New Year's Day

foreign
years ago
before I was actually ordained
to the ministry there was a season in my
life
where the Lord seemed to direct me to a
number of very specific Bible passages
that came across to me as promises for
my life
and for my Ministry
it's hard to sort of describe how that
happened I would just be reading the
Bible and all of a sudden it was like
there would be this verse or that verse
that sort of popped out
and it would pop out with such power
that back then I actually took the time
to write down the verses
and ponder their their meaning before
the Lord
up until that point that had never
happened to me before and after that
point it only happened very sparingly
maybe on one or two occasions and a
truth be known I've always been kind of
suspicious of those kinds of subjective
interpretations of the Bible
and perhaps you have heard the story of
the young Christian who subscribed to
what is known as the Open Bible finger
down method of finding guidance you've
heard of it undoubtedly
it's the method where you open scripture
at random with your eyes shut
and you put your finger down
and where it falls
is the Lord's Direction
for your life kind of a dangerous
exercise as this particular young man
discovered because he opened the Bible
in the first place that his finger
landed was Matthew 27 verse 5.
where the Bible says concerning Judas he
obviously that couldn't be the word of
the Lord to this particular individual
so he prayed again closed his Bible
opened it put his finger down the second
time his finger hid Luke 10 37.
and there it says go
and do thou likewise
well by now he was beginning to sweat a
little bit so another fervent prayer
closed Bible Open Bible finger down
method and this time he hit John 13 27
where Jesus says to Judas at the Last
Supper what you are about to do do
quickly
I think that was probably the end of his
Open Bible finger down method
I first heard that story I said to
myself he should have been smart enough
to open it in the Old Testament and stay
away from the gospels but who knows
where his finger might have landed back
then
be that as it may as I said there was
that season where these verses just sort
of popped out and
of those verses that I received back
during that phase of my life a number of
the verses came from the book of Isaiah
and a couple of them stood out
particularly in the book of Isaiah the
first one is a verse that you might well
remember too from Isaiah chapter 30 the
verses 20 and 21.
and that reads as follows although the
Lord gives you the bread of adversity in
the water of affliction
your teachers will be hidden no more
with your own eyes you will see them
whether you turn to the right or to the
left your ears will hear a voice behind
you saying this is the way walk in it
and is perhaps you can appreciate over
the succeeding years that verse has been
a tremendous Comfort to me and good
times and in bad times to know God's
promise that he would direct and he
would guide and he would show me and
other people associated with me I have
the direction that we ought to be
following another passage then from
Isaiah that was powerfully real to me in
those days and as I said this goes back
many many years but I have never
forgotten that are the verses two and
three of Isaiah 45
that we read together a moment ago let
me read them again
and here the Lord says I will go before
you and will level the mountains
I will break down Gates of bronze cut
through bars of iron
I will give you the treasures of
Darkness reaches stored in secret places
so that you may know that I am the Lord
the god of Israel who summons You by
name
and I recall how confusing I found that
it occurs in scripture in a very
particular
historical and literal context of course
it
applies to Cyrus
Cyrus was
the King of Persia
and Isaiah with the eyes of the
prophetic looks hundreds and hundreds of
years down the road and he says God is
going to raise up a man called Cyrus by
the way this is why a lot of Old
Testament critics do not believe that
Isaiah wrote the last part of the book
of Isaiah because how could he have
known
Cyrus by name but if you believe in
God's ability to have prophetic Insight
that's absolutely no issue at all so
Isaiah sees the day when God will raise
up Cyrus
and he's going to invade Babylon and he
is going to rob them of their literal
treasures and we know from history
that's exactly what happened in 539 BC
the story is found also in the Book of
Daniel where the medes and the Persians
enter into Babylon and they just spoil
it
and they rabbit of its Treasures the
emphasis on Daniel lies on Darius
and people have done a lot of scholarly
study to try to discern the relationship
between Cyrus and and Darius
and most likely what happened is that
Cyrus was the emperor over the over all
Empire but Darius was placed in charge
of Babylon at any rate historically that
is the context of this particular
passage and so years back as I was
pondering this I didn't know what to do
with it and what do you do when you
don't know what a Bible passage means
well if you're smart you put it on the
Shelf
because there's a lot of things we don't
understand and there's a lot of things
that only become clear with the passing
of time
and so I put it on the Shelf
periodically I take it down and say Lord
what is it that you were trying to say
and as I did that over the years and as
I watched how the Lord LED my life and
led my Ministry because that's how I
felt it applied
I began to understand something that I
had missed the first time around and
that is this
many prophetic declarations in the Old
Testament
have a multiple level of fulfillment
that is to say they are find a
fulfillment in their own Literal time
historically and they have a subsequent
fulfillment or subsequent fulfillments
that's part of the confusion when you
read Old Testament prophecies let me
give you a quick example you all know
Isaiah 7 14.
