Saturday I was a little stressed. That’s when I got a text message from Joe Woods, our band leader. He was calling to find out what time he was supposed to play for our Old West End Free Store Concert. Joe was just trying to add another gig, but to me, without the context of tone, body language, etc, it seemed to me that he was trying to back out of playing, at one of our key outreach events, something that had been on the Calendar for months (Kurt says a year). I got even more stressed. Joe laughed, literally LOL and "center yourself.". Joe "got it.". You know you’re in trouble when at 47 years of age, and 20 years as a Pastor, your 24 year old band leader has to remind you to get centered and pray.
When Joe and I started working together I asked him to bring in a CD of one of his favorite songs and this is the one he brought in. It's a "centering song”, “Aqueous Transmission" by Incubus (here’s a link to rendition on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlLCXiG4eD4 ). The song reminds me of the summer I call my Sabbath Summer. It was a turning point in my prayer life. In the summer of 2005 my life changed forever.
Experience unlike any other. Perhaps you could call it, my own version of that Pentecost we talked about last week, when the Spirit of God filled Peter and the disciples of Jesus, and it felt like fire and wind and they were filled with so much power that the sermon he preached that cause caused 3000 people to give their lives to Jesus and be baptized! I spent hours in the summer and well into the Fall of 2005, sitting on my front porch with God, praying, and having my own little Pentecost revival.
There had been many times in my life before when I had gone through short periods of disciplined prayer routine - and those were meaningful times in my life as well. It's all good.
But something was deeper that summer. I was ready. Perhaps I needed God more. Or I was just at a level of maturity in my life to receive God's Spirit. Who can explain the things of the Spirit? It's beyond human wisdom. But here's what happened.
I sat on my porch every night, with The Message Bible, my journal, and pen, first a book called Sabbath, by Wayne Muller, and later a book called Mother Tongue by Paul Nixon, and every night I opened my heart and soul to God in prayer. I spent some TIME with God. I poured out my heart to God. I got angry. I laughed. I read scripture. I wrote in my journal. In the mornings I took some walks in my neighborhood, and just tried to clear my mind of my thoughts and listen to God.
It was during that time that I began to hear God's call to plant this church. I was not in a very good place with my last church, because my work there was winding down but I could not see it and I did not want to see it. The time in prayer gave me the space to SEE what I was not seeing. It created space for God to show me a new vision for my life. I am not a patient person. I knew it would take awhile to get here. Five YEARS to get here. That did not make me happy back then. I was not sure how long it would take or how I was going to get there. All the more reason why I needed those weeks and months of going deep with God in prayer.
So why am I telling you all this today? Because I want each one of you to find God's wonderful purpose for your life. There might be more than one. But I want you to see the wonderful vision God has in mind for you next. And I believe the way for you to see it, is for you to connect to God in prayer. There are lots of ways to connect to God in prayer - your way may not be my way. Hear that clearly. There are soooo many ways to pray, soooo many ways to listen to God, and to see and hear God. But in order to hear God we do have to be intentional; and put some time and effort into it.
Like any relationship, a relationship with God, means we carve out TIME, and SPACE. That is clear in our scripture for today.
38-39Peter said, "Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away-whomever, in fact, our Master God invites."
40Peter went on in this vein for a long time, urging them over and over, "Get out while you can; get out of this sick and stupid culture!"
41-42That day about three thousand took him at his word, were baptized and were signed up. They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers.
We also know from reading the Gospels that Jesus routinely took breaks from the crowds to go away to a quiet place to pray. He could not do his work without the rhythm of prayer and quiet to center himself and to have his spirit filled by God's Spirit.
Many of you have told me that you want something more for your life. Either you have something you want to change - or you are still trying to figure out what you want to be when you grow up - whatever age you are.
Others of us are just ready to change the world. We are watching as our planet in hemorrhaging, seen that for the last month. We are seeing the results of corporate greed. Robin has her pictures of her fallen comrades from Iraq. A church like ours, that wants to follow Jesus and change the world - well, we have our work cut out for us. The world is eager to hear our message of hope. We NEED to be grounded in prayer. We NEED to be talking to God, because these world problems are huge. They are too big for any small group of people to face alone - this will take the power of God working through us to conquer. But remember how powerful Peter became when the Spirit of God was in him. That's the Spirit that is in us too! That's the Spirit that can change the world through us when we pray. I want that Spirit in all of us.
So, what will your next step be?
I imagine that all of us pray in some way. If nothing else, we probably ask God for help now and then when we are in trouble, “God help me”. That's a start - at least we know that God wants to help us. Maybe we also say thank you once a day - that's another simple and important prayer practice. I do that with Jamie every night.
If we want to grow as followers of Jesus and our prayer life - and I'm going to assume you want to grow - since you are here today - then I'm going to challenge each of us to make one commitment to deepen our prayer life today.
" Listen to God
" Meet once a week with prayer partner
" Go on a retreat
" Use a prayer book as a guide
" Read scripture
" Read a daily devotional
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