Listening to God

As most of you know, Saundra and I went on a cruise from Jacksonville to the Bahamas recently. It was an enlightening trip – we had some very nice times and some very rough times. Saundra found out that she easily gets seasick – I found that I don’t like 48 mph winds and 20 foot waves hitting the side of the ship I’m traveling on.

One of the nicest times happened the very first evening of the cruise. We were scheduled for dinner in the stern dining room at 6 pm. So, at 5:45, we navigated our way to the lobby in front of the dining room, which required us to travel to deck 9 and then come down the stairs to deck 8, since the ship’s kitchen occupies the entire width of the ship in front of the dining room.

Well, we discovered that about 50 other people had the same idea. We found ourselves in line with a couple from western KY, and we began talking to them – mainly to the husband. It didn’t take much effort – “Looks like a lot of people had the idea to come early to dinner.” That’s all it took.

Very soon, he was talking about his mother passing away a couple of years ago, we gave him some advice, he teared up in thanks, and we told him we were pastors. We’re still not sure what we said to him that affected him so much, but he told us that we had been a great blessing to him and helped him more than anyone else had since his mother died. And we were joyful. We never saw him again. But I think we will one day see him in New Jerusalem. And we will all be joyful.

But that’s what happens when you try to listen to God and pass onto others what you have been told by God. Lives are changed. Joy happens.

You see, each time we speak, every time we act, whenever we don’t speak, we are teaching others how to live or die.

If we have harsh words for someone, we kill their soul just a little bit like removing a bit of bark from a tree’s trunk. If we harm another, their soul dies back just a little bit. If we fill their minds with meaningless drivel, their soul starves.

However, if we point them toward God, we give their soul new life. If we teach them a bit about how much God loves them, we give their soul food to grow. If we do something that helps them see God’s love clearer, their soul will grow like a plant that is watered and sitting in the sunlight.

And furthermore, there is a two-way effect here.

If we have harsh words for someone, our soul is killed just a little bit. If we harm another, our soul shrivels just a little bit. If we fill another’s mind with meaningless drivel, our soul begins to believe that drivel and starves also.

But if we point another toward God, our soul gains new life. If we teach another a bit about how much God loves them, our soul grows faster. If we do something to help another see God’s love clearer, our soul will grow joyfully like a tree that sits beside a river in the tropical sunlight.

And so it is important, critically important to our own souls that we listen to God’s Holy Spirit, that we follow what the Holy Spirit asks us to do, and that we do what God would ask in everything we do.

Before we left for the cruise, many of you said I’d absolutely love the cruise. When I got onto the cruise, I began to wonder – what did you think I’d enjoy about the cruise, as a pastor? Was it losing money at the onboard casino? Was it losing money at the expensive bingo? Perhaps you thought I’d enjoy the 15 bars on board – I admit the coffee bar made a good vanilla milkshake. How about shopping at the onboard jewelry and duty-free shops for expensive watches and gallons of bourbon? Maybe you thought I’d enjoy laying in the sun by the onboard pool with rap music blaring at me for hours. Did you expect me to continually cover my face with a book as the parade of bikinis walked by – Or did you expect me to gawk? Or maybe you thought I’d enjoy the Dr Seuss breakfast? Or perhaps it was the entertainment shows led by the guy who must have had a job on a Disney children’s tv show before he came to Carnival cruise – HELLO, EVERYBODY! WE’RE GOING TO HAVE FUN, FUN, FUN TO-NIGHHHHHHT! I wanted to slap him!

No, I came to the cruise hoping for two things. First, to hang out with my daughter, her husband, and their three boys. Second, to find a quiet, comfortable place to read a book, which I finally found in a couple hidden corners of the ship.

And so on this cruise, I began to think about a couple of things. First of all, I wondered – what do these people in my congregation love about cruises??? Should we open up a casino, open up gambling at the church, play rap music in our services as loudly as possible, set up open bars around the church – you pay once a year when we send you your bill – I’ve noticed attendance at church dinners is always higher than at church services, so maybe we need a free buffet each Sunday. Trustees, we could raise money for the building repairs by selling $300 diamond watches each week. And, of course, some of you have told me you’d like me to be more animated in my sermons – GOOD MORNING EVERYBODY! LET’S FIND OUT TODAY HOW JESUS HAS FUN, FUN, FUN!

