Why Doesn't My Christianity Work at Home — Neil Rhodes

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Now, Lord Jesus, you have moved sovereignly here tonight because you have an agenda and you have a purpose that is higher than anything that we would ever know if we had to do it ourselves. Lord, I stand very weak at the moment behind the cross.

I stand weakened, Lord, just trusting that you have placed something into my heart by the Holy Ghost, and that's undeniable. And I knew it, I knew it, but God, so many times I find it difficult how to communicate what you put in there.

So I ask you tonight that you speak. Lord Jesus, speak to your people because there is great deliverance in the house tonight. Lord, there is such great salvation for your people. There is so much from heaven that you want to communicate to our hearts, but we are so restricted.

Now, God, I ask, hide me behind the cross. You speak clearly. You speak by the power of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. Turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter 3. I initially entitled this message, Why Doesn't My Christianity Work at Home?

The Rarity of God’s Word in Samuel’s Day

I'm going to show that to you tonight, why it doesn't work, and the contrast that God wants to do. He's so huge, beloved. God is so big. There's so much he wants to communicate to us. In 1 Samuel chapter 3, verse 1, it says,.

And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was precious in those days. Now, when it says precious, it wasn't that it was highly regarded. That's not the kind of term that they're using here.

Another translation says that the word of God was very rare in those days. It was hardly heard. It was hardly seen. It wasn't known. It was a very rare thing to have a living word coming out of the temple at that particular time in the history of the people of God.

And so, when the word here says that the word of God was precious, it means it was rare. It wasn't heard. People weren't getting a word from God. That was the simple truth of the matter, that there was not a living word coming from God's throne to men and women's hearts that would set them free.

It wasn't there. And so, that's what the writer is saying here. Samuel is the writer, and he's saying it was rare in those times. He goes on to say, In those days there was no open vision. When you look that up in the original language, it means that God, revealing himself, was restricted in all of Israel.

So there was a restriction, that God was restricted in showing himself. There was a restriction that God was up against, and he couldn't reveal all that he had and he wanted to do in the hearts and lives of his people.

You see, it's always in the heart of God to communicate who he is, that faith might arise in our hearts so we can trust him and lay hold of God. See, that's a word from heaven. All day we've been hearing it, so when God speaks to us, there's something that comes that we can lay hold of and go home with and say, This was God!

And my life is forever changed. Well, see, this wasn't what was going on in Israel at the particular time. It was rare. It was restricted. There was no open vision. People weren't seeing God do mighty things in their midst.

Eli’s Household: Greed, Immorality, and Spiritual Disorder

There was just this restriction, and we didn't see God, and people were living casual lives. And see, the problem was, it all boiled down to this one family. In this family, Eli's family, because the family was out of order, because the family was out of order, because they were not living after the things of God, God was restricted.

He wanted to come. He wants to speak, and I'm going to show you the contrast. But he couldn't speak because the family was out of order. If you go to chapter 2, and you take a look here, and you see that there was unprecedented greed.

See, when the family, when the purpose of the household is, and this is in verse 15, it says here, Before they burnt the fat, the priest's servants came and said to the man that sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest, for he will not have sodden flesh of thee, but raw.

So what he's saying here, in just normal terms, is that Eli's sons, they were out of order. They were more interested in what they could obtain than a knowledge of God. So there's this unprecedented greed that is in this family.

The family's out of order, and so God says, I'm restricted. In verse 22, he says,. And Eli was very old, and he heard that his sons, and he heard all the sons did in all Israel, and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

So there was unbridled immorality. And so we see this unbridled immorality going on in the family. You want to talk about the things that restrict the presence of God and the power of God from flowing.

You see, God, there's all kinds of, God wants to give us faith in our heart to believe him and trust him. But when there is unprecedented greed in the heart, when we're going after things rather than God, when there's unbridled lust in the house, and people are going after flesh more than they are going after the things of God, then God is restricted from revealing himself.

