Wrecked, Week 4 - “Learning To Hear”

  Growing up I had to take this class in 8th grade where we basically learned different skills. It wasn’t a home ec class where we learned baking or sewing, though I took one of those in high school. No, this class taught us things like listening. We would take entire class sessions, where one person would sit and talk, while the other listened, and then the person listening would have to report what the other person said. This was also the class where we would go to nursing homes and put on puppet shows.

I don’t remember much else about that class, but the need to listen to people has stuck with me since then. And I’ve come to a conclusion that you cannot hope to learn, unless you’re willing to listen. 

This brings us back to our series, where we’ll be looking at 1st Samuel chapter 3, starting in verse 1. In this series we’ve talking about what it means to have our lives wrecked by God. And this wrecking idea carries with it the reality that when we put our trust into Jesus as Savior, that old life we had is wrecked so that we can be children of God. 

And so in our first week we looked at the life of Paul and saw how when Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, his self-righteousness was wrecked. He no longer viewed himself as a good Jew, but rather as a wretched man saved by the grace of God. And so we walked away from our first week with the understanding that we need to recognize our own wretchedness when we were separated from Jesus so that we can better understand his love for us now.

In our second week, we looked at the life of Nathaniel; one of the twelve apostles who we don’t know much about. We know his name, a little about his background, that he was a little arrogant, and a vague understanding of how he died. But what we saw in the only story about Nathanael was that Jesus saw him under a fig tree. That seeing by Jesus wrecked Nathanael’s life to a point where the arrogance would eventually be gone and a disciple would go to death for his Savior. We walked away from that week with the understating that we need to be content with God seeing us, and loose the desire to be seen by the world.

Then last week we looked at the Book of Esther and saw a young woman who had beauty and wisdom and followed the commands of God without God needing to speak. Because of her faithfulness to God’s Word, the Hebrew nation was saved from destruction. We walked away from this week with the understanding that we need to be doing what God has already said, while we actively watch for what God wants from us.

This brings us to 1st Samuel 3:1, where, since we’ve talked about doing God’s command without him speaking, we turn our attention to hearing God’s voice. Let’s read Samuel’s interaction starting in chapter 3, verse 1.

1 The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.

2 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the Lord called Samuel.

Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 5 And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.

6 Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”

7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

8 A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10 The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”

Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

11 And the Lord said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle. 12 At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. 13 For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God, and he failed to restrain them. 14 Therefore I swore to the house of Eli, ‘The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.’”

15 Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the Lord. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, 16 but Eli called him and said, “Samuel, my son.”

Samuel answered, “Here I am.”

17 “What was it he said to you?” Eli asked. “Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you.” 18 So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, “He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.”

19 The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. 20 And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. 21 The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word.

What is the one reoccurring action that is brought up in the passage? God’s calling of Samuel. Again and again God calls Samuel, but what’s the problem? Samuel doesn’t recognize God’s call. Why? Because Samuel doesn’t know God’s voice, and so mistakes it for Eli’s. But Eli eventually realizes what’s going on and directs the boy to what he needs to do.

This passage speaks volumes on how God speaks to us, giving us three ways in which it occurs. Not the only three ways, but three of the most common ways. And here’s the thing, when we’re talking about being wrecked by God, a part of that is having our perception of God’s interaction with us wrecked. God’s desire is to speak to his people, what we need to have done is have our ideas of what he does it wrecked, and reformed into what we see in Scripture. And in the passage of Samuel, we’re given three consistent ways God speaks to his people. So we need to learn how to listen the way God wants us to.

The first way in which God speaks is through more mature believers. When Samuel here’s a voice he assumes its Eli’s. But after three times of Samuel interrupting Eli’s rest, it’s Eli who realizes that it’s God speaking. So Eli sends Samuel back and gives him what to say in response to God.

It’s important to realize that no matter what age we are, we have people who can direct us in the path we are to go. We see this in the life of Moses in Exodus 18. Though Moses was God’s spokesman and leader of the Israelite nation, he was trying to do too much on his own, especially in the case of resolving conflicts with the people. It’s in Exodus chapter 18 that we see Moses’ father-in-law show up and say this in verse 17, “Moses’ father-in-law replied, ‘What you are doing is not good. 18 You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. 19 Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. 20 Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. 21 But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. 22 Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. 23 If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.’”

