Responding Well When God Rocks Your World.

Talk about Duff’s Smorgasbord.

Wouldn’t it be great if life was like a Duff’s Smorgasbord?

Explain

We all know that life is NOT a smorgasbord where we get to stand at the buffet table and just choose all those good things we want.

To quote a famous movie line… “life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get”

It is inevitable for me…I will always find the one with almonds or coconut in it!

Let’s be honest, if we could choose every detail of our life we would never choose hardship, afflictions, etc.…every one of us would do everything we can to have a life of ease and plenty of it! (if not, your lying in church)

But life isn’t like that is it? We all know that sometimes life can be a bit troublesome and sometimes it can be a lot of troublesome.

So when you hear the phrase “Rock your world” it most likely conjures up thoughts of something drastic is about to happen that can alter your life dramatically.

And our natural response would be “no I don’t want that” “I’m just going to let that dish pass by”

Like standing at the buffet and seeing brussel sprouts...“I don’t like brussel sprouts, I’m going to let those pass by”, I think I’ll wait for mashed potatoes and gravy”...

None of us really know what is going to happen to us day after day…none of us know when or how our world is going to be rocked…and we can’t choose the way it is going to be rocked...but the reality is, our world does get rocked doesn’t it.

So when our world is rocked, who rocked it?

Our theology tells us that God is sovereign over all things so the real answer to that question is “God rocked it”.

When God rocks your world, how do you respond?

With those thoughts in mind please turn to Hebrews 12:25-29.

The Hebrews’ world was being rocked by God in multiple ways…and the writer knew that…and he writes chapter 12 to encourage them to endure....as we get to the end of chapter he is going to warn them about not responding correctly to what God is doing.

Remember as their world is being rocked, they are being tempted to just chuck it all in and quit.

Main Point: Don’t Crumble When God Shakes Your World

How can we keep from crumbling when our world is shaken?

I am making a natural assumption with this message today that you and I WANT to respond Well...

Make it a priority to obey God’s Word (25).

Hebrews 12:25 “See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.”

Do not refuse = command…listening to God is not a take it or leave it proposition.

This really has an impact on how we present the gospel to those around us.

We often present the gospel as something that would be good for them to consider.

God’s appeal for people to repent and trust Christ is a command to be obeyed.

It is presented as an ultimatum, as something to be either received or rejected.

Presenting the gospel always produces a response.

One either hears the gospel and believes it unto salvation or hears the gospel and rejects it unto eternal judgment.

Refuse is the same word used in verse 19 when it says they "begged for no further word to be spoken”

We cannot view God’s Word as a smorgasbord of truth from which we get to choose what we obey and what we don’t.

The writer has already warned them against turning a deaf ear to God.

Hebrews 3:12 “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.”

He doesn’t want them to take the same stance of the Israelites who couldn’t handle hearing God speak anymore...

He exhorts them to heed the Word of God when they hear it.

Him who is speaking = present active participle…meaning God still speaks today.

It was clear at Mt. Sinai, God was speaking to them.

God continues to speak to this generation from heaven in the work of Christ.

Those who ignore Jesus’ message will not escape God’s wrath.

God continues to speak to us through both Christ and His completed Word.

“For if those did not escape”...

Over the course of time their refusal to hear God at Mt. Sinai became an act of rebellion.

When they listened to the 10 weak spies instead of God, they refused to take the Promised Land by faith, God had enough!

Numbers 14:29 “your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me.”

The only two who escaped that judgment were Joshua and Caleb!

The contrast here is that the Israelites had only recieved a partial revelation from God but the NT believer has received the full revelation of God in Jesus.

That makes us that much more accountable to listen and obey…how can we who have received more revelation from God, with everything we need for life and godliness, escape the responsibility to obey?

We can’t.

When our world is rocked, leaving us searching for answers, the first place we should come is the Word of God.

Sometimes, that may mean we have to hear something that is hard to hear.

Sometimes, that may mean we have to do something that is hard to do and makes us uncomfortable.

Sometimes, that may mean that we encounter something that seems illogical and we will be ridiculed for believing it.

We need to remember that God’s process for our sanctification necessitates using the Scripture.

John 17:17 (NASB95)

“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

Implications

Refusing to hear the Word of God is to refuse God Himself.

When you refuse to accept the gospel message of Jesus, you refuse Jesus…you are willfully disobeying God’s command to repent and believe…you are communicating you don’t want or need God.

The moment you say “I know what God’s Word says BUT...” you have just entered the realm of carelessness…it is at that moment you communicate you don’t care what God says or thinks about the issue you face.

