Hearing

Hi everyone, this is Emma from Encounter Church,

Henley, and thanks so much for tuning into our

podcast. Our prayer is that through this podcast,

you can have an encounter with Jesus that will

change your life. And now, get ready for an inspiring

message from our preaching team. Holy Spirit,

we just come before you tonight. We just want

to put aside the things on our hearts and our

minds that are distracting us this morning, tonight,

this evening, this afternoon. And we just want

to focus our hearts, our minds and attention

on you, Lord, because we truly want to hear from

you today. And so we just pray you remove every

obstacle, every barrier from us hearing our word

from you and encountering your presence. And

we just pray you would come, Holy Spirit, and

move today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Beautiful.

Well, thanks, Tim, for such an encouragement.

That was very kind. So yeah, I'm Nathan. I'm

a pastor at Waypoint United Church. I've been

doing that for a while now. I've been doing ministry

there for a fair while. And I am married to Darcy,

my wife, and this very noisy child is our daughter,

Eleanor. And it's such a pleasure to be here

with you guys. Are we going with afternoon or

with night? What's the vibe? Afternoon. You'll

have to correct me if I get that wrong. So anyway,

yes, I used to live with Tim and Ash, which was

a joy and a pleasure. There was lots that I loved

about it, lots that I didn't love about it. Like,

I remember Ollie, when they were training her

to sleep and she was just screaming. And I was

like, what is this child doing? Like, what is

this horrible thing? Anyway, now I live with

that, with my own child. But anyway, so Tim and

Ash were a part of introducing me to Darcy, and

I would love to tell that story because it's

fun, but it really, I think it applies to tonight,

this afternoon sermon. So not long before I moved

in with, sorry, not long after I moved in with

Tim and Ash, before I met Darcy, there was this

one night where Tim and Ash were heading out

to this party of a mutual friend. I wasn't invited,

obviously, so I probably wasn't close enough

to him, which was great. Anyway, I was sick,

so I didn't want to go. That was fine. But sometime

during the day, Ashley turns to me and she says,

hey, Nath, do you want to come along tonight

to this party? You know, like we can get you

in. That'd be fine. But there's this pretty cool

girl there who I think you guys would just really

get along. And I was like, no, this is weird.

No, thank you. I mean, I'm pretty sure I said

actually that let me think about it. And I was

suspicious because not long before this, some

of my other friends tried to set me up with this

other girl, and it was the weirdest experience

I've ever been through. And I was like, I don't

want to be set up again. This is weird. But then

something happened during the day. And so I was

sitting alone in my usual thinking place, which

was the bathtub. And I was chatting with God

about, you know, this invitation to a party.

And I was weighing up the pros, the cons. I was

talking to God about why is it just so difficult

to meet someone. And then God began to speak

to me right there in the bath. And he reminded

me of this joke and you've probably heard it.

I might butcher it. But the joke goes like this.

There's this guy stuck on a desert island. He's

in the middle of nowhere, no help at all. And

he prays, God, would you save me? Would you come

and get me out of this desert island? And so

God sends this plane across and this plane flies

by. Hey, do you need some help? And he's like,

no, no, don't worry about it. God's got me. And

so the plane flies off. Next he gets a boat and

they come out for help and he says, no, no, thank

you. God's got me. And then a helicopter comes

and he says, no, not for me. Eventually the guy

dies. He passes away, no food on the island.

And he gets to heaven and he sees God and he

says, God, why didn't you save me? And then God

just says, dude, I sent you a plane. I sent you

a helicopter. I sent you a boat. You didn't want

any of that. And anyway, that's what God shared

with me. And I think this is what he was saying

to me. He said, you want me to help you meet

someone to love and to follow Jesus with your

whole life, but you won't take any of the opportunities

that are presented to you to actually go out

and meet someone. And that really convicted me.

And so, you know what? I went to the party. and

I had a very minimal contact with Darcy the whole

time and somehow by God's grace we're now married.

