Renewing Your Passion For Life VI, A Window Seat to Heaven

It was very interesting because at the moment that I opened the windows, the Spirit of the Lord nudged my heart and said, what I had been planning to share with you was right. I want to tell you something as a pastor. We spend a lot of time, I do, I know my pastoral team, a lot of time preparing. I can't always tell you I know with certainty that when I stand up here it's the right message at the right time. I can tell you that today I believe it is. God confirmed it powerfully through this experience that I had last Monday. Interestingly enough, since that time, a couple of other things have happened. If I told you, took the time to tell you, you'd say, I think God wants us to hear this. So it's not just for me, I believe it's for the entire church. You say, well, are things stale, are things stagnating right here? Well, you know, there's some great things happening. Just today, about 40 of our people are out on the mission field. Some of our students are coming home today. Others are coming from other parts of the world. Our kids' ministry, as you can see, is growing in terms of its impact. I'm excited about things that we're planning for the fall. God is doing some great things, but I'm also aware of this. I'm aware of the inclination that I have to get comfortable. Does that happen to you? Do you find yourself going along for a while and realizing, you know, I don't quite have the same excitement about the Lord as I did three months ago or six months ago. I don't know if you've noticed, with the extended time of sunshine that we've had, what's happened to the grass in your yards? Phew, man, it doesn't matter how much water you spray, you just can't keep up with it. And that is a signal, listen, that is a signal as to what can happen in your heart, friend, and mine, when God's blessing keeps shining down on you. When you keep under the brightness of His grace and favor all the time, you can get to a place where things literally dry up because there's so much sunshine. Prosperity has ruined many more souls than adversity ever will. And I believe that right now we're in a time when we need to see what God would say to us about a window into the heavenlies. Let's look, I'm going to look at three specific individuals, Old Testament characters, you may recognize them, they're not everyday names in some cases, but most of you will recognize them, and exactly what they say to us about windows, because each of them mention windows in a story in their part of Scripture. The first one I want to talk about is lessons from Noah, lessons from Noah. And that's where we begin, a window of hope in judgment. That's number one on your outline, a window of hope in judgment. Now how many know the story of Noah's Ark? Just about everybody? If not because you've read the Bible, because you saw the special on NBC about six weeks ago. Probably the worst thing I've ever seen done on broadcast television in terms of mutilating the Bible story. You know, John Boyd made Noah look like a buffoon, and the whole, I mean, I don't know what they were trying to do, but it didn't work. It's evident by reading Scripture, God didn't take it all that lightly. Would you look with me at the top of your outline? Read this first verse with me. Now, the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. And God saw how corrupt the earth was, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, I'm going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I'm surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an arc of cypress wood and make a roof for it and put a window near the top. Let me just say something about God's judgment. My experience over the years is this, friends. God is patient. He is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. And I have watched God, and I know maybe you have too, how many of you have known people who've just pushed God and pushed God and continued to sin and get away with it and you wonder, why doesn't God slam down on them? Ever wonder about that? And I read this scripture and you see, what I've discovered about God is he is very slow to anger. He's very tolerant, very patient, but he reaches a point in the procession of man's history where he's had enough. And when that happens, God brings judgment. And may I say with all certainty today, America is destined for the judgment of God at some point unless we repent and turn. And many other nations of the world will find the same experience. God is just giving us a window of time. Now, some of the things that we call judgment are really just our own bad decisions piling up on us. How many of you know things happen to you that you bring on yourself? I mean, a person eats a terrible diet, doesn't exercise, perhaps they smoke a lot or have a lot of stress in life, and then they have a heart attack and they say, why did God do this to me? Or another person, you know, spends wildly and doesn't think much about taking risks financially and then they go bankrupt and they say, well, where is God when I need him? I've heard these kinds of stories all the time. All they are are people suffering the consequences of bad decisions. Look, I referenced this, Jesus said it in Matthew 7, 24, but I want the whole passage up here on the overhead. If you look up with me on the screen, therefore, Jesus said, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, the winds blew and beat against the house, yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. That's a wise decision. Here's the other person. But everyone here who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell with a great crash. Friends, that's not God's judgment. That's the consequence of a series of bad decisions. Building your house on sand is inevitably going to lead to the house falling to the ground. May I say today that there are a lot of