Revelation 3:20 Dining with Jesus Part II

Spiritual Health and the Need for a Feast of the Word

At this time I want to introduce Bill Smith. Bill has been a long-time member at Recast Church and a good friend of mine. I just appreciate his ministry through Youth for Christ in Kalamazoo, Youth for Christ.

He's been a missionary there for many years and I just look forward to hearing you preach from God's Word today. So welcome.

Amen. Thank you. Good morning. I am excited for this opportunity to share the treasure of God's Holy Word with you this morning. And what a treasure we have in the Word of God. We are so blessed to have all 66 holy books.

You know back in the day it was only the wealthy people that could afford a copy and then it would be a book of the Bible. Because they didn't have the technology to even put it in a book. And here we are with the whole revelation of God.

What a blessing. So pray with me will you. Father just thank you that we can come to your throne of grace. That this is a holy place we are here in Jesus name. And you know how desperately we need to hear your voice.

We hear so many other voices coming at us. Father and many of them are not good. Pulling us down and even poisoning our hearts. How we need to hear the voice of your spirit. And I pray that that would happen Lord.

Through our worship time. Through the praise songs through your holy word. That you would meet with us in a special way. That we would walk out of this place today encouraged and challenged and stirred to seek you.

Father in deeper ways. We love you. Pray Holy Spirit you would be our teacher today. In Jesus name. Amen. So how are you feeling this morning? Good? Okay. Good. How are you feeling spiritually? Are you feeling healthy?

You know when you go in for an exam right? Something's wrong. Any good doctor is going to ask questions right? To kind of pinpoint what's going on. To see how extreme the problem is. You know is this something little?

And so a good doctor will ask a series of questions to see how healthy you are. And so I have a few questions right at the beginning for you to kind of take a spiritual health examination. Okay? Are you ready?

Alright. How is your appetite? It's an important question when it comes to the physical being right? If you have no appetite something is definitely wrong. Do you hunger and thirst after God? Do you hunger and thirst after righteousness?

How is your prayer life? Are you struggling to pray? Is it a chore? Are you feeling an unusual amount of guilt and shame in your life? Do you grieve over the condition of our world and grieve over lost souls?

People who don't know Jesus. Does that hurt your heart? Are you feeling spiritually weak? You've just been like given into temptation easily. You've been struggling with sin. Are you feeling a lack of joy and hope and peace?

If you said yes to any of these questions you may be suffering from spiritual malnutrition. That you're not getting the living word. You're not connecting with the living word. You're not connecting with your father in a meaningful way.

And so these things are going to be true in our lives. You know we want to be healthy right? But isn't the spiritual health even more important? Two weeks ago or three weeks ago actually I introduced the concept of dining with Jesus.

And that comes from Revelation 3 .20. If you grab your word and look at that with me just for a moment. Before the band comes up. Revelation 3 .20. And Jesus is, if you need a Bible I see Mike's got Bibles right there.

Anybody need a Bible? You want to follow along? Today I'm going to look up a lot of verses this morning. And I would love for you to see them with your own eyes. So in verse 14 it is obvious that Jesus is speaking to the church.

So he's not talking to unbelievers. He's talking to people who have professed a relationship with him. And in verse 20 he speaks these somewhat sad words. But they're also words of hope. Check out verse 20.

Behold Jesus says, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. Jesus is inviting us to a meal. The new King James says dine.

Come and dine. And that's a good translation because this word that is in here for eat, it's the word that they would use for their main meal of the day. This is like the main meal. This isn't like a piece of toast on the go.

I want to say this is a feast that Jesus is inviting us to. A spiritual feast. But why I say this verse is somewhat sad because where is Jesus in this verse? He's knocking on the door, isn't he? He's on the outside.

He's on the outside saying, let me in. Let me come and spend some time with you. Will you meet with me? Will you truly, truly open your heart to me and let me come in and speak words of life and healing and truth to you?

I have this feast for you, but I'm knocking at your heart. You know, we shut him out in so many ways. And the loving heart of Jesus, it can only grieve him when we're shutting him out of our life because he loves us so much.

And you know the truth is that it's usually not intentional. I mean, we don't want to shut Jesus out, right? But it just happens. And oftentimes it's just simply purely from neglect. We're busy. We all lead busy lives.

You know, we're rushing here and we're rushing there. Our mind is going a million miles an hour. And Jesus says, I stand at the door and knock. Will you give me time for a meal together? Will you break bread, the bread of the word, with me?

Will you meet with me in a quiet place and let me speak into your life? I have a feast for you. By way of reminder, let's go back to Isaiah 55. And this describes the feast that Jesus has for us. Isaiah 55, verses 1 through 3.