Tim would claim that it was the loaf of bread

that he gave me and he said you have to give

this to her and she will fall in love with you.

It worked. I share this story to highlight to

us I think a very important fact and the fact

is that God is a God who speaks. That in this

wild world that we live in, full of chaos, we

follow a God who wants to speak into that chaos.

The chaos of our lives so that we might hear

His voice, that we might be encouraged by God,

that we might find wisdom and guidance from our

Lord and Saviour. That we might experience healing

and freedom from God. And that we might hear

from God and know His love for each and every

one of us that we're so desperately looking for.

And so God is a God who speaks. And He speaks

to us in all sorts of different ways. He speaks

to us through His Word, through the Bible, the

written Word that we have, that we hear preached

from each week. He speaks to us through His people,

the Church, His body of believers with different

gifts and talents and skills, wisdom and knowledge

to speak on God's behalf. And He speaks through

His Spirit, which He uses to the people, but

He also speaks to us through visions, through

words, through moments in bathtubs. And my guess

is that for many, if not all of us here today,

we actually want to hear from God. We actually

want to hear what God has to say in our lives.

We want to hear His words of encouragement, of

guidance, of healing so that we can actually

move forward in our lives, forward in our journey

of following Jesus and sharing His love with

the world. Maybe for you there's a situation

going on in your life and you've been crying

out to God again and again just hoping that He

would finally speak into that moment and bring

healing, bring a way forward. Maybe you've got

some really big decisions in your life, some

big events coming up and you want to hear from

God about what choice to make. Is this right

for you? What is the plans he has for you? Or

maybe you're here and you don't actually know

if there really is a God and you feel lost. You

feel hopeless and you're looking for something

greater than yourself to give you the answers.

Now we just read together the story of Martha

and Mary, which is a wonderful story. In it,

as Jesus is traveling, this lady named Martha

welcomes Jesus into her home alongside her sister

Mary. In verses 39 to 40, it says, Does anyone

else here resonate with Martha? Does anyone else

see a bit of yourself in Martha's story? It says

that Martha was distracted by her many tasks

and one commentator says this about the word

distracted. He says that the Greek word properly

signifies to be drawn different ways at the same

time and admirably expresses the situation of

a mind surrounded with so many objects of care

that it hardly knows which to attend to. first.

Does anyone else feel like that? So much going

on in our hearts, our minds, the world around

us, we don't know what to go to first. And so

I think of Martha and I imagine that this is

a big moment for her. Her rabbi, her teacher

Jesus, her Lord and Saviour has stopped to be

with them. He's going somewhere, probably really

important, but he's stopped to be with them.

But for Martha, there was so much that had to

be done. You know, when you have royalty in your

house, there's a lot of work to be done. And

so maybe she was there preparing this mighty

feast to have a meal with Jesus. And so she's

busy in the kitchen, slaving away, cleaning everything.

Or maybe this was a very last minute thing. And

just along the way, she says, hey, Jesus, why

don't you come have lunch with us? And so she's

busy cleaning the house because she didn't expect

Jesus to be there. Whatever it was she was doing,

her mind and her body were being torn in different

directions as she was just pushing to get everything

done so she could go and sit at the feet of Jesus.

And I think for us today, we might even struggle

with this very same issue. Like Martha, we can

be so distracted, so overwhelmed by the different

tasks and responsibilities in our lives. All

incredibly important things like university,

things like work, our family, our close friendships.

We get so distracted by these things that we

struggle to make space to actually hear from

God. Tyler Staten in his book, Praying Like Monks,

Living Like Fools, he says this. He says, instead

of slowing down and harnessing technology to

free up leisure time, we suffer from what mental

health professionals call hurry sickness. A behavioral

pattern characterized by continual rushing and

anxiety. In a society that prizes efficiency

and productivity above all else, that uses time

like a tool rather than a limit, hurry isn't

an occasional necessity, it is the new normal.

