Practical and powerful devotional breakout series #2

GYC West 2017 - REFLECT: The Daily Experience

<p>Practical and powerful devotional breakout series #2</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

GYC West

Breakouts

Zachary Page

1. Desiring God

Father in heaven, we just ask that your Holy Spirit would speak to us, ask that you touch our hearts, that you would speak to us, that you would draw us closer to you into a deeper fellowship, a greater love for you than we can possibly imagine.

So something happened just about 2 months ago.

Now I don't know how many of you, you guys obviously have children, you have children.

So we're expecting in my family a brand new baby.

And 1 night I got the call that the baby's probably coming tonight.

And I live on the way between where my father-in-law lives and where the baby was gonna be born in Salinas.

So my father-in-law's on the way, he calls me, he said, hey, you wanna go up tonight?

It was late at night, so I said, okay, why not?

I could go up tonight, I've never been in the hospital when a family member's been born before.

So we get in the car, we're driving up there together.

It was amazing to see all of the excitement in that room.

We don't know if she's gonna be a loving person.

But everybody just is on the edge of their seat.

They're wanting to know how things are going.

Everybody's thinking about this child being born.

So fast forward, the child's born that night, got to be there to see the child shortly after Elsie was born.

Just What an incredible feeling to see that newborn baby.

But then my wife and I had been all night, so we went back to their house to take a brief nap before I headed back home.

And when we walked into the house, it was amazing, because I had been there just a month or so before and we had torn the house apart.

We were doing all sorts of remodeling and stuff because there was a baby coming and as we were doing that remodeling they kept saying, okay, Zach you go up and work in that bedroom there and work on this lamp up there and these different things.

I said well why do you want me to do that when there's not even a floor in the rest of the house?

We want that room to be perfectly ready for Elsie.

And so we actually put letters up on the wall that said Elsie.

And the crib was all there, and it was ready.

And as I walked into the house, though, they had totally finished the house, at least from my perspective.

They were totally ready for Elsie to come.

As I walked upstairs, there was that bedroom where Elsie was going to go.

And there's the crib there, the letters on the wall, everything ready.

In fact, in the closet was all her little dresses, all the little clothes for her to wear.

And in their bedroom, their bedroom, the bed was all made, all ready to go, and there was a little bassinet there, already ready right by the bed, just so that when they came home, they could put her in there.

They'd already provided everything for Elsie and Elsie had done absolutely nothing for them.

Elsie had only been a figment of their imagination so far.

They didn't even know what she was gonna look like and yet they loved Elsie.

So you go back a few thousand years, well this actually isn't a few thousand years ago, that's little Elsie and that was me holding her just a week or so ago.

And to hold a baby in your arms didn't really matter to me much until I had family.

I remember when my first nephew was born and suddenly I was excited to hold a baby.

Up until that point, you know, I think it's different for girls than for guys, but for me, it was the baby.

But then when it's your family, to hold a baby does something for you.

Look at a story in the Bible about somebody who was radically changed by holding a baby.

As he was there holding that child in his arms, it did something in his heart.

And you guys who are parents might understand what it's like and you who are kids can imagine what it was like to have your parents holding you.

As you held that child in your arms, I imagine that you said, I'll do whatever it takes for this child.

I will make sure that this child has a good life.

I want to already maybe start a savings account for them." All types of things that you were doing for this child.

Well, this man was thinking the same thing.

As he looked at this child, he had witnessed children being born before.

He was 65 years old at this point, but he himself had not had a child yet.

Now he understood what it was like to have a father.

In fact, he understood what it was like to have a great-grandfather and a great-great-grandfather and a great-great-great-grandfather and a great-great-great-great-grandfather.

In fact, his great-great-great-great-grandfather was over 600 years old at the time.

In Genesis chapter 5, where did I put my Bible?

Genesis chapter 5, we pick up the story of Enoch, and we see a story that reveals the love of God in a person's life and what it can do.

This comes in a chapter that's a really fascinating chapter even though when you just read through it on cursory reading it might seem a little boring.

It goes through who begot who and we'll pick it up in verse 19.

