The Silence of God | Sermon by Jill Morikone

[Music] so [Music] hello i'm jill moriconi and welcome to another 3 abn worship hour i love this hour that we have together where we can open up the word of god we can study together have you ever experienced the silence of god have you ever gone through a trial or walked through a circumstance or just been in some situation where you wondered where are you god i'm not hearing you talk back i'm not sensing your presence where are you i'm going through a silent time as it were i was driving once and saw you know the little marquee outside of a church and it said the teacher is always silent when the test is given are you going through a testing time does it seem like the teacher meaning god is silent right now in your life this message today is entitled the silence of god what we are to do and what god does when we think he's apparently silent he's not silent at all he's actually working in our behalf that's what we're going to look at today you know god has always desired connection with his people from the very beginning in the garden of eden we have adam and eve and what god walked with them and talked with them through the cool of the day every evening he met with them as his children he always desired to dwell with his people of course sin entered this world and brought a disconnection there was that disconnection god could no longer be in the presence of sinful human beings because sin cannot be in the presence of god and so god said i still want to dwell with my people i love my people i want to be with them we read in exodus 25 verse 8 let them make me a sanctuary that i may dwell among them as you look at the old testament all the way through to the new you see this concept of god desiring to dwell with his people in hebrew the word is chakan it just means to dwell to settle down to abide god wants to settle down with us he wants to abide with us we see the same word in exodus 29 verse 46 they shall know that i am the lord their god who brought them out of the land of egypt why that i may dwell among them chakan god wants to abide he wants to settle down he wants to take up residence with us we see the same word in first kings six verse 13 i will dwell among the sons of israel and will not forsake my people israel the same word dwell khan we have the same word in zechariah 2 verse 10 sing for joy and be glad o daughter of zion for behold i am coming and i will dwell in your midst says the lord then we jump over to the new testament remember in the old testament god actually dwelt with his people with adam and eve physically and then sin brought that separation and god dwelt with his people through the sanctuary his presence was there but we get to the new testament in the book of john and we discover that jesus came in flesh that he could physically dwell with his people again we say that in john 1 14 now it's not the hebrew word now it's the greek word no oh but it means the same thing to have one's tent to dwell to reside john 1 14 and the word it became flesh and dwelt among us there's our word dwelt and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten from the father full of grace and truth now of course jesus ascended to heaven and the holy spirit was sent to dwell with you and i we know in first corinthians 6 19 that the holy spirit dwells in us we are the temple of god through the power of the holy spirit again christ wants to dwell in our hearts through faith and then we get all the way to the end of the bible revelation 21 and we're going to dwell with god for all eternity revelation 21 verse 3. i heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the tabernacle of god is among men and he will dwell with them there is a word dwell they shall be his people and god himself will be among them god has always wanted to be with his people god has always had a people that he has a special relationship with think of enoch he had such a special relationship with god what happened to him enoch walked with god and he was not for god took him he had such a special relationship with god that he was translated to heaven think of noah he had an incredibly special relationship with god now you might say well then what about all the other inhabitants of the anti-diluvian world was god singling out noah not at all everyone was invited to be on the ark everyone was invited to safety but only eight people made that choice that they wanted god to be their god too and they wanted to dwell with him think of abraham or isaac jacob joseph moses these are people throughout the old testament that god had a special relationship with god wants a special relationship with you but what if you can't find him what if you can't feel his presence what if you can't sense his favor what then what are we to do as christians as people who have accepted god what do we do with the silence of god let's pray holy father we come before you in the name of jesus and we thank you that even in the apparent silence of you when it seems like we can't see you or sense you or hear you we thank you that you are even then working in our behalf would you open up our minds and hearts to see you to experience you in a new way through the power of your word and the anointing of your holy spirit and we thank you in jesus name amen greg and i were in phoenix arizona and um we were there at 3abn we were doing an evangelistic series this was several years ago and right at the end of the church service we came out and we were kind of at the back of the church and a woman came up to me and she said you know what jill she said i really want to talk to you and i said oh that's great because i love to talk to people and i said yeah let's step over here so we kind of went to this alcove at the side of the church and she said i read an article that you wrote in the