Does anyone else feel that? Hurry is the new

normal? When you look at the world today and

how far we've come in technology, you would think

that we'd have all this free time, that we'd

be free up to do the things we love, spend time

with our friends, our family and focus on what

really matters. But it's actually, I think, pushed

us to do more and more. We've got free time from

this and so we can fill it with this. It's pushed

us to do all this stuff until we have nothing

left in the tank and we're overwhelmed and we're

burdened. I think this is a big challenge for

us today and being able to hear from God through

His Word, His people and by His Spirit. I just

think that we are too busy. Like Martha, everything

on our to -do list is important to us. And so

we push and we push to get it all done. And by

the time we get it all done, it's 7pm on a Monday

night and all we feel like doing is putting on

Netflix, that next episode of our favourite show

and winding down for the night. We just go through

the motions again and again until it's the next

day and we have more stuff to do. Our time gets

filled with so, our time gets so filled that

time with God just becomes this after thought,

after thought that, oh, I wish I had more time

in my day to spend with him. Or it becomes a

rush job that we tick off on how to do this in

the morning so that we can get on the rest of

our busy day. I've been there. Business gets

in the way of us hearing from God. And we see

this with Martha. So the question is, what is

the solution? How do we remedy this? Well, let's

look at Martha. Unlike her sister, Martha, Mary

doesn't seem to be stressed. Mary doesn't seem

to be hurried. She doesn't seem to be overwhelmed.

Mary was right where she needed to be. And honestly,

you don't really hear much from her in this story.

And I think that's just because she's right in

the right spot. It says that Mary sat at the

Lord's feet and was listening to what he said.

Now this is the language of a student with their

rabbi or teacher sitting at his feet giving him

her full attention as if he's the only person

in the room so that she would not miss a single

word that he says. And hear what Jesus says to

Martha. When she starts getting mad that Mary's

sitting there doing nothing while she's trying

to clean up, listen to what Jesus says. He says,

Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about

many things. Insert your name in there. You are

worried and upset about many things. But one

thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice

and it will not be taken away from her. Jesus

says that one thing is necessary. And we see

Mary sitting at Jesus' feet, hanging on His every

word. Now you might hear this story and you might

start to think, well, Martha was actually doing

the hard work of getting everything done so she

had the space to sit with Jesus. You know, she

was getting the jobs done so that she could be

at peace and just rest in Jesus' arms. That the

busyness was actually important so that she could

stop and be fully present. and listen to her

Rabbi. And how often do we feel that way? If

only I just get through everything. If only I

get through all to -do lists, then, then I'll

be able to spend time with Jesus. But the question

is, where do the important things stop? When

does that list get finished? The problem with

hurry sickness is that many of us live into this

hurry sickness. It convinces us that every single

thing we do is important. There's a matrix, I

can't remember everything on it, but to help

you define what task is important, urgent, and

can wait till next week. And how easy is it for

us to put everything in that urgent box, even

if it's as simple as replying to an email. And

not only is everything important, but everything.

And when we lean into this way of thinking, the

list of important never stops. It keeps growing

and growing until we sleep or we die. At some

point we have to see the point that Jesus was

trying to get across to Martha. When Jesus is

in the room with you, there's only one thing

that's necessary. Being with Jesus. Sitting at

His feet. When your Lord and Saviour is right

there, there's nothing else that matters. And

Jesus would say that it's this necessary time

with Him that actually empowers and strengthens

us to go and do what's important. And we forget

this so often. It's the time delighting in the

Lord, sitting at His feet, that keeps us filled

with His love and His joy. It keeps us focused

on Jesus throughout the rest of our day. And

it helps us to remain focused on what's truly

important because we're hearing it straight from

our Lord. This is important. This is on my heart

and we can stay focused. You've probably heard

this passage before, but in John 15, 4 to 5,

it says this, it says, remain in me, and that's

Jesus, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable

to produce fruit by itself unless it remains

on the vine, neither can you unless you remain

in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. The

one who remains in me and I in him produces much

fruit because you can do nothing without me.