He doesn't show himself by the power of the Holy Ghost, and the word of God then becomes rare, the word that can change lives. You see, it takes one word from heaven. All it takes is God to speak one word into your heart, your life is forever changed.

It's all it takes is one word. God speaks one word, and the worlds are created. The heavens are created. God speaks and things happen. But when there are things that are in the family that are out of order, then God is restricted from absolutely coming through with a life-changing word.

Communication as a Hindrance to God’s Work

And see, this is what's taking place in the family. Now, I've used on either side some of the great aggravations in a family when there is greed, when men are pursuing in this world just position and money, and their whole sense of worth is what they can obtain, and also then this unbridled lust.

But I actually want to speak, the Holy Ghost spoke to me on something else. Those are the two large aggravated areas that hold back the presence of God and the spirit of the Holy Ghost from moving. But there's something else right in the middle of these two verses that I want to share with you that the Holy Ghost spoke and said that is just as grievous to the Lord, that will hold back His presence from working amongst us and in our hearts and in our families.

And it's this word here in verse 16. You see, verse 16 is an interesting verse, and it says this,. And if any man said unto him, so here are the priests, and so if any man came to them and said, let them not fail to burn the fat, in other words, they came and said, no, listen, we really need to do what God wants us to do.

We should be doing that which God has prescribed in the Word, God's spoken to us. So if any man came and tried to bring correction, let them not fail to burn the fat presently and then take as much as thy soul desires.

So the people were coming to these two boys and saying to this family that's out of order, let's just do it right. Let's do what God has asked us to do, and then after that, you know, take what you need.

And so what goes on to say, Then he would answer him, Nay, but thou shalt give it me now, and if not, I will take it by force. You see, the Holy Spirit spoken in my heart is that the way we communicate one with another, the way we speak, there are times when we are so angry in our hearts.

This is an abuse of how we communicate one with another. And see, God says, it was like he was speaking, he said, my Holy Spirit is restricted in your home. When you feel that you can go into your home and speak how you want to speak.

You may not be greed laden, you might not be pursuing these things with greed in your heart. You may not be even in any sexual immorality in your family. But there's something else that God is after. It's the way you communicate.

It's the way you speak to somebody else who's sitting next to you. It's the attitude of how you communicate. And God says, when you begin to take out what's inside of your heart and you communicate that in an angry manner or a manner that is abusive to somebody else, he says, I cannot bless that.

There is a restriction of my spirit coming down upon you and bringing you revelation enough to change your life, change your family, because you will not curb the way you communicate with people on the job or communicate with people in your home.

And he says, it's an aggravation to the Holy Ghost. He says, you cannot think that you can come and worship God and go home and speak the way you want to speak. I'm going to show this to you all the way through.

Samuel’s Childlike Innocence Before God

So he brings this contrast to the people of God by using a child. You see, Eli is getting old. Go back to chapter 3 and you see it here. Eli, it's an amazing portion of Scripture when you understand his eyes are getting dull and he can't see whether the oil in the lamp is getting lower.

And so what he does is he actually puts, in verse 3, And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down asleep. So what Eli does is he puts Samuel right into the holy place.

It's not the holy of holies, but he's there watching, making sure the lamp. And so this little child is right in the very presence of God. That's where he's sleeping. That's what the Bible says. I read up all the commentators and they all agree that this boy, Samuel, didn't want the lamps to go down in the holy place.

They had to keep burning where the bread was and the altar of incense and the candlestick. And so he was there to tend the candlestick and make sure that the lamps were burning. And so he's sleeping right there in the presence of God.

See, the contrast is this. So when God takes a little child who is free from guile, a little child who's innocent of the complexities of the angers and the hurts and the bruises that are inside of our hearts.

And so this is a contrast. God is using a child. And he says whenever we come into his presence, and we're right there where the presence of God is, and if we come into his presence with innocence in the heart and without guile in our hearts and lives, God says, I'm going to speak to you.

