Ep. 066 You Can Talk to God

Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm Podcast.

We are a Bible -believing church located in beautiful

British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part

of the Christian Fellowship Ministries with 3

,000 churches around the world. We are a church

focused on world evangelism, discipleship, and

church planting. Here we will share recent sermons

from PHSA Church and other sermons from throughout

our fellowship. I'm Pastor David Bickford, and

I will be your host for this podcast. I thank

you for listening today, and we hope these messages

are a blessing to you and bring you closer to

God. Hello, and welcome back to the Potter's

House Salmon Arm podcast. I am Pastor David Bickford,

and I am the host of this adventure. Give a little

bit of announcement. We are having our conference

this week in the fellowship down in Prescott,

Arizona. So this would have been last week if

you're listening this Sunday. So what you can

expect is I'm going to be putting up some of

the sermons from the conference that occurred

last week, your time this week as well. So you'll

be additional podcast content this week as I.

cut and paste those into the podcast format.

So yeah, that should be pretty exciting. I've

listened to most of the sermons, and they're

just powerful words of God, and so you're going

to be able to enjoy those as well in this stream

as well. So today's message, though, is you can

talk to God, but do you listen? And our text

that we're going to be using is 1 Thessalonians

5, 16 through 18. So if you have your Bible,

you're following along, then great. If not, you'll

hear the Word of God. when we get to that point

in the message. So, be still or hear. In his

book, Directions, author James Hamilton shares

this insight about listening to God. Before refrigerators,

people used ice houses to preserve their food.

Ice houses had thick walls, no windows, and a

tightly fitted door. In winter, when the streams

and lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice were

cut, hauled to the ice houses, and covered in

sawdust. Often the ice would last well into the

summer. One man lost a valuable watch while working

in an ice house, and he searched diligently for

it, carefully raking through the sawdust, but

didn't find it. His fellow workers also looked,

but their efforts to proved futile. A small boy

who had heard about the fruitless search slipped

into the ice house during the noon hour and soon

emerged with the watch. Amazed, the man asked

him how he found it. He said, I closed the door,

the boy replied. I laid down in the sawdust and

I kept very still. Soon I heard the watch ticking.

So often the question is not whether God is speaking,

but whether we are still enough and quiet enough

to hear. Yes, Jesus assures us that our heavenly

father always listens to us. But do we really

listen to him? Do we follow the instructions

of Psalm 46, 10? Be still and know that I am

God. So I think it's a pretty interesting illustration

for us to use as kind of a jumping off point

for today's message because I do believe that

we all battle this in ourselves. I know myself,

I listen to a lot of music. I listen to a lot

of podcasts. I listen to them at two times the

speed typically because I feel like there's just

so much to learn, so much to listen to. I find

myself, though, oftentimes being stuck. not willing

to just take a step back and sit in silence.

And oftentimes that's why we need our time in

prayer and quiet meditation with the word of

God, because we're so busy. We're so used to

just filling ourselves with input that we're

not quiet enough to actually listen to that small

stirring voice that is God speaking to us. So

let's look at our text in 1 Thessalonians 5,

16 through 18. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing,

give thanks in all circumstances for this is

the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. There's

some very basic core tenets to a successful Christian

life. I said this many times and I will continue

to repeat this for as long as I'm alive. This

is something that I will routinely use when I'm

pulling an altar call or when I'm witnessing

one -on -one. It's the simplicity that seems

to be often overlooked in our society and even

in many churches today. Often we come to Christ

in a period of desperation. We cry out to God

in prayer. In our turmoil, we might even open

up the Bible. We scour the word of God looking

for something or anything that will help us to

understand why life is so hard, where is God,

or who am I, or countless other things that we're

going to reach for. Why is it then that this...

Once a situation has passed, we're so quick to

leave behind the word of God or stop in our prayer

life or stop listening for that small, still

voice of the Lord in our life. Alfred Brendel

said, the word listen contains the same letters

as the word silent. This is a battle for all

of us, whether we are new believers or seasoned

saints, we all battle against entropy. The word

entropy can be defined as the gradual decline

in disorder. It can also be a sign of lack or

sign of a lack of order or predictability. We

battle this because we are fallen creatures.

