Pastor Pat Edwards 9/30/2007
Grace Baptist Church in Bountiful, Utah

Life with God is a mystery to be experienced, not a problem to be solved - that was the theme of last week's sermon. How do we mange the mystery of life with God? What do we do if our problems don't get solved and we don't feel the presence of God? What's the point then? I want to read you a true story from a book by Dallas Willard. Listen carefully and then decide if you feel like Mema, the grandmother in the story. Sunday dinner was finished, but we lingered round the table savoring the good food and reflecting on the morning's service at church. The congregation-where I then served as a very young (and very green) assistant pastor - was excited about its plans for a new sanctuary to replace its old building, which was much loved but long overused and outgrown.

The morning message had focused on the plans for the new building. Our pastor spoke of his vision for the church's increased ministry. He indicated how strongly he felt God's guidance in the way the congregation was going, and he testified that God had spoken to him about things that should be done.

My wife's grandmother, Mrs. Lucy Latimer ("Mema" to us all), seemed deep in thought as we continued to chatter along. Finally she said quietly, "I wonder why God never speaks to me like that." This simple comment, which came like a bolt out of the blue from the heart of this woman of unshakeable faith and complete devotion, forever changed my attitude toward glib talk about God's speaking to us or about divine guidance. Through her words - in a way I came to understand only later - God spoke to me.

I was given a vivid realization, which has never left me, of the extent to which such talk places many sincere Christians on the outside, looking in. It is not necessarily that their experience is lacking, but they do not understand the language or how their experience works. This leaves them feeling confused and deficient and may lead them to play a game that they do not really understand and that rightly makes them very uncomfortable. It undermines their confidence that they are fully acceptable to God.

Mema, in fact, had a richly interactive life with God, as we all knew. But for whatever reasons, she had not been able to relate her experience of God's presence in her life - of which she was completely certain - to the idea of God's speaking with her. This left her at a loss for how to deal with the conversational side of her friendship with God. How many of us have felt that way at different times in our life? That other people have a depth and clarity of communication with God that we're missing out on? How should we respond to those feelings? First recognize your feelings are probably incorrect and second make a renewed effort to keep the relationship with God vital through continual interaction. The truths I'm going to share this morning are nothing new but I find they are ones we need to be reminded of often.

To start, remember God initiates contact. It's not up to you to get the ball rolling. The first form of contact is his word. The revealed Word of God is foundational. Heb. 1.1-2 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 2 Tim 3.15-17 ...you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. God speaks to us in words we understand. These words tell us about God, ourselves, creation and the relationship we have and can have with him. Very often his words are specific and detailed so we have no doubt about what he means or expects. If we want to live with God that's good news. The second form of contact is circumstances, especially the input of God's people using their spiritual gifts. Rom. 12.4-8 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. If you've participated in the Body of Christ at all you know what a blessing the spiritual gifts are. You've grown and matured as you've heard good preaching, been taught well, received wise advice. And you've also grown as you've used your gifts to bless others.

Christians often talk about putting out fleeces like Gideon or asking God to open and shut doors. And God communicates in those ways as well although they don't have the clarity of his word. When we sold our house three years ago it took less than a week. People said to me, "It must be God's will." But I told them I wasn't sure that was the way to determine God's will. And after three years of remodeling I'm almost positive it isn't! The previous time we had moved was to come to Bountiful when I was called to be your pastor. That sale and move took almost six months. If I let the time it takes to sell a house be my guide to God's will I probably would have decided God didn't want me to be your pastor after all. Last week I read you a litany of the tragedies that have beset the pastoral training school in Rwanda. The director's wife asked the director, "What are we doing wrong?" He replied, "I'm not so sure we're doing anything wrong. In fact we may be doing everything too good." He knew their circumstances were probably being affected by the world and the devil. So the ease or difficulty of activities in life isn't always an automatic guide to what God is saying.

The last form of communication I'll talk about this morning is the prompting of the Holy Spirit. John 14.16-17 ...I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever?the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. Let me encourage you to listen carefully to the still, small voice that speaks to your spirit rather than looking for handwriting on the wall, a burning bush or a pillar of fire. I've often said I just wish God would write in the heavens what he wants me to do so I would know. I assumed that form of communication would make it much easier to obey him. But remember how Moses responded to bush, the Israelites to the pillar of fire and the crowds to Jesus' miracles. Moses argued with God about his qualifications, the Israelites complained and doubted, the crowds didn't believe - we're no different. We need to learn from scripture how people often respond to dramatic communications from God. Elijah fled after his victory over the prophets of Baal, David lusted for Bathsheba after God gave him so many successes, Peter stopped believing he could walk on water even while walking on water. Dramatic communication doesn't guarantee understanding or obedience.

