Alone with the Almighty, Part 3

Father, we thank you, Lord, for today. We as your children demonstrate to the world the greatness of our God through our lives. So we ask, Lord, that today as we open once again the text that our lives would see what needs to be seen and that, Lord, we would leave here understanding your will for our lives. We pray these things in the glorious name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. If you have your Bible, I would invite you to turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter 30.

1 Samuel chapter 30. To set the context for you, David had just been on a mission to engage in warfare with those in the Philistine territory. He'd been gone for a while and in spite of that, he had been under the relentless pursuit of Saul. In fact, that went on for 12 years or so and the pressure upon David was insurmountable. But when David and his men, somewhere between five and six hundred of them, would come back to their village, they would come upon a scene that was horrendous. Let me read to you 1 Samuel chapter 30, verse number one.

Then it happened when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev and on Ziklag and had overthrown Ziklag and burned it with fire and they took captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great, without killing anyone and carried them off and went their way.

And when David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him lifted their voices and wept until there was no strength in them to weep. They came upon a scene that devastated them, so much so that when they fell on their faces and began to weep, they lost all sense of strength. They had just come back from a vigorous battle or a series of battles, hoping to come home to their wife and to their children, only to find that they were all gone, that everything they had built up had been burned and been destroyed.

There was nothing left. Then it says down in verse six these words, Moreover, David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. Now we see where David himself had his men coming against him. They were bitter. They were angry with him, so much so they wanted to kill him. David was all alone. He lost his wives. He lost his children. Now his men were turning against him. The relentless pursuit of Saul against him was coming down upon him.

He was a weary man. He was all alone. Yet at the end of verse number six it says this, But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. David knew what it meant to receive strength from God. He knew what to do in a time of turmoil. He knew where to turn and he knew to whom he should turn. That was his God. He would strengthen himself in his God. Let me ask you this question.

To whom have you turned when things around you have gone haywire? When things around you, the things that you have planned, have come crashing down, to whom do you turn? To whom do you receive your strength? David knew that he needed to turn to his God. For it is in God alone that we receive the strength necessary to move from day to day. There was one man who wrote these words about turning to God in his word. He said, Harassed by life, exhausted, we look about us for somewhere to be quiet, to be genuine, a place of refreshment.

We yearn to restore our spirits in God, to simply let go in Him and gain new strength to go on living. But we fail to look for Him where He is waiting for us, where He is to be found in His Son, who is the Word. Or else we seek for God because there are a thousand things we want to ask Him. And imagine that we cannot go on living unless they are answered. We inundate Him with problems, with demands for information, for clues, for an easier path, forgetting that in His Word, He has given us the solution to every problem and all the details we are capable of grasping in this life.

We fail to listen where God speaks, where God's Word rang out in the world once for all, sufficient for all ages, inexhaustible. Or else we think that God's Word has been heard on earth for so long that by now it is almost used up, that it is about time for some new word as if we had the right to demand one. We fail to see that it is we ourselves who are used up and alienated, whereas the Word resounds with the same vitality and freshness as ever. It is just as near to us as it always was. The author knew that somehow, whenever there's a need, we need to go to the Word of God, to be strengthened by God.

Oh, we can go to God and demand from Him. We can go to God and request information from Him, but we go to the Word of God for in that Word we find the sustenance for life, we find the strength for life. It's never left. It's always been there. And the true believer knows that when times of turmoil come, he needs to engulf himself, entrench himself in the words of Almighty God. That's what we are trying to do, even as we speak this morning, to help you understand what you need to do as you spend time with God, alone with the Almighty, receiving the strength you need from Him for day to day.

We began by looking at the primacy of salvation. It is the essence of our time with Him. We need to be born again, so we looked at the personal test, the moral test, the doctrinal test, the relational test, and the spiritual test to make sure we know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. From the primacy of salvation, we move to the responsibility of preparation. We talked about this last week. The need to be cleansed. There needs to be a cleanliness, as James 1 speaks about, laying aside all filthiness and all wickedness, the overabundance or the overflowing of wickedness in our lives, so that we, with humility, will be able to receive the Word of God implanted in us.

And we move from cleanliness to openness. Psalm 119, verse number 18, speaks to the fact that we need to ask God to open our eyes that we might be able to behold the wondrous things out of His law. And from that openness, we move then to the responsibility of stillness. Psalm 46, verse number 10, says to cease striving and to know that I am God, to be still before our God, and then there comes a readiness, a readiness, a desire to search and to seek our God. We left off in our study in Psalm 63 when it says, O God, Thou art my God, I shall seek Thee earnestly.

Some translations say, I will seek Thee early, and both are true. If I'm going to seek Him earnestly, I must seek Him early. There's a sense about me that makes me ready to receive what God has by getting up in the morning and spending time with Him, that I might know what He has for me throughout the day. Go back to Mark chapter 1, verse number 35, and at the end of the most busiest day on record of Christ's life, He gets up early in the morning the next day to spend time alone with His Father. Usually after we have a very busy day, we want to sleep in the next day.

