Make Room - Week 11: Make Room In Your Home
Tim Ross | December 19, 2021
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Transcription
If you have your Bibles, I want you to open them to 2 Kings chapter number four. 2 Kings chapter number four. We are in a series called, what?
Make room. We've been in it. This is the 11th week. This is the last message in the entire series. For the last three weeks, I felt very, very strongly, excuse me, that the Lord told me to speak on making room in the heart. Two weeks ago, last week, making room in the head, and this weekend, what did we say it was going to be? Making room in the home. We're going to talk about making room in the home. I am going to teach this message like it's the last message of the year for me because it is.
We might not get out till one o'clock. I'm just playing. I want to teach this in a very, very practical way. I asked the Lord, how did you want me to bring this out? He sent me to this passage of scripture and I was like, oh my goodness, this has been here all my life and I have never even appreciated it like I'm about to teach it today. This is going to be something practical. You will literally go home and use in your house starting today.
It's not going to be one of those that has to- you have to grow into you will never see the furniture in your house the same way again when you leave today. Understood? 2 Kings chapter number 4 start at the 8th verse. Here's what it says. One day, Elisha went to the town of Shunem, a wealthy woman lived there and she urged him to come to her home for a meal. After that, whenever he passed that way, he would stop there for something to eat.
She said to her husband, I am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God. Let's build a small room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by. When I read this, the Lord just highlighted it to me like I had never read 2 Kings chapter four before in my life. Now I stopped right there and only read verse 8, 9 and 10 because it's the furniture that I want to speak into, but please do yourself a favor in your own time.
Go back and read the rest of chapter number four. This narrative between Elisha and the Shunammite woman because it is absolutely amazing. The reason why I'm not even going into it is because if I go into it, that'll be my whole sermon, and I'll never get to the point in my assignment that He gave me for today. It is rich. You all have homework. What's your homework? Read the whole chapter. Isn't it bless your whole life.
It's so amazing, but I just want to deal with what this woman did for this prophet in her home because we should be doing the same thing, creating and making room for God in our homes. If the only time you feel God's presence is when you are in here and not in your home, it's because you have not made that home an environment for you to commune with God. This should be a one week extension to what you do all week long.
Here is the assignment that I have for today. Make room in your home. Bow your heads and pray over the word. Let's jump right into it. Holy spirit, help us to make room in the home. Amen. This wealthy young woman is married. She is the woman of influence. Elisha is the one who has picked up the mantle from Elijah. He is doing actually twice the amount of miracles that his predecessor, his mentor Elijah did.
As this man comes through the city of Shunem, this wealthy woman identifies that this is a man of God and she asks him over to eat. Every time he would come through that area, she would make sure that he was invited to the house for something to eat. This wealthy woman then gets the bright idea that, hey, we should have a place for him to stay when he comes over. That way he doesn't have just come over for a day, he can actually spend the night. They made room for him. Literally, built an addition on top of their roof. This was a one-story house that now became a two-story house because she made room for the prophet, not just his come by and have a seat at the table while they ate, but had a place for him to lay his head and be comfortable. She put into this room a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp because he wasn't moving in with him. He was just going to be spending the night. I have never seen the bed, the table, the chair, and the lamp so lit up for me in my study.
What I begin to understand is that there's no one in this room right now that doesn't have a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. It'll be different if the Lord was asking us to make room and put a throne in there. "I need a comfortable place to sit down and I'm a king, get a throne." This is not about making room just for him. It's about making room in what you already have to see God in every place that you lay, sit, eat, and light up.
I just want to go through these four articles that she put in his room, starting with the bed. The bed is the place of rest and intimacy. When you get in your bed, it should be a place you think to yourself, "I can rest here and I can have an intimate time here." Now, before you think that's just about sex, I don't want anybody to think or for the single people in the room, "Well, I ain't intimate yet so, sir, I can only rest in here because that intimate side. I believe in God, but it haven't happened yet."
