
are especially difficult to square with the idea
of a just and loving God. In the eyes of wider
culture, such passages may be a deal breaker,
but for the followers of Jesus, they're challenges.
Strange customs, lengthy genealogies, and even
the conquest of Canaan invites readers to think
deeply, pray earnestly, embrace mystery, and
recognize that God is bigger than us. As Tim
Keller observed, if your God never disagrees
with you, you might just be worshiping an idealized
version of yourself. So when you're looking in
the Bible, too, you also want to pay attention
to the diversity and the unity within the Word
of God. In the natural world, beauty expresses
itself through diversity, and once again, it's
the same with Scripture. The Bible is a library
of 66 documents or books written on three continents
over some 1 ,500 years. The authors represent
a huge range of temperaments and social classes,
each writing to address issues of their day.
The Word of God is inspired by the Holy Spirit,
and these authors wrote in an eclectic variety
of genres, war stories, pastoral romances, songs
of love, songs of lament, prayers, letters, biographies,
travelogues, memoirs, apocalyptic visions, among
others. Such a diverse array of genres cannot
read. or cannot be read with a one -size -fits
-all approach, and it's hard to imagine why anyone
would want to do so. Like the many flavors at
a fine feast, they're meant to be savored both
for their own qualities, but also how they blend
with one another. Each one speaks with his own
voice, and yet contributes its own unique facet
to the overall message of the scripture. Discovering
the unity expressed through the diversity is
one of the genuine pleasures of reading the Bible.
So finally, with unity, every great story worth
following has a central plot line, a unifying
narrative that frames it and gives it structure.
There can be a lot of different subplots, but
the main storyline winds through and by turns
hidden and exposed, it pulls the reader towards
its ultimate conclusion. And this is what we
come to is the central narrative of the Bible
can be summarized as a drama in four acts. Creation.
The fall, redemption, and restoration. For a
human perspective, it began in the garden, reached
its climax at the cross, and will conclude in
the new Jerusalem and new heavens and new earth.
From a divine perspective, it is written with
the mind of God before he made the cosmos and
will resonate into eternity to his glory. Because
of this wonderful diversity in scripture, it's
tempting to think of many of its parts as vignettes
or anthologies, but loosely related to each other.
But in truth, They combine to form a unified
mosaic, their various literary shades and colors.
The main storyline winds through them all and
at times is clear and at other times is subtle,
but always there. And that's when reading the
Bible, it's critical to ask, what does this passage
bring to the central narrative of creation, fall,
redemption, and restoration? With such powerful
richness, it is a wonder why so many Christians
neglect to spend the time in the word. If worse,
so many struggle but refuse to look at the word
for the answers they seek. It's hard to imagine
having such a wonderful toolkit and then when
we refuse to even use it. The most important
part of the Bible for Christians is, of course,
the gospel. The entirety of the Bible from Genesis
to Revelation all points to Jesus and the salvation
we receive by him through faith in him. We have
come full circle. But we're not quite done yet.
There's one more thing that we need to look at,
and that is the opening of our ears and listening.
How often do you sit in silence? How willing
are you to allow there to be space in your life?
So many of us are uncomfortable with quiet. Our
minds race. We end up turning on the radio just
to fill the silence. The issue is that we need
the silence. If you're working on a car or a
piece of machinery, You need to hear what is
going on. You have to actively listen. In our
illustration at the beginning of this message,
we heard the tale of a boy who took the time
to listen. Often, we don't take the time to listen.
Just recently, my work truck, we were driving
down the highway. I was taking my daughter to
work, and it sounded like my truck was on a rumble
strip, you know, little things on the side of
the road to keep you from going off the road.
I didn't know what it was at first. I thought,
okay, it's feeling a little rough. Maybe I have
a tire problem. So I pulled over, I checked it
out, nothing there. I get back in, I'm driving,
get up to speed and it happens again. And I noticed
at this point that my check engine light's on.
After all these tools, all of our stuff now is
set up on phones. And so I was able to look on
the Ford app on my phone and it told me that
my engine was misfiring. Back in the day, you
wouldn't have had a computer to tell you that.