After he begot Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had sons and daughters.

So all the days of Jared were 962 years and he died.

Enoch lived 65 years and he begot Methuselah.

Now throughout the chapter it's been going through step by step, so-and-so begot, so-and-so begot, so-and-so begot, so-and-so, a similar pattern, and all of a sudden the pattern breaks right here.

It says, after he begot Methuselah, something changed, something that wasn't that way before changed because he held Methuselah in his arms.

Enoch walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters.

Enoch walked with God after having a child.

Something radically shifted in his perspective about who God was that changed everything for him.

And you know, if I knew that Jesus was coming back this afternoon, it would be easy to walk with Jesus, wouldn't it?

If I knew that Jesus was coming back tomorrow, there's no problem in being faithful to Jesus.

If I knew that Jesus was coming back at the end of this year, there's still a lot of inspiration to walk with Jesus.

But if I have 300 years ahead of me to walk with Jesus, what is my inspiration on a day-to-day basis to keep on walking with Jesus?

What made that close connection for Enoch?

I want to know why it was that Enoch experienced what he experienced.

So in the book Patriarchs and Prophets, it says, and this holy walk was continued for 300 years.

There are a few Christians who would not be more earnest and devoted if they knew that they had but a short time to live and that the coming of Christ was about to take place.

His love became more ardent with the lapse of centuries.

2. Thick With the Almighty

We long for an experience that's beyond anything that we've experienced before.

Lord, as we look at what is 1 of my favorite stories in the whole Bible, We talk about how it's changed my life.

I just pray that you would change our lives even more, that you would keep us walking more and more closely with you.

We just long to know you, to serve you with our whole hearts for our whole lives.

Lord please guide us, speak to us through the power of your Holy Spirit.

During this time we pray in Jesus name, Amen.

On this ridge there was a silhouette, a lone figure there.

It was 1 of those days with a huge storm.

I don't know how many of you have seen huge storms.

You might get them a little bit more up north up near Shasta.

Do you guys sometimes get big storms up there?

We don't get as many of them down further south in California, but I remember when my wife and I were in Michigan that we would go into the bedroom and we had this big window and when there was lightning and thunder outside it was so much fun to watch the huge storms outside.

Well this was a storm like no other, like no storm that I have experienced before.

There was this man standing on the ridge, and as he stood there, there were tons of emotions flooding through him.

I imagine at that point he was feeling extremely tired.

Imagine at that point that he was feeling extremely excited because God was doing phenomenal things.

Imagine at that point he was also feeling this intense earnestness that God would do something more.

As Joshua stood there on the ridge, he was looking down at the Midianites, who God had brought this storm and was doing 1 of the greatest miracles in the entire Bible, but yet he was not satisfied.

Let's look at this story really fast in Joshua chapter 10.

Joshua was 1 chosen by Moses to bring the children of Israel into the land of Canaan.

In Joshua chapter 10 we see him with his people facing the biggest challenge that they faced so far.

So in the previous chapter we had the Gibeonites who made this league with the Israelites by lying to them, but they honor that league that they had made.

And so in verse 1, it says, "'Now it came to pass when Adonai Zedek, "'king of Jerusalem, heard how Joshua had taken Ai "'and utterly destroyed it, "'as he had done to Jericho and its king, so he had done to Ai and its king.

And how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them, that they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, like 1 of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty." So here's this mighty city that is in league with the Israelites, and they're feeling really nervous about this.

Therefore Adonai Zedek, king of Jerusalem, sent to Hoham, king of Hebron, Pyram, king of Jermuth, Japhia, king of Lachish, and Davir, king of Eglon, saying, Come up to me and help me that we may attack Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel." So these 5 kings gather their 5 armies together and they are going to crush out Gibeah.

And as they go to do this, Gibeah sends a frantic message to Joshua saying, we need your help, please come help us.

And so Joshua, rather than just immediately responding, he prays about it, and he gets this message from God saying, in let's see, verse 8 it says, And the Lord said to Joshua, do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hand.

Not a man of them shall stand before you." This gives this incredible promise that not 1 of these people will stand before him.