This is then followed in Exodus by God speaking at Mt. Sinai. When we listen to wise counsel, even unasked counsel, from people who are more mature than we are in the faith, it opens us up to the voice of God in our lives.

Solomon in Proverbs 1:8-9 states, “Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. 9 They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.”

Therefore one way in which we are to hear the voice of God, is to listen to what more mature believers have to say. 

The second way in which we are to hear God’s voice is through an audible sound. Samuel is hearing the voice of God in an audible way, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Peter, Paul, John all heard the audible voice of God.

Now this voice can be heard in two ways. The first is a booming sound like thunder. Listen to how it is described in the book of Job chapter 37, “2  Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice, to the rumbling that comes from his mouth. 3 He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven and sends it to the ends of the earth. 4 After that comes the sound of his roar; he thunders with his majestic voice. When his voice resounds, he holds nothing back. 5 God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding (v. 2-5).” In God’s booming voice, it is inimitable and will shake us to our core. I will admit, I have never heard this great booming voice, and to be honest, I don’t know if I want to. It sounds terrifying, so much so that the people of Israel did not want to God to speak to them directly and so asked for Moses to be their mediator.

A second way the audible voice can be heard is in the case of Elijah in 1st Kings 19:9-18. Elijah flees from what he perceives is his death at the hands of Jezebel and God sends him to Mt. Sinai. There we’re told this starting in verse 11, “11 The Lord 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. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 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?’”

This second way in which God’s voice can be heard audibly is the whisper. This, I have heard, and I believe is God’s primary audible style to those who are his people and are in a close relationship with him. A booming voice is what you use when getting over the noise that surrounds you, but a whisper is a voice you use in the intimacy of a relationship.

The final way we see God speaking to Samuel is in the last verse of the passage we read, “The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word.”

It was in and through God’s word that Samuel knew God. I believe that this is the primary way God speaks to his people. From his word, we’re told by Jesus in John 14:26, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” God spoke to Joshua in the opening of his book, “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful (v.8).” The Hebrew writer states in their opening chapter, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe (1-2).”

Countless times in my own life, God has spoken through his Word just what I needed, sometimes before, sometimes during, all the time when I needed it.

And there will be people that say things like, “If you talk to God that’s okay, but if he talks back then you’re crazy.” This is why we need to resign ourselves to only desiring to be seen by God and not the world. There are people in the world that already think Christians are crazy. There are people that think that Christianity is false, and even some that say it’s immoral. All I care about is what God says. Paul states in 1st Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Let us seek God’s voice.

But we must put a couple of disclaimers on hearing the voice of God. First, God will never speak in contradiction to his already revealed word. Jesus said in Matthew 5:18-19, “For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

If ever we hear a voice that contradicts God’s Word, that voice is not from God and should be rejected. Paul said it like this in Galatians 1:8-9, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!” The Word of God will never, never, be contradicted by the voice of God. That’s why it’s so important for us to hear God through his word, so that we may know his voice when we hear it. 

Second disclaimer, you are not less of a believer, if you do not hear an audible voice from God. Each of us are in a unique Father/child relationship with God and those relationships are both similar and different. Remember the Hebrew write states, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways…” God spoke in various ways, and though the message is through the Son, God still speaks with variety. I’ve known people that have been physically grasped by God, I never have. I’ve known people that have had full on interactive visions from God, I never have. The way God speaks to you is how he decides and bears no greatness or diminishing of your standing in Christ.

Yet, we should seek to hear the voice of God; whether that be through more mature believers, audibly, or in his Word. 

So this week I want to challenge you to put this into practice. Read through 1st Samuel 3:1-21, asking God to speak to you as he did with Samuel. Then go to a more mature believer and get their insights into God’s voice in their lives. To hear an audible voice from God, maybe sit out under the stars with no interruptions and just actively listen. And then read through the other passages that we’ve referenced today and seek God’s voice in his word.

Let us be a people who are seeking God’s voice, in a way that is within the unique relationships we have with him, so that we may better known and serve him. Amen.

