Isolation

Let’s open our bibles to hebrews chapter 10 and find with me verse 24. And let’s read together, verses 24 and 25. I spent the last three days in Ephrata with many of my friends and colleagues at the Lead Deep conference and what I can say about that experience is this… Every one of us, in this world, today….. needs one another. We’re not meant to walk this faith journey alone.

Isolation is not healthy. Now, don’t get me wrong. There are times when isolation is healthy. For instance, Jesus spent 40 days in the desert. Isolated from others, and even dealing with temptation. But the reality to that is what? Jesus’s purpose wasn’t to isolate himself indefinitely from others, but to prepare himself for what’s ahead. Think about it… After the solitude for 40 days in the desert, in Matthew we find Jesus preaching the beatitudes.

In Mark, after the isolation, Jesus began proclaiming the good news. IN Luke, We find Jesus saying the Spirit of the Lord is on me and anointed me to preach the good news. And what do we find in all three of these accounts of Jesus after isolation? We find purpose. We find Jesus gathering the disciples. You see, isolation is never to keep you from others, but at times it prepares you a d I to become available to others.

This week at Lead Deep we examined isolation a little bit during our nightly revival services. And we learned three things about the dangers of isolation… First, when we look at unhealthy isolation we realize in those moments that there is no one to help us when we fall. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the story, “help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” Even one of our brothers in Christ, Bill Weed, his story was that he had fallen in his dark room of his apartment and he couldn’t get up.

And of course, it was his neighbor who heard him call for help and came to his aid a few hours after he had fallen. Think of Ecclesiastes 4:10: “If they stumble, the first will lift up his friend—but woe to anyone who is alone when he falls and there is no one to help him get up. “ In 1 Corinthians 11:18 it says, “In the first place, when you come together as a church .

. .” 1 Corinthians 14:23, “If, therefore, the whole church comes together . . .” Our Scripture in Hebrews 10:25 says, “… not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching”. We’re called to be together. The second danger of unhealthy isolation is that “We become vulnerable to deceptive thinking.” Isolation leaves a person vulnerable to the spiritual attacks of temptation to sin, depression, selfishness, and even anger.

There is no one around to speak good judgment and wisdom into your life. Who speaks encouraging things to you? What company do you keep? Are you hanging around people that are dreadful…where they are like, woe this and woe that. That’s usually a sign of a heart that’s needing grace. Think about that, but through the eyes of Jeremiah… He writes, 9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.

Who can understand it? The heart often wants what it wants without any thought about the repercussions. We need others to speak God's word, and goodness, and encouragement into our hearts. Thats why I’m encouraged knowing that by faith, God puts the Spirit of Christ into my heart that cries out abba father. My heart can be changed. Little by little, grace by grace, we find our hearts yearning and desiring God.

I was in my cohort yesterday, and we we’re talking about sanctification and holiness.. and I kept quiet listing and hearing everyone else’s thoughts.. and then the entire room looked at me and asked, Matthew, How do you pursue holiness… what’s holiness to you? And I answered this way.. holiness for me, is that my utmost desire in my life is to know God and to enjoy the glory of God to the fullness that which is available to me through Christ Jesus.

I’m starved for it. Many times, We think nothing of Isiah before the throne and hearing the angelic host singing Holy, Holy, Holy.. and even more, we forget that we read this part…. the Earth is Filled with His glory. If we just had eyes to see we would see a creation filled with his glory, but also the danger of realizing that The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Thirdly, the dangers of isolation is that the church is weakened. The Church isn’t as strong when its people are scattered. Just as the human body has many working parts, so the body of Christ consists of many people working together (1 Corinthians 12:12). Every part of a person’s body is needed, just as every believer is needed to fulfill God’s will. No one is dispensable. I’ve never read in the Bible the great cloud of witness was people away from each other..

to be. Cloud you’ve got to be a shape and form of something. When I read about heaven I never read how we worship separately. The church is weakened when we are isolated. It’s so easy to isolate ourselves. Especially when hurt happens. Sometimes, people hurt us. It’s a fact. Sometimes the busyness of our activities cause us to retreat to peace and quiet. Think of Elijah… defeating the false priests and then retreating with depression to the mountains.