Listen to that last line. You can do nothing

without me. Jesus is not only the one that we're

working hard for. He's not only the one that

we're trying to be good parents, good brothers

and sisters, good friends, good co -workers for.

But He is the one that sustains us, brings us

hope, fills us with joy, peace, and He gives

us the strength to press on even when things

get hard. We live in a crazy world with so much

going on. And Jesus is the one that we can come

to to sustain us and to help us through it. If

we are not remaining in Jesus and regularly sitting

at His feet to be with Him, to hear His thoughts

and to just delight in being with Him. then what

we're doing is we're working in our own strength

in all the other stuff that we're doing. We are

trying to do the things that God has called us

to do without the One who called us. And when

we do that, we miss something beautiful. We miss

Jesus Himself. I wonder how many times we've

been in a room trying to do things for Jesus

that we miss Jesus in our presence, right there.

And I really feel like this is the main thing

that God wants to speak to us tonight. So if

you forget everything else, this is what I want

you to hold on to. God doesn't want to just speak

to you like some distant father who you come

to when you need something or who's there at

some occasions but hardly says anything. He doesn't

want to speak to you as just some spiritual guide

who will tell you the wise words of how to get

through this situation and the next step. God

wants to speak to you from a place of deep and

loving relationship with Him. The context is

relationship for God. Because the truth is, God

loves you. God delights in you. I know you may

believe that God doesn't love you, or that if

you don't work hard enough, God's not there to

love you, but actually He loves you anyway. This

is why He sent His Son Jesus to come to earth

and to die for our sins, because He loves you.

He loves each and every one of us. We have an

amazing God who sees our sin every time we rebel

against God and do our own thing, build our own

kingdom. And He sees how we push Him away from

us. And He knew that there was nothing we could

do on our own to make our way back to Him. And

so He made the way through Jesus. He reached

out to us when we didn't deserve it. He made

a way for us to meet with God, to hear from God

in close, loving relationship with Him. And we

see this displayed all throughout Jesus' ministry.

He draws near to the broken, to the lost, to

those who don't deserve Him because He loves

them. There's a guy named Strahn Coleman, and

he has a book called Beholding, which I think

everyone should read this book. But he describes

this kind of union that I'm talking about with

God in a very beautiful way. He describes it

as beholding. And he says beholding is prayer,

but it's much more than that too. It's about

holy existence. And how beautiful does that sound?

Holy existence. It takes prayer out of the small

pockets of conscious mental dialogue, the small

conversations we have with God, the small arrow

prayers we shoot up when we need help. And it

makes it a life lived out fully in the Trinity.

Beholding is the practice of gazing into God,

gazing into us, gazing back into Him. So I want

you to know this afternoon that God doesn't just

want your ears. He doesn't just want your mind.

He doesn't just want you to hear from Him so

you can know how to take those next steps. But

God wants all of you. And He was willing to give

all of Himself so He could get all of you. He

longs to be close with you. to walk beside you

throughout your life through the good days and

the bad days. And it's in that space, the relationship

with God, the entry into the whole Trinity that

He wants to speak to you. Not as a father who

is sitting at the back of the room just kind

of nodding or whatever, but He wants to be your

Saviour, your Lord and your friend. And the good

news is we don't need to strive. like the world

tells us to strive. We don't need to give in

to hustle culture and hurry sickness. We don't

need to burn ourselves into the ground to be

worthy of God's love and forgiveness. I mean

the truth is none of us are worthy and there's

nothing we can do to become more worthy. But

there's nothing that we can do, no working hard,

no keeping busy, that will make God love you

more because He has chosen to love you. This

is the covenant we live in that He chooses to

love even though none of us deserve it. And so

if you're here tonight and you've been flogging

yourself with busyness because you're believing

some lies about yourself and your relationship

with God. The lie that you need to earn God's

love for you. The lie that God only cares what

you have to offer and if you give Him the right

things He will love you and answer your prayers.

