Pastor Jonathan Burgess
August 2, 2015 - W1531

The one thing I like most about church is you can come in as honest, real and as raw as you are and we aren’t rejected. We can come to the Lord with all the same baggage of guilt, sin, doubt, worry, questions and regret and He won’t turn us away. We don’t need to come to Him in pretense, we don’t need to “play” church. We are here to meet with God Himself. It is my prayer that we will leave here with the sense of freedom because we have left all those burdens we came with behind with Jesus. The only way that would happen is if we can just get real with God

The one thing I know that has transformed my life and I am sure as it has yours in this church body known as New Hope is through the process we call Self-Feeding or in simpler terms, journaling. In fact I have here with me a big heavy chest, you are probably saying, “But Pastor Jon, you are supposed to rid yourself of heavy burdens.” And you’re correct. Unless we can let go of the things that are holding us back we won’t be able to move forward. And the only way we can move forward is when we meet with God daily through His Word - that is called Self-Feeding.

Self-Feeding is not just getting by with a one day a week, weekend service, no it is being hungry to meet with God every day. And that is what is in this chest I have here with me. It is a chest full of my journals,

Throughout my years since age 12 my parents taught me the value of interacting with the Word of God, not just reading it, but wrestling with it. They taught me that faith is something that God and I have to work out together. It is not about my parent’s faith, but it is my own faith developed through my daily interactions with God.

From a very early age, I worked these things out, with God. I had the same kind of doubts and questions you all probably had at some time in life. Questions like “God, are You real? Why do I feel so alone? Why can’t I get a good job? How am I going to pay these bills? Where are you?”

At every pivotal point in my walk with God I kind of made it a spiritual habit to come back here to my journals to see from where I came, to remember all that God has done for me. In fact, Moses did that with Joshua, as he passed the baton to Joshua, just before he sent him into the Promised Land. Here is what it says in the book of Deuteronomy:

“So Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song to the people.   When Moses had finished reciting these words to Israel, he added: ‘Take to heart all the words I have given you today. Pass them on as a command to your children so they will obey every word of this law. These instructions are not mere words - they are your life! By obeying them you will enjoy a long life in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to occupy.’" (Deut. 32:44-­47 NLT)

Moses wanted to let Joshua understand it’s not just moving forward unless he proceeds with the Word of God. Not only knowing the Word of God but also to be able to pass it along with each generation that follows. One of the first things they did after crossing the Red Sea was to gather stones along the river bed and build altars to God so that when the children ask about what those rocks were for they will tell them the stories of how God brought them through the wilderness and across the Red Sea. And Moses commanded Joshua to say, “These Stones represent the presence of God. They represent how God is moving us forward.” So in our journey, the altars of stones we have are represented by our journals.

So now I want to ask you, “Whether you have been a Christian all your life or are still a new babe in Christ not sure what this Jesus thing is about, have you ever woke up with a hunger for the Word of God? Were you ever so eager to open up the Bible to see what God had to say to you in His Word today? And were you ever so determined to move forward into your day, but you couldn’t do it until you had time with God?” If you haven’t been hungry to be in the Word of God, then you have to sit and wonder why. And I think you have to be honest and realize it is because you have been filling yourself up with “junk food”.

It’s like when one of my children gives me those puppy dog eyes, looking so cute, and wanting to eat out of a vat of cheese balls begging me to say, “Yes.” He says, “Pease daddy, say, ‘Yes.’” But I want him to eat the healthy food so I tell him no.

That’s the way our world is. It wants to rush into the “junk food” of the techy world, or the joy of entertainment or into other things getting filled up with that kind of junk so that we are no longer hungry for the healthy food that is the Word of God. Oh yes, you are probably thinking “Well, of course the Pastor is going to lay a guilt trip on me for not reading my Bible enough. That’s his job”. But no, I am not here to lay a guilt trip on you, in fact, that guilt is one of the things you need to leave behind with Jesus. I’m simply inviting you back to the place you once were, a time when you were hungry for His Word - back to the healthy food. Because on God’s Menu there is only one item to choose and that is His Word.

1. The Menu:  God’s Word

Have you ever sat down in a restaurant and read the menu saying “Wow, there is so much to choose from”? Well God made it easy for us, there is only one item: God’s Word. If you want to get full spiritually you need to be into His Word on a daily basis. How have you been responding to God’s Word? This is what it says in Isaiah how the Israelites responded:

“God's people could have rest in their own land if they would only obey Him, but they will not

listen. So the LORD will spell out His message for them again, repeating it over and over, a line at a time, in very simple words. Yet they will stumble over this simple, straight forward message. They will be injured, trapped, and captured.” (Isa. 28: 12-­13 NLT)

I love the patience of God. He says here that they will not listen, so He will spell it out over and over again every day. If they still won’t listen, He’ll simply say it all over again. He’s not belittling us. He just wants us to know that spending time in the Word will make a difference in our lives.

Will we stumble? Yes, we will stumble, we will also stumble on the words written in the Bible, but how do we respond? We are not accustomed to having only one thing on the menu, we thrive on choice. We don’t like being tied down to one thing, we want everything to be customizable.