I'm talking about intimate moments with the Lord. It should be a place where you can rest and have intimate moments with the Lord. How many people have read their Bibles in their bed? How many people can admit you've had the best sleep in your life before you get to the 14th verse. You wake up, you go to the bathroom at 2:00 AM. You're like, "Oh, amen. Lord, your presence is so refreshingly relaxing. I was about to read 15 chapters, but after the third verse, just a sweet aroma of rest." I think God's tickled by that. He's not like, "Huh, you ain't even make it to a chapter."
The fact that you fell asleep reading his Word and not scrolling through your phone, the fact that you went to sleep with Him on your mind and not them on your mind. I want to give you scriptures that can anchor these places where I'm telling you, you can have an experience with God. The bed is the first place. I'm giving you these scriptures. Write these scriptures down because these are scriptures you can use to stand on, to lay on, to rest on in moments where you feel like you've been troubled.
How many people have had struggles sleeping or just resting? You go to sleep tired. You wake up tired because rest is different from sleep. You want to make sure you have something, a scripture to stand on. You all know I'm big on Bible and you all getting this work today. When I tell you about to get verse upon verse upon verse, it's coming for your neck hard. You all ready? If you ready to go, say, let's go.
If you ready to go say, let's go.
If you ready to go say, let go.
Psalm 149:1, here's what it says. "Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing His praises in the assembly of the faithful. All Israel, rejoice in your maker. People in Jerusalem, exalt in your king. Praise His name with dancing accompanied by the tambourine and harp." Can I just pause right there and say this is why I turn up on Sundays? I'm going to praise the Lord with dancing. I don't have a tambourine no more. I come from tambourine church. It was like the one legal instrument people could use that were not a part of the band.
The people that really had it made the people that really couldn't do it put their tambourine away because they're looking to cord and that person will be over there —- You'll be like, "Okay, well, I defer to Sister Charlotte. She seems to have it. I don't." Praise His name with dancing, accompanied by the tambourine and the harp. Let me just say one more thing about this verse. My mama, and there's a lady that usually comes floating from over here in this section, those who put all the younger people in here to shame.
You all be sitting there like, "Hallelujah." My mama on a cane, like, "I bet you won't stop me from praising. I bet you--" I don't know, and don’t miss a beat. That other lady just be like, "" I know what's going through some of yours' heads. "Oh, my goodness, it's such a distraction." It's an indictment that your grandmamma is beating your praises. Well, I just don't come from that. One of them is white and one of them is Black. She got everything covered.
"For the Lord delights in His people. He crowns the humble with victory. Let the faithful rejoice that He honors them. Let them sing for joy as they lie on their--" After all that dancing and all that praising, when you get into bed, you should sing for joy as you get in the bed. Here's the next verse. Proverbs 3, starting at the 21st verse, "My child, don't lose sight of common sense and discernment. Hang on to them for they will refresh your soul. They are like jewels on a necklace. They keep you safe on your way and your feet will not stumble. You can go to bed without fear. You will lie down and sleep soundly."
This is somebody's verse right here. Because you need a verse to stand on, in this case, lay on. When the enemy is trying to fight your mind, you need to quote scripture to him. You pull that verse up and you let him know, "I'm going to sleep soundly tonight because I found a verse for it in the Word. I'm going to use discernment and common sense." Common sense, if I step back, as Sam said earlier, and I gain perspective, if I look at the broader picture, here's what I'm going to find out. Everything I'm going through is not outside of God's ability to handle.
I might be in the middle of a situation that I don't know all the context to. I don't know how long I'm going to be in this situation. What I'm not going to do is stay up till four o'clock in the morning, racking my brain, trying to figure out what's going to happen. I'm going to sleep. I have somebody who never sleeps and never slumbers and His name ain't mine. He is the King of Kings. He is the Lord of Lords. He is in charge of my beginning and my end.
He is Alpha and Omega, and He is the God that has ordained and instructed and oversees my mettle, so I'm going to sleep because when I get up in the morning, this situation's still going to be here, and though I may not like what I'm going through right now, I will not let the enemy rob my rest and my intimacy with Him in the middle of it. Go to sleep. Go to sleep. "I'm having trouble going to sleep and it's just such a struggle." You need a Word. You need a Word.