We've spent all this time in ministry, we've spent all this time at work, and if we could just sleep in the next day to kind of regroup and get our energy back, we'll do that, but not Christ. He got up early the next day while, the text says, while it was even dark, and went away to a lonely place. We don't like to get up early. We like to sleep in. For those of you who like to sleep in, you need to read about the sluggard in Proverbs chapter 6. Sleeping in is never a good thing. You might think it is.

It's not. Get up. Spend time with God. People say to me, I'm not a morning person. Ask God to change you. Ask Him to change you. Jesus was an early morning person. Why can't you be an early morning person? You know why you don't want to be a morning person? Because you don't want God to change you. You like to sleep in. You like your sleep. Ask God to change you. You seek Him early in the morning. Why? Number one, because the tone is set.

It's set for the day. It indicates that it's a priority for your day, right? Absolutely. It helps you understand that before I begin to embark on the day, I must bring that day before my God. One man said it this way, I met God in the morning when the day was at its best, and His presence came like dawning with a glory in my breast. All the day did His presence bless, all day long He stayed with me, and we sailed in perfect calmness o'er many a troubled sea. Other ships were blown and battered, other ships were sore distressed, but the winds that left them scattered brought to me true peace and rest.

Then I thought of other moorings with a keen remorse of mind, when I too had loosed the moorings and His presence left behind. So I now have learned this secret from many a troubled way, you must seek Him in the morning if you'd have Him through the day. The psalmist said, I will seek Him early. I will seek Him earnestly. My challenge to you is that you need to be ready. There needs to be a readiness on the part of our lives that says, yes, God, I am ready to go. You know what it's like when you are looking to do something the very next day, and you are excited about that.

You can't wait to get up and get going and get to that thing you're excited about. That's the way it is with our God. We are so excited about receiving a new word from Him the very next day that we can't wait up or we can't wait to get up and receive what He has for us the very next day. That's where we need to be spiritually. We need to be ready, prepared to seek Him earnestly, eagerly, and early because He is our priority. He is our sufficiency. We know that we draw strength from the Lord God, the Almighty, the essence of my time with Him, the primacy of salvation, the responsibility of preparation, and thirdly, the centrality of revelation.

The centrality of revelation. Wherever you spend time with God, whenever you spend time with God, the central aspect of that time is around the revelation of God Almighty. That is the Word of God. Everything is about God, and everything we need to know about God is in His Word. Therefore, the revelation of God is central to my time alone with God. Now most of us would say, well, of course, we know that. We know that if we're going to spend any time with God, we've got to be in the Word of God. And the next question on the heels of that would be, well, if that's the case, then you need to teach me how to do that, which is, to some degree, a legitimate question.

You need to teach me where to go in my time with God. Let me ask you this question. Who taught the psalmist what to read first?

Who taught the psalmist how to study the Pentateuch? The Bible says, Matthew 4, verse number 4, that man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Listen, if you are a hungry person, no one needs to tell you the route to the refrigerator. You know where it is, and you make the quickest line to the refrigerator. No one needs to tell you what food groups you need to begin with. You begin with whatever you see first, and you devour it.

Why is it, in the spiritual realm, we think that someone has to tell us exactly what to read, when to read, and how to read? You know why? Because most of us don't see the Word of God as our sustenance for living. If God's Word is truly the bread of life, and that man lives by that bread alone, then whatever page I read, for however long I decide to read that page or pages, I know that that will be my strength for today, that sustenance I need to sustain me one more hour, one more day. But the reason is, we need someone to tell us where to go and how to do it, is because we don't see God's Word as our bread for living each day.

Now I'm going to tell you how to do all that, but that's not today's lesson. I will describe that for you, but before you ever do that, you must understand that God's Word is your life. Moses said in Deuteronomy 32, 49, he says, these words are not empty words, these words are your life. If you believe that the Word of God is life, and that you need it to live, you need no one to tell you to get up, you need no one to tell you where to read, you need no one to tell you how to read, you just want to get into it, because you need it.

And I'm afraid that we use those other questions as an excuse, say, well, you know, the Word of God's not really relevant, I read something today, and it doesn't really mean that much to me, so I guess it doesn't do anything. That's not true. So part of my job is to help you understand the centrality of revelation, the importance of the Word of God in your life. You need it. You need it more than you'll ever know. Turn with me, if you would, to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 for a moment.

