Learning to Hear the Voice of Love - Part 1

I think yesterday was the first time I've ever assigned homework during a sermon!  

If you were at ALIVE! Community Church yesterday (April 6th) you'll remember that we landed on the story of the blind man crying out for mercy to Jesus from Luke 18:35-43.  We began to talk about Giving Up the Voices in our Heads and Learning to Hear the Voice of Love.  Hearing the Voice of Love is an incredible spiritual principle I learned from a trusted mentor, Stephen Smith, in his book The Lazarus Life.  The Lazarus Life is a wonderful resource for understanding the incredible transforming power of Jesus.  

We hit on a couple of really important things about this story.  

#1 - Like the blind man, who was reduced to begging day after day after day, all of us are beggars in some form or fashion, although we may not realize it.  Our begging comes down to this: we want to be loved and we want to know that we're significant.

#2 - When the blind man cried out to Jesus, he was crying out in raw faith.  He hadn't seen the miracles that Jesus had performed.  We don't know exactly what he knew about Jesus - perhaps he had heard him teaching, or perhaps he had heard second hand accounts of the miracles that Jesus had performed.  But his faith was in Jesus, Son of David.  He knew in his heart that Jesus was the promised Messiah.  The Greek word for "cried out" is krazo which is a little more than just shouting.  Krazo is the word used to describe the intensely loud and hyper cries of demons that have been cast out of people by Jesus.  The blind man probably sounded like a lunatic to those around him.  

He didn't cry out for his sight.  He cried out for mercy.  His faith was in the ability of Jesus to love him, change him and give his life meaning and significance.  

#3 - Some of the people leading the way for Jesus rebuked him.  This was more than just a "Shut up and be quiet."  Jesus rebuked demons.  Jesus rebuked illness.  Jesus rebuked death.  The people that rebuked the man were essentially saying, "Be gone.  You're worthless.  You're nothing.  Depart from this place and never come back. Jesus doesn't care about you."

#4 - Many of us hear these same kinds of voices in our own lives.  I shared yesterday how some of the most hurtful and cruel words I've ever heard - words that crushed my spirit - came from my basketball coach when I was a sophomore in high school.  We hear words of rebuke as children from our parents, teachers and maybe coaches or instructors.  As adults, we may hear words of rebuke from our bosses, co-workers or even our spouses.  Some of us have been incredibly hurt by voices in The Church, presuming to speak for Jesus just as those leading the way in this story.  We have been rebuked and told that our sin is too great, we're too far gone and that there's no way that Jesus could ever love us or change us.  

But these are lies.  We are not worthless.  We are not ugly.  We are not beyond rescue.  We are not stupid.  Somebody DOES love us.  Somebody DOES think that we're significant.

#5 - Over the years, we begin to believe these lies about ourselves and roll them into one big lie - the lie of self-rejection.  The lie of self-rejection happens when we internalize and believe these lies and begin to think and believe that we are worthless, ugly, beyond rescue, stupid, unloved and unlovely, and insignificant.  The lie of self rejection - as Henri Nouwen said in his wonderful book Life of the Beloved - is one of, if not THE, biggest obstacle to spiritual growth.  When we believe the lie of self-rejection, we begin to believe that nobody, even Jesus, could really love us or find us significant if they really knew who we were.  

#6 - We have a choice.  We can believe the lies, or we can believe the truth about who we really are to God.  We can believe that we're unlovable and insignificant, or we can believe that we are deeply loved by God and very significant to him.  

It was such a struggle to end here yesterday in my message, but we did.  And this is where our homework comes in.  I encouraged you to do two things this week:

First, explore the lie of self-rejection in your own life.  Identify 3 lies that you've believed about yourself that others have told you.  3 lies that cause you to experience feelings of worthlessness, ugliness, hopelessness, being unloved and insignificant.  

Secondly, explore this week what Jesus says about you.  Begin to learn to find your identity in Him as you hear his voice of love.  

Remember, Isaiah 53:3 tells us that he experienced many of the same things we do: "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not."  Jesus is not indifferent to our pain and suffering that comes from the lies we are told.

But as we put into practice the words of Hebrews 12:2, we begin to hear his Voice of Love calling us to new life.  The Voice that invites us to be loved and to know that we are significant.  "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

I think that one of the greatest places to start is by settling on one of the passages of Scriptures that's very familiar to many of us: John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Think about the reality of God's love for us in that one, single verse.  The God of all creation - The One who holds the universe in His hands, The One who made us in his image - loves US!  His love for us is not limited to a feeling or an emotion, but it's a love that's expressed in sacrifice by giving his one and only son.  The sacrifice of God's Son on the cross opens the possibility of forgiveness, healing, transformation and eternal life to us when we believe in Him.  

In Jesus, God screams to us, "You're loved!  You're significant!"  

Let's go a little further.  V.17 tells us: "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

The lie of self-rejection is a lie of condemnation.  All of those voices that tell us we're worthless and unlovable are explicitly in rejection of the truth of God.  God's desire is not to condemn, but to save.  God's desire is not to exile, but to reconcile.  God's desire is not to isolate, but to redeem and to bring us into a deep relationship of love and significance with Him, through Jesus Christ.