Or even the lie that God's not answering my prayers

because I'm not doing enough for Him. If that's

you tonight, I want you to hear these words from

King Jesus who has done everything required for

you to be forgiven and to be in right relationship

with God. He says this in Matthew 11, and you

will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is

easy and my burden is light. My plea to you this

afternoon is don't miss the person of Jesus right

there with you in the room in the middle of this

chaotic world. Don't miss Jesus himself. Don't

just settle for his voice or his direction. when

he wants to give you his whole self. Over the

past few months, our senior minister Barry Littleford,

Tim's dad, has been on a long service leave.

He's been enjoying himself across the world.

It's been great. And so I've been looking after

both of our waypoint campuses. And over this

time, I have just felt stretched, which is good.

I've also felt busy, too busy for my liking.

But now that Barry's back, I've been reflecting

about what I've learned over that time and what

God's been doing, and there's one thing I realize

that I regret not doing more of in that time,

and that's spending time with Jesus. If I could

go back in time, I would make more time for Him,

and I would protect that time as the most important

thing for my week. Instead of doing what I did

and just kept working and finding things to do

and finding big problems to solve, but actually...

delighting in His presence, letting Him delight

in me and being filled for the tasks before me.

And so I could focus on what was truly important,

because I don't know, you know, all the pastors

in the room, I guess. If you're in church ministry

anyway, everything seems important, but not everything

is. And so I'm not sure what you're going through

at the moment. I don't know what things have

been happening in your life. I don't know what

unanswered prayers you're sitting with, but there

might be many. And so my encouragement to you

this afternoon is prioritize time within your

days to simply just be with Jesus, with no agenda,

with nothing that you're bringing to Him as if

you could, offering anything special, but simply

sitting at Jesus' feet, being with Him and leaning

into Him. The truth is, when it comes to hearing

God, we can't force Him to speak. There's no

magical formula that will make God speak to you,

you know? We see different things in Scripture

that maybe helps, putting out a fleece, you know,

getting to a tall mountain. But we can't force

God to speak no matter what we do. He speaks

when He wants to. The thing that we can do is

be intentional about making space in our lives,

in our day -to -day lives, to draw near to God

in that deep and loving relationship. We can

make space to prepare us to hear from Him and

to listen to His words. And even if He doesn't

speak, we can still have had a great time being

with our Lord, just being in His presence. So

my question for you today is what might this

look like for you? If you were to think of the

week coming up, what might this look like to

put this into practice in your week? Maybe for

you it's only watching one episode of your favorite

show. What's people's favorite show? I've got

on here Seinfeld. Does anyone watch Seinfeld?

Well, that's awkward. Maybe it's watching your

favorite show, whatever that is. Instead of watching

three episodes, maybe watch one and give that

last hour of the day to be with God, sitting

with His word, beholding Him and letting Him

speak to you. Or maybe it's finding a new rhythm

in your mornings where you start your morning

in a time of prayer, before you get to the to

-do list of the day, not feeling rushed, but

get yourself comfy, be still, and simply pray,

Holy Spirit come and just sit and see what God

does. Maybe if you were going for a walk on your

lunch break during your work day, once or twice

in the week, and just talking to God about what's

going on, what's on your heart, what are you

wrestling with, what are the things you want

to bring to Him, and just letting Him be with

you and hear that, whether He speaks or not is

up to Him. Or maybe if you were booking a regular

spot in the prayer room, maybe this is the thing

that you need to get booked in there. As we step

into Monday morning tomorrow, what could it look

like for you to take Jesus seriously this week?

What could it look like for you to live as though

Jesus is in the room, just waiting for you to

notice Him, to come and sit at His feet? How

could you make space in your day -to -day life

to tend to the most important relationship in

your life? A life -giving relationship with God

who made you, who loves you and who empowers

you to love other people well. How could you

make space for God this week? Thanks so much

for tuning in to this week's message. If you

felt challenged or need prayer, we'd love to

hear from you on Instagram at encounterhenley.

Or if you're interested in how you can support

this ministry, please go to our website. encounteradelaide

.com .au. Thanks again for listening. God bless

you.