You would have just had to know by listening
that something was wrong. And as I was driving
back home to get a different car to take her
to work, we were just listening. Be like, can't
you hear that? Can't you feel that? Something's
wrong. And we need to have that in our time.
We need to be able to sit in silence and think
about it. Because there's always a reason to
be thankful, even when your engine's misfiring.
And so I came across this illustration. It says
a cowboy was riding a stallion down a dirt road
when a police officer flashed his lights and
pulled him over. And he said, sir, I've been
trying to pull you over for a mile. Do you know
that your wife fell off the horse a mile down
the road? The cowboy smiled and replied, thank
God. I thought for a moment that I had become
deaf. And every season of life, we can find a
reason to be thankful, but we have to be able
to find that in our. when we're being peaceful
and quiet. In Romans 8, 28, and we know that
for those who love God, all things work together
for good, for those who are called according
to his purpose. If we're having a difficult time
hearing God's voice, make sure you haven't left
him somewhere back down the road. Sometimes we're
just so busy with life, we've gone deaf to the
word of God, but that's because we're too loud.
We're too boisterous. We're too crowded out with
our life that we're not giving ourselves a chance
to listen. In Matthew 13, 22, it says, as for
what was sown among the thorns, this is one who
hears the word, but the cares of the world and
the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and
it provides unfruitful and it proves unfruitful.
Sorry. This is one of the hardest parts of the
Christian life. We surround ourselves with so
much noise and distraction. It's a miracle that
any of us ever hear. God at all. But we serve
the great high priest. We should have no place
for anxiety or worry in our lives because we
serve the king of kings. In Hebrews 4, 14 through
16, it says, since then we have a great high
priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus,
the son of God, let us hold fast to our confession
for we do not have a high priest who is unable
to sympathize with our weakness, but one who
is in every respect has been tempted as we are
yet without sin. Let us then with confidence
draw near to the throne of grace that we may
receive mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. Let us not neglect our Lord. Let us
live in prayer unceasingly. What does it mean
to pray without ceasing? Jesus challenges us
to look at our hearts and motives. He wants us
to live in a way that allows us to pray at any
moment. Let's rely on the word of God daily.
Make it a part of your life and your being. Remember
that the Bible is meant for us to know and understand
God and his grace, his beauty and his challenge.
And we are able to see a world of diversity in
the scripture that is united in him through the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Listen to that small,
still voice of the Lord and remember that grace
that was extended to you is meant for all mankind.
Pray, read, and listen. If I could have every
head bowed, every eye closed, thank you for listening.
Just want to take a quick moment for an invitation.
If your heart is not right with God, but you
want to get it right with God, I want you to
signify that wherever you are with an uplifted
hand, obviously I can't see, but God can see.
And if you did lift your hand and God is challenging
you right now, and I want you to pray a prayer
with me. Dear Lord, I know that I'm a sinner,
but I know that you came to earth. And died for
my sin. I accept you Jesus and my Lord and Savior.
And I turn away from my life of sin. In Jesus
name. Amen. That's a simple prayer. And if you
said it and you meant it. God's already started
that change in your life. So just start. Start
praying and talking to God. Start reading the
word. And start living for him. And listen. and
listen. I want to thank you for listening to
me today for this quick message. And I just pray
that you continue to come and subscribe, like,
share this podcast. You go over to our YouTube
channel, subscribe over there. I'm doing a lot
of new things with shorts on Instagram, Facebook,
YouTube, even on X under the PHSA church banner.
And we might be a small pioneer work right now
in Salmon Arm, but we have a vision to touch
the world, to touch the nations from this place.
So partner with us together to do that. God is
moving. He wants to do something, not just in
Salmon Arm, but across the world. And I hope,
I pray that you will partner with us in Jesus'
name. Thank you for listening. Amen. Listen to
the PHSAA Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast.
Be sure to follow us on Instagram at pottershouse
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how Jesus Christ can revolutionize your life.