| STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Poet Eliz Barrett Browning penned these immortal words: “Earth’s crammed with Heaven, and every common bush afire with God, But only he who sees takes off his shoes—The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.” She’s talking about seeing Heaven and seeing God in the everyday, the ordinary, practicing His presence (Mt 5:8). How are you at doing that?
2. What are some ways you can turn aside from the routine and turn toward God in your daily walk?
3. Are there examples where you are working to light the fire in your spiritual life? Are you experiencing burning or burning out? Do you just need to watch for burning bushes in your life out of which God wants to communicate and call to you, then turn toward them? What might those be?
4. Some examples of the spiritual disciplines (SDs) are: prayer, worship, Bible study, fellowship, serving, solitude, Sabbath, celebration, surrender, simplicity, sleep, silence, meditation, fasting, accountability, confession, waiting, + …
5. Which ones have you tried? With what results?
SERMON NOTES
I. A major fire ravaged Louisville Wed night. One of the main reasons it was so dangerous to residents and firefighters, according the Chief John Fetty, there were so many combustible liquids and gases housed in one area. A semi truck full of diesel fuel was right in the middle of it all. Aren’t you thankful for people called and brave enough to be firefighters? [PRAY-PRAISE]
A. Hopefully insurance will cover most of the damage and thankfully, no lives were taken.
B. But, I’d venture to say that business owner would rather have his business back, have his life back as he knows it, than dealing with insurance companies, clean up, paperwork and trying to salvage what he can of his business and his life.
C. Sometimes we look at Christ and His salvation as fire insurance. Sometimes we think of Jesus as someone who just puts out fires in our lives. But Salvation and He is SO MUCH MORE. Salvation is not just about being saved from the fire. Jesus came to give us LIFE and life to the full. It’s not just being saved from Hell, though that’s good. Jesus is good at putting out fires and cleaning up the messes that we make of life.
D. But what Jesus wants is what any good fireman wants, and that is fire PREVENTION…from walking and relating close to Him.
II. We’ve been talking about HOW we do that. How do we have the 4Cs? How can we realize Jesus is all about ALL of life, not just our holy moments like Bible study or prayer? Or our holy messes that we get ourselves into? How can we experience His presence more of every day?
A. Poet Eliz Barrett Browning penned these immortal words: “Earth’s crammed with Heaven, and every common bush afire with God, But only he who sees takes off his shoes—The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.”
1. She’s talking about seeing Heaven and seeing God in the everyday, the ordinary, practicing His presence (Mt 5:8).
2. Moses didn’t try to sit around and pick blackberries from the bush he encountered in the desert (Ex 3:1-10).
3. He was in awe. We need more “awe” in the church today, vs. “ahhh!”
B. If Moses wouldn’t have gone over to the bush he wouldn’t have known God’s purpose for his life, nor would he have known God. Moses had to “turn aside” and “go over.”
C. The bush was a MEANS to something great. The bush was not the goal. God used and spoke from out of the bush. The bush is like the SDs. They are means to an end; the end is the 4Cs.
III. There are some key lessons here for us in learning how to have the 4Cs.
A. Moses had to DO something. It was definite and necessary, but it wasn’t hard. He had to “go over.”
1. It’s like that with spiritual disciplines. We make them so hard and so complicated. They are simply a way to “go over,” to turn more toward God, to hear His voice and to know Him better. If they aren’t helping you know Christ better, love Him more, working harder is NOT the answer.
2. Jesus said “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Mt 11:). Yet we make the SDs so hard.
B. Note God called to him, communicated to him out of the bush. If God isn’t calling to you and communicating to you out of the particular SD you’re using then God has another bush for YOU, because God wants to communicate and call you just like He did Moses.
C. A key here: God usually speaks to people willing to listen and obey. Have you presented yourself as a willing and obedient vessel, like Moses did (after some conversation and reassurance, granted, vs 11+).
IV. What am I talking about SDs? Prayer, worship, Bible study, fellowship, serving. Those are the best known. But there are many more used by God through the ages. There is solitude, Sabbath, celebration, surrender, simplicity, sleep, silence, meditation, fasting, accountability, confession, waiting, + …
V. The key player here is God, not you. One reason I think the SDs are harder than they should be is we make them more about us than God. God had to light the bush and make it burn. We think if we’re not hearing from God, we have to do something to get a fire going in our Bible study or our prayer life, our witnessing life.
