Hillside Free Methodist Church

Pastor Mark Adams

Evan Help Us #4: Building Family Character through Prayer

Pray

GE 8:15 Then God said to Noah, 16 "Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you--the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground--so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it." GE 8:18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds--everything that moves on the earth--came out of the ark, one kind after another.

The POINT:

Families that learn to listen to God come out of hardship together.

Opened with Bill Cosby’s “Noah - Right” (see www.jr.co.il/humor/noah4.txt )

David Flood has a T-Shirt that always gets me. “You’re just jealous because the voices don’t talk to you.” I remember an old Matlock TV episode in which Matlock had to defend a religious zealot, and there was philosophical test they applied in the episode - “It’s perfectly normal for people to pray – as long as God does not talk back.”

Is it crazy to hear the voice of God? Well, sometimes it is. On the other hand, if it is crazy to hear the voice of God then we are reading a book that purports to be written by crazy people. Some of the craziest being people like Moses, Jesus, Paul and Noah. It is true that some people with mental illness or some seizure disorders can hear voices that seem to have an external origin and they interpret that as mother, or the aliens, or the crazy gym coach who made them do too many pushups or Jesus or the Virgin Mary. These voices are intrusions, unwelcome, occur at inopportune times. However, the voice of God can be heard, truly and really by prayerful people who desire to and expect to hear from God from time to time. Today, I want us to learn a bit about prayer that is not merely offering God your personal to-do list, but prayer for the family that seeks to engage the Maker of Universe. Critical to this is understanding that it is not so much HOW you prayer, but grasping to WHOM you pray. God is real. Hearing the voice of God is not crazy, it’s the result of a true spirituality.

Today, we continue our series “Evan Help Us.”

“God said to Noah.” There are three incidents when this phrase is used in Genesis. “Then God said to Noah” ‘I’m going to put an end to the earth, so build yourself an ark’ (6:13). “Then God said to Noah” ‘Come out of the ark, you and your family, and the animals, and multiply and be fruitful’ (8:15). “Then God said to Noah” ‘I now establish my covenant with you and your descendants and every living creature...’ (9:8). When Noah heard God’s voice the first time, it was a message of warning over impending doom and a way of escape. When Noah heard God’s voice the second time, it was a message of safety and blessing. When Noah heard God’s verse the third time, it was a promise of global salvation.

When was the last time you heard God’s voice? When was the last time you were listening? We’ve been learning from the account of Noah in the Bible book of Genesis. It’s a great story. We’ve also been looking each week at video clips from the movie Evan Almighty, a comedy very loosely based on the premise that a modern day Noah could yet happen. The movie comes out on video, by the way, the week after next. It’s a fun film and I recommend the family watch it together.

In the film, the following clip I think is rather revealing when we think of the true meaning of prayer. After all, it’s one thing to pray with the family at church something like the Lord’s prayer, and it’s great to give thanks at mealtime, and it’s amazingly good to gather as a family and pray for your needs. It’s an altogether different thing to actually listen to God. Because when God speaks, if we are listening, we may find our lives changing. That can be a little scary - it’s good, but scary. Let’s see the clip.

. . .

I have wondered how Noah’s wife, 3000 BC, responded to her husbands insistence that God was speaking to him. I wonder if she had the same confused reaction to her husband as does Evan Baxter’s wife in this movie clip. But I do know that when Noah heard the voice of God, and directed his family to begin to build an ark, I’m sure the community thought he was nuts! Most people do understand it when we talk about prayer as a thing we do to talk to a divine being, and hope for the best. Most people do not understand that the divine being might actually talk back.

What if you and your family developed a practice of listening for the voice of God? What happens when you have a big decision to make? Maybe it’s a job to take, or a place to move to? Maybe one of your kids needs to decide between baseball or field and track, or choose which college to attend? Maybe it’s a decision about wether or not you will yield to a particular temptation, or make a sacrifice for someone in need. Maybe you need to figure out how to talk to your wife or your dad.

God wants to help, though we rarely turn to God first. We live in a time when we actually believe we have little need of God. If you’re sick, you take two aspirin and see the physician. Prayer is not the first recourse. If you’re in trouble you call 911 or mom, prayer is not the first recourse. If you have trouble figuring out something at work, you do the research or hire a consultant, prayer is not the first recourse. We have experts and technology to fix stuff. Prayer is icing on a cake we cooked ourselves. In fact, many of us don’t bother with the icing at all.

But what if there is a God? And what if God really, actually from the bottom of his heart loves you wants to be in relationship with you? What if God’s guidance and leading were of value? Wouldn’t you want to pray? To talk with God? Remember pray is not so much about HOW but to WHOM you believe you are praying.

Let me suggest that you gather with your husband, wife, children, parents, friend if your single, prayer group, small group, someone somewhere, and start praying. There are a number of simple methods for prayer and as many ways to pray as there are people who pray.