See, that's how he wants us to come. And he says, you come without guile in your heart and you curb the way you are relating to other people. You curb those things. You say, God, I don't want to live like this any longer.

And you come into my presence and you come in like a child, an innocent child who just, when God speaks, and he speaks the first time in verse 4, and he says, and the Lord called Samuel, and he answered, here I am.

It's that simple. See, God wants to speak. So he's bringing the contrast. Here is a family that is out of order. The word of God is rare. There's no change taking place in the family. Sin is continuing to absolutely escalate in this family.

But then God makes a contrast, and he says, but look on the other side. If you come to me like a child, innocent and in your heart without guile, and you love my presence, he says, I'm going to speak to you.

It's the heart of God to speak into our hearts and to our lives. And he calls. Samuel doesn't understand God's voice at this time. In verse 6, the Lord calls him a second time, and he says, Samuel, Samuel, you can put your name in there.

God wants to speak to you. We heard this morning, we heard this afternoon, that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. So where does this faith that's going to change our lives going to come from?

It's going to come by God speaking to us in his presence. So he speaks the third time. In verse 8, and he calls Samuel again, and again, Samuel isn't grasping or understanding this. But then look at verse 10.

Verse 10 is one of the most interesting portions of Scripture in this whole chapter. See, it says here in verse 8, just read back in verse 8. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time, and he arose, and he went to Eli, and he said, here I am.

But now look at verse 10. And the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Now, the thing that caught my attention was this, is the word stood. You see, beloved, what God says, it just caught my attention.

I looked up that word. I thought maybe it's one of those words that don't have a Hebrew meaning that they put in there because it's the flowing text. So I researched it. But actually, the word is there.

The commentators don't know. They can't explain it. They just say, well, God was saying it. No, God wasn't saying it. He was calling. But when we hear his voice, and we respond to the voice of God when he speaks to us, the full intent of God is that he wants to come and stand by his word.

God Stands Behind the Word He Speaks

See, the intent of this is that when God speaks, I'm going to stand by everything that I speak for it to come to pass. And it doesn't matter what hell breaks out around about you. It doesn't matter what enemy comes in.

It doesn't matter what the other Christians are doing around about you or not doing. It doesn't matter what Eli's sons are doing. You see, when you get a living word from God, when God begins to speak in the presence of, when in his presence he puts a word into your heart, then God fully intends to stand by what he has communicated to you.

And the intent of this word, I looked it up in the Hebrew, it doesn't mean a passive standing. I'm standing. I'm just calling. I'm just speaking to you. It's not a passive standing. The intent of the Hebrew here is an intent of action.

In Psalms, the Bible says that the kings of the earth take their stand against the Lord. In other words, they take a stand. There's rebellion in their heart. There's an intent in their heart. They stand.

You've seen the kids when they stand like this. They're standing in your presence, but they're standing with intent. Does that make sense? There's intent. And see, so what God is saying here when he came and he spoke to this child in this innocence, in his presence, and in this place of no guile where we hear the word of the Lord, we just respond out of the innocency of the heart and we respond to the Lord, then God says, this is my promise to you.

This is my promise I give to you. That when I speak into your heart a word from heaven, I will stand with intent till that comes to pass in your life. I'll stand with intent. I will absolutely stand with full-blown heaven behind me with all power, all might, all authority, all intent.

What I intend with my word, it will come to pass and you shall see it. That's faith. That's faith. Now that's what God says. I will stand by my word. So if you're in the house tonight and God begins to put something into your spirit, he starts to speak something deep inside of you, and you start to hear the voice of the Lord touching something, speaking something.

It could be a word of deliverance. It could be a word of healing. It could be just a word that God's going to lead you. It doesn't matter. The spectrum is so wide. We're talking about God who knows every single thought in the house tonight.

He knows what you're thinking right now. But see, the Holy Spirit comes and he begins to put something into your heart by the Holy Spirit, and because he does that, then the intent of God is to stand with that word, and he will stand to its completion, and you shall see it come to pass.