And when separated from God, we tend to fall

back into old habits and routines. How do we

overcome the slide backward in our life and salvation?

How do we contend towards sanctification? The

answer is perseverance. Yes, persistence. Yes,

but what actions do we need to contend to keep

in place? The answer in the Word of God is to

live a life of prayer, to live a life in the

Word of God, the Logos. Jesus is the Word of

God, and we abide in Christ by abiding in Him

and connectedness with the Father, the Son, and

the Holy Spirit. So we pray, we read, and we

listen. And that brings me to my first point,

which is pray. Salvation begins and ends with

prayer. What do I mean when I say that? Well,

when we get saved, it is through the recognition

of our sin and the acceptance of Jesus as our

Savior. This is done through prayer and by faith.

We start our journey by stepping out in faith

and placing our trust in Jesus. So prayer is

at the center of the Christian life, but it seems

that it's oftentimes the first thing that we

neglect after coming to Christ. We move from

salvation to entertainment almost immediately.

For example, you pray for salvation and God moves

in your life. This is tremendous. So you start

to surround yourself with all things Christian.

Russell Brand recently became a Christian. He's

a famous actor and comedian and different things.

But this was after many other attempts to find

peace through other religions and lifestyle choices.

So when you look at Russell, he is wearing all

sorts of crosses and surrounding himself with

all sorts of Christian music and paraphernalia

right now. And I'm not making an argument against

Christian music or Christian entertainment. I'm

simply sounding the alarm that this is not where

you will find peace. Our Lord is not in the stuff.

He is in our hearts and we find peace in him.

So when you deal with new converts, whether they're

famous new converts or just, you know, someone

off the street. We have to remember to keep the

core tenets of Christianity, the core tenets,

basically. Keep the foundation, the foundation,

and that is Jesus Christ. All this other stuff

is great. It's nice. It's, you know, it's totally

fine. But you have to remember to keep doing

the simple things as well, because prayer develops

peace. In Philippians 4, 6 through 7, it says,

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything.

By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,

let your requests be made known to God. In verse

7, it says, And the peace of God, which surpasses

all understanding, will guard your heart and

your minds in Christ Jesus. So one, prayer helps

us to manage our anxiety. Two, prayer helps us

to foster thanksgiving. And three, prayer protects

our hearts and minds. The power of prayer cannot

be understated. The beauty of prayer is that

it can be done anywhere. We can tap into the

power of God when we're sitting waiting for an

appointment. We can pray when we are exercising,

driving, you name it. We have every opportunity

to tap in into God through prayer. Prayer is

also a lifeline for our souls. In Luke 18, 1

through 8, the parable of the persistent widow,

it says, and he told them a parable to the effect

that they ought always pray and not lose heart.

He said, in a certain city, there was a judge

who neither feared God nor respected man. And

there was a widow in that city who kept coming

to him and saying, give me justice against my

adversary. For a while he refused, but afterward

he said to himself, though I neither fear God

nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps

bothering me, I will give her justice so that

she will not beat me down by her continual coming.

And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous

judge says. Will not God give justice to the

elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay

long over them? I tell you, he will give justice

to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son

of Man comes, he will find faith on the earth.

So then we have to ask ourselves, how do we pray

with purpose? Well, part of that is that consistency

is king. It's key. You know, it's a key component

of our prayer life is that we consistently do

it. The Bible tells us to do it unceasingly.

And so that's imagery is that we are always praying.

We're praying with our actions. We're praying

with our words. We're praying with our thoughts.

We're constantly trying to bring our needs before

God, but we're also bringing our praise before

God in prayer. We also have to pray with expectancy.

You have to train yourself through faith to pray

with the belief that what you're praying for

is going to happen. So this is something that

we want to extrapolate a little bit because in

this day and age today, everybody has these ideas

of being a visionary or when you think about

something hard enough, it's going to happen in

your life. And part of that, From a Christian

perspective, it's fine. If you're praying that

God will bring about your prayers, if they're

in line with his will, that's all fine. The danger

is if you start to think that if you will it,

it will happen in your life. That's different.