Sometimes the fallenness of the world hurts us and we retreat to lick our wounds. And as we saw with Jesus, It’s okay to temporarily cocoon ourselves in isolated moments of prayer, but we shouldn’t camp out there permanently. But here’s the truth…. God gives us an antidote for this loneliness. And it’s this… Jesus. Think of the first part, One of my favorite names of Jesus is Emmanuel, which means God with us.

And When we invite His Spirit into our hearts, He is there with us forevermore. His Sprit leads us into times of solitude, and prayer, as he strengthens us and ready’s us fro service. And I just felt compelled today to let you know, that You are never alone because the Lord is with you. We’re never alone when God is with his people. God is with us. And he’s with us right now.

Isn’t that his promise? To be with us to the end of the age? Didn’t Jesus say, go and make disciples and I will be with you to the end of the age? The result of that antidote to loneliness is others. I was listing to Kerry our DS talk on stage yesterday and he began to speak on how he began to pray this… Jesus, I want to see you in the eyes of those I meet.

And he gave this story of when he would visit this guy in jail and they would pt their hand on the window before they would depart and he would pray for them.. but one time Kerry asked, instead me praying for you, would you pray for me. And he said he looked into the eyes of that man, and he saw Jesus in him. Do you know act Kerry was doing?

He was storing up love and good works in the heart of the other man. Hebrews 10:23 says, And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. You see, when we have Jesus in us, the antidote to our loneliness, the result of His presence is that it draws us to others. You see, Jesus becomes our main focus. He becomes our fixed point. And holiness is moment by moment in our lives getting closer and closer to him.

Think of what Jesus says on the cross in John. “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” He draws us. And when we come and follow him, he makes us his disciples. Do you know something… when it comes to discipleship, evangelism and missions… I believe we got it all wrong. Are you a disciple of Jesus? If so, can I test that this morning…

??? A disciple of Jesus has three characteristics.… The first characteristic is that they are people who reach out to others. I’ve been thinking about this. Jesus would send his disciples out two by two to preach the good news, and heal. Ya know, I don’t see that much anymore. The Mormons do a great job at this… but do we? The second characteristic is that they Grow learn to feed themselves and others.

I’ve learned in ministry there’s a lot of people that say. I want to know more. I want to go deeper in the word. I’ve heard people even say to me, I’m not being fed here. And I’ve heard all my pastor friends say the same thing. They have people coming and saying, I’m not being fed. At some point the disciple has got to begin feeding themselves. I mean, come on.

I’ve been around christians who’s been christians there entire life that have said, I'm not being fed. If by now you’re not being fed, maybe you need to pick up the spoon yourself instead of expecting others to always be feeding you. It sounds harsh, but it’s truth. Think of what Paul speaks of to the Corinthians, I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.

Indeed, you are still not ready. There are many christians like this bird I saw in a video the other dya.. watch this. The bird thought the worm was just supposed to hop in it’s mouth. The problem we see is that so many Christians come, and they open their mouths expecting steak, and prime rib and this buffet and sometimes all Jesus has for them is manna. Sometimes, you’ve got to use your hands to feed yourself.

Because you can not fed others if you’re not willing to be fed yourself. And that leads to the third characteristic of a disciples.. Gifts. Willingly use your gifts for church and community. I was at shady maple this week, and I went up to the prime rib counter and there was a guy named dan there. His job, was to serve and slice for us prime rib. I guess they dont trust us with slicing our own prime rib..

maybe they know I would take a steak portion instead of a slice portion. I looked dan in the eyes, and said, Dan, I appreciate you being here today, at your job. Because without you being here, I wouldn’t have someone to serve me my lunch. And so, for that… I want you to know, I see you, and I appreciate you. You could tell he needed to hear that. Serving sometimes is hard because we do so without any recognition.

I know we’re to give the glory to GOd, but understand this.. people are our commodity at church. We’re here for people, for one another. Are you a disciple? Jesus says, my disciples will love one another and Serve one another. Jesus says, my disciples will not sit on the sidelines and watch another suffer. But in my name go to them and care for them. They will have compassion like me, and look like me, and sound like me.