And you can take a look at Sam. You read the whole rest of the story, and it just happens exactly as God spoke it. Let me stand on some more corns. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 12. You may not love me at the end of this message, but let me tell you something.

Jesus’ Humility and Freedom from Strife

I want to show you something here because this is the stream that God was speaking to my heart, just straight down the line, in Matthew chapter 12. Now, Jesus has just healed the man with a withered hand, and he knows that people are angry at him, and there's a sense of strife that is going on in the Pharisees' hearts, and in Matthew 12, verse 14, then the Pharisees went out and they held counsel against him, how that they might destroy him.

But look at verse 15. And when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence, and a great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all. He healed them all. Now, look at the charge that he gives them.

And he charged them that they should not make him known. Now, I always used to read that scripture and think that this was just crowd control. Jesus would say, don't tell anybody because I want to minister, and if you go tell everybody, then I'm going to be so surrounded by people, I'm not going to be able to do what I'm going to do.

So I always would read this as crowd control. Don't make me known. It'll get around, but don't make it known. But you know, the Holy Spirit showed me so clearly that this has nothing to do with crowd control, but everything to do with humility.

Let me show this to you. He says here, verse 17, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Behold, my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased.

Now, this is the person that God puts his spirit upon. Look at the person. Look at the person as we've seen with Samuel, the Old Testament example. Now we're looking at Jesus. And God says, this is the person.

This is the person that will experience the power of the Holy Ghost. This is the person that's going to know the strength and the power of my residing presence upon them. He says, this is my servant whom I've chosen, my beloved.

Now we know it's talking about Jesus, whom I've chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment unto the Gentiles. Why? Because he shall not strive.

See, beloved, when we take strife, when we get into strife, it might not be adultery. It may not be greed. But it's this incessant striving that you have in your spirit. It's the way you communicate. It's the way you relate.

This word means you won't engage in any strife. You can't engage him in an argument. You won't engage him in allowing something to churn up inside of him to get into that strife. Oh, how this spoke into my heart, how guilty I am.

Nor cry. The word cry means to make demands with a loud voice. He says, the person that gets my Holy Ghost upon them. I want to show you this person who will walk with the power of the Holy Spirit resting upon them.

It's the person who says in their heart, I'm done with strife. I'm not going to get into it, Lord. You have to give me the power not to get into strife in my household. He can't be drawn into it. Number two, he won't make demands with a loud voice.

Hey, give me that now. Hey, where's my something to eat? Where's my washing? Where is this done? Where is this? See, he's not going to answer into that kind of, there's no loudness. He says, you won't hear his voice in the streets.

There's not going to be a noise. In other words, what he's saying, there's not going to be a striving to be recognized. He says, that's the person. And the Holy Spirit is just so speaking into my heart that there are people, and I'm going to just dig one more scripture a little bit deeper here to show this to you in clear terms to us tonight.

But the Holy Spirit was just speaking all day and then all this week into my heart that some people nullify a good word from heaven because they get into strife. The very second they walk out of the house, they're into it.

Someone cuts them off, they're into it. They get on their side, yelling, into it. And God has given a word that can change. A deliberate word from heaven that he says, I'll stand by it. When you get that word, God's full intent is to stand by his word.

But with Eli's sons, because their lifestyle would not allow them to know God, that's why the word was restricted. There was no vision, there was no change taking place in people's lives. Nothing was coming out of the house of God at that time because the house was chaotic, because they were not allowing God to do that work in their hearts.

Words Reveal the Heart

But yet, I said, God, this is so many times, this is why Christianity doesn't work at home. It works at church, but it doesn't work at home. We come here and we lift our hands and we have one accord and the Holy Ghost moves and the word comes to our heart, I want to deliver you, I want to set you free, I want to do this work in your heart, it comes to us.

And God fully intends to stand by his word. I hope that you've seen that tonight, that when God speaks something in your heart, he fully intends to perform that work in your heart and life to its completion.

