God is so, so good! Like, He is amazing!! I know this shouldn’t surprise me, but I have just been overwhelmed with His love this week, and so blow away at what He has done in my life. As I showed up to my one-hour commitment to spend with Him, He showed up, too. He showed and gave me new perspectives into His character and the depths of His love and care for me and attention into the details of my life. I sat each new morning in awe of what He had done in me and for me and through me the previous day.
On Monday He brought someone into my day who had been turned off of church life by the Catholic church, and had tried to go to a Christian church and was turned off by the lack of connection in the mega church she tried. I thought, “Perfect. We’re a small church, and there’s lots of opportunity for connection and the change to develop meaningful relationships.” And I got to speak about the hope of Christ and the community of His church.
On Tuesday I was encouraged by hearing from some of you about how He has shown up in your hour with Him and He showed me His encouraging faithfulness yet again.
On Wednesday I was struggling to know how to answer one of the questions we’ll go over today, how He wanted me to show His love to someone that day and no sooner had I finished praying then He immediately brought not 1, not 2, not even 3 people, but 4 people to mind that needed some encouragement and love that I could give in a meaningful way.
On Thursday, He helped me in an area that I am broken and at the end of my rope with. It was very clear to me that I simply do not have what it takes to deal with the situation or to fix it in the slightest. I feel lost, confused, and unsure of what to do. I still don’t know what to do. But He does, and He reminded me that He is the source of all wisdom, and that He can not only give me an answer about what I should do, but He can guide me through it.
On Friday, He assured me of the confidence I have in Him, as He reminded me that I have been in desperate situations before and when He got done working, they were all worked out for my good because I love Him and am called according to His purpose.
On Saturday, He gave me endurance to get through one of those days where it was a perfect storm of all the activities colliding on one day. Was I tired? Absolutely. But His gave me patience and strength, and I was able to be there for my family with a cheerful and glad attitude. The schedule was a recipe for disaster, but God worked in my attitude.
He showed up. He always does. But this last week I was looking for Him, ready for Him, hungry for Him, and so I saw Him more, I saw Him in everything!
I know from words and conversations from many of you that He’s been doing the same thing in your life this week because you committed to show up.
Today’s message will help us enrich our one-hour with Him even more this week. We’re going to look at 2 more questions that He asked His disciples that will help us draw into His presence in a really powerful way. It’s through these 2 questions in particular that you will give Him freedom to speak to you and you will be actively listening for His voice. It’s going to be so, so good.
Remember that the first two questions we went over last week are “Who do you say I am?”, and “Do you understand what I have done for you?” The first question aims at getting us to reflect on who Jesus is to us right here and now, not in generalizations, but who He is in the moments and circumstances that we’re in right then. The second question has us looking for good things Jesus has done in us, through us, and for us, and praising Him for those good things.
Our first question today comes from Matthew 17:5, “While He was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” (NIV) This was God’s command to the disciples who had gone up to the mountain with Jesus: Peter, John, and James. The command is for Jesus’ disciples to listen to Him. It’s imperative! We must listen to Him, or we are utterly lost.
So after you’ve asked those first two questions during your one-hour quiet time each day, Jesus has a question to ask of you: “Are you listening to Me?” During this time, you will stop and read the Scripture for that day. Read it several times. Let it soak into your mind and heart. Underline or highlight things that speak to you and seem important. Write down questions you have and observations you have made in your journal. What sticks out to you? Ask Jesus to speak to you through what you’ve read. In your journal, write down the application from what you’ve read. As God speaks to your heart, what might Jesus want you to do with what you’ve read? There’s nothing He can’t say to you, unless of course it goes against His word or character, so just sit quietly and listen to what Jesus says to you.
You know, talking to Jesus in our quiet time is great, and it’s not wrong to come to Him with requests and intercessions, but we often neglect to just sit and listen. Just listen. Practice hearing His voice. Here’s the thing, it’s okay to not know. Really. I DON’T KNOW IS OKAY, just practice listening to His voice.
We cannot underestimate the value of just sitting in His presence and listening for His voice.
Let’s look at the second question from John 21:15, “When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” (NIV) Most of us have heard this conversation before. Jesus asked Peter this question 3 days, each time Peter answered with increasing frustration.
“Peter, do you truly love me?”
“Yes, Lord, I love you.”
“Feed my lambs. Peter, do you truly love me?”
“Yes, Lord, you know I love you.”
“Take care of my sheep. Peter, do you truly love me?”
“Yes, Lord, you know I love you more than anything!”
“Feed my sheep.”
Look at John 4:34, “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.” (NIV) Does that mean Jesus didn’t eat food? Of course not. What He was saying was that what truly sustains Him, what truly keeps Him going day to day, what fills Him up and gives Him life and purpose, isn’t bread, it’s doing the will of God. Obedience is our spiritual FOOD, when we obey we GROW in faith and in our relationship with the Father.
During this time, when Jesus asks you, “Do you love me?”, He’s giving a command to feed and care for His sheep. Listen for the command. Look for the command.
It can come several ways:
1. Obedience in caring for and feeding yourself. You can’t feed someone if you yourself are hungry. It’s like what they say during the airline safety briefings at the beginning of each flight: please put on and secure your oxygen mask first before you help those you love. Care for and feed yourself, obediently. Doing this challenge to spend one hour with Jesus every day will definitely help you do that, so if you haven’t made the commitment yet, do that today! It’s never too late to commit to spend more time with Jesus.
2. Obedience in caring for and feeding your FAMILY. They were given to you to care for and tend to, to pray for, to share truth with. Nurture your relationships with them, and most importantly, lead them to Jesus.
3. Obedience in caring for and feeding the body of Christ. This may be surprising to you, but it isn’t just the job of pastors to feed the body of Christ. That’s part of our call, yes, but the call extends to each member of the body. Maybe God is asking you to encourage a brother or sister, to pray for a need, to lay hands on for healing, and so many other things the Lord may ask us to do to feed His sheep.
4. Obedience in caring for and feeding the LOST around you. They are His sheep too, though they have not yet become a part of the fold. Maybe He is calling you to give a bottle of water to someone who is thirsty, or buy a meal for someone in need. Maybe that looks like praying for a co-worker who is greatly struggling.
The point is, there are man ways we can be obedient to Jesus’s call to feed those He loves, so we have no shortage of work to be done. Listen to what His Spirit says through His word, and write down what you sense Him asking you to be obedient in.
And again, it’s okay to not know. Practice listening to His voice, and ask Him to reveal to you someway that day that you can feed someone in need of the bread of life.
As we did last week, this week I’ve got a hand-out for each of you with details about these two questions we find in Scripture that help us develop our ear to hear the Spirit and to draw close to Him during our one-hour commitment to spend with Him. You’ll also find on the back end of that hand-out, a list of Scriptures for each day this week, as well as a suggested worship song to listen to, and worship along with. As with last week, you can head over to our website, llcnaz.com and go to the Most/Best tab to find the link to the playlist for this week’s worship songs.
Add the two questions from today’s message to your time with Him. Do them in this order:
Who do you say I am?
Do you understand what I have done for you?
Are you listening to Me?
Do you love Me? (Feed My sheep)