And the fact is.. we need the presence of God for all of this. We need presence more than performance. That’s another sermon we heard this weekend. It’s staying late. It’s communicating with those God has planted here. Let’s do life together. *

A Heart That is Clean

Let’s open up our bibles back to Joshua chapter 7. As you find Joshua Chapter 7, I’m gonna head over to Hosea to read our anchor point, and then I’ll join you in Joshua here in a moment. Today, is the final Sunday to our series called, Freed to Love. We’ve spent the last 5 weeks looking into the freely given and faithful love of God through the book of Hosea…

Last week we learned a little bit about the way God’s love is a radical love. Radical Love never forces itself on other, and it’s perseveres. He calls us into the wilderness not primary so that we will face hardships, but so the through the hardships and trials we go deeper in our relationship and intimacy. Today, I want finish our series by looking into the Joy of Radical Love. Let’s refresh ourselves with our Scripture in Hosea chapter 2, Let’s reread verse 14 but our message verse will come from verse 15 this morning.

“Therefore, I am going to persuade her, lead her to the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. 15 There I will give her vineyards back to her and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came out of the land of Egypt.” Now, I’ll come over to you in Joshua because I want to talk a little bit about the valley of Achor and the gateway of Hope.

So, if your not familiar with what is being said here, “the valley of Achor will turn into a gateway of hope,” the story comes from Joshua chapter 7. The Israelites have just miraculously conquered Jericho. The walls have fallen down, and rehab, who had helped the spies, has been rewarded. The final verse in Chapter 6 says this: “And the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.” But there’s an issue.

Look with me in verse one of Chapter 7, “the Israelites, however, were unfaithful in regarding the things set apart for destruction.” Here’s this unfaithful thread that we’ve learned all throughout the book of Hosea, and we see it many many years before the time of Hosea, it’s weaved into Hosea’s generation and this thread even weaves itself all the way into our generation as well. Ecclesiastes teaches us: ”What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9, NIV) Unfaithfulness is not something new…

And it will do us well as Christ followers to understand that this thread is already weaved into our lives. It’s not an old world problem, it’s in the heart of every person and in every generation. So, If we read on in this verse one, we find out that this person named Achan from the tribe of Judah, took some of what was set apart, and the Lords anger burned against Israel.

But Joshua didn’t know this… In Joshua chapter 7, the story turns to the next battle on the scene which was against a town called AI, and when Joshua sends spies out to scout this town, they return and give the report that Joshua should only send a few warriors, because the town had only a few men. So Joshua, sends out about 3,000 men and they are humiliated as they are attacked and they turn to run and as they turn to run, the army of AI, cuts many of them down and chases them away.

Word gets back to the people and they immediately lose heart. In verse 6, Joshua tears his clothes, falls face down on the ground and says in verse 7, Oh Lord God, Why did you ever bring these people across the Jordan to hand us over to the Amorites for our destruction? If only we had been content to remain on the other side of the Jordan. Two truths about how attitudes are passed down through generations, First, Joshua is second guessing his leadership here.

He’s second guessing whether or not he’s followed the Lords command to cross the Jordan. It’s a part of this thread that’s weaved into our lives of unfaithfulness. The second truth, is this. You see this thread of unfaithfulness weaved down through the generation of those who died in the wilderness to the new generation who is now coming into the promise Land. The thread of unfaithfulness can be weaved into the next generation…It’s equivalent to when the Israelites in the wilderness would say, “Oh God, wouldn’t it be better to of died in Egypt, as slaves, around pots of meat, instead of starving and dehydrated in the wilderness.

So, God tells Joshua to get up, and instructs him to bring forward all the clans, and one by one, person by person, and they come to this guy named Achan. Joshua Asks Achan in verse 19, My Son, give glory to God, the God of Israel, and make a confession to him. Achan confesses, It’s true, I stole forbidden silver, and gold and a Babylonian cloak. Things that were to be destroyed and I stole them, and I have them in a hole in my tent.

So, the story ends with Achan, all of his family and all of thier belonging were brought up to this place called, the Vally of Achor, and they were stoned and burned. And this place called the valley of Achor is called the valley of Judgment. Now here’s the key, what we need to understand about this story, is that it was one person in the entire people of God, one person!

One person who had sinned! One person who was walking away from God… One person who was called out who disobeyed, and because of that one sin, Achan caused a whole nation to suffer because of it. So, Get the implication here… Because of this one person who had sinned, men died in battle, and a whole nation lost heart and suffered. What the Bible is teaching us here, very clearly, do not underestimate the effect, the impact of just one sin in our lives.