adventist review about you and your husband's infertility and instantly my mind went to something that had happened fairly recently at 3bn just before this time a woman called in she was from new york now that's nothing against new york it just happened to be where she was from and she called in and she said jill she said i understand you and your husband would like to have children because greg and i have been very open about our infertility journey for the last 19 years she said i understand you and your husband would like to have children i want you to know if you made my recipe for beef stew you're gonna have a baby and i said okay thank you ma'am and she said no no no are you writing down the recipe and i said okay i'll write down the recipe so i remember scribbling i'm at my desk at work scribbling down two pounds of beef and so much celery and so many onions and then she said now i want to make sure that you make this recipe because if in three months i watch 3bn and there's nothing happening with your tummy i'm going to come to 3bm and i'm going to cook beef stew for you and so when this lady in phoenix said i read the article that you wrote about your journey with infertility and i thought oh please god are we going to get another recipe for beef stew but it had nothing to do with that at all she said my husband and i had a journey i'd like to tell you about it and i said of course she said we tried for 10 years to have children and we could not have children and then we decided we're going to adopt we were going to adopt two little girls from overseas we got their pictures we put their pictures on the fridge we named them and i forget the names we can call them sarah and mary i don't remember we named them we prayed for them for the day they were already our girls and our hearts were just waiting for the paperwork they would come from overseas and they would be our girls forever we prayed every day over their lives their pictures were on the fridge we paid a great deal of money for this adoption and then one day we got the news that the two girls who were going to be ours the two girls that we already considered our daughters have been sold in the sex slave train and she began to cry and she said every day jill every day i live with the knowledge that the girls who were supposed to have been mine are being abused and they might even be dead i don't know and it had been several years since that experience she said what if i cry to god but he's not hearing me he is silent is he even listening right now to what i am going through you know the children of israel they experience the silence of god turn with me to the book of exodus after joseph died they increased in numbers that they multiplied supernaturally there in egypt because they were there in egypt for 400 years and in exodus 1 verse 7 we have five verbs that describe the supernatural multiplication of the children of israel and egypt exodus 1 7. it says but the children of israel were fruitful that's verb number one and increased abundantly number two multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty and the land was filled with them now the new king who arose did not know joseph and he began to feel threatened by the children of israel the first thing he decided to do was to force them into servitude they had to make bricks and cities and service in the land of egypt and they became slaves in bondage in egypt the second thing he decided to do when he thought this forced slave labor was not enough he decided to kill all the newborn baby boys who were born to the israelites they were in slavery they were in bondage they cried out to god for how long 400 years god promised to deliver them yet it could have appeared as if for 400 years they were left in slavery they were left to languish i want to tell you right now when it seems god is silent he is not absent when it seems god is silent he is not still when it seems god is silent he is not finished you know job cried out the same anguished cry where are you god we see this in job 30 verse 20. i cry out to you he's talking to god i cry out to you but you do not answer me i stand up and you regard me it says in the niv i cry out to you god but you do not answer i stand up but you merely look at me it says in the new living translation i cry to you o god but you don't answer i stand before you but you you don't even look have you ever felt like that have you felt like god i'm crying out to you where are you are you answering me are you just merely looking at me or are you not even seeing the difficulty i'm in the trouble i'm in what i am experiencing right now jesus did the same thing we see this in psalm 22 this is a messianic psalm speaking of jesus on the cross psalm 22 verses 1 and 2 he's crying my god my god why have you forsaken me why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my groaning oh my god i cry in the daytime but you do not hear i cry in the night season and am not silent when it seems god is silent we are called to trust the promise not the perception we are called to trust him in the storm as well as in the sunshine we're called to trust him by faith not by how we feel inside i want to talk to you today about seven things that god is doing when it appears that he is silent you see to you and i it might seem that he's not doing anything it might seem that he's walked away it might seem that he has neglected us or is ignoring you but he's not there are seven things that he is doing even in the midst of these seemingly silent times number one he hears let's go back to exodus exodus 2. this is the children of israel remember they are in bondage slave labor for 400 years they're in egypt their newborn baby boys are being killed and murdered by the pharaoh they're in egypt and yet in the midst of their fire in the midst of when it