Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship · January 18, 2009

Second Sunday After Epiphany

Prayer of the Day

Dear Lord, help us to learn the importance of a daily visit with you. May we ask ourselves what we could possibly do with our time that would be of greater value. And when we think that we are too busy for a daily visit with you, let us frankly ask ourselves, what wonderful thing we are doing that is more important. May we acquaint ourselves with you, dear Lord, and be at peace. Amen.

Scripture

John 1:43-51

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathaniel said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathaniel asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Nathaniel replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Message

Hearing God’s Call

Larry Gallamore

Many wonderful Christian people no longer feel that God speaks to them personally. It’s the feeling that God has gone silent and never reaches out to you anymore. Do you feel that way this morning? For some reason you just can’t hear God. You feel maybe God is trying to get in touch with you, and you’re not available for some strange reason. You’re worried that God calls you when you’re talking to someone else, texting someone else; or worse, maybe you’ve gotten so conditioned to not talking to God that you believe a word from God is rare and a vision from God is not widespread. You’re feeling that God only talks to certain people: ministers, church workers, social workers, or counselors. You no longer feel that God calls everyone.

Our gospel lesson for today tells us how God called Philip and Nathaniel. As Jesus was leaving Bethany to go to Galilee, he walked right up to Philip and said, “Follow me.” Let me assure you God is not shy when it comes to calling people. What would you do if Jesus walked right up to you and said, “Follow me?” Would you jump at the chance? Philip did, and he couldn’t wait to tell his friend Nathaniel he had found Jesus. Some of you wonderful folks are like Philip. You’ll back into a lifetime commitment, no questions asked. And others of you are like Nathaniel. When Philip told Nathaniel he had found the one Moses had spoken of, Nathaniel was a little skeptical. He asked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” 

You see, the word on the street was prophets come from Bethlehem, not Nazareth. Philip says, “Come and see.” To a skeptic, seeing is believing. By reading the Bible, you’ll discover Jesus loves skeptics. As soon as he sees Nathaniel, he doesn’t waste words. He gets right to the point. He says, “Here is a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit” (John 1:47b). 

If you want to get a skeptic’s attention, give them a compliment. They don’t know how to respond to compliments. You’ll definitely start the wheels turning in their head. Nathaniel could not help but ask, “Where did you get to know me?” The one thing Nathaniel started to realize immediately was Jesus knows people. Nathaniel immediately came to the conclusion that Jesus was the Son of God. Then Nathaniel, like Philip, was ready to follow.

This morning, you’re going to get an opportunity to hear God’s call to follow Jesus. All I have to do is help you to learn how to hear God. I’m aware I’m talking to some who hear God daily. Others have once heard God but it’s been a while, and some of you may have never heard God’s call.

I know God is calling every one of you, but let’s just start by saying sometimes you can’t hear God. For some reason, you are separated from God in thought or deed. What I mean is you have stopped thinking about God, or you’ve done something that has caused you to erect a wall between you and God. Sometimes people see the higher things in life but they choose the lower. Sometimes the separation is due to a lack of understanding of God and God’s nature. When you hear the call, you must make God a priority in your life. Some people just aren’t ready for that. If you want to remain close to God, you need to be in a relationship of at-one-ness with God. What I mean by this is you recognize you’re a part of God’s family. In Jesus, we recognize we are God’s children.

The way of Jesus is normative for human beings. Deep down, all humans want to be a part of God’s family. However, we humans often separate ourselves from God. Sometimes when things are going well in our lives, we separate ourselves, acting as if we don’t need God anymore. We neglect our daily visit with God and very soon we are on our own again. When you do this, you are not allowing God into your life. You are limiting the Holy One. 

It is said a number of times in the Old Testament that Israel limited the Holy One. When we forget God and do not give God some time, we limit what God can do in our lives. What I’m suggesting is that when we don’t allow God to work in our lives we start relying on our own power. Sometimes we separate ourselves from God because we think of God as some ancient sort of Being sitting off in the sky somewhere, meting out punishment or favors as God sees fit. Some of us grew up with that idea of God. Let me tell you, it is hard, if not impossible, to get close to that image of God. Earlier cultures thought of God as a kind of Great Spirit dwelling in a lofty mountain. God was to be feared and offered sacrifices, sometimes human sacrifices.

I’m so glad that little by little our image of God has grown. God is not found in some remote place. God is immanent in God’s creation and that means God can be contacted right here and now. Practice the Presence of God in your life and not only will you have more good come to you, you’ll be an inspiration to others.

I’m suggesting you practice the Presence of God to develop your higher calling. Let me explain. Everyone is called. I ’m using a larger concept of calling than what is normally used. Here’s what I mean. Everyone has a calling. Each of us has a job to do here on Planet Earth. I’m not talking about your job at the office, your profession, at school, or home. That’s just a small part of the whole. That’s your place in the economic chain. I’m saying that each of us has a higher calling, a job to be done, and that is this matter of living. It is a job that not only calls for the best use of your talent, but a job that must include prayer, meditation, and communion with God. No one has ever been successful in this business of living without these. You can make the job of living beautiful and harmonious if you look to God for inspiration, or you can make the job of living miserable and hazardous if you try to do it alone. I guarantee you, if you get this higher calling right, you’ll be a thousand times more successful in your office, school, profession, or whatever you do. This higher calling, this matter of living is most important.