I believe this is why Solomon writes, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Guard your heart…. Guard it… filter it… sieve it everyday… bring your heart before the judgment of God’s word. Don’t take sin lightly. Guard your heart. That’s faithful love… Faithful love is that radical love that desires to be clean. I thought about this question week…. Why would a Consecrated heart be so important to a Christ follower?

It’s important…Because… “A heart that isn’t clean, isn’t worth guarding. The heart that isn’t clean, isn’t a heart worth guarding. Think about it… what’s so special to a Christ follower that they live, everyday with an unfaithful, and unclean heart? Nothing, an unclean heart yields an unclean life. Can I ask you something that I have been personally praying? Is faith in Jesus strong enough to save even if someone goes about their life not loving others?

Is someone’s faith strong enough to allow their heart to stay unclean, towards loving others? At this moment, I don’t believe so. Because faith is only faith if it produces love in us and for others around us. Jesus tells us: What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, comes evil… An unclean heart creates negative emotions. An unclean heart yields broken relationships.

An unclean heart leads to sinful behavior. And to answer my question further… The greatest damage that an unclean heart does… and the Bible confirms it… is that it leads to Spiritual Separation. Isaiah writes: "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear" When Jesus becomes most precious to us, we become more intentional about protecting our heart from anything that could hinder our relationship with Him, and we prioritize spending time in His presence.

And so, all through the Bible we see so many people, consecrating their hearts. Search my Heart Lord, Renew my heart Clean my heart. Give me a new heart… And what we find at the heart of all of this, is that the heart is the core centerpiece of our relationship. A clean heart also the key to holy living. Jesus tells us to love him with all of our heart…

that’s the seat of our affection and desire. And trust me, many times it needs to be consecrated and set apart for the Lord. Where can we find more about consecrating in the New Tenement? We find consecration in Romans 12:1-2. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." That’s a consecrated relationship. And in this relationship we find that consecration is the key to the gateway of hope that Hosea talks about. And this hope, leads us to joy. … Now, Joy is our topic here this morning.

How does Radial love produce joy? First, The gateway of Hope leads us to the rivers of Joy. That’s right… Joy is found when we cling to hope. Paul tells us, to “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Are you going through affliction? Then Paul tells us to book end our affliction with Joyful hope, and Faithful prayer. That means we book end our affliction with Jesus and relationship.

Think about it, when we’re in hard moments and we go into this moments with Jesus and prayer surrounding your affliction, the wilderness moment in your life becomes more about intimacy rather than hardships. Psalm 139:5 tells us that’s true… “You hem me in, behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.” When God says he has us hemmed in, it means he has us totally surrounded. And it’s not a hemming where you are trapped, and confined, but protected and directed by his hand.

What it means is that his anointing and presence is with us and protects us, when we are in hardships and in the wilderness. The message version, says, “take your everyday life, your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.” Take all of the affliction in your everyday life… and give it to God as an offering. Now here’s the issue.. its hard to do that..

Because sinful hearts desire and crave nothing but pig slop. Paul says: put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Hearts that are unguarded are covered in filth and selfishness and John tells us… THAT WE LOVE our pig slop of a heart!!! Isn’t that a parallel story to the prodigal son? He was literally in pig slop! And in a moment, the prodigal sons says, isn’t my fathers servants cared better than this…

I’ll return… I’ll humble myself… I’ll come back and present my lifestyle before my father in hope for something better than this pig slop that I am living in. And what does the father do! He celebrates! Ol’ big brother didn’t like it, but the father celebrates! the once wayward son, with the pig slop of a heart, now has a new and renewed heart… and the father runs and throws his precious cloak over the young son’s messy pig sloppiness, that indicates he’s been redeemed, and then the Father embraces his son……

And here is my favorite part from our Romans 12 Scripture..… Paul says in the message version, “Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.” “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.” The prodigal son made a decision….. he got tired of embracing his old life, and he remembered the days of his youth with his father, and chose to humble himself….and now, even though he’s still covered in pig slop he can embrace his father.

IN all honesty, I think there’s a lot of people still trying to embrace their way of life rather than embracing the giver of life. Listen, church,.. you can’t get a new heart and desire to go back to the pig slop kind of life. You see, when we embrace hope, we can endure any affliction…. Paul is saying… don’t be so caught up in what you think and want , or what your culture thinks you need, or what your generation thinks on how things should be…

Do you wanna know who I think the greatest generations is… the one who seeks Jesus and desires holiness. Listen to what Paul says, “You’ll be changed from the inside out. (Right… that’s transformation. Through consecration.… like Jesus said, What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, comes evil) The message version goes on and says: “Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it.