Sam, I just need to write this verse out on a piece of paper, put it in your pillow. Lay on it. That's just-- Okay, I'll try it though — you knock it. Try it. The bed is a place for rest and intimacy. Here's the next article, the table. The table is the place for fellowship and communion. I want you to see your table every time you sit at it, as a place where you fellowship and have communion with God, common unity with God. I don't care if you eating a bowl of cereal, if you eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, if you're eating some ramen noodles.
I don't care if it's an oak table that's been passed down for four generations. Your great, great, great grandfather had this table and you have refurbished it and put it back and restored it. I don't care if it's a fold-out plastic table, you sitting in a one-bedroom efficiency and you got a little table with a fold-out chair. That table is a place that can remind you I have fellowship and common unity with God Himself.
1Corinthians chapter, number 10, starting out the first verse. I'm reading a lot in this, but you need to have context to it. I felt like when I read the verse that specifically talks about the table that I would be disrespecting the text if I only read that verse. Thinking about the context of the whole thing before I get into it. Here's what it says. I don't want you to forget dear brothers and sisters about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago.
All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them and that rock was Christ.
That is gangster right there. Just so you know who that was, that wasn't any regular rock. That rock was Jesus. Yet, God was not pleased with most of them and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. These things happened as a warning to us so that they would not crave evil things as they did or worship idols, as some of them did.
As the scriptures say, the people celebrated in feast with feasting and drinking and they indulge in pagan revelry. We must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did causing 23,000 of them to die in one day, nor should we put Christ to the test as some of them did and died from snake bites. Don't grumble, as some of them did, and they were destroyed by the angel of death. This is dark.
These things happen to them as examples for us. Phew, glad it was not us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age. If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience period. Can I just stop right there? How many people in here have ever been tempted with something? If that ain't 100%, I promise you right now.
How many people have been tempted by something ever in your life? Here's what Paul said you're normal. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. Here's the reason why we don't have more transparency in the church when it comes to our temptations and our struggles and our vices because we don't have the full church giving their experience as to what they went through.
As a matter of fact, most people when they give their life to Christ, they go back and revise their testimonies. Edited testimonies never freed anybody. For all the church mothers in the room that think that the young women coming up should be dressing in a different way and shouldn't be acting this way or responding this way, it would behoove the church mothers to at least admit.
That before they found that long dress, just saying, it would behoove the older men to tell the younger men that before you found that faithfulness to your wife, before you were able to start governing your eyes, that you might have had a little stash of Hugh Hefner publications. It might just help if we know the full story. Let me just put it this way. If we were as transparent as the Bible and we read, think we'd all be better. That's what I'm saying.
God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than what you can stand.
When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you can endure. Now, can I just stop right here? You see the exit when you see the temptation, not before. Lord if you don't want me to do this.
Don't let them call. No, the exit comes with the temptation because without a choice, we don't know if you're faithful or not. That's why He didn't take the tree of knowledge of good and evil out of the garden because how do I know you are obedient if you don't have an option to disobey. A temptation is not a temptation until it's a temptation, but He said, there's no temptation that you will ever experience that I will not give you an exit sign for. It's only when the temptation comes that you I will present you with the option to do something else, and then you'll know if you're stronger or not. My dear friends flee from the worship of idols.
You are reasonable people. Decide for yourselves for what I'm saying is true. When we bless the cup at the Lord's, what?
Aren't we sharing in the blood of Christ? When we break the bread, aren't we sharing in the body of Christ? Though we are many, we all eat from one loaf for bread, showing that we are one body. Think about the people of Israel. Weren't they united by eating the sacrifices at the altar? What am I trying to say? Am I saying that food offered to idols has some significance or that idols are real gods? No, not at all.
I am saying that these sacrifices are offered to demons not to God. I don't want you to participate with demons. You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons too. You cannot eat at the Lord's table and at the table of demons too. What that table in your house look like? That's all I'm asking. Whose table is that in your house? Is it the Lord's table?
Because if it's not the Lord's table, Paul said there's only one other table it could be. It's either the Lord's table or it's the demon's table. He's talking about communion and we do that once a month at here at Embassy City Church. Do you eat every day? Anybody here eat every day? I didn't ask you if you eat three square meals. I didn't ask you if you were on a keto diet. I did not ask you if you were doing whole 30 this week.