That's where you're turning yourself into God

and you're not allowing for God's timing to happen

in your life. So we pray with expectancy, but

not with a spirit of demand. So we're praying

that God's going to do something because we know

that he wants to help his people. He wants to

help his children, but it is in his timing. So

even though we expect it, we don't know when

all these things will necessarily come to fruition.

And then thirdly, we pray without ceasing because

we are expecting something to happen. But just

like the parable that Jesus gave us about the

widow, we are going to continue to pray because

God loves us and we are showing him. that we

believe with expectancy, but we also love him

and we want to pray that he is unceasingly because

he tells us to. So then life -changing conversations

at its core, prayer is simply this conversation

with God. But never forget that it's also more

than that. It's a connection to the very one

who breathed life into us. If we want to know

who God is and the secrets to life that only

he has, we must learn to pray without ceasing.

I had a conversation with a Buddhist monk. A

few times now, but several weeks back is when

it started during our Saturday outreaches. And

he kept thinking that there was some sort of

intermediary between the eternal, as he would

call it. And and ourselves. And he was trying

to say that Jesus was this was this arbiter,

if you will. But I kept telling him that, no,

Jesus is very God. Jesus is God. It's part of

the Trinity. And so we do not have an intermediary.

We are directly connected to our God. We can

pray. We can communicate with our God directly.

He was confused because in his faith, it's all

inwardly focused. It's all about yourself. They

try to say that it's selfless, but in reality,

it's very selfish. Because it's all about you

and you having that change internally. Whereas

we as Christians, we don't believe that this

change can happen by us. It is only through the

grace and grace alone in Jesus Christ. But anyway,

so we have to remember when we're doing this

and praying without ceasing that we're going

to make a plan to pray. We need to set time aside.

If you're just starting out, then set five minutes

aside to pray daily. I even had a talk because

you guys know I have a day job as well. So I

was talking to my boss and we were talking about

fitness and stuff like that because I struggle

to exercise probably too much, but every day

because in my 30s, I was very weak and I was

very sick because of some of the damage done

to my body from my time in service in the Marine

Corps. And what I noticed is that if I exercise,

I'd be sore, but I was actually in less pain

than when I was just not exercising. And so what

did you do? What I did is I just had to start

doing something. And so you start with the littlest

amount that you can get away with so that it's

not like a big issue. And when I was talking

to my boss about this, I said, just do five minutes.

You know, and I said, you could go out and buy

two 15 -pound dumbbells and just do five minutes

of whatever. And he's like, I've got a whole

gym at home. And, you know, we had a good laugh

about it because he's got an entire gym at home,

but it's like. Just set aside five minutes. And

that's the same thing you can do with your prayer.

Just start with five minutes. But because then

what's going to end up happening is you're going

to pray and it's going to be 10 minutes before

you know it. And as you have that interaction

with God, you're going to end up lengthening

that time or you're going to end up doing multiple

times throughout the day. You're going to eventually

get to that point of praying unceasingly. You're

going to continue to build on your success. As

you pray and you have answers to prayer, you're

going to write it down and you're going to log

your wins. This is a very, very useful thing

because you're going to see God working in your

life. He's going to be opening up doors. He's

going to be helping you and strengthening you

and increasing your faith. And then God is our

father. So you're going to, you're going to eventually

learn to enjoy this process, you know, because

God's love, God loves us and wants this relationship

with us. And it's going to continue to build

that relationship of your life. It's going to

help you with wanting to witness. It's going

to help with wanting to share the gospel because

now you have a real connection to God, the father,

and you're going to want to tell people about

it. You're going to want to tell people, you

know what? I was sick and I was praying and God

healed me. Or, you know what? I was my, my. My

brother's in a really hard spot, and I started

washing it in prayer, and the next thing you

know, he's this or he's that. We were in a financial

bind, and I was praying about it, and just in

the last nick of time, God gave us what we needed,

and he helped us. These are all things I hear

throughout our fellowship, these just miraculous

prayers that are answered by pastors and disciples

within our fellowship, but it's also things I've

seen in my own life, and we need to be able to...