This is God speaking. You can see the quotation marks there. The prophet Isaiah was given this message to record for us. He says, Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And he who has no money, come, buy and eat.

Come, buy wine and milk without money, without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food.

Delight yourselves in rich food. He is inviting us to a feast of the word. And three weeks ago we looked at some of those verses that compare the word of God. That it is sweet as honey. That it abundantly satisfies.

It is the ultimate soul food. I mean, seriously, it feeds our soul like nothing else can. It's life-giving when it's given by the spirit of God. It's not if I'm reading it in my own intellect with a heart that's not right with God.

That's why people get bored with the word. They get frustrated with it because they're not approaching it in the right spirit. And so this morning my goal is to just give you some practical ideas of how to have a meaningful quiet time.

That's what I'm talking about. This is something I've been working on for, let's see, I came to Christ when I was 20. Here's my age, 57. So what's that, 37 years. I've been working on this, you know, trying to understand how to connect in a meaningful way.

And I've learned some things. And for me it's been life-giving. And really it's one of the main reasons why I've lasted 28 years in ministry at Youth for Christ. Because he renews me day by day. And he speaks hope into my heart.

And he heals up my wounds. And he gives me strength. And he tells me that he loves me. And he tells me that we'll make it through this. He'll tell you that you'll make it through it, whatever you're going through.

No matter how much you've been beat down and defeated by the enemy, today can be a new day, tomorrow can be a new day. We can move forward. He wants to do abundantly above, beyond what we could expect or think.

Amen?

So I'll close with this quote from one of my favorite authors of the past, Matthew Henry. He says this, he says, Those who open the door to him will enjoy his presence, to their great comfort and advantage.

He will dine with them. He will give fresh supplies of his graces and comforts, and thereby stir up fresh actings of faith and love and delight. And in all this, Christ and his repenting people will enjoy pleasant communion with each other.

Does that sound good? Does that sound like a pretty good feast? A pretty good meeting?

Amen.

So we'll explore that after some time of worship and a break for fellowship. So with that, well, I almost expected the band to be right there behind me, so. All right. Father, thank you once again now as we come into this time of worship.

And I thank you that you speak to us in many ways. And one of those ways is through music and praise songs. Father, through what you have created, your beautiful nature. And I just pray that we would see more and more of your beauty and glory.

And please make this time of worship meaningful for us, Father. That we would sing in the Spirit and with understanding, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

How to Meet with God in a Quiet Place

Quiet time with Jesus. That's what I'm talking about this morning. How to meet and connect with him in a quiet place on a daily basis. Where he is speaking into your life and renewing you. And bringing that transformation that we all need day to day.

You know, he says, I stand at the door and knock. And that door is our heart. And he wants to truly connect with us in a heart to heart way. In a way that we can't even connect with the closest person in our life.

That's how close he wants to be with us. He wants to speak into our life. Into our hearts. And he wants to continually heal us up. Because we get hurt almost every day in some way it seems. So I just want to take you through some steps as far as if you're not already doing a daily quiet time.

And again, I'll define that quiet time as you meeting with God in a quiet place one on one. Allowing him to speak into your life and you speaking your heart to him. That's how I define quiet time. So the first thing, let's go start in Isaiah 55.

And I have a lot of scripture I want to share with you this morning. So we're going to be flipping around quite a bit. But this is where the feast is described. And I want to look at just verse 1 for a moment of Isaiah 55.

God says, come everyone who thirsts. Come to the waters and he who has no money. Come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Notice the one word that he uses four times in this verse.

It's the word come. So if we don't do this first step, you know, it's just not going to happen. You know, he is there waiting patiently. Waiting and he invites us to come. And so we have to be intentional and we have to come.

Now, you know, it's kind of funny because it talks about, you know, this feast, you know, coming by, this delicious feast without money. And I talked about this three weeks ago that there is an investment.

There is a cost here. And that investment is time. So if you don't take the time, then this will not happen. And if you, you know, try to grab a quick devotional on the go, hey, God can even speak through that.

He can. You know, God can speak to you when you're driving to the office. You know, if your heart becomes in tune with him. But to really connect and to really go deeper in your relationship, it's going to take effort on your part.

It's going to take time. You're going to have to be intentional about this. He said, if you seek me with all your heart, you will find me. And you think of that word seek. That means to search out, to put effort into it.

Think of this time as a divine appointment with your loving heavenly father. A divine appointment. He says, I want to meet with you. I want to meet with you. You know, I remember a church that I used to attend.

