Scott Peck says this about our lives and about adventure in our lives and I think it fits well with what we’re talking about in this SNAP series .
An adventure is going into the unknown. If you know exactly where you are going, exactly how you will get there, and exactly what you will see along the way, it is not an adventure because they involve the unknown, adventures are inherently dangerous to a greater or lesser degree. Yet, it is also only from adventures and their newness that we learn. If we know exactly where we’re going, exactly how to get there, and exactly what we’ll see along the way, we won’t learn anything.
Hold onto that today.
Last week as we began SNAP, I said that this was a 2-week deal - that to fully understand SNAP, you should try to get to both weeks. So, if you you’re here for Part 2, it’s gonna feel a bit like seeing the second movie in a series . . . you’ve got a little catching up to do.
Last week it was all about God speaking to us and we talked about whom he speaks to and why he speaks to them. And last week we looked at the life of Moses – an ordinary, everyday guy – with an ordinary, everyday job – but a guy who was running from God because of his somewhat shady past. And we decided last week that Moses was a lot like us, except something quite profound happened to Moses.
He heard God’s voice and when he did . . . in that moment (SNAP) – his life was changed and Moses began an adventure that is now not only historic but infamous and because of that SNAP moment, Moses had and because of the adventure that ensued Moses is widely considered one of the greatest spiritual leaders of all time.
Because when God speaks (SNAP) everything changes and folks, that is true for us as well. God desires to speak into our lives and transform our souls as well. He wants to clean up our pasts and call us forward into an amazing future filled in Adventure and Destiny, but that only happens when he speaks and we listen.
So, this week – Part 2 of ‘SNAP” is all about listening. This week is all about us learning to put ourselves in a space to hear from God, to position our lives in such a way that we will hear his voice above everything else because when God speaks and we listen – it changes everything!
The only trouble is this:
Listening in our very noisy culture is hard work. I read something this week that was kinda funny very true, but kinda funny. It was about ADD.
ADD – Attention Deficit Disorder. Attention Deficit Disorder is described like this . It is mostly an organic problem, which tends to run in families. It is characterized by the inability to sustain focused attention. This checklist rates the following behaviours, which are present in most people with ADD:
- Distractibility
- Inattention
- Free flight of ideas (free associations to any other idea)
- Impulsivity – Moodiness
- Bursts of hot temper
- Hyperactivity
So, here’s what happened when I read that list. I immediately thought that many of us suffer from a kind of spiritual ADD and no, I am not joking. One of the main reasons that many of us do not hear from God as clearly as we might, is because we are distracted, inattentive and hyperactive.
It’s certainly true in my life. I hear God’s voice much more clearly when I am on retreat, or at a conference, where life’s distractions are minimal or on vacation and away from the demands of work and life, but normally in life, in my daily life – I am in a constant state of having to sharpen my ability to focus, to discipline myself to reject the diversions that surround me so I can give full attention to God and to people and situations that require it.
I also believe that I am not alone in this failure of focus. Our lives are full of distractions, and opportunities, and demands. Phones ring at all hours in our homes. Cell phones keep us constantly jumping. Internet connections can be made at any time and Email that we can now get anywhere allows real time written communications whether we want it or not.
And as a result of being offered a smorgasbord of information, most of us have an attention span of about 30 seconds. If one thing bores us, we simply switch channels, pick up different magazine, surf the net, turn on the stereo, etc. and into that noise – God calls us to hear the voice of Jesus. Listen to this, In Matthew 17 in the bible God re-introduces Jesus to some of his followers with a bit of authority and this is what He said, and it’s a bit of a mysterious moment as Jesus is with a few of his closest followers.
Matthew 17:5 (NIV) it says this, ”A bright cloud enveloped them, and God’s voice from within the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"
Just that last line is what is important. God says, Listen to Jesus’ voice not sing or talk or teach or read.