to go through this process and continually remember

to go back to the beginning and back to the roots

of what we're doing. That brings me to my next

point, which is read. The second thing that most

new believers will do after praying the sinner's

prayer is they'll run out and get a Bible, or

hopefully someone who prayed with them gave them

a Bible. And this, of course, is an awesome thing

to do, and it's a right thing to do. The Word

of God is a two -edged sword. It's a powerful

tool, and it's the best book of all time. Much

of this section I pulled from a Focus on the

Family article, which is entitled Seven Things

to Look at When You're Reading Through the Bible,

because it is critical that we implement this

into our life. But when you read through the

word, you want to make sure that you're going

through it with an understanding of who God is,

the God that saved you through grace. So when

you're reading through the Bible, our God and

his relationship to grace is critical. The Bible

isn't primarily about us. but about God. The

scripture has much to say about human nature,

culture, and history, but it addresses all those

subjects solely with respect to God. Through

human language and the written word, God has

chosen to reveal himself, his character, his

power, and his purpose to us through the word.

He has told us who we are, why we're here, and

how we can be what he created us to be. He shows

us his desire to be in a living relationship

with him. And so the first question to ask when

reading anything in the Bible is, what does this

say about God? What does this reveal about who

he is and what he's done and continues to do?

How does this help me know him and trust him

and love him more? As far as grace, there's a

common misconception even among professing Bible

believers that the Old Testament is all about

law, whereas the New Testament is all about grace.

But in fact, the early heretic name Marcion went

so far as to claim that the two testaments portrayed

two different gods, an inferior god of judgment

in the Old Testament and a superior god of love

in the New. But the scriptures themselves will

have none of that. Of course, the Old Testament

echoes with a repeated description of God as

a compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and

abundant in his steadfast love. And while Jesus

is full of grace and truth, he also spoke at

length about judgment and raised the bar of righteousness

to include motives of the heart as well as outward

actions. Both Testaments portray God as an eternal

and unchanging. His law and his grace forever

intertwined, his love and his judgment meeting

at the cross of Christ. To read the Bible is

to discover and trace that braid of divine justice

and kindness through all its turns, arriving

at a perfect expression in the person of Jesus.

You also can see in the Bible the difference

between beauty and challenge. God is beautiful

and he's designed the universe to reflect his

beauty. It makes sense that... His written word

would do likewise. It's full of this amazing

grandeur, the glory of our God, but also moments

of quiet intimacy to melt the heart and comfort

the soul. It illustrates a world that's fallen

and yet enjoying the kindness and care of its

sovereign Lord. No accident, God has chosen.

It's no accident that God chose to record a significant

chunk of his word as a historical narrative in

poetry rather than as didactic instruction. He

designed it to appeal to the whole person, the

heart and the imagination, as well as the mind.

To read it any other way is to miss at least

part of the message. And then where do we see

the challenge? Well, the essence of idolatry

is the desire to domesticate God, to make the

creator more like his creation. easier to comprehend

and control. But the God of our universe won't

fit into our boxes, whether personal, cultural,

or theological. In fact, he declares that his

ways and his thoughts are as far above ours as

the heavens are above the earth. I heard this

talked about a little bit when I was listening

to something else yesterday, was the idea of

idol worship, little carbon images. I think it

was one of the conference sermons from last week.

Whenever you're creating an idol of anything,

you are taking it into yourself, this idol or

this idea of an idol, a God that will only give

you what you desire. Because then it becomes

less about the God, our God, our Heavenly Father,

that one true God, and more about creating or

crafting something that will just... Tickle our

fancy and give us what we think is best for ourselves.

So in essence, when you're partaking in idol

worship, you're making yourself your own God.