seemed that god might be silent he was actually listening god hears exodus 2 verse 23 then the children of israel groaned because of the bondage and they cried out and their cry came up to god because of the bondage so god heard their groaning what's that word god hears he heard their groaning and god remembered his covenant with abraham with isaac and with jacob i want to tell you today when it seems like god is not listening when it seems like god is silent in your life he hears you exodus 3 verse 7 the lord said i have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in egypt and i have heard their cry because of their task masters for i know their sorrows psalm 34 verse 15 david tells us the same thing the eyes of the lord are on the righteous and his ears his ears are open to their cry so i want to tell you today if you are walking in a silent time if you are going through a time when it appears that god is silent he's listening god hears you anytime you open up your heart any time you cry out to god he hears you what's the second thing he's doing he cares i don't know if you've ever experienced this but there have been times and i've actually been guilty of this myself i have my cell phone here someone might be talking with me might be in a meeting visiting in my office and i'm listening to them i'm looking them in the eye i'm hearing them and then all of a sudden a text comes in something urgent happens and my eyes shift from the person and i look down here oh i got to take care of this oh this is happening has that ever happened to you where maybe you're distracted from the conversation you're involved in when it happens to you what do you feel like i don't know about you but i kind of feel like maybe that person doesn't care so much or maybe they're not really interested or maybe they're not really focused or paying attention but god doesn't just hear us god cares god is focused and pays attention matthew 10 jesus tells us the story of not even a sparrow falls to the ground but god notices now you think about the sparrows who are the sparrows they're not beautiful like the bluebirds and the cardinals and all of that and we say it's a common everyday sparrow not even a sparrow falls to the ground but that god does not see and hear and care about that psalm 34 18 the lord is near the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit so when it seems that god is silent in your life he hears he cares number three he understands you know if you're going through a difficult time sometimes you might not need advice you just want a listening ear or need to know that someone cares or someone understands or just hears where you're coming from you know what jesus does hebrews 4 verses 14 through 16. i love this there's an inherent need in all of us to be understood and you might say well my spouse doesn't understand or my kids don't understand my boss doesn't understand jesus understands hebrews 4 verses 14 through 16 seeing then we have a great high priest who is passed through the heavens jesus the son of god let us hold fast to our confession for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize or be touched with our weaknesses or the feelings of our infirmities but was on in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin let us therefore come boldly before the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need what does jesus understand jesus clearly understands temptation turn with me to the book of luke we look at the temptation of jesus this is right after baptism remember he went out the spirit led him into the wilderness and he was tempted of the devil for 40 days luke 4 verses 1 and the first part of verse 2. then jesus being filled with the holy spirit returned from jordan and was led by the spirit into the wilderness being tempted for one day two days five days forty days by the devil can you imagine going through something like that forty days of temptation unrelenting consistent jesus understands temptation are you going through an experience where you feel you're being tempted beyond your strength to endure are you wrestling with addictions are you going through that and saying well no one understands the trouble i'm in no one understands this temptation is so strong for me jesus he understands temptation not only that he understands hunger if you keep reading in verse 2 we're in luke 4 the second half of verse 2. he was there 40 days tempted by the devil and in those days he ate nothing and afterward he was hungry now i don't know about you if you've ever fasted i have um gone a meal without any food i've gone a day without any food i've gone a couple days i've never gone a week without food never i've never gone a month 40 days with no food anytime you think but i'm hungry but i'm tempted jesus understands that he also understands poverty matthew 8 verse 20 matthew 8 20 and jesus said to them foxes they have holes and birds of the air have nests but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head are you homeless do you not have enough money to put food on the table do you not have enough money to make it through the week are you in poverty jesus understands poverty he also understands weariness we're in john chapter 4 this is of course the woman at the well jesus experience with the woman of samaria there john 4 6. now jacob's well was there jesus therefore being wearied from his journey sat by the well it was about the sixth hour now john could have clearly said jacob's well was there and jesus came to the well the disciples went in to buy food and then the woman came out but i find it interesting that he said jesus was wearied by his journey jesus understands weariness if you feel overworked or over taxed or going through certain circumstances you say boy i'm weary i just spoke yesterday with a new father and i said