Now the previous verse tells us what he did next.

He and all the people of war with him and all the mighty men of valor.

Now this path from Gilgal to Gibeah was 16 and a half miles.

Have any of you ever gone on a 16 and a half mile hike?

The whole way was an ascent, And then it says this, verse 9, Joshua therefore came upon them suddenly, having marched all night from Gilgal.

This was an all night, 16 and a half mile march to get to Gibeah to help out their new colleagues there.

So they get there, they have to be exhausted at that point, but immediately they go into battle.

They begin to fight against these 5 kings, and verse 10 tells us, "'So the Lord routed them before Israel, "'killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, chased them along the road that goes to Beth Horon, and struck them down as far as Ezekiah and Makeda.

And it happened as they fled before Israel and were on the descent of Beth Horon that the Lord cast down large hailstones from heaven on them as far as Ezekiel and they died.

There were more who died from the hailstones than the children of Israel killed with the sword." Now first of all as we read this we have to remember that in Genesis 15 God had said to Abraham, your people are going to become slaves in Israel for 400 years because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

So when we see God pouring out judgment on people, Their iniquity is finally complete.

They finally totally rejected God and their existence has become harmful to the planet.

Now, Gibeon is this city that was this massive fortress city that was really important for the whole land of Canaan because it had the access to these passes, and 1 of those was the Pass of Beth Horon.

And this pass is the 1 that they chased the army up.

Beth Horon was another 6 and a half miles up this pass.

It's another 2, 000 feet in elevation gain.

So by the time they get to the top of this pass, they have been hiking all night long and now they've been fighting plus hiking up this mountain pass.

That would be about 22, 23 miles at this point.

Imagine how exhausted you would feel at that point, but imagine how excited you'd feel at that point because here God is sending hailstones down, he's totally wiping them out, he's fulfilling his promise to you and you're thinking, God's done exactly what he promised.

So that's me, and I'm standing there on that pass.

I'm gonna go home now and get some sleep.

Joshua is there on this pass, and as he looks out, he sees that the sun is about to go down in the sky.

And he sees that the Amorites, there are still Amorites who have not yet been destroyed.

And as he looks out, and he remembers the promise of God that he has, that not 1 man will stand before him, he does the most audacious thing I think in the entire Bible.

Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in that day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites.

I love how it just says that he spoke to the Lord, like he's telling God this is the deal.

Spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun stands still over Gibeon, and moon in the valley of Ejlon.

So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the people had revenge upon their enemies.

Is it not written in the book of Jasher, so the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day?

And there's been no day like it before it or after that the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel.

What gives a person the audacity to pray a prayer like that?

To say to the Sun, I mean imagine you're doing your yard work on Friday, it's getting close to sundown and you're looking at the Sun and you're thinking, I just don't have enough time to get all that I want done, so Sun, stand still.

That'd be a pretty crazy prayer to pray, wouldn't it?

And if you think about it, at a bare minimum what would have had to happen, this is probably the biggest physical miracle in the entire Bible.

Because in order for this to take place, a bare minimum, the Earth had to stop spinning.

So I was reading on the NASA website, if the Earth stopped spinning, the atmosphere would still be spinning and it spins at a thousand miles per hour and the whole Earth is spinning at a thousand miles per hour.

So if the earth suddenly stopped rotating, there would be a thousand mile per hour winds that would, you imagine what a hurricane is like, it's nowhere near a thousand mile per hour winds.

It would immediately shear everything off the planet and make it just a round ball.

You would have to have the moon be held in its place from its orbit around the earth.

Huge miracle, like beyond anything that we can really comprehend physically is taking place.

He stops the atmosphere, he stops the moon, he stops all of these things in place for 24 hours, because 1 man needed more time for his army.

He didn't have enough time to get the job done, and he said, God, you promised I'd get the job done.

It's not getting done, so I need more time.

Stop the sun, stop the moon in its place.

What gave Joshua the audacity to pray a prayer like that, to have that close of a connection with Jesus that he knew that Jesus would do whatever it took to do what he's asking for?