This job of living, especially living beautifully and harmoniously, takes practice. A good spiritual life requires a lot of practice. Let me assure you, it is worth every second of practice. You’ll learn to live in a most astonishing way. Your mind will be free of anxiety and worry. It takes a great deal of practice, and one of the best ways to practice is prayer. With prayer you can start developing your spiritual power and literally train your mind to use your religion in a more effective way. You should never neglect your spiritual exercises. Your goal in your spiritual program is to remain close to God. Now here is why I’m saying this. God is your peace of mind. You never achieve peace of mind without God. You’ll never feel you’ve succeeded in this matter of living without God.

I was in Barnes and Noble a few days ago, and I overheard a conversation between a mother and daughter. I would guess the daughter to be around 25 years old, and Mom was maybe 45. The conversation went like this. The daughter said to her mother, “I’m really concerned about Dad. He is filled with anger. He’s even angry with God. I’m afraid he’s becoming an atheist. He has no peace of mind. He is so unhappy!”

My heart went out to this young woman and her mother. I said a silent prayer for them and for the Dad. I know peace of mind cannot be found apart from God. We’ve all known people like this man. They start out thinking how bad life is and of all the opportunities they have missed. They grow bitter and angry, and often God gets the blame. They’re thinking why doesn’t God do this or that. They don’t realize their lives could change if they would only change their thinking. They’ve kicked God out of their lives. God loves them, but they have rejected God. They’ve built a wall around their lives, a partition between themselves and God. 

The Apostle Paul encountered this. Listen to what Paul writes to the Ephesians. “For God is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us” (Ephesians 2:14). God has broken down the wall between God and you. The only way the wall can go back up is for you to erect it. When you lose your unity with God, it is as though a wall were between God and you. When that happens, the communication is broken and a wall erected. You can’t relate to God until the wall is taken down. You have to take the wall down and start building a new relationship with God.

If I’m talking to someone out there who has lost that special unity with God, let God take down that wall and celebrate a wonderful reunion with God. God’s arms are wide open to receive you.

Remember the story of the prodigal son? The Bible says when the father saw him in the distance, he ran to him, put his arms around him, and started to celebrate for his son was alive again. This is how God feels about you and me.

Start focusing on God instead of your problems. You cannot expect to grow spiritually if you focus on everything that’s wrong in your life. You cannot expect to grow spiritually if you worship God on Sunday and ignore God every other day of the week. You cannot expect to grow spiritually if you constantly make excuses for your sins.

You’re in charge of your own spiritual life. You can be completely transformed if you follow God’s call to a higher life. Paul told the Romans they could be completely transformed by the renewing of their minds.

I want you to notice something about today’s Scripture. Notice what Jesus said about Nathaniel. “Here is an Israelite (Nathaniel) in whom there is no deceit” (John 1:47b). That means there is no deceit in his mind. He had already started this process of being renewed. His mind was clear. He was ready to hear God’s call. Some people aren’t ready to hear God’s call. The Bible says Nathaniel had no deceit. Deceit is the act of deceiving, an attempt to trick someone. Nathaniel’s mind was clear. He was ready. He had gone over some things in his mind. He had done some house cleaning. He had gotten rid of all the things that were holding him back. We’re not sure what his weaknesses were. No two people have the same weaknesses, but whatever his weaknesses were, he had let them go. Cost what they may, he let them go. He had to sweep out all the deceit, frustration, negativity, etc., out of his mind.

Look at it this way. A good housekeeper sees to it that dust and dirt do not accumulate in nooks and corners or on shelves. Periodically, the house is gone over and given a good cleaning.

Too often in our spiritual life we allow bad things to accumulate in our minds. I’ve done a lot of counseling over the years. There are times I think I’ve seen it all: unresolved issues, anger, jealousy, frustration, and resentment are tucked away in the corners of a mind and perhaps packed away with some false pride, envy, and various other destructive thoughts and allowed to accumulate. They are swept under the carpet only to come back to plague a person later on. When people come for help, they have rehearsed those problems for so long they’ve become dysfunctional. They’ve stopped praying because they think prayer is not working anymore. Right when they need prayer the most, they abandon it, abandoning God in the process. They have no thought they can rise above their problems. 

Let’s be honest. We’ve all been there. There is only one way to heal. We must return to God like a child in simplicity and faith. We have to forget about our problems and focus on God’s love and God’s power. We have to leave the results to God. 

Do you remember Job’s advice? He said, “If thou shall return to the Almighty thou shall be built up” (Job 22:23). He goes on to say, “If you pray to God, God will hear you” (Job 22:27).

This is what I’m asking you to do this morning. I’m asking you to take down the wall that you’ve erected between you and God. If you’ve lost your ability to hear God, you’ve erected a wall. Your communication line to God is blocked. Take down the wall. When you do, your problems will start fading away. Your inspiration will return. Take down the wall. Take down the wall. Take down the wall.

So be it. Amen.

Benediction

Thank you for gifting us to be sensitive people. You have molded us to hear you, to see you, and to touch you. Please help us to be particularly sense-ABLE as we seek, find, and follow you. Amen.