The Local Vineyard Church Podcast

Don't Fall Into the Trap

• The Local

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What if the reason you feel stuck isn’t God’s silence, but three subtle traps shaping how you listen? Jacob shares a candid, practical message on moving from spiritual frustration to faithful traction by exposing the patterns that keep you from hearing God clearly and walking in His will.

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SPEAKER_00:

Hey LVC, I wanted to um give a special message. I feel like the Lord put this on my heart to share with us, and we're gonna kind of post this as our message this week, but as and I feel like it is for some people. It's called Don't Fall Into the Trap. Now don't fall into the trap. Like Jacob, what does that mean? Don't fall into the trap. Well, before I get into that, let me ask you this question that can lead to it. Have you ever had a friend or someone close to you? When they pray, it feels like God instantly answers their prayer. Like, man, like God shows up, God moves in a powerful way. But then when you pray, it feels like it doesn't happen that fast. It doesn't feel like God shows up that fast. You're like, what am I doing wrong? Am I am I not praying correctly? Am I is there secret sin in my life or something? Maybe I'm listening to too much Taylor Swift music and not enough Carrie Job. I don't know, I don't know. But why doesn't my access to God seem the same like other people? Now, here's the thing. Here's the thing. This is what I want you to say. If this is what I want to say, if you have ever felt spiritually stuck, spiritually in a rut, like you just can't quite move forward, or there seems to be a disconnect between your life and your relationship with God and hearing God's voice and understanding what He wants for you. I want you to know that you are not alone. You're not alone. Many of us, if not all of us, have had times in our walk with the Lord that sometimes it feels stuck, like I don't know where I'm going, if I'm going the right direction or not. And so what I want to talk to us today about is this three traps, three traps that we can often fall into in thinking that we can't hear God's voice or that God might be far from us. Okay? So I want to talk about these about three common things that happen. Okay, and the first one is this. The first one, this is so good. The first one is this. Sometimes, sometimes we often over-spiritualize, spiritualize God's will. We can over-spiritualize it. Like like maybe, maybe we over-spiritualize, and we say things like, like, maybe I just need like this divine sign or or or something to the float in the clouds to show me what God's will is. Now you may think it's kind of weird for a pastor to say you can be, you can over-spiritualize, but the truth is some of you are over-spiritualizing things. You're looking, you're looking for the supernatural, but God's trying to speak to you in the natural. See, here's the thing that I believe. I believe that God is naturally supernatural. And I believe that God can move in the natural things in our lives and do supernatural things in them. But we can't just go looking for signs, go looking for things. Here you go. Some of us, you we are too spiritual. You know, you want everything to feel mystical. You want God to speak always, like through a burning bush. Or you like I said, you want God to speak to you in the clouds, or better yet, you want God to speak directly to you, and you want him to sound like Morgan Freeman. That's what you're hoping for. Like, God, can you sound like that, please? You know, and we tend to over-spiritualize things at times. And sometimes, like I said, sometimes we'll just say, God, give me a sign. Can you just give me a sign to what to do? And I'll be honest, I'll be honest. I've asked God for a sign before. I thought I've said that prayer. God, give me a sign. Is that what you want me to do? But if I'm being real honest with us, sometimes when I'm asking for a sign, really, I just want God to give me permission to do the thing I've already decided to do. If I if I'm being honest, if we're being honest today. And the Pharisees in the New Testament, they were guilty of the same thing. They were guilty of this, seeking signs, but not always with the purest motives. Check this out in Matthew 11, we see the wrong motives. The Bible says this in Matthew 12. Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to Jesus, Teacher, we want to see a sign from you. They're basically saying, Prove yourself, Jesus. Prove, give us a sign. And watch what Jesus says, it's pretty intense. He answered, A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign. Like, what? That's Jesus. That's that's pretty intense. That's a pretty intense statement for people who say, Hey, just show me a sign. And the reason is this, though. The reason is this. I think because the Pharisees weren't just seeking a sign about what to do, they were seeking proof on their own terms. They wanted things their way, and they wanted Jesus to prove it to them by their way. And so, and so many of us will read into anything that we think we want and say, Well, this must be what God wants. God, maybe God wants me to do this because we because we want a sign. And a lot of times we're seeking for a sign without seeking God. And this is why spending daily time with God is so important. It's why leaning into God's heart is so important and having those rhythms in in your life. Now, we just we just we we just don't want to say, God, give me a sign without without seeking him. Now, now here's something very important that I want us to that I want to say. Sometimes we're asking for an open door. We're asking God to open doors when we still have closed Bibles. We're not we're not