Wrecked, Week 3 - “Moving In Silence”

  I grew up around metal stud framing and drywall. When I was old enough to start working as an apprentice, I was the ground guy who had to cut and set up for the guy on the lift or scaffolding. My Dad would emphasize again again that the guy on the ground had to work, so that the guy on the top never stopped working. I learned that in order to accomplish that task, I had to see the job a head and prepare for that. Every thing I had learned needed to be implemented without the guy I was working with saying a word. I was supposed to have the next piece ready to be either put up, or cut. I was supposed to have the layout ready, or the next piece fabricated without a word from my partner. 

I watched other ground guys who would have so much done ahead of time that they had to keep busy so it didn’t look like they were just slacking off. But even when I got to the point where I was like that, I had to always have an ear open to my partner. Because inevitably, there had to be a change, because there was a pipe, or duct work in the way. I had to be listening and doing to make sure the job went as smooth as possible.

And it’s this idea of working while waiting for commands that brings us back into the third week of our Wrecked series where we are going to the Old Testament book of Esther chapter 2. And as we open up to Esther 2:1, let's remind ourselves where we are so far in our series.

So far in our series we’ve looked at two people Paul and Nathanael. We saw how Paul’s life was wrecked by God when God took Paul from being a self-righteous persecutor of the Church, and made him realize his own wretchedness. Paul thought he was doing righteous acts, that he was on the side of God, but when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, that entire belief was crushed. Paul lived the rest of his days in a humble state, where he knew he wasn’t anything great, but only for Christ did he have anything at all. We need to live in this humble state as well. Embracing the truth of our wretchedness and how far the love of God has reached down to bring us out of that wretchedness.

Then last week when we looked at Nathanael. In him we saw a person who most likely a little arrogant, and yet when Jesus revealed that he saw Nathanael under a fig tree, that arrogance melted away, and wrecked his life to a point that Nathanael was willing to die for a man he thought couldn’t have been anything good at all. We walked away from Nathanael’s life with an understanding that we must lose the desire to be seen by the world, and only care for being seen by Jesus.

  This now brings us to the story of Esther and as we open to Esther chapter 2, we need a little context. The previous chapter of Esther’s book is about two people, the King and Queen of the Persian empire. In the first half of the chapter we learn a little about the King and how one day he threw a huge feast for a lot of people. It was a lavish affair to show his greatness to the people. Because of this we also learn that the Queen threw her own feast for all the women in her care as a parallel to her husband’s feast.

In the second half of chapter one, we get a conflict between our two people. The King desires that his Queen come before the people of his feast in full royal garb to show her off. She was a looker and the King wanted others to see how beautiful she was. But the Queen refused. She wouldn’t come and be paraded in front of the King’s guest, and this infuriated the King, because when the King wanted something it was done. 

We’re then told that the King met with his advisors and they agreed that this couldn’t go unpunished because it would embolden their wives to not follow their commands. And so, they made and example out of the Queen, stripping her of her royal station. But this left the King without a Queen, and so he began his search for a new queen, and it’s here that we pick up in Esther chapter 2 verse 1.

1 Later when King Xerxes’ fury had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed about her. 2 Then the king’s personal attendants proposed, “Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king. 3 Let the king appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful young women into the harem at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let beauty treatments be given to them. 4 Then let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This advice appealed to the king, and he followed it.

5 Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei (she-may), the son of Kish, 6 who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, among those taken captive with Jehoiachin king of Judah. 7 Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.

8 When the king’s order and edict had been proclaimed, many young women were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai (hay-gay). Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai (hay-gay), who had charge of the harem. 9 She pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven female attendants selected from the king’s palace and moved her and her attendants into the best place in the harem.

10 Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. 11 Every day he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her.

12 Before a young woman’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics. 13 And this is how she would go to the king: Anything she wanted was given her to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace. 14 In the evening she would go there and in the morning return to another part of the harem to the care of Shaashgaz (shaa-sh-gas), the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not return to the king unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name.

15 When the turn came for Esther (the young woman Mordecai had adopted, the daughter of his uncle Abihail) to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai (hay-gay), the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested. And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her. 16 She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal residence in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

17 Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18 And the king gave a great banquet, Esther’s banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality.

Now there’s a couple of things we can gather from what we know about Esther. First, she was an orphan in the care of her older cousin Mordecai. Second she was a beautiful young lady, and quickly won favor with many people, especially the guards and eventually the King. She also followed wise counsel; the first instance of this was following Mordecai’s instruction to not reveal her Jewish background, and the second instance was at the direction of the eunuch Hegai (hay-gay) on what to bring to the King. 