Isaiah 7 14 has these words the Lord
himself will give you a sign the Virgin
will be with child and will give birth
that verse according to the book of
Isaiah found a literal fulfillment in
the days of Isaiah
when a son was born and all of the
promises that were made in connection
with that son were fulfilled then
but you know as well as I do that that's
not the only
application of this particular promise
because when you get to the New
Testament what happens well you have
Matthew
using this to demonstrate
the the legitimacy of Jesus in that he
is born of a virgin so Matthew 1 23
quotes this passage the Virgin will be
with child and will give birth to a son
and they will call him Emmanuel God With
Us
so you have this multiple fulfillment of
Old Testament promises
and so it began to dawn on me
that yes in the Old Testament you have
Cyrus who is being raised up of God to
destroy the power of Babylon
lay bare his literal treasure
so that the captive Israelites could go
back home because if you know the story
it was Cyrus who said in motion the
return from Exile so that Israel could
be re-established in the land
but that's not the only fulfillment of
this particular promise
because even as Cyrus was a deliverer
there would one day come a greater
deliverer
and you and I know him of course
by the name of Jesus ultimately it is
Jesus
who levels the mountains who breaks down
the gates of bronze cuts through the
bars of iron
and who uncovers the treasures of
Darkness rich is stored in secret places
so that we may all know
that God is the Lord and that the god of
Israel has summoned him
by name now stick with me because if
this promise Finds Its fulfillment in
Jesus
and you and I are the body of Jesus are
you following me here
then the promise is also fulfilled in
your life and in my life
in other words the Lord wants to use us
to level mountains he wants to use us to
break down the gates of bronze cut
through the bars of iron
and he wants us to have the privilege
of discovering the treasures of Darkness
richest stored
in secret places
in setting captives free
what's treasure
well treasure
is something upon which you place an
incredibly high value
it may be a monetary value
you know a very expensive heirloom a
huge pile of gold or cash or stocks or
bonds
it can also be of sentimental value
it might be worth nothing to anybody
else but to you
it has tons and tons of memories
attached to him
whatever the case if you treasure it you
value it greatly
and what do you do with the treasure
all you hide it
and the more valuable it is
the better you hide it
because there will be the Temptation for
a thief to come along and steal it
that's why
you know you don't go out in public
flashing unless you're really stupid
a big water builds because somebody will
trip you up when you're not looking and
they'll take it from you you don't go
bragging
about
the possessions that you have in a way
that somebody else becomes jealous and
wants to rob you so Treasures are hidden
out of sight in deep deep places where
nobody can take it and every so often
you'll go in there and you'll take it
out and you look at it and you you know
you shine it up and you're proud of your
treasure
but you're careful and you guarded and
you guard it really carefully now here's
the question
what do you suppose
is your and mine
biggest treasure
some of you may say well my possessions
or
a little more Christian maybe uh
my relationships and
yes possessions
relationships and a lot of other things
our value very valuable
and we do well to treasure them
but I'm pretty sure that if we really
were to push it our biggest treasure
would be what leaves
in our hearts wouldn't that be true
because our hearts in biblical language
is the seat of personality
it's the place of our passion
it's the place of our desire
it's the place of our dreams it's a
place of our hopes it's what fuels us
that's what that verse in Proverbs means
that we quote so often guard your heart
carefully for out of it for the issues
of Life what that means
is that what your heart loves
is going to direct your life
what your heart believes
is going to decide how you act
and what your heart is loyal to you
is going to determine very much the
course of your life guard your heart
for out of it for the issues of life
now remember
God's original design
was that we should live with our hearts
wide open
that is to say
wholeheartedly you know one of the old
hymns we sing taken from the Psalms
wholehearted Thanksgiving to thee I will
bring
and of course Jesus when he was asked by
the teachers of the law what is the
greatest commandment what did he say
love the Lord your God with what
all your heart
oh your soul with all your mind and your
neighbor
as you love yourself
God wants us to live
fully
with hearts wide open
so that he can demonstrate the fullness
of his character through your life and
my life now here's a very practical
question
what happens
doesn't take you very long before you
discover
the world is a mean place
and
depending on you know
a whole number of factors
you discover
that it's almost impossible to live
wholeheartedly
and the reason for that's twofold
number one your heart my heart by Nature
is permeated by sin
and so while we may think we are King
Tutton something really very special the
rest of the world recognizes how selfish
how rotten how miserable we can be and
there are times when you show your true
self the people around you are very
anxious to either shut you up or to get
away from you because you're just a
miserable old cuss
and that's true for the meanest than the
best
because we are shot through with sin but
not only that even in the places where
our behavior is not governed or marked
by sin but rather governed and marked by
who we authentically are before God and
places that God wants us to live we
discover the world's a pretty hostile
place
because not everybody wants to hear my
opinion
not everybody is going to bless my every