2 Thessalonians chapter 2, and listen to what Paul said to those in Thessalonica. We'll begin reading with the 13th verse, and you're going to want to remember this verse at the end of our message. It says, but we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation, through sanctification, by the Spirit, and faith in the truth. And it was for this he called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us. Paul says, you know that you've been born again. How do you know? God chose you in eternity past. And because he chose you in eternity past, he made sure the gospel came to you, and by faith you received the truth. Therefore, because you're born again, you've got to stand firm. In order for you to stand firm, you have to hold fast, you have to cling to the teachings, the traditions, that which has been passed down from me to you, from the apostle Paul to you, the words of God.

You need to hold fast those traditions, whether they were given to you in written word or whether they were given to you by the words of my mouth. That is how you stand firm, by clinging to the truth of God's word. The centrality of revelation. I want to give you four principles. I'm not going to get through all four of them today. I'm afraid of that, but that's the way it's going to be. God has challenged me this week with some things I need to share with you, and so I'm going to give them to you this morning.

But there are four principles I want to cover under this third point, the centrality of revelation. And here's the first one.

The revelation of God is purposeful and powerful. That's why it's central. It's purposeful. It is powerful. Turn with me to Isaiah 55, Isaiah 55, and I'm going to read to you a few verses here to help set the tone for this point, that God's word is purposeful and it is powerful.

It says in verse number eight, my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. We say, okay, I understand that. There's no way. The finite mind is going to understand the infinite mind of God. His ways are far superior to my ways. His thoughts are always godly thoughts, always righteous thoughts, always far above my thoughts. So I know I'm never going to think as God thinks, but listen to what God says.

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bare and sprout and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be which goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sentence. God says there is a purpose behind my word.

You don't know my thoughts and you don't know my ways. But listen, as the rain comes down from the heavens and waters the earth, so that the earth then begins to bear fruit, so too my word comes down to you. And my word coming down to you has a purpose to bring about something in your life. In order for that to happen, my word has to be powerful, powerful enough to accomplish the purpose for which I designed it. So when my word comes down to you, it does not come down in futility. It does not come down in emptiness.

It does not come down in vain. It comes down with a purpose. And with that purpose comes the power of God because it is the word of God, the supernatural word of God. The centrality of Revelation is based on this fact, number one, that God's word is purposeful and God's word is powerful.

Why? Because God's word always accomplishes his desire in the lives of his people. Now that's a good, a good thing. That's good news for us. Now under this, I'm going to give you four points. Under each principle, there are four points and all of them begin with a C. So that's 12 C's or, excuse me, that's 16 C's. Can't miss them, all right? Number one, if God's word is purposeful and powerful, it is purposeful and powerful enough to number one, confront me on my sin and confront my life.

God's word is purposeful and powerful enough to confront my life. We already looked at the verse a number of weeks ago, 2 Corinthians 3, 318, that when I look into the mirror, the perfect law of liberty, the word of God, the spirit of God begins to do something in me. It begins to work in me. It begins to do a confront of work in me because I'm able to see my life as it measures up to God's life. Remember we talked about Hosea 6, verse number 5 last week. God says, I sent my prophets to you because their word was like a lightning bolt.

God's word is very confrontive. Turn with me to Jeremiah 23 for a moment. Jeremiah 23, and listen to what the word of the Lord says in verse number 29. Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer which shatters a rock? That's the way God's word is. God's word is purposeful and powerful. Why? Because his word is like a fire, it consumes, it purifies. His word is like a hammer, it shatters stony hearts. It shatters hard heads. It brings them down. In fact, over in chapter 1, it says this in verse number 10, or verse number 9, it says, The Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth.

And the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant. God tells Jeremiah, I have given you my word that you may tear down and build up. That you may break the images in the minds of people about who I am and build in them the proper image of their God. That's who I am. And so now he comes back in Jeremiah chapter 23 and says, My word is like a fire.

My word is like a hammer. It shatters. It purifies. Read on. It says, Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who steal my words from each other. Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who use their tongues and declare the Lord declares. Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams, declares the Lord, and related them and led my people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting. Yet I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit, declares the Lord.

He says, I'm against those false prophets. Why? Because they don't use my word. They prophesy lies. You see, if they gave my words, it would be a burning in the souls of my people. If they gave my words, it would shatter the stony hearts of my people. But because they prophesy what my people want to hear, we know they're not my words because my word confronts man. My word confronts man on his sin, on his lifestyle, and demands there be a change in his life. God's word is purposeful. God's word is powerful.

Why? Because it confronts man in his life on his sin. God's word is purposeful. God's word is powerful. Do you believe that? I hope that you do. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for today, a chance to once again examine the greatness of Almighty God through His word. And our prayer, Lord, is that all of us would see once again the centrality of your word for our lives. We need the word of God. We can't live without it. We need to strengthen ourselves in the word of God. If it saved us, it will sustain us.

It is that one element that brings hope and life to us, to move us from one moment to the next. And Lord, we, if we're ever going to spend alone time with the Almighty, we just spend it in the word of God, studying the word of God, memorizing the word of God, meditating upon the word of God, that our lives reflect the image of God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.