I did not ask you if you were doing Atkins. I did not ask you if you do intermittent fasting. Do you eat every day though? Whose table are you sitting at? What kind of conversation is happening at that table? Who are you thinking about at that table? We have two main tables in our house that we eat at, one for breakfast and one for dinner. I just want to be reminded that at this table, fellowship happens and common unity happens with my brothers and sisters in Christ, and that what whatever conversations I have at this table, I want them to honor the Lord that I am actually serving. I don't want to be gossiping at this table.
I don't want to be backbiting at this table. I don't want to be petty at this table. I don't want to show up angry at this table. I want to be reminded by the things that are in my house, I have an opportunity to be with the Lord right now. Not only in my bed, but when I get out to my bed, when I sit down at this table, I have an opportunity to fellowship and find common unity with my God at this table right now.
Is there one chair? What's the chair for? Relaxation and reflection. Anybody got a favorite chair in their house? Or maybe it's not your favorite. Anybody got just that chair in your house? That's the only one I got to sit in right now, boss. I'm working on something. Whatever that chair is, it should be a place where you have relaxation and reflection. Here's what it says in Ephesians 2:1, "Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins, you used to live in sin like the rest of the world disobeying the devil, the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God". All of us used to live that way. Thank you so much for your honesty, Paul, go back to the previous verse. I love that he said this. "You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil, the commander of the powers and the unseen world". Ain't that perspective right there? Who's the commander of the powers in the unseen world? It's the devil. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who do what refuse to obey God. I love this. All of us used to live that way. Thank you, Paul. You're an apostle. You wrote all these letters and you're admitting I used to be like that too.
Even as a zealous faithful Jewish rabbi, I used to be like that too. Following the passionate desires and inclinations of my sinful nature. By our very nature, we were subject to God's anger, just like everyone else. Please don't act brand new because you've been saved for 35 years. Please let's not have spiritual amnesia when it comes to the fact that you used to be a sinner. You are saved by grace.
God is so rich in mercy. I can run a revival off that right there. God is so rich in mercy. He loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. Parenthetically, it is only by God's grace that you have been saved for He raised us from the dead, along with Christ and seated us with Him in heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.
Let me just stop. Let me just go back. Give me six again. For He raised us from the dead, along with Christ and seated us with Him in heavenly realms because we are united with who?
Now listen, this is why this is such a diverse church. This is why last summer when all of the stuff was going on racially, I kept pointing back to scripture. Well, everybody kept trying to point back to history, I just kept pointing back to scripture because I was trying to let everybody know that Christ solved all of this on the cross. Our issue has never been black and white.
In this country, it's an issue, but God resolved that issue long ago. We're just trying to play catch up because all racism is, is a spirit of division by a different name. That's all any ism is, racism, classism, feminism. Fascism is a spirit of division by a different name. You back up history before black people met white people, white people was killing each other.
Back that thing all the way up, Africans were killing each other back. Back that thing all the way up, Southeast Asians were killing each other. Back that thing all the way up, Native Americans were killing each other because the enemy has never cared what ethnicity you are. He wants to divide you so he can conquer you.
It has never mattered what the division is. He's just happy, he got you to play the part. Put two white people in the room. One will be blonde hair, blue eyes. The other one would be green eyed with red hair. Division. It's a red head. It's a genetic mutation.
Put two black people in the room, let one be dark chocolate and the other one light skin. She thinks she. As if I could control the pigmentation that I came out with in my mama's womb. What is the problem? America is the best country at reminding you simultaneously at who you are and who you are not. So you will never find out your identity by looking at a checkbox on an application or something on television.
You better go to the word of God and be reminded who's you are, how you are because it is God that put us together. That's why Black people can sit next to white people that can sit Native Americans that can sit next to Southeast Asians in this church. Why? Because we are not talking about what the narrative America is. This is an embassy. We repeat heaven's words for us, not America's words for. As a matter of fact, you may not know this ladies, gentlemen, but you're not in America right now. Might as well take my time. You're not in America right now. The moment you drove up on this parking lot, you were in a different country. This is an embassy. It is a physical representation on foreign soil of another country. The country that we come from is heaven, and it is a king that we have not a president. It is the laws, decrees, demands, and precepts of our Bible that we go by, not the constitution.