The reality is that the Lord speaks most often in the still, small voice that is an inner voice. It is the Holy Spirit directly communicating with our spirit, bringing to memory truths we must practice or people we need to pray for, perhaps an awareness of a sin we've excused too often or some activity we need to undertake. Of course none of those promptings will contradict God's Word and almost always they will be confirmed by sisters and brothers. The more time we spend with the Lord the more confidence we gain that we are hearing his voice in this way. This is what Grandma Mema didn't understand. We don't need to hear an audible voice that makes clear statements about what we are to do. In fact relationships of great intimacy often don't require much speech because partners have such a deep understanding of the other and what pleases them.

We should respond in at least three ways and if we're not doing those three things anything else isn't of much use. How many of you are content with time you devote to being with God? I'm not asking how many of us could do better because everyone would say yes. I'm talking about those of us who know we're seriously lacking in one or more of these areas; we really aren't spending the time with God required to truly grow close to him. The three basic things we need to do parallel the forms of contact God initiates with us.

Read the Word of God and that includes personal and corporate reading. I knew a man, a church leader, who told me he didn't need adult Sunday School or Bible studies because he'd learned it all as a kid. He eventually succumbed to serious sin that crippled his life with God for years. We all need more input that just our personal reading of scripture, we need other believers insights and understanding of the Bible to grow closer to God. One of the newest concerns in church life is pastors who take sermons from the internet to preach as their own. For me the biggest problem is not that the pastor is plagiarizing sermons but that the pastor isn't interacting with God's word which should be a significant part of every pastor's ministry.

Second we need to Pray. I've known the importance of prayer for as long as I've been a believer but recently I've probably tripled my prayer time. Does that move me several notches of the holiness scale? No, it shows I'm stupid and lazy for waiting until I was 59 instead of starting at 29 or 19 or 9. Too many pastors are too busy developing programs, making contacts and attending seminars to spend significant time in God's presence both in study and prayer. All most of us have to do is compare the time we spend in other forms of communication or on our physical appearance with the time we spend with God to see how foolish we are in the choices we make. The Tribune, People Magazine, our favorite radio station or tv show, our morning preparations to look good all get more time than God does in our schedule. Is it any wonder many believers don't feel close to God?

Finally we need to be more involved with Life in the body of Christ but not in the way many of you might think. For most of us that life is probably really imbalanced. The time we spend together is mostly in ministry and not in sharing our lives with one another. We are not shaped by daily interaction with other believers but by so many other sources: the news and entertainment industries, coworkers, politics. Those of you on the e-mail prayer chain know I sent out several personal requests on Tuesday. That's because I was going nutty. I was facing several issues that really concerned me and I was getting obsessive in my thinking about them. I was also getting compulsive in my desire to do something right now to solve the problems. I had prayed about them but I was still all wound up inside. The Lord finally told me to talk to somebody so I called my accountability partner and told him I needed someone to whine and cry to. I didn't get to say much more than that because he was facing an important deadline in a few hours. But even saying those words, hearing his laughter and talking for even a few moments broke the obsessing and compulsions. How did the Lord speak to me? The thought just came to my mind that I should tell someone I was going nutty. I know that was the voice of the Holy Spirit because obeying it ended the stress, buoyed my spirit and allowed me to focus on other work.

That kind of interaction with other believers is what all of us need everyday and most of us don't have. A Breakpoint article this week said a recent survey indicated 25% of Americans say they don't have a close friend they can talk to. Given how closely other surveys indicate the church parallels the culture I would guess that percentage of Christians would say the same thing. Remember the man I mentioned earlier who fell into serious sin in part because he didn't need to study the Bible with others. As I shared his life with God was crippled for years, first because of the nature of the sin and second, because for years he never opened up and sought help from other believers. He tried to carry it alone and never knew if he experienced God's forgiveness or not. Eventually he shared with me and as God intended he began to experience assurance of forgiveness. We need not only personal insights and those from the Spirit but those from body of believers.

So what about it? Will today's sermon make any difference in your life? Will you think, "Yeah, he made some points," but then go on with life as usual. Will you continue to struggle on this magical, mystery tour of life with God because you don't understand and you don't feel his presence? Or will you let Jesus really come in through the presence of his Holy Spirit - in the Word, in your life and in the body of believers? He is waiting right now to see who will take the next step, who will say, "I'm ready Lord, let's go," who will find a brother or sister today and share your new commitment and ask them to walk with you and encourage you because your hunger and thirst for God can no longer be satisfied with what you have - you want more and you know Jesus wants more?