We say we believe in the sufficiency of Jesus and His Word, but then we display a great disconnect practically.

we go searching for answers for that which plagues us outside the instruction of Scripture.

We pursue practices that center on meeting mans perceived needs instead of the glory and pleasure of God.

Make sure you listen to the right voice!

Someone once said “if you want to hear the voice of God read the Bible. If you want to hear the voice of God audibly, read it out loud.”

Psalm 1:1–6 “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.”

This psalm indicates that we can become comfortable listening to the wrong voices.

Don’t walk with the wicked.

Meaning we must refuse the secular philosophy and humanistic values of the godless.

We must refuse the worldview that places man at the center of the universe and entices us to live by our own standards of morality and pursuits of pleasure.

Don’t stand with sinners.

Standing conveys the idea of staying a while, stopping to look and listen, and hanging around or hanging out with.

“Sinners” are those who miss God’s mark.

Their way of life is more important than Christ’s way of life.

This infers that our personal behavior resists the lure of the crowd to participate in their carnal activities and sensual living.

Don’t sit with scoffers.

The action from walking to sitting describes moving from thinking like the wicked to living like the rebellious and to ridiculing like the cynic.

meaning we must refuse to associate with those who scoff at God.

We must avoid close relationships with blasphemers, and atheists, no matter how prosperous they may be, because “bad company corrupts good character” (1 Cor. 15:33).

We cannot allow those who reject God to influence our thinking and behavior.

That means you also need to be careful not to elevate your feelings and experiences over the Word of God.

When it comes to receiving guidance, we live in a culture in the evangelical world where many believers are relying more on their feelings and experiences instead of God’s Word.

Think back to John 17:17…it is not our feelings or experiences that set us apart, it is God’s Word.

Cultivate a heart that wants to hear from God.

This means reading God’s word intently, not devotionally.

Don’t just read His word as something you need to do before you rush off to work or something, or like it is an assignment to help you be prepared for discussion with your friends.

Please don’t misunderstand me.

You need to have a daily time in his word…

if you’re part of a bible study group, you ought to be prepared to speak truth into that group.

What I’m saying is that when we approach God’s Word, every time we approach God’s Word, we need to have a heart that is ready to listen intently to what He is saying, not for the information we can gain, but for the transformation that we need!

When you read it, you need to remind yourself that God is speaking and then ask “God what do you want me to hear today?”

You truly haven’t listened if you don’t obey what you heard.

James 1:21–25 “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”

If you truly receive God’s word, you won’t argue with it, you want try to twist it to fit your thinking.

Don’t just mark your Bible, let it mark you!

Loosen your grip on that which is temporary (26-27).

Hebrews 12:26–27 “And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.”

These verses contrast the instability of the old covenant with the security of the new covenant.

When God gave the old covenant, He shook the mountain (Exod. 19:18).

He then quotes from Haggai 2:6 ““For thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land.”

Context of Haggai is the Jews are returning to Israel to rebuild the temple, and there was disappointment that the temple was not as glorious as before…so God says He had it covered…He was going to do whatever was necessary to make sure it was a suitable place for Him to display His glory.

Now God promises He will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.

This refers to the final judgment in connection with the concluding events of the age....2 Thess 1:7-10.

This shaking of the earth in judgment involves the destruction of created things.

In v 27, the writer interprets Haggai 2:6 and provides the reason for God shaking both earth and heaven.

This judgment will reveal the greater, spiritual realities which cannot be shaken or removed.

Christian believers share in a kingdom which no amount of final judgment can destroy.

The security of our position in Christ gives us an incentive to endure in faithfulness.

And the writer means it to be a powerful encouragement to this Hebrew church which were being shaken by the trials they faced.

Remember he earlier told them that God disciplines His children…(Rocks Your World)

He is encouraging them to endure their temporary shaking because the day is coming when even the evil and powerful Roman government will be shaken and fall into oblivion.

Let me ask you…did that happen…is Rome still in power?

He is reminding them and us that we are part of a new kingdom and we will survive in an ultimate kingdom that will never end.

But for those who are not going to obey God’s Word and endure, you need to be aware of the danger of being included in the destruction of all things.

In God’s final judgment He will shake both the heavens and the earth and all nations so they can see He alone is God.

By using Haggai 2, the writer communicates that God will do whatever is necessary to ensure where He dwells is suitable for Him to display His glory.

Where does God dwell now? In us…so by implication that means God will do whatever is necessary to ensure you and I are suitable dwelling places for His glory!

God is in the business of changing lives and sometimes the way He has to do that is to remove that which we are prone to cling to so tightly.

When God shakes your world, you can trust that He is working to strengthen your grip on Him, instead of other things.