Regardless what it is, you know what God is working on your heart, you bring it to completion. But in the process of time, you can negate that word by the way you talk to those around about you. It might not be the gross sins that I've mentioned, but God is going after something about how we communicate.

You see, one of the greatest lessons, let me read a scripture to you, then I'll give you an illustration. Verse 33, let's dig this thing just a little bit deeper tonight. Verse 33 says, either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt.

One or the other, for the tree is known by its fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye be in evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things.

So Jesus is saying, now listen, if I have done a work in your heart and life, if I have truly become the treasure of your life, then it doesn't matter what circumstances you find yourself, it's going to be out of that treasure you're going to speak.

It's going to be out of who I am. If that is the treasure of your heart, then out of that treasure you're going to speak. So he says, because out of the abundance of the heart, you're going to speak. The heart that bringeth forth good things.

An evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. Now this is verse 36 that I want to dig up. But I say unto you. So yeah, now Jesus is getting specific, but he says, but I say unto you.

And I can see the disciples are standing around about you. They are not being left out of this communication. Yes, there are those Pharisees who have said that he does this by the work of the devil, but he is also communicating to those around about him.

And he says this, but I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by the word thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

Now before we get heretical, there's a lot of people, you know, I can say to somebody, I love you to death. Now that doesn't mean that I'm thinking they're going to die. You see, that's not what, there's people who take this kind of stuff and they go off into some other direction.

But what Jesus is saying, he says, he could have used any word. There's three words in the Greek that he could have used. Leleo, which just means babble, communication, talk. There's logos he could have used, but he doesn't use that.

He says, but I say unto you that every idle word. Now that word there that is being used is rhema. And it means a commanded word of God. It means a revealed word of God. Now this is what the Holy Spirit showed me.

You see, when we come into his presence, he will give us a revealed word. He'll give it to us. He'll give it to us. But by being idle with that, the word idle means worthless, unfruitful, to destroy, without works that express faith.

And so, what he's talking about, every idle word, isn't just pass me the ketchup, I don't like this food. He's not talking about that. We'd never be able to talk in life. We wouldn't be able to communicate and express ourselves without fear that those words that we said are going to be held against us.

No, he's not talking about that at all. Because we have to live, we have to talk, we have to relate. We're normal human beings in this world. What he's talking about here is that when God speaks a word to us, and then instead of taking that word and allowing that word to permeate our very being and allowing it to work inside of our hearts and lives, we nullify it.

And that's where the word idle comes in. We're taking a living word, and we're nullifying what God is speaking to us, because we won't allow God to touch the way we communicate. So we start speaking worthless things.

And when God speaks to us, instead of getting in the car and saying, Lord, you've spoken to our hearts, thank you, and we're going to let this word work in our hearts, we get into strife, we get into things that begin to nullify the very things.

And Jesus is saying, it's that. It's the word that I gave you. It's the word that I gave you that I fully intend to perform in your life. But you keep nullifying it by living in an idle manner, by getting into strife, by saying things that you don't mean, by getting into it.

Personal Confession and the Power of Rejection

You know, beloved, I am the worst offender. I am the number one offender of this all the time. I get into intense fellowship with my wife at a drop of a hat. God spoke to me one time, clearly. And he said to me, I remember this one time we got into intense fellowship because, as you know, Christians don't fight, they get into intense fellowship.

And I got into intense fellowship with her, and I just bark off things. I just bark. I've got no teeth. I don't bite. Most of the time, it's just bark. It's just noise. And she understands that, and she lives with it.

But people round about don't understand that. My cat doesn't understand that. And so I bark. And I remember having this intense fellowship and going down into the basement and just, I was stirred. There was strife in my heart, and I didn't want to talk to her anymore.

And yada, yada, yada, and I just yada, yada, yada. And so I went down. I just got out my Bible. I began reading. And so I felt in my heart, I'm going to pray. I'm going to just seek the face of God. And as I remember this lesson so well, I was in the basement, and I just raised my hands, and I began to just start trying to worship God.