people, maybe you know some, who are making unwise decisions and one day will reap the consequences. Maybe they're just sexually liberated, sleeping with a lot of partners and then one day they wake up with a sexually transmitted disease and they say, how did God let this happen? Why is God judging my behavior? No, he's not. It's just the consequence of your action. Now on the other hand, God did call Noah to build an ark because he was judging the earth for its sin and he told Noah to include a window in the ark. I thought this was kind of interesting. I don't know what your image of the ark is, but we had to scramble a bit to find a picture and we came up with a picture. So up here, there you go. The ark was a huge ocean-going vessel, but you notice up along the top there's a long string of what appear to be window-like openings. Now they obviously weren't glass because they hadn't produced that then, but those were windows outside of the ark. If you read the Bible, those are 18 inches high. And those openings, those windows were there for two reasons. They were to let in the air and the light and to let out the stuff that was accumulating by all those animals being in there. How many of you know they needed a lot of fresh air in that ark? And God specifically told Noah to do that. And the reason in addition to that that I believe he told him to do it, and perhaps the most profound reason is, after eight months of rain and the depths of the sea opening up and then sitting there and waiting and waiting, the Bible says for eight months they were locked away in that ark. God then said, look at the next verse, I have set my rainbow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. You see, in the end, God put his sign in the heavens that he would no longer destroy the earth, but he had stopped his judgment. And the picture of it all is this. In the midst of whatever is unraveling in your life, whether brought on by your own behaviors or the judgment of God in your life, listen friends, God is saying to us today, we are in a season, a window of hope has been opened to you. When God is saying, look beyond the calamity, look beyond the problem, look beyond the judgment and see my hope that's set before you. And I know there's at least one person hearing me today that needs to internalize that truth. You're going through hell and you're wondering, where is God? And he is saying to you, that which you're going through is not unto destruction, but unto deliverance. That's the word of the Lord for you today. Let me give you three things to jot down, three things to remember in times of calamity. Number one, God is in control. He's in control. Romans 8, 28 said he's working everything together for good. Number two, he's with you. It's not enough just to know he's in control, you've got to know he's with you in the middle of it. If you don't know that, you're tempted to believe that you're by yourself. I was with someone yesterday who told me, they said, I am going through the loneliest period of my life. And I said, but you know, God's with you. She said back to me, I don't know if he is or not. And she wasn't ready to take a platitude for an answer, but I assured her from God's word, Isaiah 43, 2, I'll be with you. I'll call you by name. When you walk through the fire, I'll be there. When you walk through the waters, I'll be with you. And then number three, your hope therefore is certain. If God is in control and he is with you, that always results in the fact that God will see you through. Your hope is certain. Psalm 25, verse three, about a year ago, I was with a couple who had survived marriage's most difficult assault, infidelity. In this case, the husband had allowed himself to believe that he needed and deserved more than his wife had been giving him in terms of attention and affection and so on. And so he pushed the limits beyond acceptable terms and had an extended affair. And when things came out, it was a painful and difficult season in their lives. For a couple of months, I really wondered if they were going to make it. But then I began to witness something that I've only seen a few times. Not only did the couple begin to be restored from the pain of the violation, but I began to see a renewed love for each other and acceptance of each other and appreciation of each other. And I began to marvel at it. And after a few months of watching this, I said to the couple one day, I said, how have you been able to do this? And here's what they said to me. They said, we were able to shift our vision away from ourselves and our own personal failures to the beauty of the promise of Jesus and his, and here was their word, irrational love for us. And what that said to me was this, they looked beyond the calamity and saw the rainbow of God's hope. And I just want some, someone here today needs to hear that. Look beyond the judgment. Look beyond the consequence. Look to the promise of the rainbow. Turn to someone and tell them, look to the promise of the rainbow. Tell them that. They may need to hear it from you. Look to the promise of the rainbow. That's the message of Noah. Another window, another window that I see is a window of opportunity unto victory. I read this story a few weeks ago and it has so impacted me. It's a story as an obscure story, actually in second Kings 13, I'm not going to ask you to turn there, but I did reference a portion of it on your outline. In this story, Elisha, the prophet, and by the way, if you don't know, Elisha was the prophet that followed Elijah, Elisha had a double portion. In other words, he had twice the anointing that Elijah had. We know of 20 miracles that he worked in the Bible. And Elisha is about to die. And so the King Jehoash pays a visit to Elisha, basically a visit, you know, just to kind of comfort him as he is passing on. And he walks in and he says, my father, the horsemen and