One of my favorite patterns for prayer is what I call the ACTS way to pray. A - adoration. C - confession. T- Thanksgiving. S- Supplication.

I like this format for three reasons. One, the acronym which is like the Bible book of ACTS is easy to remember. Second, this simple structure is patterned after the great prayers of the Bible, prayers by Moses, Nehemiah, Daniel, David and Jesus - including the Lord’s Prayer. Finally, I like this pattern because it’s pretty much the way I develop any meaningful conversational relationship. To illustrate this, I’m going to pair the ACTS acronym with how I approach my wife, a person about whom I care very deeply.

ACTS starts with Adoration. This is saying hello and being intentional about remembering who you are talking to. I don’t often walk into my house and begin a deep conversation with my wife until I’ve at least said hello, asked how her day was, and whenever possible, give her a hug or kiss and tell her I love her. I’ll offer a compliment whenever possible. I adore her. The same is true with my pattern of prayer with God, I start with orienting myself to a conversation with my maker. You are my Heavenly Father, you love me and you made me. You are the Holy One, the Sovereign One. You are my provider and redeemer and my savior. I start with adoration, by saying hello in a manner that intentionally reminds me of who I am talking with.

ACTS then moves to Confession. Confession at its simplest means being real, being authentic, clearing the air if need be. If I’ve hurt my wife recently, I want to clear the air. Dear, I’m sorry, I know I promised to repair the kitchen faucet last week. Please forgive me, I’ll get on it. Or, sweetie I just have to admit that I’ve been too busy to be with you and the kids, that’s not an excuse, I’m just saying I’m sorry. Honey, I’m feeling really frustrated, I’m not sure what to do about it. Good communication with God requires nothing less. Confess your heart before God, your confusion, lack of faith, sin, doubt. Just get it out.

ACTS then moves to Thanksgiving. Sweetie, thanks a million for getting the kids off to school today. Thanks for being beautiful. Thanks for working hard to help the family make ends meet. God, thanks for life, thanks for my family, thanks for my job, thanks for the sky which is beautiful, thanks for Jesus, thanks for the opportunity to pray at all.

ACTS then moves to supplication. Supplication is a fancy word for asking for something. Dear, can we please work together to get the lawn taken care of this week? Sweetie, I need help thinking through this decision, how will it impact you and the kids, what do you see in it for me, etc. God, please show me the way. God, please help my child grow strong. God, help my son with the upcoming test. Lord, please watch over and protect my family. God please strengthen the president, and open a pathway for the gospel in Burma, and show me how I can participate in helping the family in need across the street.

I like the ACTS acronym. It’s not magic. There are scads of ways to pray. My sister-in-law has a daily prayer rule for her kids. They must pray every day, and for every request they make of God for their own good, they must also think to pray for someone other than themselves or a family member. I like that rule. Some families sing together. There are many ways to pray.

I pray with my sons most days before school. It’s not a long a prayer, it’s brief, and we take turns leading in prayer. But it grounds the day in the presence of Christ. Jake begins the day by reading the Bible, Journaling his thoughts and praying. Some people pray at night, some during the day. Some use written prayers, some are spontaneous.

The form and style is not nearly as important as your heart in prayer. It’s not how, it’s to whom you are praying. That heart, like Noah’s heart, to benefit from prayer, must see it as the development of an honest and real relationship with God. Prayer is not about laying out a laundry list of requests and hoping the maker of the universe will grant a certain percentage of the requests. It’s not merely a religious duty. It is developing your relationship through honest communication with God, and doing it together as family is deeply beneficial.

“Then God said to Noah” ‘Come out of the ark, you and your family, and the animals, and multiply and be fruitful’ (8:15). Prayer, like any form of good relational communication, is two-way. How can you listen for God’s voice? The most important rule is that you have to be quiet, and you have to pay attention. If I am conversing with my wife and all I can do while she is talking is think about what I’m going to say next, I am not dialoguing I am monologuing. In simple human interactions, if I want to pay attention to what some is saying I actually need to turn off the cell phone, shut down the television, turn off the radio, and look at the person and listen. It is no different with God.

There are not many times when the “voice of God” is described in the Bible. For example, the Bible doesn’t tell us what Noah actually heard or sensed when God spoke to him. Was it an audible voice? What is an inner sensation? Did it sound like Noah’s own voice? I don’t know, the Bible doesn’t say. In very few instances, the Bible records God using an audible voice that others heard - such as during the baptism of Jesus and when Saul was blinding on the road to Damascus. These are exceedingly rare.

It seems that when God speaks, at least in the Biblical stories, it is a quiet, still, small voice. According to 1 Kings 19, when Elijah grew very depressed – yes even the prophets got depressed – and he needed to hear from God, he did. But he did not hear from God in huge signs, not in fire, not in wind, not in earthshaking fashion. Rather, he heard a still, small voice.