And God said to me, as clear as anything, in 1 John 4, 20, How can you say that you love me when you don't love the person next to you? How can you speak to her like this, and then come and speak to me like this?

It doesn't make sense. That strife is nullifying any good word that I put into you. I intend to do something in your life. I intend to bring my word to pass in your life. But you keep nullifying it by the way that you speak.

You keep nullifying it by the way you just think we have a right. I don't know what it is. But I have asked God to break the power of this thing over my life. And it's broken. I'm talking about it's not a present day thing.

It resurrects its head every now and then. But this is going back some time. And I've just got to take authority. But I have made a conscious decision. I said, God, I don't want to be judged by a word that you give me that you want to do in my life.

And I nullify it because my communication to my family, to my wife is just snappy. It's sharp. It's hurtful. It's words that cut to the quick. It's things that nullify. God says, I don't like it. I don't like it.

And when I was sitting here, you know that when we were in the prayer and fasting, I'm going to close with this and then with one scripture. I'm going to close one more illustration. And then I'm going to give you one verse of scripture.

And I'm going to give you an altar call tonight. God, let me tell you that in March, my wife and I, and when I sit here at the Holy Spirit, you go back and deal with this issue because there's something that God, that people responded to but have not been set free yet from.

And so I'm going to give it to you. In March, my wife and I went to a restaurant early in the morning. And we have what we have in our household. We have this reality check communication once a week. And so every once a week, we'll go to a restaurant.

We'll sit down and we'll have breakfast. It could be lunch. It could be at any time. This time it happened to be breakfast. We sat down at breakfast time. And I give her the right. I say, honey, and we do this once a week.

It's a reality check. I say, honey, I want you to speak to me. And I speak to her. And I ask her, is there anything in my life that you see that is unpleasing to you and to God? And I give her the opportunity to speak to me.

And I want to receive it because there are things I'm so blinded at times to my own ignorance and the way I am. And so we're talking at the restaurant. And she said, you know, there is something. I said, really?

I'm amazed. And she said, yes, there is something. She said, I think that you struggle with rejection. And it stunned me. I said, she said, you hit the wall every now and then. You hit it and you crumble.

You hit it and you crumble. And I know the pattern well. And she said to me, I think you struggle with rejection. And right there in the restaurant, it was like a word from heaven from my wife pierced right into my soul.

And I knew it was true. I knew it was God. I knew it. And I began to weep. I just began to weep. I wept. I couldn't control it. We paid. We left. We got in the car. We drove in. We began talking. And I mentioned to you this in March.

And I mentioned it again. The Holy Spirit showed me when I was five years of age when I saw all these kids going to school. And all these little kids would give their mother a hug and a kiss. And I'd go off to school.

And my family was a non-touch family. You couldn't get close to them at all. But I desired that. There was something in my heart. I thought, oh, I'd love to get a hug from my mother. And I remember going the next day as I got up.

I was only in kindergarten. Just started school. And all the family was around the table. And I went up to my mom. I didn't communicate it because I just thought it would just automatically happen like all the other kids that I'd been seeing.

And I went up to my mother. And I went to go give her a kiss. And she pulled back. And everyone in my family began to laugh. And they began laughing. And they pushed back. And at five years of age, I made an inner vow.

I'll never do that again. Five. And from that point, the Holy Spirit began to show me. And for the whole next week, I just, there was a weeping in my soul. And I couldn't get free from this. And into the next week, and God was speaking to me about this rejection.

And I said, God, when there is such deep-seated rejection, it causes one to lash out. That when there's a spirit of rejection, when you have been so wounded and hurt, that to protect yourself, you lash out.

And you speak against others. So it's not that there's the intent that you want to get in a strife. It's a self-protection that you don't want anybody to get that close. And so you protect yourself that before they reject you, you reject them.

And you shout that thing out. And you communicate it. And you communicate in your actions. And see, the Holy Spirit showed me so clearly. He said, how can I continue to do work in your heart when this is the continued response?