And if you look below the surface a bit God wasn’t just saying listen once and then you’re good. He was saying listen ongoing. Position your life in such a way so you can hear the words of Jesus even amidst the noise because when you do, it changes everything.
So how do we do that? How do we become better spiritual listeners? Well, there’s a bunch of different ideas I had here (like 30 – ADD) but let me give you just 3 – the first one is pretty simple to understand – simple but not easy. We’ve got to learn to:
Listen Don’t Just Talk
James 1:19 in the Bible says this;
My dear brothers (and sisters), take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,
Now, James here is talking about our human relationships, but
folks I believe that this can apply to our relationship with God and how we connect with him as well.
Now, I don’t exactly know how you best connect with God on a daily basis, but prayer would be one of those connections. Over 80% of North Americans say they pray regularly and so I’m assuming that most of you even if you’ve just started out on your spiritual journey most of you would be in that group – you pray regularly, or at least once in a while, if not every day.
Well, my suggestion is simply this, as you pray – apply James 1:19.
Be quick to listen and slow to speak. I mean, so often in our prayers we’re leading the discussion aren’t we? Think about it we say God I’ve got this issue my sore back or my business partner has this thing or my finances needs that or our marriage needs some fixing or my kid is sick or Betty Sue and Bobby Joe are going through this and that and God, could you just fix that situation for them?
Now, don’t get me wrong there’s nothing wrong with praying in a “get it done” kinda manner that’s all good, but I also think that listening during prayer being slow to speak and quick to listen can better inform us.
Here’s what I mean – The apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:18 tells us to
“pray in the spirit on all occasions.” Now there’s a bunch of things that he meant by saying this, but at least one of the things he was saying was that God himself wants to show us how to pray or better yet God’s spirit will show us how He wants us to pray if we listen. Here’s what I mean, say you’ve got issues in your marriage or in any relationship that you’re in and your praying for God to help fix it. Well my suggestion is this instead of just wading right in and asking God to deal with the situation straight forwardly and directly as you see it from your angle instead of that, try this try listening before you pray so as to see God’s angle. Just say this, “God how would you like me to pray about this issue? And then just be quiet for 2 or 3 minutes. Quiet, slow to speak, and quick to listen. Just try that when you pray this week and I think you’ll be surprised by the results.
Interview with Mother Theresa:
Reporter: “What do you say when you pray?”
Mother Theresa : “I listen. I don’t speak”
Reporter: “Well, then what does God say when you pray?”
Mother Theresa: “He listens, too”
Now, I’ve talked lots lately about my Tim Horton’s prayer times in the morning as I spend time writing out my prayers and journaling. Well, I’ve been applying this idea of being slow to speak and quick to listen as I learn to pray and it’s been amazing. Very often God will listen to my angle on a specific issue I’m dealing with, but then as I listen, quiet. He’ll show me a whole other view of it angle and how to pray into that. And I gotta be honest if your praying about a relational issue and you’re asking God to change that other person you might be surprised that if you listen the prayer will often move from the changes God wants to make in them to the changes He wants to make in you.
And suddenly its God help me be more selfless, and more patient and more loving and God help me see what they need and suddenly you find yourself praying mostly about being part of the solution as opposed to “God – change them.”
Folks, I believe this one idea slow to speak – quick to listen could revolutionize the way we pray about our lives and our families and even other peoples needs. Because if you and I could just be quick to listen to God and slow to speak then I believe God would speak into that issue whatever it may be in that moment - SNAP and like we said last week when God speaks – everything changes. His angle is usually a whole lot different than ours and I think if we just took a little time to listen while we pray – before we wade in we’d be surprised by what He tells us. Try that this week I’d love to hear back from you.
Here’s the second way to become a better spiritual listener.
Listen As You Read
You know this book is full of the words of God. This book – the bible is precious and it is life and it is light and in its pages there is great wisdom for how we are to live and be and it holds the answers to the future and to what we should and could become in life.
And if you want to hear the voice of God - He will speak to you from the pages of this Book.
