The Shout of a Stone:
Remember "the pet rock" craze? How many of you still have a pet rock? I thought it was one of the silliest things man came up with. But then while studying this passage one day I had to stop and re-think :
Luke 19:40 But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
The Spirit told me that they could be very bad pets. Let me explain myself, Pet most times are subservient to their owner. But according to this passage, if we do not give Jesus the praise He deserves, the stones or rocks will. I don’t know about you but, I don’t know if I want that to happen. I don’t want to be accused of not giving Jesus the praise He so deserves.
As a child growing up I always wondered if things like trees and rocks had feelings. When I went to my father with these questions he was patient and kind. His response was no son they are inanimate. That was his favorite word I think because if I was playing with something and things weren’t going my way I would say, “oh! you stupid car or you stupid this or that.“ and dad would say that can’t be stupid because it is inanimate. I didn’t understand that word. He could have said they were from Mars and I would have been just as impressed. But, down deep in my heart I had this feeling that all things in the world had some kind of feelings, maybe not as we understand it but they do. Now wait before you start saying huh oh Bob’s gone off the deep end listen to what I’m saying.
How many believe the bible to be true? If I told you I found some verses in the Bible to confirm my suspicions, would you want to know where it is? It is in Genesis and Romans.
Genesis 3:17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
“Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
If you remember, because of their innocence Adam and his wife had no need for shoes and socks, they did have a need for clothing. Why, because the ground was also perfect. God created everything for mans comfort. Have you ever tried to walk out to your car in a gravel driveway with no shoes on? That is not comfortable to me. The Bible doesn’t say this exactly but I can imagine a rich thick green grass that just cushions every foot step. Kind of like a very expensive plush carpet. You get the point. When man sinned the whole of creation suffered. No longer was everything so plush and delicious now man has to work for what he eats.
God cursed the ground in verse 17 of Genesis 3. With thorns and vines that choke the life out of other plants. OK, so I have a vivid imagination. But add the verses from Romans and you will find that I may not be to far off.
Romans 3:19-21 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. 23Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
So from these verses I know for sure that all things are waiting for the day of the return of Jesus. Because of God’s curse in Genesis 3:17 Romans says all of creation waits in anticipation for the return of Jesus. However, a major portion of God’s most prized creation doesn’t even care. Some of us never Think about the return of Jesus. We are to caught up in today’s problems and tomorrows worries.
Did I just describe you are you so caught up in your problems that you forget the only one that can really help ease the burden? Jesus never said life would be easy. Just as sometimes it is not easy to get in the worship mood. Jesus told the Pharisees that if the people didn’t shout the rocks or creation would. What keeps you from praising the Lord with exuberance. What is wrong with shouting when the Holy Spirit moves and you know it.
I belonged to a church once that the pastor stood up at sermon time and read his sermon, word for word, this was before I understood the meaning of worship. The service was way boring. But I was where God wanted me at the time, so I stuck it out. Now if I was to hear this fellow I would Probably “amen” the fine points, even if his mono-tone voice bored me to tears. Why because worship does not come from what people have to say, or how people sound when they sing, or from clapping hands. Real Worship comes from within your heart. Worship is what you give God. Not people!!! When I raise my hands during a song, or if you see tears coming down my face it is not me showing off. It is ME EXPRESSING TO GOD WHAT I FEEL FOR HIM. I really don’t care what anyone thinks at that moment. That is how Jesus wants your affection. I know if you love your wife, your not going to care if someone hears you tell her you love her. Your are not going to be afraid to hold hands in public. So why are we so afraid to show affection to God in public.
The problem with us today is that our love is so superficial. It is an exterior love. We can care less about what we feel as long as others think we are sincere. Folks I don’t care if you think I am sincere. I am a person who has learned to express myself. When the Spirit of God touches me I will shout for Joy. Why, because I do not deserve what God has done for me. I do not deserve the knowledge He has given me, the gifts and talents he has given to me. I deserve death on the cross, the worst punishment ever devised. And if you think about it so do you. We all deserve the punishment Jesus suffered for the things we have done against God.
Romans tells us “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The word all here leaves no room for bargaining. We can’t say “oh, I wasn’t that bad, how could God not see the Good things I have done?”
Throughout the Bible God show us how he feels about sin. The topping on this theological inspiration comes to a head at the cross when Jesus cries out to the Father “why have you forsaken me?” God can’t stand to look at sin or unrighteousness because He is so Holy. So if you have sin in your life you need to get it cleansed. God will not accept your worship if you are trying to hide sin.
Isaiah 13. Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your evil assemblies.
14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates.
They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; 16 wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong,
God is telling people (his People) that he will not accept methodical or ritualistic worship. In a lot of churches today that is what we find. We set up a bunch of rules on how we should worship. For instance when you pray you have to say a certain phrase or use chants to praise the Lord. It can be a simple as saying the Lord’s prayer every service or having communion. These things in and of themselves are great. and yes they have their place. But they can become “in the way” and they loose their meaning. By in the way I mean, no matter what, we need to do these things in the order they have been set up. When we have our service planned to the minute that is a good thing when it becomes bad is when we don’t allow God to deviate us from them. We do not leave room For the Spirit to work. when we have to rush through the service to get to everything we have planned, we are not allowing the spirit to work. The alter should be open anytime. If you are being lead by the spirit to give in to salvation you need to go right now. If you wait until the end of the service, you can reason yourself out of it. Satan takes that seed and snatches it from your heart.