i'm so proud of you because we actually know this person and i said i'm so proud of you being a dad and all of that and he said i'm just lucky to get sleep i am so tired every time the baby sleeps i can take a nap jesus he understands weariness not just that jesus he understands disappointment luke 13 verse 34. luke 13 34 jesus is speaking he says oh jerusalem jerusalem the one who kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to her how often i wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings but you would not or it says you were not willing you think about it the children of israel were god's chosen possession if you read in deuteronomy if you read in exodus 19 they were a chosen people above all the people on the earth and they weren't chosen because they were rich or because they were intelligent or because they were good-looking or strong or anything they were chosen because god loved them and because they were to be his special people they were to be a light set on a hill they were to spread the message of the one god jehovah to the entire world and yet they had failed in that mission and not only that when jesus came most of them some people recognized but most of them failed to recognize that he was the messiah that he was their long-looked for deliverer you think jesus understands disappointment he wanted these people to accept him he wanted they he came to die for them and yet he wanted to gather them together he wanted to save them and they would not allow that jesus understands disappointment jesus understands rejection john 6 john 6 66-67 now before this time remember the popularity of jesus was so strong i think about the healing of the paralytic just before then jesus healed that leper and it said the fame of jesus spread abroad throughout galilee and the entire region and he was so popular that people flocked from all over to see him to hear him to be healed by him remember when the paralytic was healed it was so so many people in the house that they had to open up the roof and let him down so before this time many people are following jesus he's hailed as the coming king and yet what happens in john 6 john 6 66 from that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more then jesus said to the twelve are you also going to leave me will you also go away and of course simon peter the first one to always speak what did he say lord to whom will we go you have the words of life so jesus he understands rejection he understands what it's like to have people walk with you people love you people be part of your inner circle and then turn around and walk away jesus also understands sorrow matthew 26 verse 38 now this is of course right before the crucifixion this is the garden of gethsemane experience and he says he said to them my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death stay here and watch with me jesus understands death remember mary martha and lazarus were his special friends and companions and lazarus died and it says in john 11 35 that jesus wept now did he weep because of their hardness of heart yes did he weep because they did not understand that he was the messiah and he was the resurrection and the life yes but i believe he also wept because they were his friends and their grief was his grief as well jesus also understood loneliness and the silence of god we see this in matthew 27 this is of course jesus on the cross matthew 27 verse 46 about the ninth hour jesus cried out with a loud voice saying eli eli i can't pronounce that that is my god my god why have you forsaken me so any time you go through a silent time when it feels that god is apparently silent and you say but i'm tempted jesus was but you say but i'm hungry jesus was but you say i don't have i'm weary and i'm worn out and i'm tired with a fight jesus was you say but i've encountered rejection and disappointment and there's all these trials against me that happened to jesus you say but i'm dealing with sorrow or someone i love dearly has just died or i'm dealing with loneliness jesus understands because he went through all of that what else does he do he hears he cares he understands he comforts how does he comfort us he comforts us by his words psalm 119 turn with me there psalm 119 verses 49 and 50. remember the word to your servant upon which you have caused me to hope this is my comfort in my affliction your word it has given me life so when you walk through a silent time when you say but god i can't see you he's listening but god i can't hear you he cares for you but god do you even know what i'm going through he understands but not only that he wants to bring you comfort and how does he bring us comfort in those silent times how does he bring us comfort in those dark times open up the word of god discover the promises in his word his word it brings life his word brings power his word brings peace second corinthians 1 20 all of his promises are yes and amen in christ jesus i just talked to a woman woman a couple weeks ago on the phone she called the office and she said jill i just i'm so alone and nobody loves me and my life is miserable and i just really i don't know i read the bible and i'm not getting anything i just need help i need hope i need encouragement i said how are you reading the word of god because you and i can open up the bible and we can read and say okay i'm supposed to read a chapter today because that's what good christians do so this is what i'm supposed to do and i'm going to open up and i'm going to start reading ezekiel the word of the lord came to me again saying son of man say to the prince of tyre thus says the lord god okay are you going to get anything from that study of the word maybe not first things when we go to the word we ask god for the anointing of his holy spirit to enlighten our mind and understanding the