Sermon notes from 01/24/2016 at The Spring Church . . . .
Read 1 Kings 17:2-6
Life-Lesson: God
wants us to practice time alone with Him.
Let him who cannot be alone beware of
community. Let him who is not in
community beware of being alone. – D. Bonhoeffer in Life Together
Solitude is time alone with God in order to
draw close to him and prepare for the future.
That time may be
daily or more extended, chosen or forced.
THE PROBLEM – we live in a busy, shallow age
Superficiality
is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary
spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of
intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people. The classical Disciplines of the spiritual
life call us to move beyond surface living into the depths. They urge us to be the answer to a hollow
world.
A
life marked by depth can only be cultivated in protracted periods of time spent
in solitude, quietness, and obscurity – concepts foreign to those who live
their lives at the speed of light. What
I have in mind is brief periods of time when we deliberately slow down and
meet, alone, with our God. -
Richard Foster, The Celebration of Discipline
THE PRINCIPLE – entering into God’s rest
The
Sabbath and God’s rest: God modeled for us in Creation and in the Law the need for rest and refreshment.
Jesus Christ modeled for us a life that regularly sought out solitude with the Father. Jesus had the most important mission of any man who ever lived, yet he took time to come aside in solitude.
The
example of Jesus: Matt.
4:1-11 The
Temptation of Christ
Lk. 6:12 The
choosing of the Twelve
Matt.
14:13 Dealing with grief
Mark 1:35 Morning habit
Mark 6:31 After preaching and healing
mission
Lk. 5:16 After healing a leper
Matt.
26:36-46 Before his toughest
challenge
Our
secret place Matt. 6:6 Rejuvenation
takes place there
Modern civilization is so complex as to
make the devotional life all but impossible. It wears us out by multiplying
distractions and beats us down destroying our solitude, where otherwise we
might drink and renew our strength, before going out to face the world again. "Commune with your own heart upon your
bed and be still," is a wise and healing counsel; but how can it be
followed in this day of the newspaper, the telephone, the radio and television?
These modern playthings, like pet tiger cubs, have grown so large and dangerous
that they threaten to devour us all. What was intended to be a blessing has
become a positive curse. No spot is now safe from the world's intrusion. The
need for solitude and quietness was never greater than it is today. What the
world will do about it is their problem. Apparently the masses want it the way
it is, and the majority of Christians are so completely conformed to this
present age that they, too, want things the way they are. They may be annoyed a
bit by the clamor and by the goldfish-bowl existence they live, but apparently
they are not annoyed enough to do anything about it. - Tozer
THE PLACE – your
consistent place to be with the Lord
Not
a fancy place. Somewhere you can meet
alone with God.
Enter
into His rest with on open Bible to hear the Lord. He will speak to your mind and spirit.
We are so tied up with other things we
miss time with God. And we miss Him
speaking to our spirits. – Tony Evans
THE PURPOSE - to get a
fresh word from God that he may develop you for the new
challenges ahead
Before you go to Mt. Carmel, you better
go by the brook. – Tony Evans
Hebrews 4:12 tells us that God's Word is able to speak into the deepest parts of our lives. We get alone with him to quiet and submit our soul to Him with an open Bible and a life open to the Spirit of God, who is able to take the Word and speak deeply into our lives.
Isaiah 50:4 tells us that God can refresh the weary person with a word morning by morning.
A person who is highly gifted needs to
pray more than anyone. You develop
intimacy with your heavenly Father. You
develop sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.
You know His Word by reading the Bible.
You know His ways by spending time with Him. – R. T. Kendall
Sometimes solitude comes as a result of a forced season of waiting. This can happen due to sickness, the death of a family member, the loss of a job or church, and a relocation.
Robert Clinton, former professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, studied the lives of 200 Christian leaders through history, looking for patterns of how God shaped them. He discovered that many leaders go through seasons of forced solitude. During these times God is often working deeply within the person, teaching them deep lessons about the Lord, developing their prayer life and faith, and expanding their vision.
Hudson Taylor experienced such a time when at the age of 26 he had to leave China due to illness. He spent the next four years in England recovering, during which he expanded his medical studies and worked on translating the New Testament into the Ningpo dialect. His biographer writes,
Here began the discipline that was to lengthen out, little as Hudson Taylor expected it, until he was ready for the wider vision that was yet to dawn upon him. Four years were to elapse - quiet, hidden years - in which little apparently was to be accomplished, while God was doing the real, the inner work which was to bear fruit not in Ningpo only but in every part of China.
When those years were over, God had birthed in Hudson the dream not only to return to China as one missionary - but to found what would become the China Inland Mission.
Years later, at age 42, Hudson experienced a fall on a ship that left him partially paralyzed, leaving him bedridden for months. All he could do was lie in bed and rejoice in God. His biographer shares how he chose to trust God, pray to Him, take joy in the Lord during those months: Certain it is that from that quiet room, that room of suffering, sprang all the larger growth of the China Inland Mission. A little bed with four posts was now the sphere to which Hudson Taylor found himself restricted. . . . Between the posts at the foot of the bed hung a map - though he hardly needed it - a map of China. And round about him day and night was the Presence to which he had fullest access in the Name of Jesus.
Sometimes God puts His people in seasons of waiting and solitude in order to draw them close to Himself and prepare them for the future.
Swindoll and Farrar write about such times:
One of God’s favorite methods of
preparing us for something great is to send us into the shadows to wait. Waiting is one of God’s preferred methods of
preparing special people for significant projects. The Bible makes that principle plain from
cover to cover.
God prepares servants most often through
extended periods of waiting, designed to hone skills and break wills, to shape
character and give depth. While He
works, we wait. God prepares us during
times when the whole world seems to be going on without us. He patiently, deliberately, steadily, molds
us in the shadows, so that we might be properly prepared for later years when
He chooses to use us in the spotlight.
- Charles Swindoll
I have yet to see a man used by God who
did not taste of “the season of non-events.”
It may be a long season in your life, but it is a temporary season. I think Joshua and Caleb would tell us that
it was worth the wait, and that they had become better men because of their
disappointments and delays. Even forty
years is temporary when God is at work in your life. It’s the preparation that is necessary for
the promotion. – Steve Farrar
What happens in solitude with God?
1. God sifts our motives.
2. God purifies our hearts.
3. God reminds us of things we forgot.
4. God becomes more real to us than our
problems.
5. God fills us with new strength and
encouragement.
6. God focuses our priorities.
7. God gives us new insights and
direction.
Enjoying reading George Mueller, the faithful man who built Orphanages in Bristol, England, and learned to trust God for their daily needs.
When the poverty of their resources seemed most pinching,
Mr. Mueller comforted himself with the daily proof that God had not forgotten
and would day by day feed them. Often he
said to himself, Man’s necessity is God’s
opportunity.