And it was a big church. And one day the pastor of the church called me. I didn't even know he knew me. You know, it was a big church. And he asked me out for lunch. And I was so excited about that. I'm like, wow, the pastor invited me out for lunch.

And yet here the king of the universe, the king of kings, the lord of lords, the god of all creation says, come and meet with me. Come and spend time with me. One-on-one. Look at Matthew 11 .28. Matthew 11 .28.

This should be a familiar verse to many of us. And these are the words of Jesus. He says, come to me, all you who labor. The NIV says, all you who are weary and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

And again, Jesus is saying, come to me with your burdens. Come to me all wore out. Come to me with all of your junk. Come to me with your broken heart. He doesn't say, clean up your life, get your act together, and then come to me and I'll accept you.

Before I ministered at Youth for Christ, I ministered in the county jail on a weekly basis. And I would start having these conversations with the men. And they would always often say, you know, look at me.

I can't come to God right now. I'm here, you know, behind these bars in this stupid orange jumpsuit and this stinking place. And I'm messed up. I can't come to God. And I would always bring them to this verse because Jesus is saying, you come to me just the way you are.

He will not turn you away no matter what your past is, what you have done, what you're going through currently. He loves you with a perfect, everlasting love. He loves you with the most tenderness that any parent could ever love their child.

And He is, I believe He is pleading with you this morning. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. I can change that. I can fix that. I can heal that. I can cleanse that.

I can transform that. He's the one. He knows. You know, it's like when my grandkids are at the house and they're out and they're muddy and they're dirty and they come in. You know, I love them still. And I know that all we've got to do is get them to the bathroom and wash that mud off, right?

And that's how the Father sees us. Yeah, we get muddy. We get dirty. He says, come on, my child.

I'll wash you.

I'll cleanse you. I'll heal you.

I love you.

Come to Him. Come expectantly to Him. Look with me at Hebrews 11 .6. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.

He's saying, believe that I'm real. Believe that I am the ever-present One. Believe that I am the all-knowing One. That I surround you with my Spirit. That my Holy Spirit lives in you, child of God.

In your spirit. Come expectantly, He says. If you come in faith, notice the last phrase. That He rewards those who seek Him. There's blessings in it for us as we meet with Him. Such blessings of renewal.

Of peace.

Of hope. Of love. Of healing. Of a vision for a new day. A vision for a new tomorrow. A vision of His glory and beauty.

Calm.

The second important factor in this is find a quiet place. Okay. I remember, you know, back in, what did they call that little black book that had all the coupons in it? Superbook, okay. Remember the Superbooks?

I don't know if they still make them, but Cheryl used to always buy one from the kids' school. So we'd try these different restaurants that we normally would not go to. And I remember we went to Fat Tony's.

And we met another couple there, and we walked in, and man, it was so noisy. And it was so smoky, you know, back before they had the good law that they have now. And we finally got a seat, and we sat down, and it was just like so noisy in there.

And, you know, the environment. And we tried to have a conversation. I don't know if you remember that, Cheryl, Fat Tony. So it wasn't memorable for sure. I mean, I think the food was okay, but it was just so crazy noisy.

If you try to have a quiet time in the living room with the TV on, okay, yes, you can read the Word that way. And yes, God can still speak through all of that. But there's nothing like finding a quiet place to meet alone with our Lord.

It could be a comfortable chair with a good cup of coffee before the kids get up in the morning. That's a sacrifice. You've got to get up earlier, but it will be worth it. One of my favorite places is the porch, my front porch or my deck.

Just getting outside by myself, looking at nature with the Word open and meeting with my Lord and Savior. It could be your car. Maybe you went and you got some groceries and, you know, your husband's watching the kids.

Take your Bible with you. Sit out in the parking lot and take an extra 15 minutes to spend some alone time with God. I've had lots of quiet times in my car in parking lots before. Just, you know, in the midst of a busy day and I get a little break.

You know, I'm going to park out a little ways and I'm going to roll my windows down. I'm going to open my Word and I'm going to start talking to my Father and ask Him to talk to me. You know, it could be, you know, out in the woods.

It could be a prayer walk, you know. But the thing is, is quietness where you can quiet your heart. Look at Psalm 46, verse 10. Be still and know that I am God.

Be still.

We've got to find that quiet place. We've got to be able to quiet our hearts. We've got to allow Him to quiet our hearts. You know, you go into your quiet time and your mind is racing a million miles an hour.

You're thinking of all the stuff you have to do. Here's a little trick I learned. That when those things pop up and you're trying to connect with the Lord, have a piece of paper and write to do at the top and then just quickly jot it down.

And then you're like, okay, I won't forget. I don't have to think about that right now. You know, that's just helped me. And mainly I do that if I'm having my quiet time in my office with the demands of what I need to do there.