In Esther’s story, after a year she becomes Queen and we’re immediately brought into two plots of assignation and deception. The first is in the last part of chapter 2 where Mordecai uncovers a plot to assassinate the King. This information is relayed through Esther and the King was able to avoid the death.

Then we are taken into a second plot by the King’s right hand man Haman. This plot takes up the majority fo the rest of the book, and was kindled because Mordecai wouldn’t bow to Haman when he would pass by. So instead of taking his rage out on Mordecai himself, he went full egomaniac and convinced the King to wipe out the Jews in all the empire. When the decree for this genocide was announced, Mordecai reached out to Esther for help. And in chapter 4 verse 11 we get this conversation, with Esther saying…

“All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.”

Now the first Queen was stripped of her station because she didn’t appear before the King when called, and it was even worse to appear before the King when not called. Esther is looking at a real possibility of death if she were to stand before the King unsummoned. We can see either fear or dissociation happening here. Either Esther desires to follow what Mordecai is asking but she is in fear of her own life, or she figures she will escape the coming genocide because she is the Queen. Well, in the next verse we get Mordecai’s response and the state of Esther’s thoughts.

12 When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, 13 he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. 14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

In Mordecai’s response, I think we can see which of our two options Esther was in. She was thinking that she could escape the situation by being the Queen. But Mordecai rightfully points out that she won’t escape this even though she’s the Queen. I mean he’s right, if the previous Queen was stripped of her station for not showing up when she was summoned, how much greater is the outcome, when it was found out she was a Jew. Esther’s fate would be like that of the rest of her people. At this, Esther consigns herself to what must be done, but she has a request from her adoptive father in verse 15. 

15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”

If we were to continue to read through the rest of the story, we find out that Esther is able to appear before the King and not die. Mordecai is then honored for uncovering the original plot against the King, and Esther is able to reveal both Haman’s plot to kill Mordecai and his plot to wipe out Esther’s own people, the Jews.

Both infuriate the King and it is Haman who hangs from the gallows, and it is the enemies of the Jews who fall in the end. And were left, at the end of the book, with an understanding that the Jews, and especially Mordecai thrive under the King’s rule.

But there is something that stands out in the book of Esther. This one thing stands out because it is omitted throughout the entire story. Do you know what that is? God is never once mentioned throughout the entire story. In the 153 verses not even a hint of God is alluded to. 

Now this is not unique to the Book of Esther, the Songs of Solomon or Songs of Songs doesn’t mention God either. But in that book’s context it makes more sense. That book’s focus is the love between a man and a woman and the passion they have for each other that leads to marriage. So a simple reading of the book, makes sense on why there isn’t a mention of God within a passionate love letter between two individuals. 

Yet with Esther, the lack of God in both the foreground and the background makes no sense. In fact the perfect time for a mention of God would be in chapter 4 verse 14. Mordecai states, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place…And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this” 

This could have read, “For if you remain silent at this time, God will bring relief and deliverance for the Jews…from another place… And who knows…maybe God has given you…your royal position for such a time as this”

But even in the most appropriate place in the book, God is still not mentioned and I think that’s intentional by the work of the Holy Spirit who inspired this book to be written.

Esther’s entire life was guided and directed by God. When Esther’s family died, God had Mordecai available to adopt her. When the Queen was disposed of, God gave Esther favor with the guards. God was there when Mordecai overheard the plot to assassinate the King, and gave favor to Esther when she needed to stand before him and seek his favor on behalf of the Jews.

How do I know that God was there, because Esther’s story parallels another story from the same time period, the story of Daniel and his three friends. They won favor in the sight of the guards. They stood in opposition to the Kind’s decrees and yet came out because of God’s work. The story of Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego shows us that God is right there aiding his people to accomplish his will. Esther shows us that even when God’s not mentioned, he is still at work.

This teaches us a valuable lesson on what it means to be wrecked by God. The number one thing I hear from believers, no matter what their age in the faith is, “I want to hear from God.” Which is a great thing. We should all seek to hear from God more and more. But a question I ask is, what if God is waiting for you to obey what he has already said?