A. Friends Moses simply had to “go over” (“turn aside” KJV) to the bush. Then we have to listen. God will light the bush and speak IF we’re willing to turn aside and listen.
B. We work up a lather trying to light a fire in our Christian life, our devotional, our church life, to get more excited, turn up the heat, get the passion, feel the burn, feel SOMETHING spiritual, when He’s just waiting for you to turn to the bush He already has burning.
1. We so often operate our Christian lives like the Boy Scouts in my troop. I don’t ever recall any one of us ever starting a fire w/o a match. Even though we were taught all the ways: the bow and thong (not what you think), the flint and steel, rubbing two sticks together. Friction was involved in all these, which involves MOTION, and we had a lot of that. We’d rub and work and sweat. Then we’d whoop and yell that someone had done it, until another ratted him and out produced the burnt match or the lighter.
2. We had lots of effort, motion, and noise, but no fire. Remind you of anyone? Does it concern you when you see a lot of motion and noise in a fellow believer, but not much fire or fruit. Now if there’s fire and fruit, no problem. But if it’s effort and noise, my spidy senses go off.
C. We are to just come to the bush, the SDs with a sense of wonder, like Moses had. Just “go over.” I love how the KJV renders this: “Moses turned aside” (2X). This wording conveys the idea that he had to stop what he was doing, and go a different direction to hear the voice of the Lord in “the bush that burned but was not consumed.” I love that phrase repeated several times here, too.
D. SDs require us to move in a different direction than our normal routines take us. They cause us to slow down, to listen differently, to be sensitized in a new way. They are out of the ordinary, like this burning bush and like Moses’ turning aside, breaking routine.
1. Routines get us in ruts which are graves with the ends kicked out.
2. Sabbath is included in one list of SDs I came across. Sabbath is to do something different than you do the other six days. You should use different muscles, including different brain and relational muscles on the Sabbath than you do the other six days. You get out of your work and relational routines to focus on the people closest to you staring with the Lord.
3. Take fasting. We think we should get something big since we’re giving up food. Fasting is not ultimate formula to get what you want from God. Miracles don’t always flow out of fasting. If you always expect great things to happen when you fast you will be sorely disappointed and you’ll likely quit. Fasting makes us more sensitive to the Spirit, to the voice of God. as you hear the growls and groans of your stomach, you’re reminded to pray and listen. Food can be a distraction to God’s voice and to God Himself in your life.
4. SDs turn us aside, stop us in our tracks, like Moses was stopped here, so he could hear the voice of God calling out to him from the bush, like the voice of God calls out to us from the SDs. We have to listen. It’s not about work.
E. “Though the bush was on fire, it was not burned up.” Only God can do that. I’ve seen so many people burn up in the Christian life, because they lit themselves on fire. It wasn’t God’s doing. He lights us on fire, but does not consume us. He’s not responsible for burn out. We do that on our own.
1. “The bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed” (Ex 2:3).
2. Do you note that’s what got Moses’ attention? That’s what made him turn aside, go a different direction, stop in his tracks. Friends, the world is watching to see people who burn with passion but aren’t burned out. Who burn with drive and energy for their cause, but are not consumed with anger and hatred toward the other side. Only God can do that, burn in us without burning us up or out.
3. I believe John Wesley said: “if you catch on fire people will come for miles just to see you burn.” It was true for Moses. It got his attention and turned him aside from his work to go see what was going on.
4. One guy rebutted: “I’d rather burn out than rust out.” Friends, either way…you’re OUT! Why not stay in the race for Jesus? You will if HE’S the one who sets you on fire.
VI. The Spirit of God is fire in the Bible. He’s the one who came on the disciples at Pentecost as tongues of fire. John the baptizer said Jesus is mightier than I. He will come after me and will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with FIRE” (Mt 3:11).
A. God lights on fire with His hot, holy love, which makes us love Him in return with a burning passion. But He does not destroy even though the Bible calls Him a “consuming fire” (Dt 4:24; 9:3; Heb 12:29).
B. Do you know this consuming fire? Is He burning in you? Or are you just burning out from effort and motion, both which produce friction and heat, but often no fire.
C. What would it look like for you to turn aside from your routine and turn fully toward God? To listen? To say “Here I am,” and mean here I am fully, ready, willing to listen and obey?
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