How We Grow-Slow Down
Notes
Transcript
We are in the middle of this series HOW WE GROW, and we have been looking at some spiritual disciplines.
One day, if you have called upon the name of the Lord, turned from your sins, and given your life to Christ, you will enter into his presence. You will see him face to face. This world will be a distant memory and all that will matter is that you are with him, forever.
But that time is not now. It will be different for reach of us, but it is coming.
So the question is, what do we do between now and then. If you are to be alive for the next 50 years or 5 years or 5 days, how should be live?
Psalm 23:3 (ESV)
3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
To be righteous means that we are right before God. And the only way we can become right is through the salvation of our soul. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus:
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Look at that verse. Paul is talking to a people just like you and me. He reminds them that at some point they were far away. In other words, separated. Not by their distance from God, but by the sin that separated them. But do you see it......BUT NOW IN CHRIST JESUS you have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
How did they get there? They were far away from the love of God. How did they come close? Here’s the answer...
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Does that verse describe your life? Does that explain you? You were lost in your sin. No hope. No way to help yourself. BUT GOD gave you a way through his Son Jesus Christ. And by grace you were saved. Nothing that you could do yourself…it was all Jesus. But look at those last six words….THAT WE SHOULD WALK WITH HIM.
Those words don’t point to a moment where you said a prayer to ask Jesus into your life. Those words show a continual, ongoing, relationship of love that we have for what Jesus did for us. Love. Honor. Respect. to the one that gave everything for us. So how should we live now between salvation and the time we will enter into his presence?
We walk a path of righteousness, everyday. Surrendering our lives to Him. Loving others the way we want to be loved. Always with a mind and heart seeking to please him and honor him.
Always growing. 2 Peter 3:18
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Always growing. It is something that a Christian will do until that time we see him. (Eternity)
How do we grow? We have been talking about different spiritual disciplines. Remember spiritual disciplines are things we see in Scripture that will help us grow along this path of righteousness.
This morning I want to talk about Slowing Down. Slowing Down.
+++CBC CREED+++
The Spiritual Discipline of Slowing Down. We could also think about it this way… taking some time. Relaxing. Taking a moment. Or even noticing what happens around us.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
BE still. Take time. Look around. See what God has done, and what he will do.
Are you ever still? Do you ever take time to see the beauty of God’s work? Do you ever look around and see how beautiful and green it is here during the rainy season. When the rain is coming, and the clouds get dark, and the lighting and thunder are far off. That’s God work. What about in the dry season when there are no clouds in the sky and it is full of stars at night. And sometimes you can even see a very bright light and that is another planet. That’s God’s work.
Every time we drive to Enugu and we are coming back on the road, there is this place where we can see very far in the distance, the beauty of God’s creation in Nigeria. And Mom always say, that she loves that place because it is beautiful.
Even if you see theses things everyday of your life, you need to slow down and appreciate what God has done.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
The psalmist took time to be still…look around…and when he did, he recognized the beauty of Creation. A creation that was made possible by our God.
Look what God says… when you are still… you will know that I am God.
When we get busy doing so many things, our attention is pulled away from God and turned to the things of this world…but when we are still…we are reminded of who is is, what he did, and how much he loves us.
Be still and know that I am God.
When we get still we can see the things that are of God and those that are not God. This is why we ask the question sometimes on Sunday Nights, where did you see God this week? Are you seeing God work? Even in the smallest things. Are you seeing God? No? Maybe, you just need to slow down. Look around. Because he is working, and when we see that, it increases our faith.
When we go through times of doubt, we can think back and remember when we saw him working, and it helps us come out of that doubt. Be still.
If you want to grow spiritually, you need to slow down. Be Still.
When you slow down, when you are still and notice that God is working, we understand that God is in control. And when we understand that God is in control, we don’t have to worry.
Most of you are young, you are under the care of Mom & Dad. You are not making sure that you work to have food. You are not stuggling over issues that you will later in your lives. But I know there are things that you try to control, and when you can’t control them, you worry.
Maybe you think, “How is this going to happen?” How am I going to do this or that. I have to make sure this happens.
But we should not forget that we are not alone.
I love to think this. When the disciples were alive, 2000 years ago. They had Jesus with them. They walked around with him. They had conversations with him. They had a relationship with him and he was there in the flesh. But then after his death and resurrection he left them, going back to heaven where he came from. But before he left, he told them he would not leave them alone.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
He told them, I will still be with you. I will help you. I will not leave you alone. And what he said came true.
1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
God, the Holy Spirit had come down to earth to fill the beleivers. Now the presence of God wasn’t Jesus in the flesh, but the Holy Spirt. And the Holy Spirt now lived in every believer.
The Holy Spirt guides us, leading us to remember who we are in God, and how to stand for Him.
When we are still and know that He is God, we have a confidence that he knows exactly what we need.
Jesus talked about this.
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
He knows what you need. He points to the birds. Do they have a store to place all of their food they need for the next week? No. God provides for them. He is working.
But what does this mean for us? Yesterday Mom and I were talking about being still, and she said it’s like hitting the pause button on your life. You know what the pause button is? It’s that button when you are watching a video that you touch and it stops the video or song that is playing. It doesn’t go back to the beginning, it stops it right where it is, so that when you are ready, you punch it again and the film or music continues.
That’s what we should do as Christians. Life can be busy, and we can miss seeing how God is working. We need to hit the pause button. Slow down, and focus our attention on our God, the one who gave us this life, and provides eternal life for those who would call on the name of the Lord.
Some of you know that before we came to Nigeria, that we believed God was calling us to India. There is an orphanage there and we were ready to move there and become missionaries. We had everything ready to go except for my VISA. The Visa is a paper given by the Indian government that would allow me to stay in their country. We have one now here in Nigeria.
It was 9 years ago this week, September 20th, 2014, that I posted this one Facebook.
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Did you see the last part there? SO....WE....WAIT.
When I wrote this 9 years ago, I didn’t want to wait. I wanted to figure it out, make our own way. But that is not what I was commanded to do. I was commanded to BE STILL. AND KNOW THAT HE IS GOD. He knew everything. He knew that the Indian government would not let me go. It didn’t surprise him. So, Mom and I got to the place where we said that we simply needed gto be still and allow God to show us what HIS WILL was, not our own.
Three days after that, I got a call from a Pastor. His name was Douglas. And he invited us to sit down and talk about an orphange in Nigeria. A Place of Hope.
That was 9 years ago.
See what happens when you are still. When you take time to see God working. If you do this, he will lead you. Just slow down, and look for him.
There’s a book I read years ago. And the author was a Pastor in a town with a University. They tried for many years to start a Bible study at the University, but no one would come. They tried everything. Different nights, different leaders. Nothing worked. He said they finally gave up. Then one day, God brought a new member to the church. This new member after some time came to the Pastor and asked if he could start a Bible study at the University. He did, and after a year hundreds of people were attending every week.
Teh Pastor admitted that he tries to start the Bible Study in his own power, instead on waiting for God. And as soon as he stopped trying, God brought him someone. He said the best thing you can do is be still, step back, look around, and see what God is doing, and join HIM in the work.
That's what we need to do. Be still and know he is God.