Of course, the problem with cruise ships is that sometimes they have accidents, like this week when two ships very similar to the one we traveled on ran into each other. When everyone is trying to have FUN for ourselves, we often ignore the outside world.

But I asked a couple of you when I got back last week what you had liked about the cruises you’d gone on. And I found that you liked the service from the staff – rooms cleaned up, food made, a chance for a few days to be worked for instead of working. Naps. And I understood. You’re tired, and so you assume that I’d be tired and want to be served instead of serve.

It is the way men and women in this world mostly feel. We look upon serving others as drudgery, as heavy work, as unfair.

But this is not what we see with Jesus Christ. He did not come to earth for a relaxing vacation. He came to serve us deeply.

When we read the story of Jesus Christ, we find that He left heaven, a place where He was served by the angels, a place where He had the power to create anything in the Universe – want a mint-chocolate milkshake with a touch of pineapple juice? No problem! Here it is! Not even a five minute wait!

Christ left the place where He was in charge and had anything He wanted, to come to earth, powerless, to work in carpenter’s shop for His stepfather, to be attacked by other children, to grow into a teenager, to turn His face from attractive women, to grow into an adult, endure questions about why He wasn’t yet married by age 30, and then endured attempted stonings, hatred, and eventually arrest, whipping, and crucifixion. Why?

Because of the joy of rescuing all people from death. And we’ve seen that ourselves. Nothing beats leading someone to turning their life over to Christ. Can you imagine the joy of rescuing someone from certain death? And of course, that’s where everyone is headed. Certain death. For all people. And Jesus rescued them all from death. All people, that is, who were willing to walk Jesus’ path of holiness. Remember that Jesus told people to believe in Him three or four times, but He told people to follow Him about eighty times. That’s more than asking Jesus into your heart. That’s the first step. Baptism is step two. But there are thousands of more steps along the path, including helping others take the first step. How many adults have you led this decade to the saving love of Christ? Even one?

About ten years after Jesus’ resurrection, people made fun of the people who were following Him in a town called Antioch. They began calling these people “Christians”, which, in the original Greek meant “little Christs”. What a badge of honor to be seen as men and women who imitate Jesus so well people attach the name of Christ to them! For Christ was the Greek version of the word Messiah, which may better be translated as “Savior”. Christians are the “little saviors” of the world. Forgetting false modesty – are you trying to save your portion of the world?

Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, the capital of the entire empire:

1 Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle^[a] and singled out for God’s good news— ² which He promised long ago through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures— ³ concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David^[b] according to the flesh ⁴ and who has been declared to be the powerful Son of God by the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness.^[c] 5 We have received grace and apostleship through Him to bring about^[d] the obedience of faith^[e] among all the nations,^[f] on behalf of His name, ⁶ including yourselves who also belong to Jesus Christ by calling:

⁷ To all who are in Rome, loved by God, called as saints.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

He has been declared to be the powerful Son of God because of his resurrection from the dead. THIS IS HOW WE KNOW JESUS is God, as He claimed.

Paul tells us that We, the Christians, have received grace and apostleship through Jesus  - WHY? – to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations on behalf of His name – including yourselves who also belong to Jesus Christ by calling.

Now folks, it is my practice to have a large amount of scripture read in our services. Why? Because it is the Word of God. What God says is more important than any jokes I tell, than any stories I tell, than whether I move my hands in entertaining ways. Do you believe that God’s words are more important than my words?

“But pastor,” you say, “I can’t understand what the Bible says.”

Of course not. You need to learn the language first. You don’t understand the Bible because you have not lived with the language. You don’t understand the Bible because you have been trying to learn the language with a paragraph a week.

My Chinese friends could read English, but they didn’t understand our English because of the idioms. “He drove me up a wall.” “It’s raining cats and dogs”. It confused them. In the same way, when Mary pours scented perfume on Jesus, we miss the meaning because we don’t know the idiom, that this is how the kings of Israel were crowned. We don’t understand why Bethlehem is so important to Jesus unless we understand that King David was from Bethlehem. We don’t understand the importance when Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man unless we have read Ezekiel and Daniel. We don’t know the idiom because we have not lived with the language.