chariots of Israel. In other words, he's having a vision of the angels of God coming to pick Elisha and take him to the throne. And in the midst of that, Elisha realizes the King's in trouble. Now here's something interesting. Godly people, even in the midst of their own problems, have a heart for others. And Elisha looks at the King and he realizes the King's in trouble and he's saying, get the arrows and the bow and bring it over here. And if you read carefully, what happens is Elisha takes the hand of King Jehoash and puts the arrow in the bow and pulls it back and he says, face the Eastern window and pulls back the arrow. And Elisha would be that way. And he pulls it out and they fire the arrow through the Eastern window. And he says, the arrow of victory over Assyria and the armies of Assyria, the arrow of victory of the Lord. Now I'm reading this thing, well, hey, the King's got to be really hyped up now, wow. Because they're getting besieged, they're losing the battle. And now the prophet says, boom, the arrow of victory and the King's going, all right. This visit paid off. I wasn't expecting it. And now the prophets bless me and we're going to. And then the prophet said this, he said, now go get some arrows and here's where I wrote it down in your outline. He says, take the arrows and Elisha said, strike the ground. He struck it three times and stopped. So he takes the arrows that are remaining. He goes and he strikes the ground with him. He goes like this. He goes, or I picture it maybe a little more casually, kind of like this. And what does Elisha say? He's angry. Here he is on his deathbed and he musters some passion and he says, you should have struck the ground five or six times, but because you didn't, your enemies will be defeated, but not vanquished. And there's a difference. In other words, you'll receive only a partial victory over the Assyrians. Now, friends, there's a lot of teaching here. I just want to make one point on it. How many of you in your life right now have at least one area where you've experienced only partial victory? Let me see your hand. Okay. The rest of you aren't sure. My hand would definitely go up. There's at least one area where I know I haven't received all that God has for me. And you see the mistake that we make is we assume that once God gives us a promise, once God speaks something into our life, then it's done. Then the Lord's going to make it come to pass. And what we need to realize is that it takes the perseverance of our faith along with the promises of God in order to see them come to pass. The word of the Lord through Elisha to King Jehoash was, you should have struck the ground five or six times because that perseverance in believing faith would have brought the victory that you so desperately needed. Look at letter A, the King's passivity limited the fulfillment of the promise. One of my great pastoral concerns in this era of prosperity is that we unwittingly assume a passive stance toward the promises of God. Friends, think about it for just a second. We've been so blessed. Many of us have seen family members come to Christ. Many of us have seen our kids turn around. Some of us have received financial blessings. Others have gotten guidance and wisdom. And, you know, we just kind of feel like, well, you know, God sort of got things on a roll and he'll just keep moving. I'm here to tell you. Unless you keep persevering as God leads until the victory is sure, you will come up short. And I have concerns, I see this in the area of prayer. How many of us have stopped praying regularly? Our corporate prayer life is not what it needs to be. We have things that God has told us, he's told us to win the next generation for Christ. It's not going to happen because we have a promise. It's going to happen because we believe and we trust God and we persevere and we pound the ground with the arrows of faith until God brings about the victory. And until we get up out of our seats and believe and engage it together, it's not going to happen. Some of you have family members that don't know the Lord and you say, well, I have a promise, you know, it says in Acts 16, 10, and, you know, me and all my household will be saved. It's not going to happen unless you persevere and believe in faith. And I want to just say with all my heart today, let's not be a church that just sort of leans back and says God's sovereign. I mean, what difference does it make? Make no mistake about this, you can't make God do anything with your faith. But listen, there are things that God cannot do without your faith. Someone should say amen. There are some things that God cannot and will not do without your faith. Unbelief has two forms, there's just outright unbelief where I say I just don't believe that, I don't care. And there's also the unbelief of neglect, the unbelief that says, you know what? I'm tired of praying about this. I mean, I don't want to go to prayer. I'm tired of sharing with my neighbor. I'm tired of serving. It's the unbelief of neglect, and both of them will stop the fulfillment of the promises of God. The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 69, the eyes of the Lord searched the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. Now, where does this apply to you? Where are you experiencing only partial victory? In your personal devotions, in a habit, a behavior? I had a person tell me the other day, I mean, how many of you struggle with anger? There's three of you, OK. How many of your spouses would you say struggle with anger? There we go. About 500 more hands just went up. Well, I had an honest young man in my office recently said, you know what? I realized I have a major problem with anger. He said to me, I thought I could control it. And I even know it's a problem now. And I've been working on it and it still is out of control. He said, I didn't realize until I