second thing open up and find where jesus is speaking to you find those promises in the word of god claim them over your life i love to write them down and i pull them out and i read them and read them again when i need them the most the word of god has power to bring comfort pray the word of god back to him read those scriptures aloud romans 4 17. it says that he calls those things that are not as though they already were so you might feel like well i'm not accepted and i'm not beloved and i'm not chosen and i'm not forgiven look at what the word of god says about you and then claim those promises over your life so he comforts us by his word he comforts us by his spirit that's in second corinthians chapter one verses three and four and there's actually five words that are used here five times sorry the word comfort is used here and it's used in reference to the holy spirit second corinthians 1 3 and 4 blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ the father of mercies and god of all comfort there's the first time we see the word comfort who comforts us there's a second time in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort those who are in trouble with the comfort which we ourselves are comforted by god now all of those words for comfort come from the word paraquatos or or a derivative of that word and paraquatos of course is used to refer to the holy spirit someone who calls to one's aid who comforts who brings encouragement we see that in john 16 verse 7. nevertheless i tell you the truth jesus is speaking here he says i tell you the truth it is to your advantage that i go away for if i don't go away the helper the paraquatos that is the holy spirit will not come to you but if i depart i will send him to you so how does god comfort us he comforts us by the power of his word claim those promises over your life he comforts us by the power of his holy spirit he also comforts us by his presence psalm 23 verse 4 yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil for you you are with me your rod and your staff they comfort me he comforts us by his presence so god hears god understands god cares god comforts number five god accompanies do you feel like you're alone you feel like well i have the word well i do have the holy spirit but i'm still not really sure about this god he walks with us in the midst of the difficulty isaiah 43 i love the book of isaiah we have the book of judgment which would be like the first 39 chapters and then jumping into chapter 40 to chapter 66 we have the book of comfort there's incredible promises in the second half of the book of isaiah when isaiah 43 verse 1 but now thus says the lord who created you oh jacob you can put your name in there and he who formed you o israel fear not why do we not have to be afraid for he has redeemed us he has called us by name we belong to him now here it comes in verse two when you pass through the waters when you walk through the silent times when you have difficulties i will be with you when you walk through when you pass through the waters i will be with you and through the rivers they shall not overflow you when you walk through the fire you will not be burned nor would the flame scorch you so what is he saying to us what is god saying to us he's saying when you enter the fiery furnace you might not be able to be delivered from the fiery furnace but i will walk with you in the midst of the fiery furnace i love that in hebrews 13 verse 5 he says i'll never leave you nor forsake you joshua 1 9 remember joshua took over the leadership of the children of israel after the death of moses and he's given this promise the lord your god will go with you wherever you go so it does not mean that you and i will not have silent times it does not mean that we will not encounter grief and pain maybe death trouble and tribulation but it means that god walks with us in the midst of that circumstance let's look at number six what does he do he answers now the answer is not maybe always what we want or what we pray for or what we expect but he always answers now when i was growing up i'm going to take a little diversion here when i was growing up i was always taught there were three answers to prayer i don't know if you were taught that yes maybe no were you taught that god sometimes says yes sometimes says maybe sometimes says no in my study i think there's actually four answers to prayer the first answer is way over here this is no not yet this is very similar to the maybe here or the weight it just simply means it might be a yes but the yes is not right now it is a time of waiting and i don't know about you but i'm not very good at waiting when i wait in line at the grocery store i think can they not hurry up when i go through the grocery store people sometimes laugh strangers come up and say why are you in such a rush because i can actually run in the grocery store so it just seems like i don't like to wait and yet there are times in the life of a christian when we we are called to wait it the answer is no not yet and during that waiting time we have opportunity to petition the throne of grace we have opportunity to grow in grace in our own characters we have opportunity to trust our heavenly father and to bloom where he has planted us with what he has put in our hands right then not pining for what we don't have not wishing for something else but just being thankful and grateful for what god has given us then so that's number one is no not yet this is the waiting answer the second answer to prayer is no because i love you too much this is the anguish of the no because it's already been given it's not the waiting oh it might be a yes it might be a no i'm not sure this is the no and it's been given and the answer might go against your deepest prayer it might go against your heart's desire it might go