You all can keep getting mad that America's broken as any other country is, I'm going to stand fast in the firm faith I have that my country is heaven and heaven is my home. This is a temporary assignment that I have as an ambassador of Jesus Christ. When it's all over, every knee is going to bow, every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. I just wanted to make sure I established dominance in here. This is why I go out. Now, I live in America. I want that blue passport. That's a good passport. That passport has benefits.
Okay, love this country, but I know it's broken and I don't want feed into the narrative of CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, BBC. I need to look past all of that with a biblical worldview and go, oh, you still struggling with that right there. I got a verse for that right there. You, mm, hope you get it, Don Lemon. Hope you get it, Sean Hannity, Hope you get it, Biden. Hope you get it, Trump. I don't care. I'm going to stop. Go back to verse six. I'm just letting them marinate.
For he raises from the dead along with Christ and did what, seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. Here's what I'm trying to get you to understand. The next time you sit in any chair in your house, you need to know where you're really seated. If you can be reminded of where you're really seated, you will relax. You'll be able to reflect, God, you are doing something in my life. I can see. I don't even need to stand still and see your salvation, I can just sit down and see you work everything out on my behalf.
Heavenly realms, because we are United with Christ Jesus. Here's why he wanted us seated. God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us as shown in all he has done for us who are United with Christ. Now here's the thing that's amazing. I did not plan this, but the Lord just brought it back to my memory. Remember when everybody was seated up here. That's how God wants us to be. That's a perspective I want you to have every time you sit down. That when you sit down, God literally he--
Thank you, that's a beautiful picture. Y'all see this. This is going to be work of God. God literally seated all of his children down. Y'all sit down. Why you want us to sit down? I want you to relax and I want you to reflect on the good things that I've done for you. Here's why. I'm using you as an example of my glory as an exhibit of my glory to future generations. As you sit down, I get you on roll call whenever I want. You have no idea what I've done in this young man's life.
Ooh, if you knew what I spared him from, what I saved him from, I delivered him from, you would literally praise God for the next hour. Oh, let's not talk about her. If I tell you everything that happened with her life and what I did for her. Literally, he points to you to mock hell. Seat down for a second. Just sit down. I want you to relax and I want you to reflect. Now you remember, Satan you said you was going to have a generational curse in this family. Remember you said you had a lock on this family.
I know you got granddaddy and I know you got the father, but remember you said you was going to have him too. Look at him. Does he look bothered by you? Well, he still struggles sometimes. Who got him now? What could you possibly form as a weapon that I wouldn't take care of because he's learned to call on by name. I remember when he was running around acting crazy but look, he's seated now. He can reflect and relax from the seated position while I use him as one more exhibit to show how merciful I am, how gracious I am, how loving I am, how long-suffering I am.
That's why He wants you seated. See, I want you to see the bed, I want you to see this chair, I want you to see this table as physical representations of a place that you can go in your own house and be reminded of what God is doing in and through you and for you. The last thing is the lamp. The lamp, this is for illumination and inspiration. Y'all get anything out of this?
This is worth 14 days for you. We ain't going to have a service next week. Just pull up these notes. Let me rock with this chair for a minute. Just sit up on this chair. On this free Sunday, let me sit in this chair. For most of you, you're going to be like, "It's the bed for me."
It's this bed for me, man? I'm not getting out of these covers at all. Tech team, children's ministry, worship team, everybody that serves on the weekend, let's give our volunteers, our ambassadors a hand, all of our ambassadors that serve.
They don't have to work next week. They going to get up in the morning like [gasps].
Anybody ever forgot that you had a day off?
[gasps] [sighs] That second asleep, it hits different.
When you wake up thinking you had to do something, you're like, "[chuckles] All right. Not today."
