March 16--Three Ways God Brings You Near

I'm less likely to ask God for help if I've over-eaten, spoken sharply, skipped worship.  The guilt piles up and I avoid him.  But God's not waiting for me to measure up.  He's waiting for me to come to him, and he knows how to make me want to.  These passages say 3 ways he brings me near:  Numbers 24-25, Luke 2:1-20, Psalm 60, Proverbs 11:.

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Transcript

Numbers 24-25

Luke 2:1-20

Psalm 60, Prayer, Proverbs 11:14-15

SPEAKER_00 0:00

March sixteenth three ways God brings you near I won't be reading the scripture references for those please check the written post We had a cold snap this week right in the middle of greening woods and unfurling hydrangea leaves we got two inches of snow. My daffodils struggled to keep their heads up. Hawk lives next door and stopped by to say hi with his friend Ivan, who were out of school for spring break. On the way over they broke through ice in a puddle, rescued Hawk's puppy from briars, and slipped into the creek. When they arrived their teeth were chattering. Actually they wanted more than just to say hi, they wanted to warm up with hot tea and cake. I'm not unwise to how six year olds think. But since what I want is to have a relationship with them as Hawk's grandma, this works out perfectly for me. I stash drinks and treats so they'll come over and hang out, and when they do, we chat about things. I'm hoping they remember the love along with the red zinger and lava cake. God has his ways of bringing us near too, as today's passages say. The Old Testament chapters are Numbers twenty four to twenty five. He has nothing to worry about, but he doesn't know it. When Balak, King of Moab, hears stories of Israel's victories over nearby nations, he gets scared of what they might do to Moab. He doesn't know that the land God promised to give Israel is on the other side of the Jordan River and away from Moab. Besides, the battles Israel's fought and won were in self defense. Sihon, King of the Amorites, attacked them after Israel requested safe passage through their territory. Fearing they be next, Ag, King of Bashan, marched out with his entire army to attack them after that. All Balak knows is that the stories of Israel's successes are terrifying, so he's taking no chances. He sends for Balam, a well known prophet, and offers to pay him a lot of money to speak a curse on God's people. After three times trying, all Balam can manage to do is bless them. Balak is so put out he tells Balam he's not paying him one red cent, and he can blame God for it because Balam claimed he wouldn't say any words except those God gave him. After Balam's fired, he comes up with plan B, a sordid scheme for bringing harm to Israel and cashing in on Balak's fear of them. He advises the king to send the women of Midian to their camp to seduce the Israelite leaders into going with them to worship at the shrine of their idol, the Baal of Peor, where they feast on idol meat and have sex with these women. God says afterwards that those who took part must be killed, and when the whole community is repenting and grieving publicly over it, an Israelite man brings a midnight woman into the camp, enters a tent, and proceeds to have sex right there in front of God and everybody. Phineas the priest is so incensed that he takes a spear and goes in after them, driving it through both of them still in the act. God praises Phineas for his zeal for God's honor and holiness, and wouldn't you know? Phineas' action stops the plague that has started and killed twenty four thousand people. I'm not sure what to make of Balaam, a prophet who actually hears words directly from God. He even has at least one vision that's obviously about Jesus, and yet he's not honorable or trustworthy. Obviously money is what motivates him not doing God's will, so I wonder why God uses him to speak his word to others, let alone bothers to speak to him in the first place. It's troubling that the same man who can hear God speaking to him directly and can be used by God to bless Israel can also be paid to lead them into immorality and idolatry on such a grand scale. I want to believe that everybody who engages with God and his word is transformed by them to be, well, godly, but Balaam wasn't. Balaam tried to pedal God's word to get rich, and when that didn't work he pedaled evil to get even richer. It's the same thing Judas did who spent real time with Jesus, yet sold him for silver. Balam put up a pretense of faith in God, but refused to surrender his life to him. He wasn't only bad news for Israel, his influence could still be felt in the early church fifteen hundred years later. John the apostle wrote that there was a Balam crowd that had infiltrated the church of Pergamum who was all talk and no walk. The spirit of Balaam is still alive and well today, and it's important to recognize it. Jude wrote a lot about how to spot it, whether in ourselves or others. Here are four signs of it. One, a person influenced by the spirit of Balaam does spiritual things in order to be known by others, not to know God. They want to cash in on their spirituality, so they're well thought of, but their bottom line is making money, and their angle is self promotion. two. A person influenced by the spirit