Unlike the culture around you, that is always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, and he develops deep wells of maturity in you.” DO you know what being joyful in hope means ? It means choosing to live by faith in every situation and in every moment, and trusting God because we’re confident that our hope in him is real, and it’s a living hope.

Joy is undeniably anchored in hope.. Joy has a name, and it’s Jesus. Secondly, how does joy continue? How do we see longevity in a hope filled joy? Well, Joy is sustained in our relationship to God’s word. Jesus says, "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." - John 15:11 (ESV) What’s “These things” he’s talking about?

The "things" that Jesus has spoken are the words of truth and wisdom that He has shared with His disciples. His words… right? John says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He’s talking about Jesus… the light that comes to earth, is Jesus. Joy sustains itself by being in the word because the word of God is a source of all truth, encouragement, and hope.

Being in our bibles, praying seeking, asking, loving, walking with Christ, walking with those around us… this, lifestyle sustains the joy we receive from our hope in him. And if something happens that test my anchor… stop testing it against preference, stop testing it against the worlds standards… test it against God’s word. Test it against the Love of Jesus. Trust me, when a christian loves like Jesus… they’ll stop trying to have it their way.

Joy it’s meant to be lived out in relationship. If people do not have God given joy, If there is no joy in a life of one who says they follow Christ… , my first question is to ask this… do they have Jesus in the first place? Does Jesus have their hearts, and then my second question… do they seek to do life with other Jesus believers who seek Jesus as well?

Remember, last week.. I said, holiness is about relationships. Holiness isn’t about enduring hardship as much as it’s about deepening relationships. It’s not hard to become holy. It’s easy… because it just requires one thing… humility. Remember in Chronicles.. 14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

We think holiness is about longevity in doing something… it’s not. Holiness is the deepness of our relationship to Jesus. You can tell a whole lot about a persons deepness in Christ by whether or not, they are abiding in his word, or if they are… living in sin. In all honesty… “If sin is no longer sin, and we as a body no longer call out sin for what it is…

then we no longer need a Savior.” And that’s the third and final truth… Joy, that we have in Jesus… is never meant for us to keep to ourselves, but Joy is meant to be shared within the community. Paul says, "Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep." - Romans 12:15 (ESV) Do you know the foundation of this Scripture… It simply means……… to be joyfully present. To be joyfully present.

You see, Joy is being selfless… Paul tells us just right before this, Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another… Ya know, this week, as I was praying the verse from Romans 12:12, I spent over two hours praying and sending out over 100 text messages to encourage people…

those I love and those that are hard to love. And you’d be surprised by how many did not text me back, and there were some that I was surprised who did text back, and I didn’t expect them to. But I didn’t do it for me.. I sent out those texts because I wanted people to know that there’s Joy in our hope in Jesus. And we’re to "Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.!

When we share joy with one another, we’re sharing Jesus with one another, and I promise you, this is always evident in our life….. A person who is a joyful sharer, is always a person who is generous carer. Every time… Christ anchored Joy will always produce generosity. Even to those who are never generous in return…. That’s a faithful love. A love that’s unconditional….And it’s a love that’s joy is anchored only in Jesus.

Abba Father, You’ve been so generous to me. You’ve sent the most generous gift to us in the way of your Son, Jesus. And by his blood we can be saved and set free from our sin. I thank you father, for this beautul message series on being freed in love. Over the course of the last 5 weeks, I’ve learned about your faithful love, I’ve learned that repentance is needed, or else you will take away the lamp stand of your light.

I’ve learned the forgiveness is key to relationships, and that your love is a radical love that draws me into intimacy…. And today, I am thankful to know that because of your generosity, I can be a man of joy. I pray Jesus, that you would teach these people what it’s like to live in your love. I pray that you will take their bitterness, and hurt, and their sin, and that you replace it with your radical love.

Create within all of us here Jesus, a body of joyful believers. Because joy is contagious, and we live in a World where joy is far and few in between. I know, I love you, Jesus. And I pray, that you May find a people, who will truly love you as well. Be our light, so that we can shine for you. In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

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