Heartbeat of God

Introduction

Please, turn to Genesis 3 I want to get right to my assignment tonight

Been looking forward to my time with you all.

I do not want to waste your time nor take more of it than we have non-verbally agreed upon tonight. I would love to see you here tomorrow night.

Soon after being the pastor I had a friend come up to give a 5 minute testimony. We were clear on time with him. Stephanie told me I couldn’t say anything. I didn’t know better. Later learned to yell Pharoah, Pharaoh

Missions conference theme is “That all may hear”. This should be our prayer.

Tonight it lays heavy on me to make sure you hear the heartbeat of God so that all those who have never heard of the name of Jesus will be given the opportunity.

I firmly believe that decisions made tonight will effect how many people around the world have the opportunity to hear the Gospel

I firmly believe that this is not only a business meeting for the fate of the world but is a meeting to determine the fate of the church

I firmly believe that God love being demonstrated from here outwardly to the whole world should be the heartbeat of a church

I firmly believe we have often allowed the noise of this world to drawn out what God wants to hear from Him and the world sits in silence as live so distracted

I have been blessed to see many countries. Just came back from the amazon. But the place two places I have been recently are the reasons I believe God just might use my time with you to help.

I have been in the dentist office with my daughter. I have been up late at night arguing with my wife. I have been so stressed that I thought about just hiding out in the woods until someone found me. I have been at a place where I felt like I was barely treading water and certainly not looking to take on anything the size of world missions. It effects us. It cripples us.

Recently at the dentist the doctor said hold me accountable. I didn’t think about sharing the Gospel with him. I didn’t ask him to consider servign with Medical Missions Outreach. I just about made a fool out of myself.

1. That is one place I have been. The heartbeat of God seemed very faint because the noise of life is so loud.

2. I have also been in this Word. The things on earth begin to grow slowly dim as I spend time in it. The heartbeat of God grows louder and louder. It is from this place I want to speak to you tonight.

Like John the Beloved we should want to lay our heads upon the chest of God and hear His heart beat. I believe doing so could change everything about our short lives.

Even when we have been in a place of complete shame we should stop and listen for the heartbeat of God

Genesis 3:6–9 (KJV 1900)

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

Even in the midst of chaos we should be still and know that He has a plan

Genesis 11:1–7 (KJV 1900)

1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

Man was trying to make a name for himself.

You have seen the tower of babel.

You may have even been involved in building one your self.

A life that “will keep you from being scattered”. Self-insured.

This scattering was God’s plan as Adam and Eve were to fill up the up.

God pursues these rebellious people

Genesis 12:1–3 (KJV 1900)

1 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: (start walking)

2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

God sent Abraham away from his home onto into this world

God told Abraham to walk. But where. The answer wasn’t a where but a whom.

God is sending Abraham to the nations.

As Abraham walked he walked in rhythm to the heartbeat of God who was pursuing a rebellious people who thought they could make a life that did not include Him.

God will strategically call Abraham and his center of the worlds activity to be a witness to His love

God’s strategic choice in the location of the nation of Israel supports the idea that they were to be His witnesses. Ezekiel 5:5 Thus saith the Lord God; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.

1. Because of the deserts to the east, all the viable trading routes passed through Israel’s territory.

2. The nation of Israel was given an invasion-prone placement.

a. They were constantly invaded, bugged, pestered, traveled through, and impinged upon.

b. Because of their location, they were guaranteed to be invaded (nobody invades Siberia!).

3. This significantly increased the interaction of Israel with the surrounding peoples. Traders were, in effect, the bearers of news throughout the ancient world, so the fortunes of Israel, for good or for ill, would quickly be heralded abroad.

God will place them surrounded by people who are ignorant of our God.

Pharoah Exodus 5:2 And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.

Nebuchadnezzar Daniel 3:15 Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?

Why would God allow His people to be put in such difficult positions. Because God wants to be known and worshipped by all. 1 Samuel 17:45-46 “45 Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. 46 This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.”

As Daniel sat in the lions den. He was not all alone. He could go to sleep each night listening to the heartbeat of God knowing that he was serving his life’s mission to testify of God’s faithfulness.

As David stood before the giant. His heart had to be beating our of his chest. His heart was in sync with the heartbeat of God who the whole world needs to know there is a God in Israel.

So as Moses stands before Pharoah and is surrounded the wreckage of the plaques he moves forward as He hears God’s heartbeat. Exodus 9:16 And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.