even seeking God. We're not even seeking what he really wants for us to do. We're trying to take our will and force it onto God. James says this. James 1.5 says this. If any of you lacks wisdom, what should you do? You should ask God. You should just ask God for it. You should seek God. If you need wisdom, where do you go? What do you say? How do you respond? What to do? Who to date? What course to take? If you need any wisdom, you should go to God. Go to God first. You know, here at LVC, we believe the number one thing that you should do to be fully engaged with God is have an active participation in your spiritual habits. Having daily time, daily rhythms with the Lord is so important. James finishes. He says, he says this. He says, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. God is wanting to pour out wisdom on us. God is wanting to connect with us. So we just don't have to ask for, God, give me this sign in the clouds and what to do with my life. The more you listen to me, the more you spend time with God, the more you'll begin to see the steps that He wants you to take and get and give you wisdom in that in those areas. And so so often, so first problem is sometimes we over-spiritualize things. God, give me these divine signs. And the second one, the second one is this, and this is true of many of us, and myself included, we tend to we tend to overanalyze it. We overanalyze things. We we read through everything, like what are the pros and cons? Maybe I should go this, maybe I should do that. And there's nothing wrong with with with analyzing things and looking at things, but sometimes, sometimes, here, sometimes, when we overanalyze, we can actually take faith out of the equation. We can some sometimes, guys, this is a faith journey. It's taking a step of faith to say, God, is this what you really have for me? Is this what is this where you where you want me to go? And and that's important for us to do. You know, now this could be again overanalyzing can be one of the biggest mistakes we make or biggest traps we fall into, especially this upcoming generation. I mean, there's so much information. We can we can use AI, we can just have chat GPT give us what we want and say what we want. You know, you know, there's so much ways that we can overanalyze things and in and in that process, honestly, miss what God is trying to speak to us and say and say to us. And so, but think about it, we have so much to decide from. I mean, we we just have we have so many choices, we have so many things. Like right now, some of you are thinking, what show do I watch on Netflix? I got so many options. I don't even but maybe I shouldn't get invested into this show. Maybe I I should get invested into the new Apple TV show. Yeah, I mean, you got so many options. Like, what do we do? What you know, what you know, what can we do? So here you come. As Jesus followers, sometimes we'll even say, we'll say to we'll say, well, hey man, I'm gonna pray about it. I'm gonna, man, I got some tough decisions, I'm gonna pray about it. And instead of praying about it, we just stall. We just we use it as an excuse to overanalyze, to overthink it. We're stalling because we're afraid to make a mistake. That's that's that's what's going on. We're afraid to make this making a mistake. You know, so why? Why do we stall? Why do we hesitate? The truth is this a lot of us we do want absolute clarity. But I'm gonna be honest with you guys. Sometimes you're not gonna get absolute clarity. Sometimes when God's telling you to to try this job or or maybe do this, it's not gonna come with the absolute clarity, but it will come with a prompting of the Holy Spirit. And when you're spending time with the Lord, that prompting of the Holy Spirit will begin to make a little bit more sense. Okay? And so here's what we know is this throughout the Bible, we see these people of great faith. They did not have absolute clarity. And this is what the Hebrew writer says. And he says, without faith, it is impossible to please God. Because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek them. Do you see that? Do you see what that scripture is saying? Let me read it one more time. He says, Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. He's saying, Man, when you come to God in faith, when you come to God in faith, you know, you may not have absolute clarity. You may not know every step you need to take. But when you just come to God with faith, say, God, I know you, I know you're good, I know you're with me, I know you're for me. I'm gonna lean into that. I'm gonna lean into that. If you seek him, you'll find him. And if you seek him, he will reveal himself to you. If you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then he will reveal everything and add everything onto you. That's what Jesus tells us in Matthew 6. And so here's the twist, though. Here's the twist. For most of us, the more we analyze, the less we obey. The less we obey. Why? Why? Because we don't want to make the wrong decision. And so instead of making the wrong decision, we'll make no decision. Because no decision is better, right? Than making the wrong decision. Well, I don't know. I don't know. We forget that no decision is a decision. It is. That's the choice. And we're waiting for complete peace. We're waiting for the sign. We're waiting for 100% reassurance. That will, and if you and if you're waiting for that, you'll stay waiting. You'll stay waiting. Guys, I gotta tell you this. Most of the coolest things I've done in my life, I did not have absolute 100% clarity on it. I didn't have 100% clarity on it. But I knew God was in it. I said, God, if you're in it, I'm willing to bet my life on it. I'm willing to go for it. I'll take the jump. I'll take the punch. Here you go. Here's