Be quiet.
Zep 3:17
The Lord your God is with you,
He is mighty to save. He will take great
delight in you, He will quiet you with his love He will rejoice over you with
singing.
By a show of hands:
Who wants to go to heaven?
Who is going to heaven?
Who is not sure?
Well, the good news is, this morning I am
going to give a sure-fire way of getting to heaven…
Worth listening to?
My sermon title this morning is
“be
quiet”
Noise affects human behaviour. In one experiment carried out by psychologists, a student leaving a library intentionally dropped an armload of books. In 50% of the cases, a passerby stopped to help the student pick up the books. Then the experimenters brought out a lawn mower without a muffler and started it near where a student would again intentionally drop the books. This time, only about 10% of the people who passed stopped to help. It was clear that behaviour changed because of the ear-splitting sound of the nearby lawn mower.
In experiments in Los Angeles, researchers found that children who lived in neighbourhoods near the airport could not complete certain tasks undertaken when jets were landing and taking off as easily as children who lived in quiet neighbourhoods. Some studies of prison conditions have shown that the high level of noise causes more complaints by prisoners than the food or other prison conditions do.
"Carry some quiet around inside thee," the well-known Quaker, George Fox, used to say. "Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit, from thy own thoughts, and then thou wilt feel the principle of God to turn thy mind to the Lord from whence cometh life; whereby thou mayest receive the strength and power to allay all storms and tempests
The closest some of us will come to quiet is this bumper sticker…
Recently we lost Eskom. One day it was there, and the next it was gone, I dunno how it happened, but are no longer a Eskom client. You see, we use to have peace and quiet – we never had that in Jhb. And then we got Eskom, electricity. And with electricity came noise. Noise from TV, cell phone, radio, internet,
Our lives are filled with noise. Satan
intends it to be. The more noise the better, because the more noise, the less
quiet. And its only in quiet that we can find God.
And God will quiet you with his love. And
God did quiet us this week – If you saw the newspaper articles stating that
farmers are responsible for nearly half (48%) the incidents of electricity
theft countrywide. I find this really difficult to believe, especially since
the wording of the article is ambiguous and misleading. However, turns out they
are really out to get us, since we now have to cough up R23 000 as deposit
for the luxury of being a Eskom client.
Thankfully, Eskom has assisted in Gods
plan. You see, suddenly there is no more noise. There is a return to the
basics.
Ps 131:2
But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
Not only are our lives filled with noise,
we are also living in unnatural surroundings, overcrowded, bunched up, on top
of each other. This is not how we are supposed to be living.
In his book, Quest
For Character, p. 35-36. Charles Swindoll
tells the story of a research
psychologist at the National Institute of Mental Health who was convinced he
could prove his theory from a cage full of mice. His name? Dr. John Calhoun.
His theory? Overcrowded conditions take a terrible toll on humanity. Dr.
Calhoun built a nine-foot square cage for selected mice. He observed them
closely as their population grew. He started with eight mice. He documented his
findings in a book called John Calhoun "Death Squared:
The Explosive Growth and Demise of a Mouse Population
Interestingly, as the population reached its peak, the colony of mice began to disintegrate. Strange stuff started happening. Dr. Calhoun made these observations: 1)Adults formed natural groups of about a dozen individual mice. 2) In each group each adult mouse performed a particular social role...but there were no roles in which to place the healthy young mice, which totally disrupted the whole society. 3) The males who had protected their territory withdrew from leadership. 4) The females became aggressive and forced out the young...even their own offspring. 5) The young grew to be only self-indulgent. They ate, drank, slept, groomed themselves, but showed no normal aggression and, most noteworthy, failed to reproduce. After five years, every mouse had died. This occurred despite the fact that right up to the end there was plenty of food, water, and an absence of disease. After the research psychologist reported on his experiment, a couple of significant questions arose.
Q: "What were the first activities to cease?"
A: "The most complex activities for mice: courtship and mating."
Q: What results would such overcrowding have on humanity?"
A: We would first of all cease to reproduce our ideas, and along with ideas, our goals and ideals. In other words, our values would be lost."
Charles Swindoll, Quest For Character, p. 35-36.
We have to be weaned off the noise, the
overcrowding, the sensory overload. Beloved, for those of us who work a full day,
it is impossible to have quiet time if we have noise (tv) going. I don’t know
about you but I am not a morning person, so I battle with mornings – or at
least that’s my excuse.
Isa 32:17
The fruit of righteousness will be peace,
the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.
Sometimes God needs us to be quiet so we
can listen. Lets look a few bible characters that God “quietened with is love”
Paul: Now Saul was like me, full of fire.
Don’t mess with Saul. On fire for the Lord – or so he thought. Acts 8:1 says
Saul was consenting unto the death of Stephen. So full of fire was Saul for the
Lord that he consented to the death penalty of a fellow jew. No sooner had the
stoners picked up their cloaks from his feet and Saul was off on the next
crusade. Fast, furious, busy Saul. Saul had a mission, a career, a defined goal
in life.
I identify with Saul in a big way. My life
was like that. Chasing the dream, laying up riches, living the dream. The
faster the better. Fast cars, fast women. Ever seen that bumper sticker “the one
with the most toys wins”?.
