interrupt me, please

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01 Following God – 4.7.13

INTERRUPT ME, PLEASE INTRO: MARTIN LUTHER “Martin was born at Eisleben (about 120 miles southwest of modern Berlin) to Margaret and Hans Luder (as it was locally pronounced). He was raised in Mansfeld, where his father worked at the local copper mines. Hans sent Martin to Latin school and then, when Martin was only 13 years old, to the University of Erfurt to study law. There Martin earned both his baccalaureate and master’s degrees in the shortest time allowed by university statutes. He proved so adept at public debates that he earned the nickname “The Philosopher.” Then in 1505 his life took a dramatic turn. As the 21-year-old Luther fought his way through a severe thunderstorm on the road to Erfurt, a bolt of lightning struck the ground near him. “Help me, St. Anne!” Luther screamed. “I will become a monk!” The scrupulous Luther fulfilled his vow: he gave away all his possessions and entered the monastic life.

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Luther was extraordinarily successful as a monk. He plunged into prayer, fasting, and ascetic practices—going without sleep, enduring bone-chilling cold without a blanket, and flagellating himself. As he later commented, “If anyone could have earned heaven by the life of a monk, it was I.”1 Although he sought by these means to love God fully, he found no consolation. He was increasingly terrified of the wrath of God: “When it is touched by this passing inundation of the eternal, the soul feels and drinks nothing but eternal punishment.” During his early years, whenever Luther read what would become the famous “Reformation text”—Romans 1:17—his eyes were drawn not to the word faith, but to the word righteous. Who, after all, could “live by faith” but those who were already righteous? The text was clear on the matter: “the righteous shall live by faith.”2

1

Mark Galli and Ted Olsen, 131 Christians Everyone Should Know (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 3334. 2

Mark Galli and Ted Olsen, 131 Christians Everyone Should Know (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 34.

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BLAISE PASCAL Pascal, renowned scientist, “was exploring the spiritual world, which was undergoing a revolution across Europe. While pietism flourished in Germany, and Wesleyan holiness spread through England, Catholic France was feeling the effects of Jansenism—a form of Augustinianism that taught predestination and divine grace, rather than good works, as vital for salvation. In 1646 Pascal came in contact with Jansenism and introduced it to his sister, Jacqueline, who eventually entered the convent of Port-Royal, a center of Jansenism. Pascal, however, continued to struggle spiritually: he wrestled with the dichotomy between the world and God. Then on November 23, 1654, Pascal experienced a “definitive conversion” during a vision of the crucifixion: “From about half-past ten in the evening until about half-past twelve … FIRE … God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, and not of the philosophers and savants. Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.” He recorded the experience (called the “Mémorial”) on a piece of parchment, which he carried with him the rest of his life, sewed inside his coat. He began a life-long association

01 Following God – 4.7.13

with Port-Royal—though he, unlike his sister, never became a “solitaire.””3

CHARLES FINNEY The 29-year-old lawyer Charles Grandison Finney had a different sort of interruption. "So moved by the Spirit of God, Finney had decided he must settle the question of his soul’s salvation. So on October 10, 1821, he headed out into the woods near his Adams, New York, home to find God. “I will give my heart to God, or I never will come down from there,” he said. After several hours, he returned to his office, where he experienced such forceful emotion that he questioned those who could not testify to a similar encounter. “The Holy Spirit … seemed to go through me, body and soul,” he later wrote. “I could feel the impression, like a wave of electricity, going through and through me. Indeed it seemed to come in waves of liquid love, for I could not express it in any other way.” The next morning, Finney returned to his law office to meet with a client whose case he was about to argue. “I have a

3

Mark Galli and Ted Olsen, 131 Christians Everyone Should Know (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 61.

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retainer from the Lord Jesus Christ to plead his cause,” he told the man, “and cannot plead yours.” And so began the new career of the man who would become the leading revivalist in the nineteenth century.”4

There are times in the lives of individuals and groups when God steps in and interrupts the status quo. He does things to shake up how we view reality and our present circumstances. He may allow sickness in us or in someone we love to get our attention. He may do it through a job loss or challenges at work. He may even allow the death of someone near to us be a means of getting us onto His plan. While he may do this for a variety of reasons, one thing is sure, interruptions can be a part of God’s plan in helping us to follow Him. There are times in the Bible when God says “I am doing this because….” Many times, God punished the people of Israel and told them that their sin and rebellion was the reason why He punished them. While sin is something that we certainly need to be aware of, that’s not the main part of what we’re 4

Mark Galli and Ted Olsen, 131 Christians Everyone Should Know (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 6768.

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going to be talking about. Essentially, we are going to be looking at three reasons that God seems to interrupt the status quo in our lives. There may be more reasons, but these are the three that we’ll discuss today. Sometimes,

GOD INTERRUPTS US TO REFINE HIS PLAN FOR US. Essentially, He will do something to steer us in a different direction, whether individually or corporately. He uses a variety of means to get us from one path onto the path that he fully intends for us.