got to the point of trying to fix it and not being able to, that it's really a problem. And now I need help. He said, I need God to do something. And I said to him, you know what? Well, praise God. You're at the first point of getting help. And that is this. You're passionate about needing it. And friends, until you get passionate about the promises, you will not receive their fulfillment. You can't politely get God's best. You've got to go for it all the way. That's the lesson from Elisha. Letter B, we must be passionate if we're to receive the full victory of the Lord. Letter B, we must be passionate if we're to receive the full victory of the Lord. You will seek me and find me when you search or seek me with all your heart, not just half of it, but all of your heart. May I say to some of you who are you think you're Christians and I know this applies in this service to quite a number of you. You've made a decision to follow Christ and you've said to yourself, you know, I don't know what the big deal is. I mean, I raised my hand and I did the right things, but I don't feel much different. May I say it very likely is this there's part of your life that you haven't yielded to God. And Jesus comes and says, I died for you. I gave you everything. If you want to know the full blessing I have, you have to give yourself wholeheartedly to me. And so there's Noah, Elisha. And finally, let me just touch on one other character, less obvious, but probably the most familiar. And that is from Malachi, Roman numeral three, a window of obedience unto abundance. First of all, a window of hope and judgment. Second, a window of opportunity and victory. And third, a window of obedience unto abundance. Now, friends, this has not been a message about giving and I'm not here to talk about money today specifically, but it's interesting that the most familiar reference to windows and all the Bible is this one in Malachi three, where the prophet Malachi says. If you learn to trust God in your giving, see if he will not open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing so great that you cannot contain it. It is the most commonly referred to use of the word windows in the whole Bible. What is he talking about? Well, look at the first scripture. Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, well, how do we rob you in tithes and offerings? Now, if I were to ask the question, how many of you would want to rob God? How many say, yeah, that's me. I'd like I'd like to rob God. Probably none of us, none of us would dare to presume that we could get away with robbing God. And yet, if the truth would be known today, probably the majority of us in this service don't fulfill what Malachi has exhorted us to do, and that is to give God the full tithe. Let me mention what a tithe is for some of you who are newer. The tithe, three characteristics. Number one, the tithe is the Lord's. The tithe is the first portion of whatever you make. The first 10 percent of whatever you make belongs to the Lord. It's not something you just give as a gift. It belongs to him. A major shift in your thinking will happen when you realize that when you get that paycheck that you work for, but that God gave you the ability to work for the first 10 percent of it has his name on it. I've always thought it'd be great if people could write paychecks and put your name and give you 90 percent and put God's name, put the other 10 percent because it belongs to him. And it's a symbol that really all belongs to him. And that's just your way of affirming it. That first 10 percent. Now, I've had people say often to me, well, you know, does God expect us to tithe on the net or on the gross? And I say, would you like God to be a nitpick in your life on the net or on the gross? He said, God's not into nitpicking. I would say, would you like God to bless you on the net or on the gross? People say, I'd like to be blessed on the gross and give on the net. How's that? Doesn't work that way. Trust God, give him the full 10 percent. The first thing, and I may say this, I believe it's supposed to be the first day of every week, according to 1 Corinthians 16, to that we bring the tithe 10 percent. That's the second point is the tithe is a full 10 percent. That's what the word means. People say, well, I give I tithe 5 percent to North Way or my church, whatever that church may be. And I give some other offerings other places. And I lovingly say, well, praise God that you're learning to give, but you haven't learned to tithe yet. Because the tithe is 10 percent. And and the third point is that the tithe clearly comes into the storehouse. Look at that verse 10 of Malachi 3. Bring the whole tithe, the whole 10 percent into the storehouse. That there may be food in my house. Now, what is the storehouse? Well, let me quote from Larry Crider, who is a pastor of Dove Fellowship and a highly respected leader in the body of Christ. Here's what he says. The storehouse is the place where spiritual food is kept to bless those who lead us and feed us and equip us for ministry. In the Old Testament, the Levites and the priests were responsible to lead and feed God's people. In the New Testament, the local church pastors and elders and apostles and prophets, evangelists and teachers and spiritual overseers are called by the Lord to minister the word and feed the saints. Every scholar that you'll study will tell you that the storehouse is the local church. This is where you receive your feeding. And so, friends, when people say, well, you know, I give a portion here and a portion there, well, then that's wonderful. But that's not tithing. Understand what biblical tithing is. And then once you do, see if he doesn't open the windows. In other words, picture this thing cranking open and God starting to shovel blessing back into your life. And how many of you would just say by lifting your hand, you've tried