1. Good Morning. Let’s pray. O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2. Opening Comments: As I read today’s Scripture readings the words “rock” and “strong foundation” came slowly into focus for me. I think that our Lord wants to firm up our faith and in so doing to bring a deep rest to many of our weary souls.
When we came back late Monday of this last week from spending a restful time with our daughter Hayley and her husband Ross I found myself wanting to call a few of you up immediately as you were weighing heavily on my heart and so I did and sure enough you were experiencing some very pressing issues. I have continued to lift you all up before our Lord.
And so as I have settled back into our community I sense that while some of us are experiencing a spring-time many of us are still very much in the middle of a very deep Winter.
It’s not at all surprising then that our Lord would come to us as the establisher of our souls to shore up our foundations and assure us that the blizzards and floodwaters of Winter will never blow or wash us away!
So if you are experiencing tumultuous time or even a dry arid time when God seems a distant memory then today He wants to encourage you not only with words but even more He wants to warm your heart and even your pocket book with His miraculous touch!
Yes, our God is not just a God of words – even words of encouragement, but He is also a miracle-working God who can change our lives with a mere command.
So today we’re going to briefly reflect upon His Word and then I’m going to ask those of us who are in the blizzards or floodwaters of even desert experiences to come forward to receive our prayers for God’s encouragement and miraculous touch.
So let’s focus now on His Word to us.
The First Reading from Deuteronomy chapter 11 beginning at verse 18 encourages us to establish ourselves firmly upon the foundation of His Word. He says to us,
11:18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and souls; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
That’s pretty specific stuff don’t you think? Verbs like “fix” and “tie” are very dramatic.
It’s not as if God is saying
“Consider these words of mind and perhaps you could attach them some how, some way to your bodies so that they might be a faint reminder of my Presence in your lives.”
No! God said “fix” them in your heats and souls and “tie” or bind them to your hands and foreheads!
Dramatic action verbs – there’s nothing wishy-washy about what God wants you and me to do!!!
Fix them – tie them – hang onto them!!!!!
Now quickly turn with me to Psalm 31. Does anyone remember our Psalm Response?
Yes, it was “Lord, be my rock of safety.”
This Psalm is a reference to Proverbs 10:25,
Prov. 10:25 When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone but the righteous stand firm forever.
The plea of the psalmist is fourfold: protect me; save me from shame; rescue me; and hear me. Complete confidence in God doesn’t prevent the psalmist from pleading with God to be saved from shame. The last words of the Psalm exhort others – you and me – to trust in God!
Psa. 31:24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.
Again we hear dramatic exhortations to trust in God!
Now turn with me to our Second Reading for it’s here that we are told about our Rock.
In Romans chapter 3 beginning at verse 21 Paul reminds us that Jesus Christ is our anchor and it‘s our faith in Him that is our life-line to life eternal!
And finally turn with me to our Gospel reading today from Matthew chapter 7 verses 21 through 27. Please listen as I read it again from “The Message,”
Matt. 7:21 “Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. 22 I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’ 23 And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’
Matt. 7:24 “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. 25 Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
Matt. 7:26 “But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. 27 When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”
Matt. 7:28 When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this!
You know, sometimes I love “The Message” paraphrase – this time it really got to the Spirit of what Jesus was actually saying to His listeners!
I want us to focus on the words,
“If you work these words into your life – then you are like a smart carpenter who build his house on solid rock!”
I want to share with you how I worked a revelation of God into my life just this last week.
I like many others believe that God speaks to us through His Word and sometimes directly to us through prophesy and even through personal revelation.
Of course we have to be particularly wary of anything that is extra-biblical for we can fool ourselves and Satan can certainly deceive us. What is needed here is discernment – so that you are able to know whether this was from God or not. Discernment dimply defined is “Knowing what is or what is not of God.”
So while I was on vacation I returned to a wonderful dream I had about a year ago which I have come back to again and again trying to see if there was anything in it for me.
