Lost and Found Series 6

A series of inspiring and empowering talks aimed at encouraging folks to begin to step out in faith and their gifting’s to become all that they can be in God.

Unplugging Our Ears – Pentecost Sunday!

So far we have looked at:

Finding Our Zing!

Strengthening Our Grip

Raising Our Voice

Finding Our Feet

Opening Our Eyes

He was a normal baby.  He had two older brothers and as he developed was holding his own.  But we noticed that he seemed to ignore us at times, especially when he was looking away from us.  He also had chronic ear infections as well as a malformed cartilage in his ear tips, which we, as parents, found endearing.  But the ear infections were a nightmare.  We had many trips to the doctors and grommets were recommended.  We were told that his hearing as impaired and that anything under the sound of a raised voice was probably not being picked up by his hearing; however, his speech development seemed fines, so it tells you something about the Jackson home! So our baby boy, aged about 2 years old, finally had grommets put in.  We were told not to expect anything too drastic as the muck drained form his ‘glue ears’ over time.  But that same day, two things happened: firstly, we were living near the flight path to Heathrow in Reading, not right underneath, but close enough to hear the sound of Concorde.  So it flies overhead and our baby runs to the window to see the noise.  Secondly, the phone rang and he jumped out of his skin!  Noises he’d never heard before, at least not clearly!

Today on this Pentecost Sunday, there is a noise that we may not have heard before, or have but maybe not clearly, and we’re wondering what that is!

1.            What Can We Hear?

Acts 2:1-4: When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

It is interesting that the miraculous baptism in the Holy Spirit begins with a sound, like the blowing of a violent wind.

Have you ever been in an area and you can just feel a storm brewing?  There are several detectors we intuitively have about the change in the weather, clouds building, sky darkening, but generally these things are preceded by a change in wind direction and spread.

Strong winds are caused by high and low pressure areas colliding and the air rushing into a low pressure area.

When Acts describes the blowing of a violent wind Luke is trying to convey the unusual nature of what is happening as well as the literal effects of the wind.  We cannot see wind, for it is air in motion, although at times we may see things caught in the wind (dust particles, debris etc.).

But wind in terms of the earth is used for redistributing heat and water across the surface of the Earth.  Wind is a distribution agent! (http://elsci.lansingschools.net/rtsmith/wind/eff_o_wi.htm)

What a great analogy for the Spirit! 

·         He is a change agent for we see the affects He has on people’s lives.

·         He is a redistribution agent for He is about to ‘blow’ the disciples out of the building with a fresh power.

In fact everything we have talked about over the last number of weeks is as a direct result of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit!

·         Finding Our Zing! He gives us a purpose!

·         Strengthening Our Grip: He helps us in our failures.

·         Raising Our Voice: He stirs heaven’s melody within us!

·         Finding Our Feet: He sends us out with the Gospel message!

·         Opening Our Eyes: He helps us see things from heaven’s perspective!

All we need to do is Unplug Our Ears and hear what the Spirit is saying to us (Rev. 2:17, 29)

Do we hear the sound of the change in the wind?  Do we hear the sound of the Spirit moving? 

2.            Understanding What We Hear

Exodus 32: 15-20: Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.   The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.  When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is the sound of war in the camp.”  Moses replied:

“It is not the sound of victory,

    it is not the sound of defeat;

    it is the sound of singing that I hear.”

When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.  And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.

How do you confuse the sound of singing with the sound of war?  Joshua heard one thing, Moses heard another.  Because Joshua was a hearing this from a ‘different place’ in God!

·         Joshua had accompanied Moses up the mountain. We read earlier in the account (Ex 24:13)

·         We are not told what Joshua did those forty days and nights that Moses was with God in the cloud on top of the mountain.

·         It is unlikely that he did not eat and drink, as Moses did during this whole period, so he has not fasted and sought God as far as we know.

·         He had not descended the mountain and come back up again, or he would have known about the making of the golden calf.

·         He had not been in the cloud with God either or he would have heard that God told Moses about the idolatry (Ex 32:7).

·         He had also not despaired of Moses’ reappearing, as the people at the foot of the mountain had, but he is there when Moses appears again (Ex 32:17).

Faithfulness and spiritual hunger seem to have been the outstanding features of Joshua’s character (Ex 33:11); but was Joshua’s dwelling in the presence of God a result of his missing it on the mountain?

Joshua mishears what is happening because at that point He had not been exposed to the genuine – so he filters what he is hearing through his perceptions and understanding.  Moses hears correctly because He has been in the presence of God and therefore understands what he is hearing.

When we talk about the Holy Spirit, what are we hearing?  Does the mention of Him make us afraid, apprehensive, joyful or expectant?

Barriers to Listening

·         Getting distracted by emotional noise.  We react emotionally to certain words, concepts and ideas, and to a myriad of other cues.

·         Getting distracted by external “noise”.  What others think and say about a subject!

·         Stereotyping and generalizing. Be careful not to hold on to preconceptions. We often have a tendency to see what we want to see, forming an impression from a small amount of information or one experience, and assuming that to be highly representative of the whole person or situation.

An elderly retired gentleman had had severe hearing problems for some time.  He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed the man to hear better than he had ever heard before.  One month later, the elderly man went back again to the doctor.  The doctor said, "Your hearing is perfect.  Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again."  The gentleman said, "Oh, I haven’t told my family yet.  I just sit around and listen to the conversations.  I’ve changed my will three times!"

Understanding the sound of the Spirit moving is so important. We need to Unplug Our Ears.

3.            Trusting What We Hear

1 Samuel 3: 1-10: The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.   One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place.  The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was.  Then the Lord called Samuel.  Samuel answered, “Here I am.”   And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” 

But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.  Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”  “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”   Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.   A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”  Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy.  So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.  The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

Three times Samuel heard and misheard.  Why? 

·         Inexperienced: he’d never heard the voice of God directly!  He’d always have to rely on Eli to tell him what God was saying and when.

·         Naïve: Perhaps that he felt he was too young, or it was not his place.

·         Worth: perhaps he felts he was not worthy.

But one thing is clear; Samuel was not expecting the Lord to speak to him!

John 10: 1-5: “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.  The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.  The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.  But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”

We get all confused at times with, “is this God or the devil trying to trick me?”

We have to trust the Lord who says that everything the Lord gives us is good (Matt. 7:11)

At times we have been so wary of the counterfeit that we have thrown out the original!  How do we detect the counterfeit?

Bank of England: by exposing workers enough to the original that when a fake came through their hands they’d notice.  They have now got more security features than ever but none are entirely fool proof; we need to know the authentic to discern the false.

We learn the voice of the Shepherd by listening and obeying!  We learn than He sends the Spirit!

John 15: 15-17: If you love me, keep my commands.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—  the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

How does Jesus send the Spirit?  Unexpectantly!  With the sound of a rushing wind, with tongues of fire, with new languages, with miracles, and with a harvest!

Wrapping it up!

So the wind of the Spirit is blowing in the church.  These are the last days in which we are promised that young and old alike will be touched and filled with the Spirit!

We need to bend with the wind of the Spirit, to allow Him to shape us, fill us and equip us!