Seek out a quiet place. Look at Matthew 6, 6. I love this verse. This is Jesus speaking, inviting us. Matthew 6, verse 6. But when you pray, when you seek to commune with God, because prayer is two-way.

You know, we often think of prayer as simply talking to God, but it's also listening to God. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in the secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

It's okay to say to your family, you know, I'm going to go spend some time alone with God. You know, I'll be back. I'm just going to go, you know, sit in my bedroom and I'm going to read and pray just for a bit.

I need that. That's a good thing for your family to see that. You know, maybe the basement is a good place. Maybe the garage. I don't know, but to seek out this quiet place. Notice who Jesus says is waiting there for you.

Your Father who is in secret. He is there waiting for you. And I like to look up words in the Strong's Concordance. I don't know Greek or Hebrew, but there's lots of good tools where you can look up the English word and find out what the Greek word was and what it means.

And you can learn some good things from that. So I looked up this word room, and it's a Greek word pronounced temayon. And the beginning of that word literally means a dispenser or a distributor. And so the definition that Strong's Concordance gave of this word room is a dispensary or a magazine.

That is a chamber used for storage. So let's think of a dispensary first of all.

So this same word, this Greek word, plan B.

I thought of a pharmacy, right, dispensary, where you get medicine. And I looked up the word dispensary in the dictionary, and that is exactly what the definition is, that it's a place to get medicine.

And so he talks about this room, this secret chamber. This word is translated secret chamber in other places. As a dispensary, there is healing in this place. There is medicine that can bring that inner healing, that can heal that broken heart, that can heal that broken hope, that can wash away that sense of guilt and shame.

There is healing. The other definition was it's a magazine. And this isn't talking about, you know, what you see at the checkout counter, you know, with the glossy covers. So I knew when it said magazine that it was talking about an armory.

And I looked up the word magazine in Webster's dictionary, and it said a storage place for arms and ammunition. That's interesting also. He will arm us for the battle. He will equip us to face the challenges of the day.

He will strengthen us. He will give us ammunition from his word. I can't tell you how many times I've struggled with something or facing an issue. And because I'm in the word daily, God gave me a scripture.

And I write that down on an index card, and I carry it with me, and I pull it out, and I speak it against the enemy. Because the word is powerful. It's the sword of the Spirit. When Jesus faced Satan head on in the wilderness, all he used was the word of God.

He just threw the scripture in Satan's face, and every time the devil just couldn't press it from there. And finally the devil, like I'm not getting anywhere, and he departed. The word is powerful. And in this secret place, he says, I'm there.

I'll see you. He is ever present. He sees you every moment of every day. He hears every word that you speak. He hears every word that you think. Look at Psalm 139. He will be with you in that quiet place.

He will reward you in that quiet place. He is there. And he calls us to meet with him. Oh boy, I've got to get wired up again, huh?

Unless you want to hang on to that one.

I feel like I'm putting on a headband. How's it look?

Good?

My hair's sticking up? I look alright?

Okay?

Are we on?

Okay.

Thank you. Now I'm going to get all tangled up. This always sounds interesting on the recorded message that goes on the website. What is going on? Technical difficulties, that's all. Please bear with me.

Alright, so we found it. We're intentional.

Okay?

We're coming to him. We're in that quiet place. And now what we want to do is begin with prayer. This thing is going to drive me crazy.

There. Alright.

Okay.

I have found that this is key. That if I don't pray before I read the word, I'm only going to get what my brain can give me. That's all I'm going to get. And that's why the word can become so dry and so boring, because we're approaching it from a human point of view.

We're getting out of it what our brain can give us. And this is a spiritual word, and so it has to be taught by the Holy Spirit. So the first thing I do is I start getting my heart prepared, asking God to speak to me through his word.

You know, oftentimes, here's the reality. You don't feel like spending time alone with God. Guilt or shame can cause that. The busyness of life can cause that. Not having connected with God in the past can cause that.

And it's easy to feel like, oh, you know, I'll read this little devotional and that'll be enough. And you read it quickly, and you say a quick prayer, and you're out of there. God is looking for something deeper than that.

Getting your heart prepared for what he has for you is so key. Look at Romans 8 .26 with me. Romans 8 .26. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

The Holy Spirit praying for me? Yes. Find that quiet place and try to calm your heart. Ask the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, help me to pray. Help me to connect. Help me to pray. And all of a sudden, you just start talking to the Father.

Thank you that you love me. I need you. Father, I need you. Help me. Meet with me. I'm desperate for you. Speak into my life. Forgive me. Take the burden of my guilt and shame away. Speak to me, Father.