Psalm 119:105 . . . says this, “God, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” Simple but really big!
God is reminding us here that He again desires to speak into our lives - God’s voice into our lives and again the way He speaks as we heard last week is personal and often very immediate. Folks, He can speak in to your life brightly when you read His word. He lights our path as we walk every minute of every day not just once in awhile – but always and every moment.
Often people that read the bible will say things like this. “That verse just jumped out at me as I read it.” “Or it was like those words were written to me just for this situation I’m going through.” And it’s true it was speaking to them.
The voice of God speak directly and clearly into our lives through His Word and one of the best ways we can learn to listen – is simply to open this book.
My Black Book – my journal – the story of my spiritual life .
2 verses over the past year - profound moments when God spoke. Last year – dark days – I described last week – confused – beat up – alone – felt like quitting pretty much everything and everyone could tell where I was at. And one day – someone gave me this verse to read and I wrote it down in my journal.
Hebrews 10:35-36
“Do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord, (no matter what happens) – Remember the great reward it brings you . . . (Patient endurance is what you need now) So you will continue to do God’s will . . . Then you will receive all that he has promised” . . .
Do you have any idea the light that shone on me as I read that and the confidence it gave me that my life wasn’t being wasted and that God was still with me even in the darkness?
Example No. 2 :
I always think it is kind of strange that I am a preacher because most of the time I don’t quite fit in with preachers - Friday lunch. Often I feel – like I’m not smart enough, quick enough, bright enough, knowledgeable enough or spiritual enough to lead this church and one day when I was walking down that road – God spoke into my life through his work and I wrote it down . . .
II Corinthians 11:3
“Don’t be lead away from your pure and simple devotion to Christ.” Kinda who I am – a simple guy with simple faith.
II Corinthians 3:5
We cannot do anything of lasting value by ourselves . . . our only power and success comes from God.
Those words in an instant changed me from looking down at myself to looking up to God. From thinking “I didn’t have enough because I’m too simple.” To, “I have more than enough because of God’s power and presence” and I was changed in a SNAP.
Here’s my point, God’s word is a lamp to your feet as you step moment by moment – and it’s a light to your path as you walk day by day and it will speak wisdom and clarity and peace and grace into your life.
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Is that awesome or what? This book is alive – active – sharp and it penetrates our souls. And it speaks truth and depth right into the very heart of our lives and if you and I need to hear the voice of God speak to us it’s as easy as opening these pages and reading. Sounds simple and it is – Simple but not easy.
Guys, try reading God’s word this week - need help? Book ministry – ask – they’ll help you find resources to guide you into how to study God’s word. Listen as you Read.
Here’s the Third way we can learn to listen.
Listen as you Walk (through life)
Let me touch on this just for a minute just briefly as I said last week – God can speak to us profoundly through other people as they speak wisdom and peace into our lives, but He also speaks through our everyday experiences as we walk through our lives. The bible is full of stories of God breaking into everyday ordinary peoples lives on very ordinary normal days and when He broke in God made those days and those lives unforgettable. The key is simply to not miss what God is saying as we walk.
(story of guy in flood)
I love this story a friend gave me several years ago. A man was caught in a flood and ended up floating on the roof of his destroyed home. He prayed desperately for God’s supernatural help. In time a rescue team came by in a boat. “We’ve come to help you,” they shouted. “Get in our boat and you’ll be safe.” “No,” the man shouted back. “God’s going to save me.”
And so they left and then it grew dark and scary and the man prayed harder. And then the beating of a helicopter’s blades could be heard coming from the distance growing louder and louder, until they were thumping overhead. A bright light framed the house wreckage and the man. The loudspeaker boomed, “Take the rope, you’ll be safe.” “No, thanks,” the man shouted as he waved the helicopter away, “God’s going to save me.” Shortly thereafter, the roof disintegrated and the man drowned.
