I’m going to get to the sermon our Pastor, Stewart-Allen Clark preached today, but I’m gonna spend some time bragging on my God and HIS message to me first.
This morning in our Sunday School class, we used a story of the Israelite struggles to help us understand that we should REVERE God. This lesson was followed up in worship service by a message that, at least to me, was a perfect follow-up to this lesson. As I prepare for my Sunday lessons, I will read the text of the story early in the week, then I’ll skim over the book a day or two later. Then, on Saturday evening, I’ll read through the lesson more in depth and plan how to approach what I have learned for the kids. While it doesn’t ALWAYS happen this way, the lesson I take away from the text is often NOT the lesson that the book describes for the kids.
A few weeks ago, our lesson was about (in part) hearing from God. We talked about God speaking to us through His word, preachers, teachers, parents and others. One part of that lesson included the concept that David wrote about in Psalm 46, where it reads, “Be still, and know that I am God;”. The idea, was all about spending the time to read the bible and listening for God to speak to you through that reading. I mentioned to the kids that often, as God is speaking to us, we will “hear” it from different sources. This helps to confirm the message God is speaking to us.
I am simply amazed that God has been speaking to me so directly since that time. As I read my lessons, then prepare the lesson and sit in Church service, God brings these things together in my mind as though they are all part of the SAME MESSAGE. As I reflect on this, I realize that it is NOT so much that God has just recently begun trying to reach me…it is just that I am trying harder to listen. How is it that I do that? Certainly it isn’t MY efforts. I just have to “be still and KNOW that He is God”!
I’ll use today as an example. I hope I’m able to relay accurately the message that God spoke to me through today’s worship. Additionally, I hope that some of you may find something that will aid you in your walk with God because of these words.
Our lesson in Sunday School was about a time of war for Israel. You can read the text for yourself in 1 Samuel 4-6. I won’t quote the entirety of the story here, but I’ll try to summarize. The essence of the story is that the Israelite people had not been doing well against the Philistine army. In fact, they had lost several thousand men. Then, they got this bright idea to bring the Ark of the Covenant to the front lines. The problem was, though, that this was NOT at the direction of God. They had decided to do this in order to “force” God to help them. To make a long story short, it didn’t work out well for them. In fact, they not only lost many thousands more men, but the Philistine army captured the Ark! Following some troubles, the Ark was eventually returned to Israel, where the people in the city handled the Ark inappropriately. This lack of regard for God on their part cost them their lives. Eventually, the Ark was returned to it’s rightful place.
So there is the story. As I read this text with the lesson title in mind, “Respectful Heart”, I asked God to reveal to me what he wanted me to see in this text AND what he wanted for the kids. The first thing that jumped out for me was that God will NOT be manipulated. God has a plan for the world and it is HE who is in control. Now, he wants me to pray about my situations and he wants me to rely on him to help. However, he doesn’t require my advice on HOW to fix the problem. This is where Israel got into trouble. They had been involved in idol worship and this had skewed their thinking about who God really is. He is NOT some statue or whatever that you can manipulate into helping by simply bringing out “his box”. I feel like we do this sometimes today. We spend our day to day lives “taking care of ourselves” without God. We go to work, pay our bills, plan our week and never even consider God in that equation. Then, something goes wrong and the FIRST thing we do is go to Facebook and “ask for prayer”. I believe if the shoe was on the other foot and WE were treated in that way that we would be HIGHLY offended. SO..the first lesson: God is NOT going to be manipulated.
There was another lesson in this text that I found for myself. In verse 3 of chapter 4, they were asking themselves this question, “Why has the Lord let the Philistines overcome us today?”. You see, they were BLAMING God for failing to “do His part”. Earlier in the history of Israel, God had worked GREAT miracles in battle before His people. He had given them specific instructions on what they were to do as they took the land promised to their ancestor, Abraham. They failed to follow through on this instruction and have been paying for that sin ever since. Beyond that, the people had begun to worship the other gods. There is nothing directly in the text recommended by our lesson book that indicates WHY God chose to allow this to happen, but chapter 7 begins with a call from Samuel, God’s prophet. Here is what it says:
Then Samuel said to all Israel, If with all your hearts you would come back to the Lord, then put away all the strange gods and the Astartes from among you, and let your hearts be turned to the Lord, and be servants to him only: and he will make you safe from the hands of the Philistines.
To me, this sounds like a wake-up call from God. God is telling the people that we must make HIM our focus and begin to serve HIM in order to receive the fullness of His blessing. In other words, while he will never leave us, he WILL allow us to fail as we try to do things outside of His will. The people of Israel were involved in idol worship and the truth is that if we are reliant upon ANYTHING outside of God for direction in our lives, we have made that thing an idol (or false god). Often, this is our own sense of “self worth”. It is for this reason that God singles out “pride” as an object of God’s hate. Psalm 10:4 explains it this way:
The evil-doer in his pride says, God will not make a search. All his thoughts are, There is no God.
You see, our own sense of self importance (pride) keeps us from seeking God. It happened to Israel and it happens to us today. Like many of you, I am guilty of this. Here is the kicker: THIS IS SIN! And, yet, as he told Israel, he tells us today: Rid yourself of this idol and turn back to Him and He WILL be our protector again. Isn’t he an AWESOME GOD!
Ok, so as I was gathering my things from my classroom today and preparing to head down to worship service, I was contemplating these things. I was hopeful that the message God prepared for my class kids would be heard in spite of my shortcomings as a teacher. Then, Pastor Stewart-Allen began to speak and I was at once captured by the idea that God was only preparing me this week to hear this message. Stewart-Allen preached a sermon titled: “GET THE DOOR…EXPECT DELIVERY!”. I will not try to preach that sermon here, but the main word from God to me was this: God WANTS to deliver us from trouble, but if we are to receive that deliverance, WE must be ready. God is able to do anything He desires. He wants to be intimately involved in our lives and all too often, we keep him away with our busy schedules, our work and daily lives. (Sound familiar?) This is EXACTLY what God was speaking to me this week! Again, God provided me the answer to the conundrum: “Be still and KNOW that I am God”. I saw it on the screen, but it took a little thought (prompted by Pastor), but I think I understand. It is not uncommon for God to work miracles on our behalf. I believe they happen ALL THE TIME! We give the “glory” for these to “whew! That was lucky!” (whoever THAT is). I think that the message that Stewart-Allen delivered this morning was that I simply need to try something I rarely do: STOP! LISTEN! LOOK FOR GOD! I need to do this DAILY! I have to run…Time to “get the door!”
If you find that this is somehow helpful to you, please leave a comment either here or on Facebook. By all means, feel free to share it with someone else.