it. I'm gonna show you this ridiculously popular ver verse, and I'm sure you know it may even be on a coffee mug that you have in your house. Proverbs 3 says this trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Check this part out. In all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. I love that. Some translations say, in all your ways, acknowledge him. The Hebrew word for acknowledge is this word yada. I love it, yada. And in that word yada means to know deeply, not just not just head knowledge, but deeply, relationally. You have an experience with God. In other words, don't just know God, but know God. Know him. And if you want to know God's will, you got to know God's heart. And this isn't again, this isn't head knowledge, it's relational, lived out kind of knowing. And here's another fun thing. This is the same word that we see in Genesis chapter 4. Is when it says, when Adam knew Eve, Adam Yada Eve, his wife. It's this, it's this is this deep love, this deep, this deep intimacy, this deep knowing. We see it again in in John chapter 6, when all the disciples leave Jesus, and then it's just the 12 with them. And then Jesus says, Peter, aren't you gonna leave too? And Peter says, No, we're not leaving because we yada you. We know you. And again, not a head knowledge, it's a it's a deep, loving, knowing God. And friends, my heart for you today is that you yada God, that you know God, that you know God in the deepest parts of you, that you have such a life-giving relationship with Jesus that it pours into every aspect of your life, that you yada him, that you know him, that you go all out for him. And this is not cold obedience, no, this is intimate awareness of his character, of his nature, of his sovereignty, of his holiness, his righteousness and justice, his goodness and his glory. This is a knowing him, this is a yada him, this is living in the presence of God kind of thing. And when you say, God, I'm for you, because you're for me, and if you're for me, nothing can be against me. Like Paul said, like Paul said, this is walking by faith and not and not by sight, and not by sight. And the third thing, here you go, last one, last one. The third mistake we often make is this we assume that hard means wrong. Come on. If something's hard, I must be doing the wrong thing. If something's tough, maybe I'm not in God's best. Maybe maybe I'm far from we assume that something is difficult, this must not be God's will. And you've probably been there at some point in your life. You prayed and you trusted God for the future, and you still feel alone. You feel like you've trusted God with your finances and things haven't changed. You feel like you've trusted God in your family, and you and there's still troubles, and there's still heartache. You feel like you've been praying and things haven't come up. And you may have said things, God, God, just give me some peace. Just give me peace. And yet you still feel anxious. And at some point you may say, God, are you even there? Because things are so hard. Things are so challenging and difficult. And I want to say this, I want to say this. Hard does not equal wrong. Because if hard equals wrong, then the cross was the biggest mistake in history. Jesus was obedient, obedient to even death, death on a cross. And the Bible is very clear. And 1 Peter says this, for it's better if it's if if it's God's will to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. It's better to suffer, the Bible says. Like it's never easy, it's never easy. But if it's God's will, then man, it's actually better. Then it's actually the best thing that God wants for me. See, sometimes things are hard, but they can be hard for the glory of God. It can be hard to break that addiction, but it's hard for the glory of God. It can be hard to not give up on family sometimes, but it's hard for the glory of God. It may be hard to not to keep going after that dream, but it's hard for the glory of God. Like, come on, man, just because something's hard doesn't mean it's not for God's glory. It may, I may even say this the harder the thing may be, maybe the bigger for God's glory. And so we gotta keep pressing in. We gotta keep going. So this is what I want to tell us today. There are some traps. There's some traps that we can fall into. The trap of over-spiritualizing things, the trap of overanalyzing things, the trap of thinking if something's hard, then it must be wrong. And this is what I'm gonna say. If you're looking for easy, you are not looking for Jesus. You're not looking for Jesus. Because Jesus and easy don't go together, but Jesus in purpose, Jesus in hope, Jesus in faith, Jesus in grace, man, those go together. And so I'm gonna say this: let's not fall for the trap, but let's say yes to Jesus. Jesus, I'm gonna say yes to spending time with you. Jesus, I'm gonna say yes to walking in faith. And Jesus, even though I'm going through a hard time, even though this isn't exactly what I thought, I'm still gonna lean in and see you in it. So let's pray. God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your glory. And God, we say we won't fall for the trap, but we'll keep leaning into you, we'll keep going after you, we'll see more of you, God, and less of us. And so God, I pray that we'll be a church that says, we'll spend daily time with you. We'll walk by faith and not by sight. And just because something is hard, we will not give up, but we'll press into you. So God, we love you and we need you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, we see thank you so much for watching this special message with me. I cannot wait to preach um next Sunday. I got a word on my heart talking about saying yes to Jesus, and I can't wait to share it with you guys. All right, I'll talk to you guys later.