against everything you ever wanted or ever hoped for and dreamed so i want to ask you how can love be a no how can this answer to prayer be from god no i love you too much how is that even possible i think there's at least three reasons why love says no the first reason is protection love creates boundaries for our safety those of you who have children if your child were to go up and were to touch a stove that was super hot what would you say oh honey just do whatever you want you wouldn't say that you would say no and you would run to pull their hand back why because love is protection sometimes no is to protect you and i from being burned or you and i from being hit in the street if we were to run out in front of a car that's another time where you would yell at your child to say no get back from the street because low is no is protection no is also ownership love is protection love is ownership now what do i mean by that there's two types of jealousy i used to always believe that jealousy was only ungodly but i don't believe that because god is jealous over you and i as his children ungodly jealousy is jealous of this would be i'm jealous of someone else's position or someone else's spouse or someone else's looks or someone else's car or money or whatever friends that would be jealous of something that we don't have ownership over does not belong to us that is ungodly jealousy godly jealousy is the jealousy god has over you and i this is jealous four meaning god owns us we belong to him he created us he redeemed us we are his children this godly jealousy is when you belong to someone they have a godly jealousy over you so they want nothing between you and them or the object of that love so in other words this means sometimes love is a no because of ownership sometimes god says no in my own heart and life to something i want something i've asked for because he says jill if it were a yes that yes would lead to separation between you and me and i love you so much i will not give anything into your life that could pull us apart or separate us from from each other love is a no because of protection love is sometimes a no because of ownership love is also sometimes unknown because of sacrifice what do i mean by that think about jesus before he went to the cross in the garden of gethsemane falling prostrate before the father what did he cry out please god if it's possible let this cup pass from me what does that mean he did not want to go to the cross his humanity shrank from the sacrifice shrank from going to the cross shrank from the separation from his father and yet what did god say he said no why because he wanted you and i to be saved sometimes love is a no because that sacrifice involves someone else's salvation as in jesus sacrifice involved salvation for the entire world so we have those four answers to prayer no not yet this is the waiting time where we learn to wait on god then we have no because god loves us too much to allow it to be a yes and sometimes that's because of protection for us sometimes it's because of ownership and he wants to make sure there's no idols in our heart between him and us sometimes it's sacrifice i think of the missionaries um jim elliott elizabeth elliott if you think about that incredible story of sacrifice giving their lives so that the gospel could go forward to the native people that is a sacrifice the third answer to prayer is yes i thought you would never ask you know james 4 verse 2 says what you have not because you ask not so ask and seek and find how many times does god want to bless your life how many times does he want to open up doors for ministry how many times does he want to do a new thing in your life and we never ask you know every time i read psalm 2 verse 8 i'm reminded of that psalm 2 8 says ask of me and i will give you the heathen for your inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession what does that say to you i don't know i can't say what it says to you because i don't know but i can tell you what it says to me it says to me that there might not be someone in the kingdom because i neglected to pray because i neglected to ask for their salvation if you and i are challenged here to ask god for the heathen for our inheritance if we are challenged to ask god for the salvation of our family and our friends and our neighbors and our enemies and our co-workers that's our responsibility he says yes you have not because you asked not what do we ask for we ask for the conversion of family and friends neighbors enemies we ask for the conversion of the world we ask for the outpouring of the holy spirit for revival and reformation to spring forth for a new heart a heart of flesh we ask that god would write his law in our hearts and in our minds we ask to become a new creation in christ jesus we ask that he could be glorified in our lives we ask for spiritual blessings in christ jesus to have his name written in our forehead to have our name written in the lamb's book of life to be transformed into his image to have strength to endure and grace to overcome to have victory from sin and deliverance from bondage to have freedom in christ to have the peace that passes all understanding and then we thank him that all those things i just mentioned all those promises are ours they're they belong to you and i they are ours who say yes and amen in christ jesus so there's so many blessings that god wants to pour out into your life there's so many answers to prayer that he wants to give to you there's so many times he wants to answer in the midst of a silent time and yet you and i we might not ask so answer number three is yes i thought you would never ask so that's what i want to tell you today is ask every spiritual blessing that god has promised is yours in christ jesus all you have to do is ask and what is the fourth