Sermon Central
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When The Knocking Stops
Contributed by Ron Hicks on Jul 31, 2006 (message contributor)
Summary: How long has it been since you have heard God’s voice tenderly call to you, or felt His presence, and you knew without a doubt Christ was in the room with you?
"WHEN THE KNOCKING STOPS"
1 I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk.
Eat, O friends, and drink; drink your fill, O lovers.
2 I slept but my heart was awake. Listen! My lover is knocking:
"Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night." 3 I have taken off my robe, must I put it on again? I have washed my feet, must I soil them again? 4 My lover thrust his hand through the latch-opening; my heart began to pound for him. 5 I arose to open for my lover, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh, on the handles of the lock. 6 I opened for my lover, but my lover had left; he was gone. My heart sank at his departure. I looked for him but did not find him. I called him but he did not answer.
NIV
One of the most tragic things that could happen to a Christian is to have the Presence of the Lord to depart from them.
To have once had the vibrant "Presence of the Lord, at work in your life and then for it to be gone.
How long has it been since you have heard God’s voice tenderly call to you, or felt His presence, and you knew without a doubt Christ was in the room with you?
It was common among the Jews to regard this book as an
allegorical (romantic) song of God’s love for His Chosen People.
Also, Christians have seen it as a picture of Christ’s Love for the Church.
Plus, it is seen as a description of the Believer’s Relationship to His Lord.
Here in this Scripture God’s betrothed Lover and Bride has become too COMFORTABLE!
She refuses to open the door because it is not CONVENIENT.
The COST of INTIMACY seems too high.
The DISCOMFORT of it all had bred an APATHY that urged her to move too SLOWLY and CASUALLY when her Beloved knocked at our heart’s door.
Ominously, the knocking stops¡in alarm she finally rouses herself, runs to the door to unlock it, and all that is left is the "Fleeting Fragrance of Where He Used To Be."
(Song of Solomon 5:6 NIV)
I opened for my lover, but my lover had left; He was gone. My heart sank at His DEPARTURE. I looked for Him but did not find Him. I called Him but he did not answer.
Samson discovered this horrible experience when he played around with sin too long, fell asleep and got the hair of his head shaved off and broke the Power Covenant with the Lord.
He didn’t even know it until he was confronted with his enemies. (Delilah said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him.) Judges 16:20
A good way to loose the power of God in your life is to put your head in the lap of the world.
Israel lost the Ark of the Covenant, because of their unfaithfulness, rebellion, and idolatrous ways. When Eli got the news he fell from where he was sitting and broke his neck and died.
The wife of one of God’s servants was having a baby and when she heard the Ark had been lost and she died giving birth. But, as she was dying, she said to name the baby Ichabod, which means, "The Glory is Departed."
Look how serious these two considered the presence of God.
They knew that there was no life outside of God’s presence.
You walk dead, talk dead, work dead. Life is only a mere existence.
1 Tim 5:6
6 But she (he) that liveth in pleasure is dead while she (he) liveth.
Life is only experienced through Jesus Christ.
Gen 28:16 (In transition from home to Laban’s house)
16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.
Rom 13:11-14
11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