So it was an interesting idea, and I thought

that was a pretty nice little idea that was in

that sermon. But it's not surprising then that

God's word should contain things not only difficult,

but at times downright disturbing. What those

things are will vary depending on the assumptions

of each culture, but they'll always be present

for people in the 21st century. The Bible's sexual

ethics, its tolerance of slavery in the ancient

world, and its portrayal of genocidal warfare

are especially difficult to square with the idea

of a just and loving God. In the eyes of wider

culture, such passages may be a deal breaker,

but for the followers of Jesus, they're challenges.

Strange customs, lengthy genealogies, and even

the conquest of Canaan invites readers to think

deeply, pray earnestly, embrace mystery, and

recognize that God is bigger than us. As Tim

Keller observed, if your God never disagrees

with you, you might just be worshiping an idealized

version of yourself. So when you're looking in

the Bible, too, you also want to pay attention

to the diversity and the unity within the Word

of God. In the natural world, beauty expresses

itself through diversity, and once again, it's

the same with Scripture. The Bible is a library

of 66 documents or books written on three continents

over some 1 ,500 years. The authors represent

a huge range of temperaments and social classes,

each writing to address issues of their day.

The Word of God is inspired by the Holy Spirit,

and these authors wrote in an eclectic variety

of genres, war stories, pastoral romances, songs

of love, songs of lament, prayers, letters, biographies,

travelogues, memoirs, apocalyptic visions, among

others. Such a diverse array of genres cannot

read. or cannot be read with a one -size -fits

-all approach, and it's hard to imagine why anyone

would want to do so. Like the many flavors at

a fine feast, they're meant to be savored both

for their own qualities, but also how they blend

with one another. Each one speaks with his own

voice, and yet contributes its own unique facet

to the overall message of the scripture. Discovering

the unity expressed through the diversity is

one of the genuine pleasures of reading the Bible.

So finally, with unity, every great story worth

following has a central plot line, a unifying

narrative that frames it and gives it structure.

There can be a lot of different subplots, but

the main storyline winds through and by turns

hidden and exposed, it pulls the reader towards

its ultimate conclusion. And this is what we

come to is the central narrative of the Bible

can be summarized as a drama in four acts. Creation.

The fall, redemption, and restoration. For a

human perspective, it began in the garden, reached

its climax at the cross, and will conclude in

the new Jerusalem and new heavens and new earth.

From a divine perspective, it is written with

the mind of God before he made the cosmos and

will resonate into eternity to his glory. Because

of this wonderful diversity in scripture, it's

tempting to think of many of its parts as vignettes

or anthologies, but loosely related to each other.

But in truth, They combine to form a unified

mosaic, their various literary shades and colors.

The main storyline winds through them all and

at times is clear and at other times is subtle,

but always there. And that's when reading the

Bible, it's critical to ask, what does this passage

bring to the central narrative of creation, fall,

redemption, and restoration? With such powerful

richness, it is a wonder why so many Christians

neglect to spend the time in the word. If worse,

so many struggle but refuse to look at the word

for the answers they seek. It's hard to imagine

having such a wonderful toolkit and then when

we refuse to even use it. The most important

part of the Bible for Christians is, of course,

the gospel. The entirety of the Bible from Genesis

to Revelation all points to Jesus and the salvation

we receive by him through faith in him. We have

come full circle. But we're not quite done yet.

There's one more thing that we need to look at,

and that is the opening of our ears and listening.

How often do you sit in silence? How willing

are you to allow there to be space in your life?

So many of us are uncomfortable with quiet. Our

minds race. We end up turning on the radio just

to fill the silence. The issue is that we need

the silence. If you're working on a car or a

piece of machinery, You need to hear what is

going on. You have to actively listen. In our

illustration at the beginning of this message,

we heard the tale of a boy who took the time

to listen. Often, we don't take the time to listen.

Just recently, my work truck, we were driving

down the highway. I was taking my daughter to

work, and it sounded like my truck was on a rumble

strip, you know, little things on the side of

the road to keep you from going off the road.

I didn't know what it was at first. I thought,

okay, it's feeling a little rough. Maybe I have

a tire problem. So I pulled over, I checked it

out, nothing there. I get back in, I'm driving,

get up to speed and it happens again. And I noticed

at this point that my check engine light's on.