This lamp is for illumination and inspiration. Now, when I was studying for this, what I wrote when I got this was illumination, revelation, and inspiration. The Holy Spirit said, "Take revelation out." He said it doesn't fit. I said, "It don't fit? How does that not fit?" He said it doesn't fit because I'm not trying to give them revelation. In this application, I want them to be illuminated. There's some stuff I want to light up for them, not reveal, just light up.
I'm going to show you how you light stuff up. Here's what it says in Psalm 18:28, "You light a lamp for me. The Lord, my God, lights up my darkness. You light a lamp for me. The Lord, my God, lights up my darkness. You light a lamp for me. That's how I meditate on the word. I literally just start doing it over and over again. "You light a lamp for me. The Lord, my God, lights up my darkness. You light a lamp for me. The Lord, My God, lights up my darkness." When a verse hits me, I'll get up with my Bible and start walking around my office with it like this.
"You light a lamp for me. The Lord, My God, lights up my darkness." I might do it 20 to 30 times. I'm letting it seep into my soul because I want to know what lights me up. I want to know what gives me illumination. Anybody has some dark spots that you've tried to navigate and you're like, "I don't know what to do right here." God will light that up for you. Here's what it says in Psalm 119:105. Here's how you do it. "Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path." I can stand with everybody in this room that is a believer of Jesus Christ.
You have dark spots in your life that you cannot navigate because you don't have a word for that spot yet. The moment you get a word, you will have illumination, you will know exactly what to do, but you cannot get a word for your life if you are not a person that loves the word.
May I say that again?
You cannot get a word for your life if you are not a person that loves the word. Let me say this because I know that there are some people in here that you just love reading the Bible. You're just, "Oh, my goodness. This is the best thing since sliced bread." Let me tell you, for the average person, Bible reading is an acquired taste. Here's the reason why I want to say that because I don't want you to feel bad if you're not like, "I just love reading the word all the time." Some of y'all you're like, I struggle. I try to read it, I be like, what is going on here? I don't-- y gosh. I mean, Lamentations, bro, I'm sad and Jeremiah is sad than me, bro. We're just not doing good.
Leave that alone. I tried to read the Bible man, and it's just Leviticus, it's just hard. When I read it, I just cried. I don't understand why God's so mad. It's an acquired taste, you got to keep reading it. Eat your brussels sprouts. "I don't like Brussel--" Eat the brussels sprouts. "I don't like Bru--" Aint nothing else coming, bro. There's no Go-gurt for you. There are no gummy bears for you. There is no Blue Bell ice cream for you until you eat these brussels sprouts. Why? It's an acquired taste so I don't care if you don't like the Bible, read it.
I don't really understand it. Read it. You don't understand your husband, you don't understand your wife. You don't understand the world yet you are still in it. You are still in the relationship. There is no difference in growing your relationship with God. You're going to have to read your Bible until you get it. I just can't figure it out. Read it because it is going to be necessary for it to light up areas of your life that you just like, "I have no idea what's going on here." As soon as you get a word, you get so much context.
Well, God speaks to me like this. Well, he's not going to sound any different than what he wrote in his word. Once you hear him say something to you, find out the word that goes along with that. Put those two things together and the enemy can't stop you from doing anything. Let the word be a lamp unto your feet and a light on the path that you go on. I need a scripture for every season of my life. When it's illuminated and I have that verse, I feel great. Now here's the inspiration part, Matthew 5, and then we out. Matthew 5:14, here's what it says, "You are the light of the world."
This is what Jesus said about us. This is what he says about you. You are the light of the world, like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights, a lamp, and then puts it under a basket. Duh. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see so that everyone will praise your heavenly father. The lamp is for illumination and inspiration. The first part is about the illumination that comes from the word, but that illumination should inspire us to go out and be a light to the entire world.
Here's the thing. Please write this down. You cannot be light if you're not lit. You cannot be light if you are not lit. There's a lot of stuff that you can be lit by, but only one thing that's going to give glory to God and that's his word. If you get inspiration from any other place besides God's word, then you will attract them to the thing that you are inspired by and you will ultimately connect them to the thing that you're inspired to. The word should be the one that gives us our inspiration and lights us up because when we go out into a very dark world, we should be shining bright.