Did it work? Did God accomplish His goal of global fame through the deliverance of His people from Egypt?

a. Words of Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law Exodus 18:1 When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt;

b. Rahab’s testimony Joshua 2:10-11 For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. 11 And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.

e. Daniel mentioned in his prayer that God had gotten Himself worldwide fame through the Exodus – 1500 years after the fact! Daniel 9:15 And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

f. The Philistines in Samuel’s day were aware and fearful of the God of Israel because of what He had done years ago in Egypt 1 Samuel 6:6 Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?”

God’s people led in step to the heartbeat of God. God did wonderful works among them. He blessed the world through them.

Solomon heard the heart beat of God for all people and expressed in in his blessing upon the people as they dedicate the temple.

1 Kings 8:56–61 (KJV 1900)

56 Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.

57 The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: let him not leave us, nor forsake us:

58 That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers.

59 And let these my words, wherewith I have made supplication before the Lord, be nigh unto the Lord our God day and night, that he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel at all times, as the matter shall require:

60 That all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else.

61 Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.

Listen to what the Queen Sheba says about what she sees.

Solomon lived for the glory of the Lord 1 Kings 10:1 “1 And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions.”

As the temple was built he wasn’t just hearing hammers and blocks but he heard a heartbeat. His heart responded with “I want you known”

1 Kings 10:3–9 (KJV 1900)

3 And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not.

4 And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon’s wisdom, and the house that he had built,

5 And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord; there was no more spirit in her.

6 And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom.

7 Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.

8 Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom.

9 Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the Lord loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice.

Can you imagine Solomon looking out from his balcony. Seeing God’s wisdom on display. Sitting their quietly listening to the heartbeat of God as God sends the nations to Him to learn of His glory?

This is where we want to leave our lives but so many times we must be carried off by cares of this world

1 Kings 11:1–2 (KJV 1900)

1 But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites;

2 Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.

We are soon to forget what God has done for us

God did wonders for his people. Psalm 106:7 Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; But provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea.”

There worship was so short lived. Their sang after the fact is to their shame and will be short lived. Psalm 106:12-13 12 Then believed they his words; They sang his praise. 13 They soon forgat his works; They waited not for his counsel:

God in His mercy will not allow us to leave so far removed for His purpose for our lives. He is always calling us back.

Our story is really just the story of His glory. This should be our great concern.

Joshua 7:9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?

Ezekiel 20:9 But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.

The sooner we recognize we are to leave for His global fame the sooner we return to hearing His heartbeat.

The sooner we recognize we are to live for His great name the better off we will be. Numbers 14:19-20 “Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now. 20 And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word:”

Pardon according to they great name is repeated all throughout the Psalms.

It should also be a recurring theme to our prayers. His name. Not ours.

Before we turn over to the New Testament lets look at that blank page between the two testaments for a moment.

There was a great scattering which resulted in Gentile proselytes to Judaism and “God fearers”

God uses the scattering to spread His global fame.

First business card said Acts 8:1 instead of Acts 1:8

400 years of silence. No open revelation.

God’s heart beat could be heard from His Word provided.

But people worked hard to pervert His message.

Why the Pharisees were working so hard to recover their influence. Matthew 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

Out of the silence you hear the heart beat of God calling all men to Him.

Announcement to the shepherds. Luke 2:10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

Those shepherds go back to there work but they would never be the same. For the rest of their life those words will echo through their men. “good tidings and great joy. which shall be to all people.. I like that. That is me.”

Simeon has spent his life waiting for the coming Messiah. He understood what He had read from Torah and the Prophets.

Can you imagine the moment Simeon saw Joseph and Mary walk into the temple.

Luke 2:25–32 (KJV 1900)

25 And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.

26 And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

27 And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law,

28 Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,

29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart In peace, according to thy word:

30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,

31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;

32 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

Simeon proclaims

I can die a happy man

I have seen my salvation

Jesus would be a light unto the whole world

Simeon held Jesus. He was able to hear His heartbeat. The heartbeat of God.

Conclusion

Adam heard it when God came to him in his shame.

Abraham heard it when he was called to go after a rebellious people

Solomon heard it as he lived out the purpose of his life.

Simeon heard it as the answer to prayer

Do you hear it tonight?

Have you let the sound of this world drown it out?

We will never be involved in “letting the whole world hear” until we recover our ability to hear the heart of God for all people

Someday, very soon, we will all be gathered around the throne of God.

Revelation 5:9–14 (KJV 1900)

9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;

10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

11 And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;

12 Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

13 And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

14 And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.

The lyrics are worthy is the Lamb. If you listen to the heart beat of God you can already here the rythym

Your life and involvement in the mission of the church is going to be determined to how well you can hear it now.