In fact even in some hotels today, there is a long list of spiritual writings you can choose from including the Koran, the bible of Islam, the Tao Te Ching, the Torah and an old 19^th century version of the King James Bible as well as other doctrines. But it is because of these choices given to us that we stumble. God only gives us one menu item. It is a very narrow way. In fact as the Jews prayed for their Messiah, they read their prophesies, and memorized their scripts, but Jesus the Messiah did not come in the way they expected, He didn’t look as they thought He would look nor did He do everything they thought He would do. Here is what happened:

“Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, ‘I am the bread that came down out of heaven.’ They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose 

father and mother we know? How does He now say, “I have come down out of heaven”?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him? and I will raise him up on the last day.’” 

(John 6:41-­44)

When it comes to God’s Word we will stumble because there is only one Word to choose from, only one choice on God’s menu. And we will grumble because God is going to tell us live our lives in such a way that we may not like, but here’s the fact, Jesus is not like Burger King, We as Christians can’t have it our way. It is either God’s way or the wrong way.

Will we continue to grumble or can we be like King Josiah who became ruler of Israel at the young age of 18? He saw the ruination of his people, how the temple was in ruins, so he collected money to repair it. As they were rebuilding they came across some scrolls buried beneath the city. His scribes say it is writings from Deuteronomy, so he listened to the words as it was read and this is how he responded:

“Shaphan the scribe came to the king and brought back word to the king and said, ‘Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand  of  the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the LORD.’ Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king saying, ‘Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.’ And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king. When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes.” (2 Kings 22:9-­11)

 In those days of the Kings, if something touches the heart deeply of a high official, he would tear his clothes. It’s a sign of humility. In this case, the king’s heart was torn in two over the reading of the Word. 

And so here’s a challenge for all of us, can we take the time to read the Bible as if it was the first time we ever read it so that we can truly humble ourselves before God and be changed by the unchanging Word of God?

Have you ever had that feeling while you were reading a part of the Bible that you wish was never written in the Bible or that you skip over that part you don’t want to read again? It just means you’ve been convicted. It doesn’t mean condemnation. Condemnation pushes you down, but conviction brings hope for change through Jesus Christ.

When you humble yourself before God is when you start to partake in what God has in His plans for you. Even though on God’s menu there is only one choice, it is by choosing that one choice that you begin to experience the most satisfying meal you have ever tasted. That meal is God’s Will.

2.)  The Meal:  God’s Will

In Matthew 4:4, when Jesus is in the desert and is being tempted by Satan to turn the stones into bread, Jesus says “Man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out of the Word of God” He is not denying His hunger, but He is thriving on the food which is the Word of His Father - God. Jesus chose from the menu, the Word of God and dined on His food which was the Will of God.

Have you ever experienced the Will of God? It’s an exhilarating feeling as you move forward walking in God’s Will. There could be a lot of things being thrown at you in opposing directions, yet because it is the path God has for you everything just breezes by you and your spirit is singing even through those difficult times. I want to invite you back to an experience like that again. I want to invite you to sit down at God’s meal and enjoy again what God has prepared for you just as Josiah invited his people to come back to and enjoy once again.

“Then the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. The king went up to the house of the  LORD and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of  Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great? and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD.”  (2 Kings 23:1-­2 NASB)

Sometimes we complain when there is too many scriptures read in the sermon, but look at these people, young and old, sitting in the desert sun listening intently to the reading of God’s Word. This is our vertical connection with God. This is when we savor the flavor of what He has to say to us all. It’s not a list of duty but an opportunity to have an intense relationship with Him our Father. Too many of us are just hearers of the word, but we also have to be doers of it too, and what better way to do it when we develop a deeper relationship with our Father in that vertical connection with Him?

That’s the reason so many of us become frustrated as Christians. It is because we don’t sit down to the meal and savor every word that proceeds out of God’s mouth. So I invite you to choose the one choice on the menu and then savor the meal that God has prepared for you so that you can have that vertical connection which eventually creates a horizontal experience of wanting to share this delicious meal with others. This horizontal connection allows sharing with your “neighbors” what God has in store for them as well. Just as it is written for us in 2 Kings:

 “The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all 

his soul, to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the peopleentered into the covenant.” (2 Kings 23:3 NASB)

There is nothing more satisfying when you can share that meal with others and this is why it is so much more rewarding when we step out of our comfort zone of journaling independently and join a Life Group. Now it is like one big potluck dinner, because we all will bring different things to the table. It’s not just in hearing what God has to say to me alone, but also what God has to say through someone else to me. There’s truly something amazing that happens here when we can all share what God has for you and me through each other.

So here’s another challenge, can we all leave our isolation, our guilt, our questions, our should haves, could haves, would haves, our lost things here with Jesus? Let us all draw that line in the sand that signifies a new beginning. Can we turn off our cell phones, unplug our techy stuff, shut off the noise of the world and spend one hour a day each day of the week for at least one month and just turn the real pages of the written Word, and take a pencil and a piece of paper or tablet and just spend time dining on the one item on God’s menu savoring every flavor of that delicious meal God prepared for us and then share it with the people God puts in our paths. I invite you to come back to hunger after the Heart of God.

1) What kind of relationship do you have with God?

2) What kind of things have interrupted your time with Jesus?

3) What can you do to have a closer relationship with Him?

4) What kind of burdens in your life do you need to leave behind with Jesus?