Acts 9:8
And Saul arose from the earth, (where he
had been stopped in his tracks) and when his eyes were opened he saw no TV. But
they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
No he is blind – how fast is his life now?
How focused is Saul on his career? Does he have time for prayer now? Did God
slow him down? And why blindness? Why not lameness? Why not deafness? Of all
the things God could have done to Saul to slow him down, why blindness?
Lets find the answer in Gen 3:6
And the women SAW than the tree was good
for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired.
Beloved, our sight is where Satan attacked
first. Of all the senses sight is truly the window to the soul. We see many
things on a daily basis, and we have become so shell-shocked that nothing
shocks us anymore. For us men – really, we have no chance? Satan knows we are
sight driven so everywhere we look, we have skin on show. You don’t even have
to open the magazine, just walk past the newspaper stand and try no to look at
the covers. It doesn’t matter if you’re watching national geographic, there
will be an add break with a woman that better looking or skinner than your
wife. The media drowns us in imagery…
So Saul has his primary sense taken away –
In Saul case his eyes blinded him scripturally, so God blinded him so he could
see. Our eyes create more noise than we realise – satan is out to fill our
minds with junk so there is no space for anything else.
Eph 3:19
And to know the love of Christ, which
passeth knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God
If you are full of something, is there
space for anything else? What are we full of?
Lets look at Jonah. Jonah had a busy life,
what with running and jumping on ships and hiding and fighting with God. Jonah
said things as they were – when he was displeased with God, he said so,
regardless of how misdirected his displeasure might be. Jonah was a man of
action – the Almighty calls you out, and you run away? Remove yourself from the
problem, as far away as possible. Jonah didn’t sit around, places to be, people
to see. Busy busy busy.
But then the Lord needs to quieten things
down. Slow things down. Isolate the problem. Remove the outward, external
references. Ever wondered why a fish? Why not maroon him on a deserted island?
Why the bizarre experience of a fish belly? Why not cast him adrift in the vast
sea for month? Because Jonah needed silence and solitude. Isolation. Away from
the normal humdrum of life.
Instead, the rhythmic beat of a whale’s
heart mixed the occasional lonesome mating call of the largest creature on
earth. I know it doesn’t say it was a whale, but c’mon really, what else?
Jonah prays: 2:5
The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep
surrounded me, seaweed was wrapped around my head
Isolation and quiet. God physically told
Jonah to shut up and listen. Be quiet.
And so we can find lots of instances where
quiet and isolation work toward as a closer relationship with God – Moses in the
desert, John the Baptist in the wilderness, David the psalmist writes in
Ps 131:2 I have stilled and quieted my
soul…
But lets also look at the supreme example –
the ultimate expression of a true relationship with God – Jesus.
Matthew 14:22
Immediately Jesus made the disciples get
into the boat and go on ahead of him while he dismissed the crowd (noise) After
he dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When
evening came he was there alone…
Jesus knew there are times when we need to
be quiet and still before Him. Jesus knew that for a deep and meaningful
experience with his Father, he needed to shut the world off for a while. He
needed to isolate himself from the distractions and cares of the world. He
needed to be quiet…
Jesus wasn’t inventing a new way of worshipping;
he was simply practising what he had been preaching for 4000years! He was
putting his own instructions into practise.
Exodus 14:13
Moses answered the people; Do not be
afraid, Stand still and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring today.
Stand still.
Numbers 9:8
And Moses said to them; stand still that I
may hear what the Lord will command concerning you.
1 Sam 9:27
Samual said to Saul, tell the servant to go
on ahead of us, but you stay here awhile so that I may give you a message from
God
Job 37:14
Listen to this Job, stop and consider Gods
wonders.
Beloved, can there be any doubt that God communicates
via that small still voice. And God wants to communicate with us. In fact, he
is desperate to communicate with us. He has a special plan for each and every
one of us that he wants to relate to us – he does not want us to live in
darkness and confusion! But how can He talk to us when the world is drowning
out His voice. We are bombarded from all angles from morning till night. Some
of the noise we cant help, but some of it we can! There are things we can
simply switch off! The radio does not need to be on all the time. There is
nothing uplifting on Tv. Listen, Satan knows the value of quiet time, so he’ll
do anything in his power to kill quiet!
Brothers and sisters, if we are having
difficulty switching off the world, what chance is there that we will like it
in heaven? Will we not yearn for the fleshpots of Egypt?
Jesus turns towards the sea and says and
Quiet! Be still. Is there not a small chance that Jesus is saying to us today,
Quiet, Be still. There is nothing worthwhile for us in this world. It is time
for us to switch off the world and switch on to Jesus and eternal life.
Now I am not saying that you need to kill
Eskom and go solar – although we are charged with looking after the earth and
solar is doing just that. But I am saying that we need to kill the noise. Kill
the intrusions into our mind. Kill the distracting influence of Satan. Kill the
things that are leaving us empty and fill up on Jesus.
The Lord your God is with you,
He is mighty to save. He will take great
delight in you, He will quiet you with his love He will rejoice over you with
singing.
Jesus will quiet us with his love. Yes Lord
Jesus. If it means a crazy eskom account to achieve that, so be it. Quieten us
please Lord!
In closing turn with me to those famous
words in psalms 46:10
Be still and know that I am God.
Amen
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