What if God is asking you to walk without the direct command, because he has already given you the direct command in his word?

We can see this is Esther’s life. The first command she follows is Exodus 20:12, “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” In this case she’s honoring her adoptive father Mordecai when he tells her not to reveal her heritage. The result being that she is able to reveal it later, thus insuring the lives of her people.

Another command is to seek God in the act of fasting, from places such as Joel 2:12-13, where God speaks to the Jews, “‘Even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.’ 13 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.’” We see this when Esther makes up her mind to go before the King, she asks the people to fast with her.

Throughout the book of Esther, we see people not be directly told by God to do certain things, but what we do see, are faithful people doing as God had already commanded. It’s easy to get into the mind set that I cannot do anything until I hear directly from God, but the biblical truth is, God has spoke so much that we need to be doing what he has already commanded. 

I’ve heard people say, but we are told to wait upon the Lord. Typically we look to verses like Psalm 27:14 where it states, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” But we misunderstand the word wait. Wait in this verse and verses like it, does not mean to sit and allow things to happen to us. The Hebrew word qavah (kaw-vaw’), means to eagerly look for. We are to be in a state of anticipation for the work of God, which means, we need to be actively working in what God has already stated. 

A verse that gets quoted a lot is Matthew 25:23, “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’”

It’s a verse that gets brought up as something a believer would like to hear when he sees Jesus. Yet that verse comes in the midst of a parable where the Master is absent and the workers have to decide what the best course of action is.

If God never directed us again in our lives, we have all that we need to faithfully follow him. We have this in his word. When we are in doubt of anything in our lives, and God doesn’t seem to be answering, we must return to his word and ask the question, “What has God already commanded me to do in a similar situation that I find myself in now. 

This is why it’s so important to read the Scriptures, so we know what God has already commanded others to do in situations such as we find ourselves in. In marriage, God has already spoken. In singleness, God has already spoken. In business, God has already spoken in. In our free time, God has already spoken. 

God’s word is full of commands that can and will direct us to God’s will in the situations we find ourselves. And the deeper we go in our relationship with God, the more he will be silent to allow us to implement into our lives the commands he has already given us. 

And when we do, we will see God at work, both in the foreground and the background, and we will be the faithful servant of the Master, because we have done what he has command us to do.

So my challenge this week is to read through the book of Esther, it’ll take you about 20 minutes uninterrupted. Then ask the question of God, what can I do in my life right now that you have already commands me to do?

It might be, love your neighbor. It might be stay away from that sin. It might be worship only me.

Whatever it is, do it, follow the commands of God that he has already laid out in his word.

And let us be a people that follow God no matter the situation, because he trust in his already spoken Word. Amen

Wrecked Wk 2 - Unknown But Seen

  Growing up I didn’t have a clique. I had an assortment of friends that I hung out with. I would spend time with my friends on the their farms and ranches. I would spend time with my friends as they played video games. I spent a lot of time playing sports, and other times talking Star Trek. My clique, was anyone that did either feel like they fit in, or they didn’t feel like their supposed group of friends were really friends. 

I had a teenage one time name off a bunch of cliques at his school and tell me what teens were in those cliques. I asked him, where would I stand in today’s high school culture? He said he didn’t know because I did a bunch of things that you’re not supposed to. And the reason is, I never thought that I should be anything for someone else, when it came to my own interests. I like sports, I also like playing board games. I like the smell and work of a ranch, and I also like being inside playing a video game. And when I hang out with people, I like to see what their interested in and connect there. I’ve alway like to see people as people and it’s grown since I came to Christ. Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 9: 22b-23, “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” This has become a part of how I interact with people, that every person is seen as an individual. That I try to make sure that every person I meet is seen as important.

I don’t always do it and I lack a large part of the time, but I strive to see people as God sees them.

This idea of being seen, brings us back into our sermon series where we are talking about how our relationship with God wrecks who we were before we accepted Jesus as our Savior. We’re going to be looking at John chapter 1 and the story of Nathanael. 