We cant have cynical believers out here representing Jesus. Remember, we are all ambassadors of Jesus Christ. We can't have you out in the world as his representative. Good morning. Good morning. Ooh, don't you have on a [unintelligible 00:45:01]? Please don't disrespect me like that. Don't respect heaven like that." "Why are you mad?" "I ain't mad. Traffic." "So no warfare?" Just 7:30 AM in the morning, 6:35 AM traffic got you bitter. Anybody ever had when you were a kid, those little glow-in-the-dark decals?" Remember those?
What did you need to do to that glow-in-the-dark decal to actually glow in the dark? Put it right in front of the light, right? Some of you, if you had a little lamp, you put it right up under there. "I'm going to be lit tonight." You hold it up under the light, then you pull it off, put it on. You go into the darkest room in the house, just be giggling, [giggles] [laughs] Like a little leprechaun. [giggles] The brightness of that decal is directly correlated to the time it spent in the light.
I submit that the reason why some of our ambassadors, believers in Jesus are not lit up in a dark world is because they don't spend enough time under the light of His Word. Without being under the light of His Word, you can't be a light to the world. It's not coming from you. It's coming from who's on the inside of you. If you haven't spent time under His light, you won't be lit. What is God saying to you? Make room in the home? You should walk out of your house bright because you spent time under His light in your house.
You cannot take what you get on Sundays and think that's going to light you up for a whole week. I needed to say that. "Ooh, we had a time in church. Oh, it was so good, took so many notes." Those are my digital people. "It was a five swipe up Sunday. Oh, my God." My old school would be like, "It was a four-page Sunday for me." If you never go back to Him, if, by Tuesday, you just snap back into petty, angry, moody, you need to be under that light every single day.
As much as I want everybody to be plugged into a party and to be connected in a smaller space for a community to grow and develop, it's never going to substitute what you need to be doing in your own house. That's why today we covered the bed because I know you lay down somewhere. I'm always thinking about everybody in the room. I remember when I first moved out here from California, I had a mattress with no box spring. I think it was on the floor. No headboard, no box spring. Somebody gave me a mattress, and I slid it into my bedroom, and laid it down, and put a little-- the elastic ones.
The fitted sheet. Yes, thank you, baby.
I can't mess with the unfitted sheets. I don't have a tuck anointing. I have a stone. I was in that one-bedroom apartment, laying on my mattress, my bed, propped up against the wall, no headboard, reading my Bible. I had enough to do. I remember the counter was the table because I didn’t have a table. I had a counter, and I bought three high chairs from Walmart. I would sit at one of the chairs and I would eat my food. I didn't have a microwave so I had to put everything in the oven or cook it and I would sit there and I would eat it.
That was the table and then that high chair also doubled as the chair, because I didn't have no other chairs. I just swirled around from the counter, and I'm like, now this is a chair. This is my chair, where I will relax and reflect. It can serve a dual purpose. When I flick on these lights I'm reminded that I need light in my life for me to know where I'm going.
Anybody ever stub your toe in your own house? You're familiar with it, but if all the lights are off, you just don't have the same confidence as you do when the lights are on.
You get up in the middle of the night if the lights are on, you still got on the lights, you get out, you be like-- Let them same lights go out. Anybody who's part of the blackout in our little snow day, a little ice storm earlier this year, autumn lights were off you burst out that day, you were like, "Mm-hmm, just want to make sure can't remember if I left a basket around here." We get in certain seasons of life where we feel like we're groping, a word will light up. Hear me, your next step. Not your five-year plan. It's a lamp unto your feet.
Not into the hallway. It'll get you to get to the next day, next hour, the next moment. Make room in your home. I hope that when you get back in your bed today for that glorious Sunday nap, that you're reminded that this is a place of rest and intimacy. I don't have to be tormented in my own bed. I can go to sleep hoping you sit at the table to have that fellowship and that common unity that you think to yourself, "Oh my goodness I'm so grateful." Lord this is your table. What we talk about at this table will bring glory to you. I thank you for the food that you've given me at this table."