INDIVIDUALLY: In Acts 16:6-10, the Apostle Paul was in the midst of his second missionary journey. And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus

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did not allow them. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.5 Essentially, the Apostle Paul was working hard to spread the gospel in what is now the Eastern Part of Turkey. Time and again he was hindered by the Holy Spirit. Now the Bible is not clearly exactly how He did that, but the door was closed. Eventually, they made it to the city of Troas on the Western side of Asia minor. The Bible goes on to say… And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. 6

5

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Ac 16:6–8. 6

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Ac 16:9–10.

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So God allowed Paul to pursue his own plan for a while and then interrupted his attempts to get him ultimately to the plan that God had in store. Once Paul Moved onto God's plan, God had great fruit for him. while it's unclear exactly how long it took, it seems like within a week Paul was in Philippi teaching to the leading ladies there and leading one-woman Lydia to the Lord. At what what may have been months of fruitless ministry within a short period of time God let Paul to exactly what he wanted him to do, and brought they results to prove it. As I consider this account, I wonder, why didn’t God just tell him where he needed to go in the first place? It could be that God had been calling people in Macedonia and wanted Paul to go there all along. It could be too that Paul was not ready to hear that God’s plan was not for him to be in Asia Minor at that time….. In addition to working individually in our lives, sometimes God works corporately among churches and organizations in order to get us to be onto his plan.

CORPORATELY: Just prior to Paul's redirection the next chapter 16 we see an event that takes place that really shakes up much of what was the church at that time. You see, there had been so many new believers from a variety of different faiths that they needed to solidify the question of what does it really take to

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be saved. So some of the church leaders from Jerusalem who were concerned about all of this new growth set out from Jerusalem to tell people that they needed to obey the law in order to be saved. As you can imagine, this caused great turmoil among the new believers. They had heard of gospel of salvation by grace through faith alone and you were being told that they needed to obey other laws. And so as with many organizations, a committee was formed in order To settle the question once and for all for these new believers. Ultimately they came to a decision that it was truly by grace through faith alone and that these new believers did not need to be circumcised and follow the other things that the Jewish believers had followed. They did, however, urged them not to follow the practices that they'd been doing before. So while this experience may not necessarily be a redirection it's somewhat of a unification of the church at that time. God used the great growth that that was happening among the Gentiles to bring the church together under one doctrine, under one purpose, under one message of salvation. As a church, we need to pay attention when there are times that God may interrupt what we think we should be doing in order to get on his plan. Last fall, you may remember that the elders had sent a note to the staff saying "hey we need some clarification on the strategy and purpose for this new

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building." It's over the course of several weeks, we spent time praying in meeting and talking and discussing considering where we are as a church and where we need to be. Out of that series of meetings we came out, not necessarily with a strategy for a new building, but a strategy for the church. That strategy is something that pastor's been talking about the last couple of months as he's walk-through Acts chapter 17 answering the question why we are here. I found it exciting to be in those meetings because it seemed as though God was clearly there leading us guiding us directing us to exactly what he wants for First Baptist Rockville. He helped us see that we are a church of the nations for the nation and because of that we need to exist to win disciple and send people across the street and around the world. Through those meetings God gave us a clear picture for us of how that should happen, that small group ministry is it something that we really need to consider and we really need to embrace in order to reach Montgomery County with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe God has us, the people of First Baptist Church, in the midst of a redirection, He is refining his plan for us.

In addition to interrupting us to refine His plan for us,

01 Following God – 4.7.13

GOD INTERRUPTS US TO FIX SOMETHING IN US. INDIVIDUALLY: (The Woman at the well.)

CORPORATELY: (Joshua 7 – defeat at AI)

Last, but certainly not least

GOD INTERRUPTS US TO BRING US TO REPENTANCE. INDIVIDUALLY: Acts 9:1-11 – Road to Damascus

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01 Following God – 4.7.13

CONCLUSION: As I was preparing for this message, I looked through the Internet to find different things that might help us understand the idea of interruptions. I can across videos that may have helped to paint the picture of what it means to be interrupted, but it only seem to be more of a distraction. And then I came across a phrase that found itself on various T-shirts Internet pictures and all sorts of other things. That phrase said… “Please don’t interrupt me while I’m ignoring you.” So often we run through life so busy filling our days with things that end up being endless distractions, when all along God is simply trying to get our attention. This week was one of those weeks for me, where distractions and interruptions got in the way even as i was trying to prepare this message. Time and time again I felt like I simply needed to just be still and be quiet before the Lord yet interruption and distractions and various things would jump in the way. Maybe in some way I was allowing those things to interrupt. Maybe in someway it was gods way of getting my attention I'm trying to get me onto the path that he wanted me to be on. Well we may not intentionally be thinking, Our actions may in fact be communicating to God…

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“Please don’t interrupt me while I’m ignoring you.” Maybe our attitude should be… Interrupt me, please – if I’m not following you the way you want me to.

POINTS TO PONDER: •

Is God working to lead you in a new direction?

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Is God trying to change something in your life?

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Have you responded to God’s call for salvation?

So what about you? Is there something that God is doing in your life that is causing some sort of interruption? Do you need to respond to him in someway