We began looking at this wrecking of God through Paul’s encounter with Jesus. On the road to Damascus, Paul is so utterly knocked, both physically and figuratively, off his donkey that for the rest of his life, he points to how he had realized that he was a wretched person. How is self-righteousness and self-absorption were worthless compared to Christ. And how his sin was so bad that he was the least of all the apostles and all of God’s people. Yet, Paul understood the deep and unrelenting love of God for people that realize their wretchedness compared to Jesus. It was here that we talked about realizing and embrace our own wretchedness in sin, which leads us to praising God all the more that he loved a wretch like me. The world desires us to puff ourselves up, to think God would be lucky to have us, but it’s when we realize that God doesn’t need us at all, but that he desires a relationship with us, that God’s love becomes deeper and more fulfilling.

We might be wretched in our sin, but Jesus loved the wretched so much that he died for them. Praise God for the deep love of the Father, that sent the Son, who died on the cross and raised to life, and now to whoever accepts him as Savior, receives the Holy Spirit as a seal to everlasting life.

Let’s now look at another wrecking that God has done, this time in the life of Nathanael in John chapter 1, starting in verse 43. Let’s read together. 

“43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, ‘Follow me.’

“44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’

“46 ‘Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?’ Nathanael asked. ‘Come and see,’ said Philip.

“47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, ‘Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.’

“48 ‘How do you know me?’ Nathanael asked.

“Jesus answered, ‘I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.’

“49 Then Nathanael declared, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.’

“50 Jesus said, ‘You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.’ 51 He then added, ‘Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘“heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on” the Son of Man.’”

This is an interesting moment. In the first three narrative encounters Jesus has in John’s Gospel, he is given three titles. John the Baptist refers to him as the Lamb of God (v.1:29,36), Andrew refers to him as the Messiah (1:41), and Nathanael refers to him as the Son of God (1:49). Each of these titles refer to different aspects of Jesus’ ministry. The Lamb of God and Messiah titles refer to his sacrificial and saving work, while the Son of God title refers primarily to his divineness, but also carries with it a claim to the the throne of Israel.

But it’s the two responses of Nathanael that we’re going to be focusing on today, and how Jesus’ sight changes Nathanael to the core. 

To put this in context within the Gospel of John, more than likely a man named Andrew and the Philip in this passage were disciples of John the Baptist. They had heard John call Jesus the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sin of the world. Andrew invited Jesus to come and stay with him, and Jesus was introduced to Andrew’s brother Peter. Philip on the other hand went to get his brother Nathanael to meet Jesus. But we can see that Nathanael was reluctant, saying, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”

The reason for this is most likely because of a hierarchy of disdain within the Jewish community. People from the Judean region, where Jerusalem was, held disdain for people in the Galiean region. Nathanael’s home town was in Cana another city in Galilee, and in turn he had disdain for the town of Nazareth. Most likely this is because, Nazareth hadn’t had any prophetic or historical value for the Jews and was just a backwater village.

But Nathanael’s disdain might be deeper than this. See, it’s only in John that we get Nathanael’s first name. The other Gospels refer to him by his second name, or what we would call his last name, which is Bartholomew. This name would be seen as Bar-Tolmei or son of Tolmei. Some scholars believe this is a reference to King Talmai the king of Geshur and the father of Maacah, one of King David’s wives. This wife birthed Tamar and Absalom. This would make Nathanael of royal blood, the only one of the twelve disciples to have this connection, and a distant cousin to Jesus himself. This could be why when Jesus sees Nathanael he says, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

These words could also point to Nathanael being a straight talker. He’s probably a person that doesn’t beat around the bush, and says things as he sees them, kind of what he said with the disdain for Nazareth comment we saw earlier.

By thinking thoughtfully about Nathanael, we can start to see a picture of of who is was come into view. He’s a young man that comes from a prominent family line of King David, and he has disdain for others that are not like him. And he speaks his mind even if that means he offends people. Sounds like he is an honest and maybe arrogant person; the perfect candidate to be wrecked by God. 

So whether willingly or begrudgingly, Nathanael goes with his brother to meet Jesus. At Jesus’ words of Nathanael being a true Israelite, Nathanael asks the question, “How do you know me?” Notice that Nathanael doesn’t use an honorific when addressing Jesus. Unlike Paul who we saw last week, uses the title “Lord” in response to Jesus, Nathanael just asks the question, “How do you know me?”