tithing and God keeps his word. Now, if you've not had the opportunity to do that, I want to say to you, put God to the test, put God to the test. Those of you who are wealthy, honor the Lord and he'll honor you in ways you can't imagine. Those of you who are struggling, honor the Lord and he will lift you up in ways you haven't foreseen. Let me close with this. Three kinds of windows, windows of type, a window of hope in the midst of judgment, a window of opportunity unto victory and a window of obedience unto abundance. Three kinds of windows. But there's another use of windows I want to reference, and that's a window of time. Ever heard the reference, well, I've got I've got a window of time in my schedule that we can never use that? Or pilots will say, well, there's a window we have between fronts. If we get up in the next 30 minutes, we'll miss the next front. Or you all know what I'm talking about, a window of opportunity according to time. And that window, when it closes, your opportunity is over. And what I want us to hear today, as I conclude, is this. These three things I've mentioned, a window of hope unto judgment and judgment, a window of opportunity unto victory and a window of obedience unto abundance, I believe is a message for today. It's a message that some of you need to hear, maybe all three, maybe one of those three right now, because the window may close and you may miss the nudge of the spirit of the Lord to your heart. And when that happens, it can be too late. That almost a few days ago, Carol and I were leaving the city where Jonathan was heading down to another city and we needed to ride a train. And so we got on the train and we were a little bit late, kind of fumbled our way into the right car and all that kind of stuff, dragged our bags and threw them up. And Carol gave John a hug and then he got off the train and I got off the train and to give him the last little bit of fatherly advice he needed, because it would be a while till we see him again. And so we're out there and I'm just chatting with him for a moment and giving him a hug. And the next thing I know, I turn and look and these hydraulic doors of the train close. I mean, and they close with like a boom, like a thud, I mean, not talking about, you know, a little push. I mean, it closed and I walk up and push on and that thing's locked. I mean, it's not going anywhere. And then the next one. And there's Carol looking out the window like. And I realize this is all happening this fast, that the doors of this train are closing and it's heading off to a city 400 miles away at a place where she can't speak the language and doesn't have one cent in their currency. And I'm out there saying, hmm. And Jonathan, seeing this all happens, and he looks down the long train and he starts running. I looked at me and I said, well, it's my only option. And so here we go. And we start running down the platform in this train. Remember, nobody said all aboard. Nobody said fast, last call. It's just the doors are closing, boom. And I start running down this platform as fast as I can and we're chasing and the doors are closing, boom, boom, boom, boom and trying to get to the point where I can get to the last door before it closes. And about nine cars down the train, I get there and the door closes and I jump up and here's this conductor saying, too late, too late. I said, no, no, I'm getting on the train. And we push right by. And I'm sweating like, you know, stuff big, you know, and I get back up there and Jonathan goes, you know, my dad, get a life, get a life. And Carol, a boss, she said, oh, I thought you were going to miss the train. Well, it would have all worked out eventually, of course. But the point is this. You don't know when the window is going to close. And this could be a nice message or maybe not so nice for some of you. You say, well, you know, I don't know if that applied. I just want you to know God is saying that today a window has opened, a window of hope in the midst of calamity for some of you, a window of opportunity that some of you need to press on in the promises and for some of you, a window of obedience and your stewardship before God. And if you'll open that window, God's going to bless. He's going to meet you. Let's stand up. Thank you, Father. Keep our heads bowed for just a moment. I wonder as I close today, how many of you are here? And as I was sharing, I was talking about calamity. I was talking about circumstances that seem beyond your control, maybe things that you brought on yourself, maybe things that you had nothing to do with, but it just happened to you. And you're saying, I need to find hope in the midst of that. And that was a word for me. I want you to lift your hand right now and say, I received that today, Lord, your rainbow of hope in my circumstance. Yes, yes. Bless you in the number of your hands, in Jesus name, Lord, impart that grace. How many of you would say today for me, Pastor Jay, it's an opportunity. I see a window that God's open and I need to persevere and believe until God brings me through and I receive the full blessing. Lift your hand right now. It's an opportunity in the name of Jesus. Yes. God bless you. Thank you. I agree with your faith in that. I agree with you. Keep striking the ground with the arrows of faith until you receive. And how many of you, and this may be the most difficult because it's the most tangible, would say, you know, I've not been faithful. I've been afraid to trust God with my full tithe and the Lord saying to me, he wants to open the window of blessing and I need to trust the Lord with my full tithe. You lift your hand right now and say, I want to have the faith to do that. Lift your hand. I said, hold it up in Jesus name. I agree with many of you as well today. Trust the Lord and he'll honor you and see if he doesn't pour out a blessing that you can't contain.