CHECKING INTO THE SPIRIT PART 2
Sunday 21st March 2004
Last week we talked about pretend agreements:
AN AGREEMENT IN WHICH ONE OR BOTH PARTIES ARE NOT REALLY AWARE OF WHAT THEY HAVE AGREED ON.
Assumptions have been made.
The negotiation process has broken down or never been there in the first place.
Honesty has been superficial.
We have agreed to pretend.
Having a good NEGOTIATION is about talking it through honestly:
Start with a proposition; verbalise your intention or desire or assumption
Check it out with everyone
Listen to counter suggestions or objections: negotiate
Is everyone happy? Has everyone spoken and been honest? Really?
What is the big picture or the implications of this agreement?
Does God have pretend agreements?
Jer 31:31-35 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
God has made a covenant. What is the difference between covenant and pretend agreements?
How are we part of that negotiation? Doesn’t it seem like a dictate?
PERSONAL SOVEREIGNTY AND DIGNITY
God created us with dignity not as automated entities. We are made in His image. Our lives are sacred to Him.God gave us the freedom of choice, the power though not the right to determine who we will become.
Individual sovereignty is the right to say no to God .He does not violate our sacredness by forcing us to love him, nor does He abandon us to fate.
We have the divine right to self determinate and refuse domination by anybody else, unless you loan the power to do so.
This means I can choose for or against God and I am responsible for that choice and its consequences. God respects my personal sovereignty and He provides a way back for me.
Where do we see this in scripture? Adam where are you? This question invites confession.
The prodigal Son. The crucifixion. I lay down my life for you but I won’t force you.
What are the implications of this for living?
2. I am a sacred being, made bearing the stamp of God. I am equal to every other human being in the sight of God. No differentiation. I need to understand and live what it means to be my own person.
3. I can loan to others power over me and I can refuse it as well.
4. I shouldn’t take responsibility for trying to fix others but help them to access their own inner strength with God. Egs. Don’t take everything I say as law. By being here understand you loan me the power to speak into your life. But don’t believe everything I say until you have thought about it for yourself and until you trust and respect me. Don’t give away your power to every big person. The right to pray for you, prophesy over you, lay hands on you should be requested not taken as a given. I don’t have to say yes to everything. I am allowed to say no and not feel I have to do stuff out of obligation.
Be careful how much you take responsibility for others and try to make it all better. You may be invading another’s sovereignty. Ask an empowering question. One that helps them to find the answer for themselves.
Respect the DIGNITY of every person.
How does evangelism fit into this picture? Evangelism that is in your face and too confrontational may be disrespectful of a person’s sovereignty. If evangelism comes out of friendship and respect then it will almost certainly woo a person to Christ in a lasting way.
Engel scale: the responsibility we have is to help a person take another step. The rest is up to God.
Contagious Christianity, a tool to discover your personal style of evangelism, helps us work in the style we are most suited to. Otherwise we get in the danger of feeling we have this awful load of responsibility to save the world. Rather it is a team approach.
This questionnaire is available from Helen or at the services.
CHECKING INTO THE SPIRIT
How is my spirit doing? Is it functioning? How do I nurture my spirit?
At the end of last year I asked God to show me how my spirit was:I got the image that my eyes were off Him. My focus had slipped as the year had wound down and I was tired and just doing stuff.I spent the summer trying to get my focus right. So many times come holidays I go awol from God too, but this summer I took a look at how my spirit functions.
VISUAL INTERVIEW
Rachel: when I talk to you about your spirit, what do you see?
Draw how you see the spirit within you. Tell us about it.
Is your picture always the same? Has it changed eg when you became a Christian?
What is your spirit like at the moment? Can you draw it for us?
How has drawing affected your life since coming to church here?
THE MAKING OF A MAN AND WOMAN OF GOD. STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF DAVID OR DAVINA.
1Sam 16:1-13; David Anointed as King The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons." 2 Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me." And the LORD said, "Take a heifer with you, and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.' 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you." 4 Samuel did what the LORD commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, "Do you come peaceably?" 5 He said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice." And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.6 When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed is now before the LORD." 7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." 8 Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, "Neither has the LORD chosen this one." 9 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, "Neither has the LORD chosen this one." 10 Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, "The LORD has not chosen any of these." 11 Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here." 12 He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; for this is the one." 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward.