It’s here that Jesus reveals something, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Jesus is revealing a sight beyond the physical, that saw Nathanael before he was called by another to meet Jesus. This sight of Jesus saw Nathanael in his life before this encounter. What was Nathanael doing? What was he saying or thinking under that fig tree? We don’t know, but Nathanael knew, and Jesus knew. 

We can see that this was such an overwhelming revelation to Nathanael because he responds with, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” Whatever Jesus saw about Nathanael under that fig tree, it awoke a realization within Nathanael that Jesus was truly who his brother said he was. That he was the long-awaited Messiah, the Savior of Israel. This true Israelite of royal blood, with disdain in his heart toward the people of Nazareth, had his eyes open to the truth that Jesus is the true King of Israel, the Son of the God and heir to David’s throne.

Now this isn’t the first time in the Scriptures that were told about this sight that goes beyond the physical. In Mathew 6:6, Jesus tells us that we are to pray in secret, and “…your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

A little further in Matthew 6:17 and 18, Jesus reveals that, “But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

And again in Matthew 6:26 we get this insight from Jesus, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

This isn’t to mention places like Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Or Psalm 139:13 where the Psalmist comments on God’s sight beyond the physical, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

Throughout the Scriptures, God’s sight sees us no matter where we are. Whether if that’s in the womb before we were born, or doing secret things, or if we are found in need. God is seeing us, and this sight of God, is what stops Nathanael in his tracks and what changes the trajectory of Nathanael’s life. 

From this moment, we only get a few more references to Nathanael in the Scriptures. And these mentions are not significant stories about him, but rather his name appears just as a part of lists when referring to the other twelve disciples, such as in John 21, or Acts 1:13. 

We really don’t know much about Nathanael from the Scriptures except for this one moment in time. Even his role in the early Church is some what clouded. We’re told by the early church historian Eusebius that he went to India and left a copy of the Gospel of Matthew and then went to the area of Armenia north east of modern Turkey. What is known, is that he was a martyr, but that is not fully known. What is said in Church tradition is that he was flayed alive and then either crucified or decapitated, or both around 68 AD.

Yet, being known by history isn’t the point of Nathanael’s life, it was being known by the Savior. And this is another aspect of what it means to be wrecked by God. God wrecks the perception that we need to be known by the world. That we need to be famous, or glamorous. That we need our 15 minutes of fame in order to make it or be remembered.

Out of all the original twelve disciples, Nathanael was probably the most on track to becoming a well known person, yet when he was seen by Jesus, all that mattered to him was that God saw him. His royal blood no longer matter, nor did his birth place. What mattered was that God had seen him, and that he would now seek only what God would see in his life.

We must seek the same thing. We seek only to be seen by God, and not worry about being seen by others. Because the reality is, people will never see us for ourselves, but rather through their own perception. Yet God sees us, he knows us, he loves us, and he has purpose for us. 

But we must allow God to wreck our perceptions of importance, seeking only to be seen by the God of the universe, because when all that matters is being seen by him, whatever he calls us to do is worth it.

There’s a Casting Crowns song called “Only Jesus,” here are the lyrics, 

“Make it count, leave a mark, build a name for yourself

Dream your dreams, chase your heart, above all else

Make a name the world remembers

But all an empty world can sell is empty dreams

I got lost in the light when it was up to me

To make a name the world remembers

But Jesus is the only name to remember

And I, I don't want to leave a legacy

I don't care if they remember me

Only Jesus

And I, I've only got one life to live

I'll let every second point to Him

Only Jesus

All the kingdoms built, all the trophies won

Will crumble into dust when it's said and done

'Cause all that really mattered

Did I live the truth to the ones I love?

Was my life the proof that there is only One

Whose name will last forever?

And I, I don't want to leave a legacy

I don't care if they remember me

Only Jesus

And I, I've only got one life to live

I'll let every second point to Him

Only Jesus  

Let us be wrecked by God, that it’s only the name of Jesus that matters in our lives. 

This week I want to challenge you to wrestle with this: are you seeking to be seen by the world or by God? This can be done by wanting people to see your talent like singing or being athletic, or wanting to leave a legacy that your family will remember you. But the world will never truly see you; they will see through their own eyes a perception of you. But if you seek to be seen by Jesus, then the world will see what it needs, a relationship with the Savior. 

So let us seek to be seen by God, and that through us, others may see him. Amen.