Have you ever experienced this? In fact, I rarely ever remember my dreams but this one was so memorable – so dramatic, so visceral that I haven’t been able to forget it. So with some spare time on my hands I turned my heart and mind and imagination to trying to garner from it anything that might be of God.
The dream went like this. I was with a group of pilgrims crossing a large plateau that slanted down to the ocean about 5 miles ahead to our left but it also sloped upwards on the right a ridge. A majestic mountain backed that close by ridge.
As I looked at that ridge and mountain I saw what looked like an older man on a large and clearly powerful horse riding helter-skelter down the mountain side to what appeared like a chalet built into the side of the ridge. The force and power of that ride was palpable – what a horse and what a man to ride so dangerously yet so magnificently.
It turned out that our destination was that chalet and as I walked entered that building I felt the eyes of that brave old man on me and I liked it.
Now on our vacation I took this dream to the Lord in prayer and contemplation.
I wrestled to get some understanding of what it meant if anything and I was very aware of not allowing myself to be deluded but I felt that there was something here for me but what it was I didn’t yet know. What I knew was that I wanted to find it!
Now before I go on with that let me remind us that I’m illustrating that line in our Gospel reading which said,
“If you work these words into your life – then you are like a smart carpenter who build his house on solid rock!”
I was trying to get what I suspected what God’s direct revelation to me and it was going to take some wrestling.
It did and I had to come back to it again and again with my diary in hand.
At first I heard what I quickly discounted as my own rationalizations. They just didn’t seem to hold “Holy Water” as it were. In colloquial terms they were “just so much psychobabble.” They felt like me and not Him! If you know what I mean.
And then as I sat with this dream and waited the words came to me – “you wanted to be seen by Him didn’t you Robert?” To which I responded gently, “Yes, Lord, I did.” That old man was who you want to be and who you want to be seen by.”
And then I heard Him say, “I see you Robert . . . and I want to be seen by you . . . always!”
When I heard those words I know they were of God but I knew something else immediately and that was that I must “see” others as never before.
I received this as I was awaking. I heard Randi moving in our darkened room and as I asked her quietly, “Do you feel seen by me?” To which she responded gently, “No, you’ve been distracted lately.”
I then asked her to come to me and I held her head in my hands and I kissed her gently.
Now what does all of this mean?
I can imagine some being perhaps disturbed by this endorsement of what some call “Private Revelation.” I can perhaps imagine others thinking,
“What in the heck does this have to do with building our foundations of rock, for goodness sake?”
I want to answer the second question.
In our Gospel reading God is challenging us to,
work His words of exhortation into our lives - to build our foundation on bed-rock and not on shirting sands .
Building on bedrock often requires digging deep down to find the bedrock! You can build on loamy soil but you must first dig through it to the underlying bedrock to anchor your foundations! Then the storms of life won’t blow you away! Won’t terrify you – won’t let you fret your joy in Christ away!
You see I had to dig deep down to find what God was saying to me. I knew, or more accrately, I sensed, in my spirit, that He wanted to say something to me but it took digging and digging and digging and even some discarding to find the bedrock but when I found it it opened doors for me – doors to a deeper life and a richer witness to the intimate reality of our magnificent God!
Now God wants to reveal Himself to you – to every one of you in an intimate way. He is love and that’s what love does – it reveals itself! He comes to us always with open arms.
The challenge – the trick, if you will, is to hear Him – see Him, fell Him, sense His presence! And that more often than not takes work! Digging deep down into ourselves and into Him!
As St. Augustine once said, “O Lord, let me know You so that I may know me. Let me know me so that I may know You!.” Amen and Amen!
Now I would like to invite anyone who needs a touch or revelation from God to please come forward and kneel if you can to receive our prayer on your behalf for God’s touch; His revelation; His blessing!
So please come forward if you will . . . . Let’s pray . . .