What can we say about David and his family from this passage?
David was the youngest and most despised, just a shepherd. He was handsome, maybe they thought he was a pansy. The 7 sons seemed to be magnificent men, tall imposing… Eliab greets him scathingly when he arrives to the battle with Goliath. His fathers’ words about him being the youngest mean he was the least in his father’s estimation, so despised that he didn’t consider it necessary to include him in the call to sacrifice as a family. The others all looked better outwardly. How easily we settle for what looks good on the outside, for pretense. Yet above all the others God honoured him the most.
Jesus said: I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star. Rev 22:16
Why?
This is not out of the blue. The public anointing was the outcome of what had taken place in private long before. David had a prepared heart. In Ps 8 and 23 and many others we hear the heart or the spirit of David.
Ps 8 O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
PS 8:3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;
PS 8:4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
PS 8:5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
PS 23:1 Psalm 23 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; 3 he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name's sake. 4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff-- they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD my whole life long.
Tell me about David’s spirit. At least 6 things that describe what it was like.
This young shepherd boy despised by his father and brothers spent hours in the fields meditating on God’s creation, singing and composing poems of adoration and working through the feelings he felt. He brought God into the fabric and tapestry of his life. His spirit was alive and he nurtured his relationship to God. It was no chance or overriding authoritarian decision of God to anoint him as king. This boy was a man after God’s own heart, made in the solitude of his exile watching sheep and in the working through of the scars that his family left upon him. How else could he write such lines as : He restores my soul, He leads me in right paths, Even though my life is unsafe around me He protects me. He declares the Lord is his shepherd. He reparents himself, placing God in His rightful place. Though my parents forsake and fail me, yet the Lord will take me up, he wrote in Ps 27:10
David has a believing heart or spirit v1
He knew his own sinfulness and his need of grace and God’s guidance as he watched over the sheep. He knew God was the only one who could fully supply his needs or fill up the holes. He had a quiet heart one that meditated on the Lord. v2 His heart sought to be right before God. V3 He was confident in God in face of fear and evil.
His heart was thankful, my cup runs over. He was at peace in himself. All my days I will dwell with God, my first choice is God. Commitment is fixed not changing.
David’s spirit was strong in God first, nurtured by his daily meditation and thankfulness and worship, confident as he outworked this in tough situations fighting wild animals and dealing with the hurt of his family. A boy, but a boy about to be king and a man after God’s own heart.
God longs for this kind of relationship with every one of us. A heart response not just a head one. What is your heart or spirit like tonight?
Ask God to give you a picture. What does it look like? It could be a human shape or a metaphor: my spirit is like… a plant or a tree, or an animal.
Now draw it.
Write down some words which describe what you have drawn.
Give it some context. Where is it? What’s around about? Are there any others here? Write some words which describe what it’s like being in this place. How is the spirit/heart? What words describe it? Is it alive, tired, nurtured or weary? Is it strong or weak?
Where is God in relation to your spirit? What is the relationship like? What is needed?
What is God saying to you tonight?
How do I nurture my spirit? Write some words or symbols.
What do I need to add to this picture? What do I want to do as a result?
Make a title or write some wise words to your spirit.
In worship now bring this picture to God, to your heavenly father.Pray for what you need.
How is my spirit nurtured? By affection, By food and drink, By beauty, by perspective in creation, By creativity.
“Creativity is the natural result of spirituality.”
Well, whenever you or I attempt to create something out of nothing, we’re mimicking what’s at the core of God’s nature. God created everything out of nothing. He spoke, and it was. It’s impossible for God to create tainted beauty; it’s impossible for us to create untainted beauty. God is the literal wellspring of creativity. I think all art is rooted in a relationship with God. By worship. By dancing and singing. By spending time with God, keeping in perspective and focus with Him. By meditation and silence. By being right with God. By thankfulness. By commitment and giving one’s life to God
Drawing connects our head and heart. It may reflect something our inner being or psyche knows but our brains or conscious awareness hasn’t caught up with yet.