Matthew 13:19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.
The biggest problem with getting the Spirit to move is the fact that you are not ready for worship. Sunday is a day we have set aside to worship God. We should be giving Him the whole day for worship. No I don’t mean we need to spend the whole day in church. But we need to give God worship on his day. When we get up we should be praying for something special to happen today.
We should be asking God to Bless the worship service.
We should be asking Him to make His presence felt.
And we should be praying that if anyone in our service is not saved that today is the day.
We need to asking God to prepare our hearts to receive the spiritual blessing that can and will happen.
What I am trying to say is this, Church shouldn’t start at 10:45AM every Sunday morning. Let me give you a good example. [And I will let you know I, sometimes, am just as guilty as the next person,] When you get your bulletins and sit in your seat, what is the first thing you do? Look up and mark the songs. What should you be doing? Preparing your heart for worship asking the Lord to bless and move in this service.
I Know some of you do that when you get up, or sometime before you get here. Worship is not a light that you turn off and on.
God has given me the talent for teaching and preaching and I love to do both. Two Sundays ago I sat in my truck listening to a song before I shut the radio off and came in. It was at that point when God said to me you always pray before you preach because you want my blessing and Spirit, but you never pray before you teach. God taught me how to teach. and I sometimes forget where it came from and try to go it by myself. I fill myself with what I am going to talk about rather than fill myself with who I am talking about. I squeeze God out of the Picture. We all tend to squeeze God out of the picture when we busy ourselves with our stuff. With our traditions and rituals we get to busy for God to work.
When something is done, because that’s the way we have always done it, then it becomes a ritual and not worship. If you do sacrament or if you worship the Lord it does not come from the head it comes from the heart. I have heard many preachers get up here and say be sure you cleanse your heart before you take communion Jesus commanded us to do that. We need to be sure we have no sin that we have not confessed or ask forgiveness for.
1 Corinthians 11:27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.
There is a song I like to sing by Rat Boltz, the song is titled “Feel the Nails” the opening line goes like this “does He still feel the nails every time I fail?” It makes you think if when you give in to temptation does Jesus reach over and rub his hand because of a sudden twitch or maybe His brow itches from where the thorns poked holes in His forehead. If He felt the pain of the cross every time someone failed here on earth I think He would be in pain quite a bit. Think about it would you be contributing to the pain He feels? I don’t know for sure if it is true, but if it is I surely want to not be causing Him any pain.
I would rather cause Him joy. That is what happens when we worship Him and Praise Him with all of our heart and all of our strength. He wants our praises and all of creation is waiting for the day when He will return and put this world right back the way it was before the flood. Just like the garden. But since evil has come into the world we must be prepared, we must make sure sin does not have it’s way in our lives because:
2 Peter 3: 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.#
Those four verses say it all. The earth will be laid bare. everything will be destroyed by fire. the end of verse 11 says you ought to live holy lives. How can we be holy, we are holy because Jesus made us holy with the blood. we can draw closer to Him by reading praying and studying His every word. and we have it all written right here. In this book. The Bible.
Revelation Chapter 21 tells us about the new Heaven and earth. Heaven will be on earth for all to enjoy. Read Chapter 21 of Revelation. That will be your home work for this week. Find out why there will be no need for the sun or the moon or any stars. Find out about a city that is 1400 miles wide 1400 miles long and 1400miles high. A cube. Their will be room enough for all Christians and past, present, and future. When all things will be made new, we will loose the sinful nature and live with God and God will live with us.
Every preacher loves to stand up here and tell you all the good things, and while it is so nice to hear we have one problem. The last person hasn’t heard about God yet. Jesus won’t come back until the last person has heard the good news. How many did you tell this week. How many people around you know about your relationship with Jesus. Are you an undercover Christian? On Sunday you’re great guns for Jesus. But, on Monday you wouldn’t know it.
Do you give God anytime on the rest of the week? I heard an preacher preach once on tithing. I found that you don’t only tithe your money but you should also be tithing your time. there are 168 hours in a week. God is lucky to get 3 and a half hours out of some of us. A lot less out of most. 1 and a half hours. the length of a Sunday service.
That is the difference between religion and a relationship. In Religion there are certain things you have to do, like go to church, say a prayer. In a relationship you want to do these things cause it helps you to know more about the object of your affections.
If you are happy playing the religion game, ok, go right a head. But, when it is all said and done and you are wondering where all the blessing went, you only have you to blame. Jesus said draw close to me and I will draw close to you.
If you develop a relationship with Jesus the blessings can’t be counted. I don’t know how to make this point any simpler. God wants our worship, our worship equals blessing. But if worship doesn’t come from the heart God doesn’t want it. Period!