answer this is really similar to the third but i just like it that's why i separated it out it says yes and so much more god wants to do ephesians 3 verse 20 exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ask or think the plans god has for your life jeremiah 29 11 plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you a future and a hope are you wallowing an addiction do you want to be set free are you dealing with the silence or the apparent silence of god and you say but god i'm just i'm a victim i don't even know what to do next god wants you to open up your heart and to ask him ask for those blessings ask for him to come in and to transform and to change you so number seven what's the seventh thing that god does when it appears to you and i that he is silent he delivers let's go back we started with the children of israel we're going to end there let's go back to exodus chapter 3 now verses 7 and 8. what does he deliver us from he delivers us from bondage exodus 3 7 and 8. and the lord said i have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in egypt i've heard their cry because of their task masters for i know i know their sorrows i have come down to what's that word i've come down to deliver them out of the hand of the egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land to a land flowing with milk and honey that word deliver literally means to snatch away in hebrew to recover to deliver do you want deliverance in your life do you feel that you are walking in a silent time and you might say okay well jill i understand that god can hear me and i understand that he cares for me and he can comfort me but god he wants to deliver you he wants to deliver you from bondage are you walking in bondage to sin are you walking in addiction in slavery god wants to set you free john 8 36 it says if the son makes you free you shall be free indeed he doesn't just deliver us from bondage god delivers us from trouble psalm 34 17 the righteous they cry and the lord hears there's our word hears and delivers them out of all their trouble are you going through a troubles time are you going through a time where you say but you don't know the troubles i'm dealing with you don't know what's going on in my life right now god wants to deliver you from trouble god can set you free god can deliver you from bondage he doesn't just deliver us from bondage he doesn't just deliver us from trouble he delivers us from fear we see this in psalm 34 the same psalm we're going back to verse 4. psalm 34 verse 4 i sought the lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears are you going through a fearful time are you walking in fear and sometimes fear takes many different forms we can clearly be afraid of things around us we can be afraid of other people and what they think we can be afraid of are we really going to be saved and afraid for salvation we can be afraid of death or fear what's going to happen to a loved one or fear of the future there's so many fears but god says i sought the lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears i love first john 4 18 there is no fear in love because perfect love it casts out fear so god does not just deliver us from bondage and addiction he does not just deliver us from trouble or from fear he also delivers us from sin matthew 1 verse 21 he shall save his people from their sins let's turn to the book of romans romans 6 you know i love the book of romans it's probably my favorite all-time book if you look at romans chapter 6 we have this whole analogy of death to sin death to the old man or old woman that death in the symbolism of the burial with baptism into that watery grave and then you and i rise up to newness of life we can live in the spirit by the power of the spirit romans 6 verse 16 do you not know that to whom you present yourself slaves to obey you are that one slaves to whom you obey whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness that just means every morning and every moment of the day you and i have a choice are we going to follow jesus are we going to say yes to him when he calls for our hearts are we going to choose to walk in our own way which is by default walking in the way of the enemy verse 17 but god be thanked that though you were slaves of sin yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered verse 18 having been set free from sin you became slaves of righteousness having been set free from sin do you want to be set free from sin is sin binding you in its clutches jesus came that you and i could be set free it was a hot day greg and i had come home from work and we had to go out and visit some church members and at the end of the day we opened up the door going into the garage and the heat in the garage just hit me in the face i looked at the little temperature gauge you know the garage door open and it has a little temperature gauge and it said it was 100 degrees in the garage now 100 degrees in california might not feel so bad or in phoenix arizona because it's a dry heat but 100 degrees in southern illinois is hot humid sticky and we were just about ready to get in the car and i heard this this noise fluttering kind of at the roof so i looked up and there was a hummingbird itty-bitty hummingbird at the at the right at the peak of the roof and if it was 100 degrees where we were there i know it had to be hotter at the peak because heat rises and so we opened up the garage door and um i thought maybe he's going to be smart and fly out because he would die if he stayed in the garage he was going to die so maybe he's going to fly out and recognize that the door is open recognize there's an easy way out all he has to do is come down a bit from the rafters and fly out through the open door but he didn't do that and so then i ran outside and i tried plan number two and i grabbed