After all these tools, all of our stuff now is

set up on phones. And so I was able to look on

the Ford app on my phone and it told me that

my engine was misfiring. Back in the day, you

wouldn't have had a computer to tell you that.

You would have just had to know by listening

that something was wrong. And as I was driving

back home to get a different car to take her

to work, we were just listening. Be like, can't

you hear that? Can't you feel that? Something's

wrong. And we need to have that in our time.

We need to be able to sit in silence and think

about it. Because there's always a reason to

be thankful, even when your engine's misfiring.

And so I came across this illustration. It says

a cowboy was riding a stallion down a dirt road

when a police officer flashed his lights and

pulled him over. And he said, sir, I've been

trying to pull you over for a mile. Do you know

that your wife fell off the horse a mile down

the road? The cowboy smiled and replied, thank

God. I thought for a moment that I had become

deaf. And every season of life, we can find a

reason to be thankful, but we have to be able

to find that in our. when we're being peaceful

and quiet. In Romans 8, 28, and we know that

for those who love God, all things work together

for good, for those who are called according

to his purpose. If we're having a difficult time

hearing God's voice, make sure you haven't left

him somewhere back down the road. Sometimes we're

just so busy with life, we've gone deaf to the

word of God, but that's because we're too loud.

We're too boisterous. We're too crowded out with

our life that we're not giving ourselves a chance

to listen. In Matthew 13, 22, it says, as for

what was sown among the thorns, this is one who

hears the word, but the cares of the world and

the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and

it provides unfruitful and it proves unfruitful.

Sorry. This is one of the hardest parts of the

Christian life. We surround ourselves with so

much noise and distraction. It's a miracle that

any of us ever hear. God at all. But we serve

the great high priest. We should have no place

for anxiety or worry in our lives because we

serve the king of kings. In Hebrews 4, 14 through

16, it says, since then we have a great high

priest who has 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 is unable

to sympathize with our weakness, but one who

is in every respect has been tempted as we are

yet without sin. Let us then with confidence

draw near to the throne of grace that we may

receive mercy and find grace to help in time

of need. Let us not neglect our Lord. Let us

live in prayer unceasingly. What does it mean

to pray without ceasing? Jesus challenges us

to look at our hearts and motives. He wants us

to live in a way that allows us to pray at any

moment. Let's rely on the word of God daily.

Make it a part of your life and your being. Remember

that the Bible is meant for us to know and understand

God and his grace, his beauty and his challenge.

And we are able to see a world of diversity in

the scripture that is united in him through the

gospel of Jesus Christ. Listen to that small,

still voice of the Lord and remember that grace

that was extended to you is meant for all mankind.

Pray, read, and listen. If I could have every

head bowed, every eye closed, thank you for listening.

Just want to take a quick moment for an invitation.

If your heart is not right with God, but you

want to get it right with God, I want you to

signify that wherever you are with an uplifted

hand, obviously I can't see, but God can see.

And if you did lift your hand and God is challenging

you right now, and I want you to pray a prayer

with me. Dear Lord, I know that I'm a sinner,

but I know that you came to earth. And died for

my sin. I accept you Jesus and my Lord and Savior.

And I turn away from my life of sin. In Jesus

name. Amen. That's a simple prayer. And if you

said it and you meant it. God's already started

that change in your life. So just start. Start

praying and talking to God. Start reading the

word. And start living for him. And listen. and

listen. I want to thank you for listening to

me today for this quick message. And I just pray

that you continue to come and subscribe, like,

share this podcast. You go over to our YouTube

channel, subscribe over there. I'm doing a lot

of new things with shorts on Instagram, Facebook,

YouTube, even on X under the PHSA church banner.

And we might be a small pioneer work right now

in Salmon Arm, but we have a vision to touch

the world, to touch the nations from this place.

So partner with us together to do that. God is

moving. He wants to do something, not just in

Salmon Arm, but across the world. And I hope,

I pray that you will partner with us in Jesus'

name. Thank you for listening. Amen. Listen to

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