And sometimes when we read in the Bible, we see stories like this, and it's like somebody just pops up on the scene, and they have this amazing experience, and we think, well maybe someday that'll happen with me.

But I want to know what is it that led Joshua up to this place?

I remember it was 1 of the first ministers meetings that I was at in Central California.

We were up at Leone Meadows and it was after 1 of the evening meetings And as we were sitting there, as I looked around the room, I just felt out of place.

I was young in ministry, there was a lot of, like, at that time, kind of famous pastors in our conference.

There was Jeffrey Rosario was there, David Asherick was there, and just a bunch of people were talking and interacting and stuff.

3. The Statesman

We're longing to have you speak to us through the power of your Holy Spirit.

And Lord, that's not something that we can conjure up or that we can make happen, but as we dive into your word, as we talk about men of faith, Lord, we ask that you would transform our hearts and our minds by the power of your Holy Spirit.

Fill us with a passion to know you we pray in Jesus name, Amen.

Does anybody know who prayed that prayer?

It's a bold man, Scottish man, who was passionate that Scotland was headed down the wrong road.

Scotland was a country that had embraced Catholicism.

You might have heard of bloody Queen Mary.

She was basically persecuting any Protestants.

And John Knox was a man who was fighting against that established religion, fighting for what he believed was right.

He actually eventually was under the tutelage of like John Calvin and some of the great reformers like that.

But in Scotland he was praying the prayer, Lord give me Scotland or I die.

Well he ended up rebuking Queen Mary for some of the stuff he didn't hold back like maybe he should have and he ended up being a galley slave.

It's like have you ever prayed a prayer and you're like, where is the answer?

Why aren't things happening like I thought that they should have?

Here he is praying this bold prayer like, God, you could just put me to death if that's what it takes.

I don't know if you know what a galley slave is, but in this ship they made people row the ships.

They had their galley slaves and here he is rowing away.

This is a man who later would say that a man with God is always in the majority.

He's thrown in, he's a slave in a galley ship, he's rowing away, and it doesn't look like Scotland's being saved.

Have any of you been praying a prayer for a long time and you're wondering, Lord I know this is, I think this is according to your will and I'm praying this prayer, what is going on?

We're gonna look at a story in the Bible that I think really unveils what is taking place.

We're going to go back a few thousand years to Babylon.

Now, you know the story of Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego.

They were taken captives because King Zedekiah in Jerusalem refused to surrender to the Babylonians who were coming, and they were sieging Jerusalem, and he refused to surrender to them and so they are taking captives and to be taken captive back then was not a fun thing.

I mean you were put in chains, you're dragged across the desert some 900 miles.

To be dragged across the desert for 900 miles, and you think, I'm the 1 that has the true God, what's happening?

A lot of people asked for Jerusalem to be delivered.

But I think that Daniel was clinging on to something, something that Jeremiah had said to him.

If you go to Jeremiah chapter 29, Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 11, actually we'll start in verse 10.

So Jeremiah prophesied, and these are things that Daniel would have had access to.

He would have been able to receive these prophecies.

Jeremiah 29 and verse 10, For thus says the Lord, After 70 years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, And cause you to turn to this place.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope." That's a hard thing to cling to when you're being drug across the desert maybe even being made a eunuch whatever difficult things were happening to him And yet here's this prophecy of Jeremiah saying, God actually even though you're gonna be a captive for 70 years, He has good plans for you, He has a plan for a hope and a future for your life.

To cling to promises like that when we're going through really difficult times, it takes a lot of faith.

It takes a lot of faith to cling to God in those times.

Verse 12 says, "...then you will call upon me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you.

You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart." I think that this may have been what drove Daniel in the amazing life that we see that he lives in the book of Daniel.

I think seeing what Jeremiah had prophesied, he knew the 70-year prophecy, We're told that later on in Daniel.

He was even praying for it to be fulfilled.

So he must have also read these verses and known that God did have a purpose, that God did have a hope for him.

It's interesting in the book, I think it's actually in Manuscript Releases Volume 4, page 124, talking about Daniel as he's taking captives.

Series

Breakouts

2. Thick With the Almighty

Transcript

Description

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