When I was in high school, I took three years of Spanish. Five days a week, we’d study the language. When I went to college, I took two years of German. In particular, the second year, we’d have class two days a week, and have to translate five pages of scientific German from German language technical papers for each class.

It is said that Queen Elizabeth I – the Queen of England just before the Bible was translated into English – she practiced writing letters in English, then translating the letter the next day into French, then the next day she translated the French into Spanish, then the next day the Spanish into Italian, then the Italian into Dutch, then the Dutch back into English. And so she learned those languages – French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch.

Do you want to learn the language of the Bible? Read the Bible every day – study it with friends weekly. For the song we sang earlier, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” makes little sense unless we know that Emmanuel was the name given in prophecy to the child of the virgin who was to conceive, a name that means “God is with us”. We don’t know the idiom. And with that knowledge, things begin to make sense. And we develop our faith just a little bit deeper because we have listened to God’s Word and understand a bit more today than yesterday because of that connection between the prophecy of Isaiah and the Christmas story.

But instead, we have a deep desire to have FUN, FUN, FUN! Deep down, our natural desire is to run from God. Instead of singing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and teaching this and its meaning to our children, we’d rather sing “Jingle Bells” and go play in the snow.

This, my friends, is the difficult part about following Jesus. Jesus walks up a steep spiritual path – will you follow Him up the mountain? Or will you run across the flat and level to be with the world’s toys.

C.S. Lewis pointed out, even back in the 1950’s, that there are two holidays celebrated at this time of the year. And he was ignoring Hanukah, which is a third holiday celebrated at this time of year.

Lewis spoke that there is a loud holiday, with sleigh bells and snow and presents and popular music and family celebrations and honey-baked ham and hustle and bustle and car horns honking in the streets. Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snowman, Grandma got run over by a reindeer, I’ll be home for Christmas. It is listening to the radio, watching the television special, cooking the ham and opening the wrapping paper.

And he spoke of a quiet holiday – a holy day – with a sleeping mother and child, a quiet like the quiet before a thunderstorm bursts across the land, a quiet of preparation, a time of listening to God and pondering, yes, pondering why God cared enough about us to send His Son to earth, knowing that one day that Son would face the shame and agony of the cross. It is the holiday of What Child is This? In the Bleak Midwinter, Silent Night. It is sitting quietly, listening to the wind and the fire, reading the first few chapters of the Gospel of Luke to yourself and your family, discussing it – and asking God what we can do in the coming year to somehow show our gratitude for that child – and then LISTENING for God’s gentle whispered response.

Christian, this is the time of year that Satan is most likely to take us away from God’s Son, to lead us to the path that leads to the world and the loss of our birthright, this is the time when the serpent talks to us and tells us that the most important thing is to have FUN!

But seeking FUN takes us away from joy.

And so, let us return to Chapter 8 of Isaiah, verses 11-15 to hear what God told Isaiah.

Isaiah 8

¹¹ For this is what the Lord said to me with great power, to keep^[h] me from going the way of this people:

¹² Do not call everything an alliance
these people say is an alliance.
Do not fear what they fear;
do not be terrified.
¹³ You are to regard only the Lord of Hosts as holy.
Only He should be feared;
only He should be held in awe.
¹⁴ He will be a sanctuary;
but for the two houses of Israel,
He will be a stone to stumble over
and a rock to trip over,
and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
¹⁵ Many will stumble over these;
they will fall and be broken;
they will be snared and captured.

The Apostle Paul later referred to Jesus as the Stumbling Block. If we are to follow what God told Isaiah, we must consider only God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit as holy. We are not to fear anyone or anything else. We are not to be overawed by anyone or anything else. For that little baby in the manger is the mighty Lion of Judah, the one through which all things that were created were made. This tiny baby is the one who would grow up and go to the cross to defeat death forever.

Remember this. Behind every manger lies the shadow of the cross – and the joy of eternal life!

And so, let this year be the year where your family moves from the FUN, FUN, FUN celebration of the loud holiday – to the quiet celebration of the quiet holy day, regarding only the LORD of Hosts as holy.

Read Luke Chapter 2 to your family. Explain it. Ask God to show you what you are to do in the coming year – and LISTEN! And join us here with your friends and family at 7/11 pm.