dream hope or ambition
and not everybody is going to encourage
me a long life's way
and so depending on who you are
the circumstances and the situations in
which you find yourself you go through
life
and you discover pretty quickly there
and you discover
that you've got to shut them down
and you hide them
how many people don't you know
who will never speak their mind in a
group setting
because they are afraid that other
people are not going to like what they
have to say
or how many people
say things that they ought not to be
saying because they're not sensitive to
the situation or to the environment in
which they are but they have decided
they're just going to flop it all out
regardless of the damage that does to
other people isn't that true
how many of us have learned that if you
live with your heart wide open and
you're trying to pursue your dreams the
reality will bring you crashing down to
the ground
and what are the differences between
you know adult generation and a younger
generation is that we often look at
scans at the hopes of the dreams of
young people and we say to ourselves
well just you wait till you grow up and
you'll discover life isn't that what you
think it's going to be
and half the time that's true
and the other half of the time it's also
true
and so
that's the reality of what life is
so we go under I cannot tell you how
many people I've encountered over the
years of many decades of ministry now
whose deepest dreams fondest hopes and
expectations whole aspects of their
personality they've had to deny to
they were too much
they
were misunderstood they were
misrepresented and so they constantly
had to make the choice of how do I
belong to this group of people and what
do I have to do in order to belong to
this group of people and and how do I
remain true to what I really feel
on the inside
and we live in a society that is in
constant tension because we live in a
day and age where people are so much
encouraged to be themselves even their
rotten miserable selves
at the cost of how to do relationships
and so we get into a whole world where
where we don't know how to do life and
we don't know how to do relationships
because see when you hide the Deep
places of your heart
and when you don't show
what God has placed inside you to other
people around you
well it goes dormant because the the
universe operates on the principle of
use it or lose it
and so if I don't know
if I stop giving you my opinion
pretty soon I have no opinion
if I hide my emotions from you because
you cannot handle my emotions and pretty
soon I have no emotions left to show you
I go numb I start sliding into
addictions because a whole part of my
life
is not leaving
to understand
what I'm saying
how much of this you understand will
depend a lot on the kind of environment
situation in which you were raised I
tell you we don't understand the needs
of the world around us today unless we
understand that multiple hundreds of
thousands of people have had to go
underground
to hide who they really are
and the result of that is an incredible
loss
to the kingdom if you're married to that
kind of a person then you know that
you've got to do all the work in order
to engage and to have relationships and
if you're ever in conflict with that
kind of a person you discover that you
can never win the argument
because it's never their fault it's
always your fault because it is shrouded
in a place of Shame
and the more the world gets broken and
the more one generation builds on
another broken Generation The More We
Get people who just don't know how to do
life
don't know how to do relationships
and it's tragic because it multiplies
until a whole society bogs down in the
Brokenness of life
the treasures of Darkness
I believe and you may agree or disagree
the treasures of Darkness I Believe are
those valuable places in our hearts
where our lives are gifting where lies
our passion where lies our ability to do
life
and even as God
raised up Cyrus years ago
to literally despoil the treasures of
Babylon
so subsequently the Lord Jesus
has been raised up by God the Father
to reveal the strongholds of the enemy
to set captives free in those places
and to uncover
the treasures of Darkness
so that people can actually learn to
live
before the face of God now just to show
you what that looks like in the real
world I'm going to read your story it's
not a Christian story it's secular
but it illustrates the point
and then I want to put it just briefly
in the context
of the gospel because if this is
possible in the world
it is that much more possible in the
context of Jesus Christ who in fact came
to level the mountains and to break the
bars and to release captives this is a
story
that is introduced
with a little quote from Irma Bombeck
any of you remember
Irma
she's long gone now I used to write
columns as I recall in newspapers here's
how it's introduced there are people who
put their dreams in a little box and say
yes I've got dreams of course I've got
dreams
then they put the Box away and bring it
out once in a while to look at it and
yep it's still there these are great
dreams but they never even get out of
the box it takes an uncommon amount of
guts to put your dreams in the line to
hold them up and to say how good or bad
am I
that's where courage
comes in that's the introduction now
here follows the story told by a woman
by the name of Hellas Bridges
on a park bench 200 feet above the Roar
and Pacific Ocean I sat quietly relaxing
and breathing in the Rays of the Sun
the day was clear calm sweet Sunset was
only an hour away
I noticed that on avenge only 50 feet
further along the path was an older
woman
she was frail and bent over from the
weight of her shoulders
she had a large witch-like beak nose not
very complementary I thought despite her
appearance something about this woman
drew me to her
I walked to where she was seated in the
sat beside her I kept my focus on the
ocean
for a very long time I didn't say