Look at Jeremiah 33 .3. I just have lots of verses because it's the Word that is truth. Jeremiah 33 .3. Call to me, God says, and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things you have not known.

Pray for revelation. Pray for understanding. God, speak to me. Look at Proverbs 2 .1 -6. If this will be our approach to meeting with God and to His Word and to His truth, we'll receive from Him. Proverbs 2 .1.

My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding, yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord gives wisdom. From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. Does that describe your approach to the Word? Crying out to Him, Father, speak to me. Father, I'm not understanding this. Help me to hear from you.

Seeking it as for silver, hidden treasure. I guarantee if you knew there was a treasure buried in your backyard, there'd be a lot of holes out there. You know the movie Holes? You know, they were trying to find the treasure, you know.

You'd be searching, right? Well, we have the treasure right here. The treasure of the wisdom and knowledge and revelation of God. We are so blessed to have this Word.

Okay?

Let me show you a couple prayers that you can pray at the beginning of your quiet time or even, you know, midpoint or any time during your quiet time. Psalm 119, verse 18. Psalm 119 is all about the Word.

Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. Father, give me wisdom, give me revelation. Open my eyes. Look at Ephesians 1, verse 15. Ephesians 1, verse 15. For this reason, because I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened.

He's praying that they'll have the spirit of revelation, the spirit of wisdom, that God will open their eyes, their spiritual eyes, to see the truth that He has for us. We need to be... Well, let me show you what the Holy Spirit is called.

Let's go to John, chapter 14. I know these are truths that many of you are familiar with and are practicing. And, you know, for me, as I went through this, since I've been working on this, I've been more intentional about practicing these things, and I've been connecting with God in a deeper way, because I'm getting more intentional again.

Look at John 14, verses 25 and 26. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

The Holy Spirit will teach you all things. Here's a good prayer. Holy Spirit, teach me. That's pretty simple, isn't it? Holy Spirit, teach me. You know we can pray to the Holy Spirit? Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, be my teacher. Show me the beauty and glory of God. Look at chapter 15, verse 16. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide and that whatever you ask the Father in my name.

Actually, that's supposed to be verse 26. I knew when I read that, like, what? Did I write the reference down wrong? No, I just spoke it wrong. Look at verse 26 of chapter 15. But when the Helper comes, whom I will send you, from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me.

Notice what the Holy Spirit's called. He's called the Spirit of truth. So we depend on the Spirit to teach us, not on our own understanding. As the Scripture says, don't lean on your own understanding.

Seek understanding from above. Seek that enlightenment from above. Secondly, read slowly and carefully. Too often times, we have a goal of getting through a chapter. And there's so much in a chapter that we're missing what God really wants to say because we're maybe reading too fast.

So try to slow down a little bit. We're not looking for quantity here. We're looking for quality. To let Him speak that good word to you. A good question to ask is, Father, what are you trying to say to me through this?

Father, what are you trying to teach me? That's a beautiful thing to ask God as you're going through the Word. Here's a beautiful prayer to pray from Exodus 33, 18. Moses simply said this, Lord, show me your glory.

That's all he prayed. Show me your glory. And then right after that, it shows God. That's where he said, I'm going to put you in the cleft of the rock, and I'm going to pass by you, and I'm going to proclaim my name to you.

And God was pleased to do that. Father, show me your glory. One of the richest things that you can look for in the Word is what does this teach me about my Father? What does this teach me about my Lord and Savior?

Look for His names. Look for His titles. Look for His attributes. Because the more you learn who He is, the more your confidence is going to grow in who He is. The more confidence you're going to have in prayer because you're learning what an awesome God He is and how much He truly does love you.

And Satan's lies are starting to melt away that he won't hear you. He's done with you. He's given up on you. Those are all the devil's lies. God wants to show you His beauty and His glory, so look for that beauty and glory as you're reading through His Word.

Turn your time in the Word into a conversation. I mentioned this three weeks ago. I talk to God about what I'm reading in His Word. So this morning I was reading Psalm 140, and I was talking to God as I went through that Psalm.

I was praising Him for the blessings I saw in it. It talked about Him being a protector. I thanked Him for that. It talked about David was praying against his enemies. I pray against the enemy's work.

You turn the Word into a conversation. So you're just not reading three chapters and then say a prayer at the end. You're actually talking to God as He is talking to you. If you will do that, it will become much more meaningful.

If you can work on it. It's a different concept than maybe the way you've been reading the Word. But just slow down and read it carefully, thoughtfully. What is God trying to say to me? Listen, depending on the Holy Spirit for revelation, speaking the Word back to God.