Because we are so prone to put our trust in things that are not trustworthy, God shakes our world to loosen our grip on that which has no eternal value.

The Hebrews were clinging to that which God did not want them to cling to…OT Law and rituals.

He needed to shake their world to return them to the spiritual reality they needed to grasp in Jesus alone.

God would shake them ultimately in AD 70 by allowing the temple to be destroyed.

In broader terms, it covers all those outward things in which people put their trust, things people worship more than God.

things like...homes, governments, education, money, athletes, celebrities, and on the list goes.

God shakes heaven and earth to reveal the things of eternal value.

The storms we have just witnessed this week remind us of just how temporary material things really are…the real tragedy in all of the devastating material losses is the lives that were lost…how many of those people went into eternity without Christ?

I’m not saying the storms were how God shakes the world…I don’t want to minimize the pain and suffering of all those impacted by those storms.

But they ought to serve as a reminder to us of just how transient the things of this world really are, remind us of how powerful God is since He created those storms, and then cause us to focus on what should matter most…the souls of those who perished and those who perished without Christ.

God wants to make you and I suitable vessels for Him to display His glory therefore He lovingly has to shake our worlds.

God loves us enough to say, “If I let you trust in that you won’t trust in Me”.

If I let you depend on them or that, you won’t depend on Me.

If I let you continue to pursue that, you won’t pursue Me.

If I let you get comfortable in your sinfulness, you won’t rest in My holiness.

If I let you find your hope in that, you won’t find your hope in Me.

God says, “I don’t want that for you”.

And You really don’t want that either.

God says, I’ve got to shake it to remove it, that you might again lean on Me, look to Me, and walk with Me—for then you’ll be blessed, strengthened, and ready for eternity.”

Worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. (28-29)

Hebrews 12:28–29 “Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.”

serve = is also translated as worship

By using the word acceptable (adverb meaning well pleasing) the writer indicates that it is possible for our worship of God to be unacceptable, not pleasing.

Listen to what God says in Amos 5:21-24…the problem in Amos is the people were living however they wanted with no regard for God and His desire for them to be holy…worship had become nothing more than a ritual…

Amos 5:21–24 ““I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. “Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. “Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. “But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

The idea behind acceptable worship/service is the same one we find behind Romans 12:1...

… where Paul states we are to submit ourselves as a living sacrifice to God.

All of life is worship and is to be a response to the One who redeemed us by the blood of the Lamb.

When we present our whole selves to God in this kind of worship, it pleases the Lord.

Acceptable service/worship is about being a living sacrifice.

Worship God acceptably by showing gratitude for an unshakable kingdom.

We must be thankful that God has put an unchangeable possession in our grasp.

We are members of the unshakable Kingdom are meant to worship with thankful hearts.

When God shakes the world, your world…what remains is God’s kingdom, which we receive because of our union with him.

All other kingdoms will crumble and fall…because ours will last we ought to be respond with tremendous thanksgiving.

2 Corinthians 9:15 “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”

Ephesians 5:20 “always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;”

We are presently receiving the kingdom now and will see it fully realized in the future.

While everything around us may look permanent now, it will pass away in an instant.

Yet God’s people will remain.

Nothing can stop God’s kingdom from triumphing over the kingdoms and rulers of this world.

His kingdom and its citizens will prevail. It cannot be shaken.

This is why the writer exhorts his people to be grateful to God.

Worship Him in reverence and awe.

This simply means that we worship him with humility and holy fear, not with arrogance and carelessness.

We worship him as those who know we do not deserve his mercy and grace.

We worship with awe that we are citizens of his unshakable kingdom.

Notice these are linked with the fact that our God is a consuming fire.

Not God was but is...

Draws from the language Moses uses on Sinai in Exodus 24:17 and Deut 4:24.

God is not just a God of love, He is also a God of Judgment.

When Jesus returns in glory, the fire of God’s holiness will consume all that is false and evil.

Those who reject His Word, those who reject Christ will not escape this consuming fire.

Our relationship with Christ ought to remind us that it is only because of His work on our behalf that we are saved from God’s holy wrath which we rightfully deserve.

By being intentional to show gratitude and to worship Him in awe and reverence we show we are citizens of the unshakable kingdom and belong to the Everlasting King.

Lesson for Life: Cling to the One Who Cannot Be Shaken!

Cling to His Word…have a heart that always seeks to listen to God speak and obey Him.

Cling to His grace...Receive grace day by day to serve Him “with reverence and godly fear.”

Cling to His care for you...

Do not be distracted or frightened by the tremendous changes going on around you.

Keep running the race with endurance. Keep looking to Jesus Christ.

Remember that your Father loves you…He enables you to persevere.

Stand confident in Him!