anything
without thinking I spontaneously turned
to this old woman and quietly asked
if we never saw each other again
what would you really like me to know
about who you really are
there was no answer
silence lingered in the air for what
seemed like an hour
suddenly tears rolled down her cheeks
no one
has ever cured that much about me she
sobbed
I placed my hand lightly on her shoulder
to comfort her and said
I care
after introducing herself as Isabel she
whimpered ever since I was a little girl
I have always wanted to be a ballerina
but my mother told me I was too clumsy
I was never given the chance to learn
how to dance
but I have a secret
I have never told anyone this before
you see ever since I've been four years
old I have been practicing my dance
I used to hide in my closet and practice
so my mother wouldn't see me
Isabelle I urged show me your dance
Isabel looked at me in surprise
you want to see me dance
absolutely I insisted
that's when I saw the miracle
Isabel's face seemed to shed years of
pain
her face softened
she stood up proud hit erect shoulders
back
and then she stood up turned and faced
me
it was as if the world Stood Still for
her
this was the stage she had been waiting
for all her life
I could see it in her face
she wanted to dance
she wanted to dance for me
Isabel stood before me took a long deep
breath and relaxed
only moments before her brown eyes were
sunk deep into her skull now they were
bright and alive
elegantly she pointed her toe forward
while gracefully stretching out her hand
the move was masterful
she took my breath away
I was witnessing a miracle before my
eyes
one minute she was an ugly old miserable
woman the next
she was Cinderella
wearing glass slippers
her dance took a lifetime to learn and
only a moment to do
but she had fulfilled her life's dream
she had danced
Isabel began to laugh and cry almost at
the same time
in my presence she had become human
again
we continued to speak about math and
science and all the things that Isabel
loved
I listened and hung on her every word
you're a very great dancer Isabel I am
proud to have met you
and I really meant it
I never saw Isabel after that
I still remember smiling and waving
goodbye to her since that day I've taken
the time to stop and acknowledge people
everywhere
I've asked them what their dreams are
I have rooted them on
and each time I do this I witness a
miracle
like Isabel people stand taller smile
and somehow
begin to believe
again
I'll give you
the Lord said to Isaiah
for Cyrus
but also
for you and me through faith in Christ
I will give you
the treasures
of Darkness
I believe with all my heart and you know
this
if I believe with all my heart that God
has called us not just individually but
collectively as a church community
to set captives free
I believe that over the years the Lord
has given us some very keen insights
as to what it is that keeps people
locked up
in these deep places of their hearts
why it is that they cannot love God with
all of their heart
why it is that they cannot love their
neighbor as they love themselves why
they cannot do community why they cannot
and we've become equally convinced
of the Lord Jesus by his death and by
his resurrection his Ascension and by
the outsporting of the Holy Spirit has
done everything that needs to be done
in order to release those deep deep
places where we are so sadly and so
badly stuck
and when I see somebody coming out of
those dark places
and like Isabel they learn to step into
their dream and they learn to exercise
their gifting it is like heaven on Earth
has come down because if you know me at
all then you know that that's my passion
it's not an easy business it caused
Jesus to make it happen
and it's only Jesus who can bring about
the transformation
but you and I can be the hands and the
feet of Jesus we can create a community
where it is safe for people to feel what
they need to feel experience what they
need to experience and to be walked
through into the liberty and the freedom
that Jesus Christ has come to bring and
I tell you there are Smiles in heaven
when the isabels of life
and after everything has been said and
done
your life and my life
has significance and meaning
if God sees fit even in a small way
to make us part of that Journey
if he can raise up the Pagan Cyrus
doesn't know God doesn't acknowledge God
doesn't care about the purposes of God
how much more can he use you and me
to accomplish his purposes in our
generation
all we have to do is make ourselves
available
ask him to open our eyes to where people
do the real living
give us wisdom and Grace
to speak truth in love into people's
lives
stand in faith and expectation that God
can do far more abundantly than all that
we can ask or think and I for one
believe that in the year to come we're
going to see increasing measures of the
outpouring of God's holy spirit to
revive hearts that are broken to restore
hearts that have been wounded to to to
level the mountains to cut through bars
of iron to cut through bars of bronze
and to declare the good news of Jesus
Christ that he's come to set the
captives free so that we can live for
the praise of his glory
and every little victory that we
experience together
will give us more hope and courage that
the work that God has begun to do he
will bring to completion my invitation
to you this first day of 2015 is number
one do you believe the message of the
Gospel
do you believe with all your heart
regardless of your own experience
that Jesus is who he says that he is
and if so will you lay hold of that not
only for your own life
let him do what needs to be done to
break down the strongholds that keep us
but will you
commit yourself to being part of a
community
that can can encourage the isabels of
life
can draw them out
and can enable and allow them to live
for the glory of God
that's what God's about and I don't know
about you but that's what I want to be
about
in 2015 and I would ask you to join the