Whether you have a comfy chair or the chair at your dining room table also doubles as your chair. I hope you see yourself seated with him in heavenly places. That all this stuff that's going on in life is going to be over someday. Whether it's your best day or your worst day, be reminded of who you are seated next to. He raised us together, sat us together, in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Lastly, flick the lights on. Everybody do like this. Just dark day, this is all I want you to do. It just seems like it's closing on you. I know you're just like, "Let me get that verse out. What was it again?"
Psalm 119:105. Yes, you are lamping to my feet. My son, thank you Holy Spirit, Noah last night-- We told Noah to go upstairs three times and get his suitcase. He spent the night at his aunt's house and his uncle's house and we said, "Hey, we need you to go upstairs and get your stuff." Well, he left it in the wood room, the wood room is the furthest room on our second floor, furthest room, and Noah is scared of the dark. We told him three times to go up there. He kept coming back saying, "I can't find it," and mom checked him and said, "You sound like you lying, what are you not telling me?"
I said, "Son it would behoove you to just tell us what the situation is." He said, "It's in the wood room and it's dark, and I'm afraid of the dark." Sometimes I have moments where I have to challenge the young lad. I said, "Look me directly in my eyes," I said, "it sounds like you have a fear." He said, "Yes." I said, "Tonight you'll face that fear, and here's how you're going to face that fear. You're going to walk up those stairs. From the time that you get up those stairs to the time you get in the wood room, you are going to flick on every light upstairs. When you get to the door of the wood room, which is so scary for you, you're just going to reach your right arm in."
There's three lights, you're going to flick on all the lights at the same time.
You're going to look in there and what you're going to find is your suitcase. Not the Joker, not a serial killer. There are no ninjas in the corner. All of this is populated in your mind because of darkness. The moment light comes in, it calibrates all the fear."
About three minutes later he came downstairs in his PJs, suited and booted.
His eyes were moist. If he would have blinked, tears would have fallen out of his eyes. I said, "Oh, you found your pajamas?" "Yes." I said, "It seems like you faced your fear." "Yes." I said, "Here's why I had you do that and I'm so proud of you, son. Here's why I had you do that because daddy would never send you into a dangerous situation."
I said, "Do you honestly think I'd send you upstairs to be destroyed by a serial killer?
On my watch, in my home?"
"No." How much more your Heavenly Father? You might be facing some dark days but you are not alone. Whatever He's asking you to step into, he will be with you every step of the way. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message? This is so practical. I wanted to end on the note that's going to help you just appreciate what God is doing over the next 14 days. We'll come back first weekend in January nine and eleven o'clock ready to worship the Lord and bring in the new year.
I want that bed, that table, that chair, and that lamp to mean something different to you today. What is the Holy Spirit saying to you? Do this message right now. In what area do you need to make the most room for him? For some of you, it's the bedroom. That's where the pressures of the whole day start to collapse on your head and you start worrying or rehearsing conversations that you had. God just wants you to rest and have peace. For some of you is to table. Some of you haven't been at your table in so long because your life is so busy.
You eat in the living room while watching TV and while shooting the e-mails and you just really haven't had any communion time. Some of you are still trying to break that grind, hustle thing you got going on and so you can't sit in a chair and relax. Every time you sit down you feel unproductive. "I got to be busy. I got to be doing something. If I sit down I'm lazy." No, you're not lazy. Relax, reflect. Hasn't He done enough? What you doing? What was the last time you had a Sabbath Day?
Finally, illumination and inspiration. That can only come from the Word of God. Thank you Holy Spirit. That can only come from the Word of God. It can't even come from people who teach the Word of God. Some of you have replaced your podcast of people teaching the Bible with you reading the Bible. He wants to speak to you through the scriptures. Not through someone else to you, through the scriptures. Let Him light you up. Holy Spirit, I thank you for every single person. I thank you for the 11 weeks that you have spoken to us.
If we can't make room now, we'll never make no room. Thank you, Lord God, that what you have done in our heart, our head, and now our homes will usher us into the New Year ready for the release of your blessings that you want to bring to us. Now, let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be acceptable to you, amen.