He was grateful to arrive in heaven, but he was irritated that God hadn’t answered his prayers. When he stood before Jesus, he complained. “Why didn’t you save me when I prayed for your help?”
“What do you mean?” Jesus said, “We sent you people and a boat and a helicopter! What did you want?”
Folks, here’s the point…
Many times God is shouting to us in our experiences as we walk, but we are so intent on just one option - that we fail to hear Him. We can be so fixed in our point of view that we cannot see what He is doing, or wanted to do, in and through us. Folks – the truth is he’s talking to us every day in every experience we walk through.
Quote by Scott Peck: Some Catholics have a concept I very much admire: The Sacrament of the Present Moment. It suggests that every moment of our lives is sacred, and that we should make each moment feel like that.
Were we to do this . . . we would think of the entire world as diffused with holiness. Wherever we might be would be a holy place for us, and we would see the holy, even sainthood, in everyone we encounter.
Folks, trust me in this third point – Every moment is actually sacred and every experience of every day is an opportunity to hear the voice of God and all I’m trying to do is help you be aware of them.
- Who do you talk to after service
- The conversation you have before bed
- The person you ran into at soccer practice last summer
- The cup of coffee and Tim’s in the morning
God is in every one of us those moments – Don’t miss his voice because when you hear it – it changes everything. Listen as you walk.
Let me close with one more story about how God spoke into one guy’s life
in a way he didn’t think God would. Way back in the book of First Kings in the Bible there are some great stories about a guy named Elijah. Now Elijah was a great man of God and a prophet, he devoted his entire life to speaking the words of God. Great guy - but a bit of a work-a-holic and he often kinda over did it – and didn’t know his boundaries too well and so as you read about him you often can tell he’s sort of worn out physically and. And that he has gone without sleep or food and that he’s on a bit of a jagged edge – emotionally and he’s so stressed that even mentally and spiritually he’s fatigued .
Elijah was a A-type personality who loved action and adventure and partly because of that God used him greatly. Anyways, also because of his personality God would often have to slow him down a bit so Elijah could hear God’s voice. And this was one of those times.
In I Kings 19 . . . Elijah is tired and needing to hear from God – he’s physically exhausted and mentally wore out and emotionally pretty beat up and so Elija goes to Horeb – the Mountain of God. Remember last week? That’s the same place Moses heard from God - kinda cool. Any way – Elijah goes up on this mountain and kinda hides in a cave to sort out his life and it’s in that place of hiding from life that God speaks.
I Kings 19:11-13
God said, "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.
Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
Now, to catch the rest of that story you’ve gotta read the whole
thing (15 minutes – great read). But the point that God was wanting to get across to Elijah was not what God said – but how He said it . . . You see . . . God knew who Elijah was and He knew that Elijah loved being busy and having a full life and He knew that Elijah lived right in the noise of life, but God said, Elijah I’m not gonna speak to you with noisy, loud tones like earthquakes and fire and wind I’m gonna speak to you with a whisper. And I love that line in there that says, and “When Elijah heard it Elijah walked out of his cave when he heard the whisper. ”
How long do you think he listened to the noise before he could hear the whisper? How totally tuned in were his ears to the busyness and chaos and noise of life before he could catch God’s frequency?
People – I know our lives are busy and I know that your world is loud and noisy and full, but I want to call you today – to another place. I want to call you to a listening place a place where God speaks directly to us, but that place doesn’t happen in the noise and our lives can’t get in a position to hear from God when we’re so filled up with busyness and chaos and the wind and the fire and the earthquakes we live in that we can’t hear the whisper.
There is no way God can speak to us if we’re quick to speak and slow to listen and if the noise and loudness of life drowns out his voice.
So what is SNAP all about?
Snap is all about positioning our lives in a place to hear the voice of God. SNAP is about hearing and responding to God’s call in a moment, a call to adventure and fulfillment and destiny and SNAP is understanding that God speaks all the time to ordinary everyday people like you and me and like us and when he speaks and we listen – it changes everything. |