the hummingbird feeder which was bright red and i carried it in the garage and i held it up and i thought well maybe he's going to see the red and be attracted and come down and then when he lands on it i can pull him outside but that failed too so greg tried playing three he grabbed the ladder opened it up pulled on some old work gloves and he climbed up the ladder to the top of it and then he stepped onto the rafters and i kind of held my breath because i'm afraid of heights as he stepped from rafter to rafter until he got right underneath where the hummingbird was he reached up his gloved hands and he caught her and she began to squawk in a way i have never heard a hummingbird squawk he wasn't crushing her so it wasn't from pain i don't know if it was fear i don't know but it was a loud squawk and then he's holding the hummingbird stepping from rafter to rafter until he got right over where the ladder was and then he stepped and started walking down the rungs of the ladder i'm holding the ladder he comes down and walks outside the garage and i'm there with the hummingbird feeder he opens up the gloved hands and the bird was so tired it was so worn out it didn't try to fly it didn't try to fight it did nothing but just lay there and i could see its little eyes and so i held the hummingbird feeder as close as i could to greg's gloved hands and it picked out its little beak and it began to drink and we just watched and wonder because when do you have the opportunity to be that close to a hummingbird we just watched and wonder is it drink drink and drink and pretty soon it got just enough strength and it lifted off and it flew away and we got in the car it was really hot started driving over to see the church member and i was reminded of how many times i have walked in the ways of my own choosing i've gotten stuck at the peak of the roof stuck in some sort of sin stuck in some sort of addiction and i couldn't figure out how to get out i refused the easy way jesus opened the garage door and said just come to me it's great come forgiveness healing acceptance deliverance it's right here and i continued my dance with sin my dance with death at the very top of the roof and so jesus had gotten out the ladder how often had he climbed the ladder of my stubbornness and pride reaching out scarred hands to pick me up exhausted from my battle desperate to find a way out and the strange thing is how often had i cried out against the very thing he was using to bring me home you see it was those scarred hands that he used to bring me home it was those scarred hands that he was using he wanted to bring redemption he wanted to bring healing he wanted to bring forgiveness and yet i squawked out against the very thing that he used to bring me home when i got outside the garage he opened up his hands again because that's who our god is he gives you and i freedom to choose he gives you and i the ability he saves us and then he opens up his hands and he says you're free my daughter jill you're free my son whatever your name is you're free you can make a choice you can go back in the garage you can dance with sin you can die or you can be free you have a whole world out here i died to set you free but it is still your choice i don't know where you are in your walk with god does it feel as if god is silent does it feel as if he is far away does it feel as if he doesn't hear i want to tell you today that our god he hears that our god he cares that our god he understands that our god he comforts that our god accompanies you walks with you through anything that our god he answers most importantly our god delivers do you want to be set free from bondage do you want to be set free from sin do you want to be set free from trouble do you want to be set free from fear open up your heart to him he says whoever the son sets free is free indeed let's pray holy father we come before you in the name of jesus and we are so grateful for the gift of jesus we're so grateful that in you we have hope of eternal life and right now i just want to say a special prayer for my brothers and sisters who are watching god those who are in difficulty those who are in trouble those who walk in poverty those who are struggling with temptation those who walk in loneliness and fear and addiction god would you reveal yourself in their silent time would you reveal who you are would you reveal that you are a god who cares and you are a god who understands and you are a god who comforts would you speak to them through your word god through the anointing of your holy spirit thank you for coming to set us free and we give you praise and glory because of who you are and what you have done and what you will do in our lives and we ask all this in the precious and holy name of jesus amen what a gift that you and i have the opportunity to spend time in god's word what a gift that you and i have been granted not only the gift of salvation but the hope of eternal life and the anointing of the holy spirit so i just want to encourage you to write to us here at 3abn we love to hear from you we love to hear what you are going through and how we can pray for you we love to hear the victories that god has given you in your life and we want to be able to share those as well we want to pray with and for you no matter where you are no matter what you have done you are not alone god is with you he loves you and he wants to deliver you [Music] you

Channel: Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN)

Views: 13,171

Rating: 4.9594936 out of 5

Keywords: trials, Three Angels Broadcasting Network, yt:quality=high, 3ABN, jill morikone, Sermon, bible, live church, god, seventh day adventist, worship hour, the bible, sda, silence, tribulation

Id: jW6_Zr7p7jo

Length: 58min 0sec (3480 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 20 2021