of Balaam checks boxes to gauge spirituality. Read the Bible, check, go to church, check, head up good causes, check, pray before meals, check, do the latest retreat or study, check, but she doesn't have an intimate, personal, ongoing relationship with God Himself. three. A person influenced by the spirit of Balaam perverts grace into a license for immorality. Rather than leading others into godly living, he delights to lead them into sinning under the guise of finding spiritual freedom. Further, he's divisive, is caught up in the idolatry of accumulating things, and does not have the spirit. four. But the worst piece of Balam's spirit is this she quote, denies Jesus Christ our only sovereign and Lord, end quote. She might not speak her denial outright, but she denies him by how she lives. She works hard at being good enough and hides the things she can't clean up. Jesus isn't dear because she doesn't think she needs him. Before God showed me what a sinner I am, this is how I lived. While Balaam spoke God's words, he didn't believe them, they didn't move him, they didn't change him. There's a temptation to know the Bible simply as a book of information rather than as the persuasive, priceless, precious words you just can't live without. God's word should dig deep inside us, not sit on our nightstands. Like a mole looking for grubs and leaving runs under the Bermuda, God's word should move in us and be just as obvious. Are we becoming more loving, more patient, more kind, more gentle, more self controlled as a result of it? The fruit of God's spirit won't hide itself. In fact, a person with God's light in them is like a city set on a hill that can't be hidden. What if I look over my life and see no mole runs, no real faith? The temptation when I see that my spiritual life is mostly show and no substance is to get busy and do more spiritual things, to try even harder to be good. But trying to make myself better has never been the way to do it. I must do what Balaam didn't, fall on my knees and ask forgiveness for do gooding rather than depending on Jesus to make me good. I can't be good without him, and trying to do so is the same thing as denying him. If your spiritual life is largely lived checking boxes, if you're greedy to be in the limelight, if you do spiritual things to be seen, suspect yourself of Balaam's deceit and ask God to help you repent. His spirit longs to inhabit you for real, and his offer is always on the table. Take heart that he's showing you what you need to see. God brings you near by convicting you of sin, so you want to run to him. The New Testament passage is Luke two twenty. When Jesus was born, God sent an angel to tell a group of unnamed shepherds, and then just to make sure they got the message, a choir of angels showed up and sang their hearts out in the heavens. This was quote a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody worldwide, end quote, the angel said, yet God told no name nobody's about it first. Why? I'm guessing because they believed it and were so overjoyed. We know they believed and were joyful because they hurried off to find him. The message says quote, they left running, end quote. And after meeting the newborn Savior, they told everybody the story. God doesn't need channel nine news, the internet, social media or TikTok, but he can certainly hijack them and use them to bring the good news of Jesus to every open heart, just the way he hijacked that starry starry night. When the good news of Jesus breaks through to you, the joy will move you to worship and share him too. God brings you near by announcing the good news of Jesus so you can believe too. From Psalm sixty, here's the problem. God is angry with David and his men for unnamed sin, and he's allowing the bad guys to beat them, but David asked God to help them anyway. How can David pray that God will relent even though they don't deserve it? Because David knows God's love. He knows that those who fear him get helped, that those God loves get delivered, and regardless of whether or not they're worthy. He's confident God will help them because they're his people. Hasn't he given them the land he promised? And while he's disciplined them, he hasn't abandoned them the way he's abandoned their enemies. God gives aid against the enemy, which is all the help they need since quote, human help is worthless, end quote. It's God's help that wins the day, and no one else gets the credit. We can be certain that the God who made us, who has an inheritance waiting for us because of Jesus, and who gives us his presence by his spirit hasn't walked off and left us when we mess up. He will help us when we call because of his goodness and not ours. God brings you near by helping when you least deserve it. Prayer. God, thank you for your spirit who convicts me. Jesus life that frees me, your love that never stops supporting me. Thank you for all the ways you keep bringing me near. In Jesus' name, so be it. From Proverbs eleven, fourteen to fifteen. People get lost without good directions. The more wisdom you follow, the better off you are. Don't be too quick to make a hot deal with a stranger. You'll likely get sharped. Passages in Numbers, Luke, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in the yearly Bible. This is Eve to Bartle Laban, Roebuck.