In my life, this has often been my experience of hearing God. Note that Elijah was in a cave and way from people. Now, I know that you as a family cannot get away to a cave very often. Maybe you can’t get away as an individual very often. But you can get away if you want to, at least sometimes. We surround ourselves with noise. In Noah’s day there were no televisions, no cell phones vibrating in your pocket, no radio talk shows blaring who you should hate today, none of President Bush’s “googles” on Al Gores “Internets” to keep us glued to an electronic virtual world. I don’t think that an increase in education and technology has led to a decrease in people experiencing God because we’ve outgrown God, it’s just that we’ve learned to outshout the voice of God with our round-the-clock noise. I truly believe that each one of us would hear God if actually took time to listen.

For me, hearing the voice God has been a real experience. It doesn’t happen when I’m driving and listen to music, or watching the Bears, or talking with my kids. But when I am quiet before God, and literally ask for guidance, for a word, for a thought, I often get a strong and real impression. I’ve had to get away to do this, long walks alone, time in silence in the sanctuary. Sometime I’ve thought I’ve heard real voice. Once when looking for work, I had the strongest sense of a voice, it was not audible it was internal, but it was strong and clear, “This is where you need to be.” In praying several years ago about the direction fo the church, the strongest and clearest guidance I had received in years was simply, “start gardening.” When Kerrie was in a terrible car accident as a teen, one her best friends almost died and her spirit was crushed, the voice of God came through audibly by way of an old woman who just said, “God is with you.” It turned Kerrie’s life around. Carole battled with smoking for years, but one day, in prayer, she says it was like an audible voice “I’ve done it.” And she hasn’t smoked since. Karen, in seeking guidance and help when she was struggling with cancer came here, to this sanctuary, and prayed in silence when she looked up and an angel stood there with her, went behind her with his hand on her shoulder and disappeared. This strengthened her faith in a time of great distress. God is real. God still speaks for people who are listening.

Mom and dad, son and daughter, aunt and uncle, you do not face your family decisions alone. The weight of the world is not on your shoulders alone. God is with you and wants to help you, and wants to communicate with you. I actually believe God is speaking to us all the time, it’s just that we’re not listening. When he the voice of God, it prompts in directions we are often not prepared to go. To give up a Saturday afternoon of College Football to help an elderly neighbor, to tithe when the budget is tight, to put away that R rated film, to take the family to church.

In Noah’s day, people ignored the voice of God. They made up their own gods and lives their lives in a way that led to violence and anger, bitterness and selfishness, lust and greed. Not so Noah. He paid attention to God, he and his family took time to hear the voice of God. It led them to sacrifice their time and talents and to work together to build a crazy big boat. But their radical obedience to the voice of God, despite the ridicule of their peers, led to their salvation, and even the salvation of the world.

They were prayerful. Not just telling God what they wanted from God - in fact there is no example in which Noah made any requests of God at all. Just the opposite, the biblical example is of a playful, diligent, hard working family that worshiped God and prayed. That’s what allowed them to hear the voice of God. Isn’t this the kind of family we all want? The kind of church? A connection of people who are close enough to God that they hear him, and then follow that voice to the degree that we participate in God’s big plan to save the world!

I invite you today, as we close our service, to pray. Pray with your family. We’re going to spend some time here right now, being quiet, and practicing listening to God. Ask God a question. This is not like magic eight ball or seeking a fortune cookie answer. It is a humble hope and expectation that the God who loves you desires to actually converse with you. The kind of questions I ask when I pray, and wait to listen for an answer are usually pretty simple. Most frequently, it’s “Now what” or “what’s next.” Sometimes it’s simply, “speak to me”. The kind of answers from God I have received have been as simple as strong impressions like, “love”, “read the gospels”, “be still and know I am god,” “trust”. Sometimes I’ve had actual to do lists, “call so and so now,” “pray for so and so now” “go visit so and so”, “stop sinning.” Sometimes I battle back and forth in my heart and mind, “Is that just me talking to me? Or is this really God?” When the impressions remains clear, I believe I’ve heard from God.

I am going to invite you to trust that God will speak today. Let’s try it. Ask God, “what’s next” - maybe it’s a job choice coming up, or a decision about how to tell someone some news, or a difficult relationship, or a health problem. Lay it before God. We’ll give this some time, and it will seem like a long time to you if you aren’t used to silence. But it is in the still that the voice of emerges. If you feel you might be hearing from God, I’d like you to raise your hand. If you want to share it, that could be cool, but I won’t ask for this. I just want us to know that God speaks, and even if today you try this and you don’t think you’ve heard from God, that’s okay. The first time I tried to get a basketball in the hoop, I was very frustrated. When we aren’t used to quiet or listening for the voice of God, it can take time. But be prepared. God’s messages to Noah were varied. One was about judgement, a need to turn from sin. One was about obedience, a need to do something that would honor God. One was about grace, and enjoying the fruit of labor.

. . .

Then God said to Noah, "Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you--the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground--so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it." So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives. All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds--everything that moves on the earth--came out of the ark, one kind after another.

Noah heard God's voice when no one else did.