When God is Silent

When God is Silent

Greetings:  Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms today…I hope and pray you are celebrated and Honored…not just on this day but every day of the year.

I believe I have a word today that will encourage many of you, not just ladies, but everyone who hears and listens to this message.

Transition:  One of the things I love about Jesus and scripture is the legitimization of Women and Womanhood.  For Jesus to do so was scandalous to many…especially to other teachers…

Matt 15:21-28

21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.”

23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”

27 “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

28 Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour. NIV

Introduction:  What do you do when God is Silent…we read the Old Testament and we assume God is a chatter box…but even in the Life of Abraham, God only speaks to him a few times. Same with the Life of Moses…

So what do you do when God is Silent and more importantly…How do we break the Silence.

  1. Distance
    1. The text that I just read to you gives us some incredible insight When God is Silent and How to Break that Silence…
    2. Geographical Distance
      1. Notice the text begins by giving us geographical locations…because it tells the reader they had been separated by distance…
      2. They are approximately separated by 25 miles…yet they both walk to destinations that causes their paths to cross…
  • When God gets ready to bless you and change the trajectory of your life…don’t underestimate the journey…
  1. Gender Distance
    1. Notice this woman is nameless…
    2. Ever notice the woman with the issue of blood, we are never told her name…
  • The woman at the well…is unnamed to us…
  1. This isn’t by accident…the time period is marked by the un-recognition of women…
  1. They were Distant Theologically
    1. She is a Canaanite woman…
    2. Her people have many gods…
  • Her people have been at war with the People of Israel since the days of Moses and Joshua…
  1. There is No inclination that she neither knows the God of Israel or worships him

Transition:  But trouble has a way of driving you to places and people where you can get an answer and some help….

  • God has a way of using our trouble to drive us to Jesus
  • We see in her life God doesn’t remove all our trouble, because God is using your trouble this morning to Drive you to Jesus…
  • If it wasn’t for her daughter being Vexed by a demon, she never would have sought Jesus out…she would have never closed this DISTANCE GAP
  • What is God using this morning to shorten the Distance Gap between you and Him
  1. Characteristics and Character
    1. There are 4 Things about this woman that impress me…She may not know God…but she has some Characteristics that People who claim to know God…should have…now this is only for Mature People…
    2. She’s Humble
    3. Persistent
    4. Emotionally Intelligent
    5. She was Trusting.
      1. Leaving her daughter to come to Jesus, a God she didn’t have a relationship with, nor does she necessarily believe in….But trusting that He may provide an answer
      2. Only twice in the New Testament did Jesus applaud Faith and in both instances it was from Gentiles…people’s whose theology didn’t have a predisposition toward Yaweh God or His Messiah.
  • She even refers to Jesus, using his Political Name…”Son of David” not his theological name Adonai or Messiah. She just knows He’s powerful.
  • Her Need
    1. My Daughter
      1. The one I conceived, carried and labored for
      2. The one I have invested in
  • There are some here today that have labored over some things…. some people, some places, some businesses…You’ve invested in….YOU WILL SEE A DIVIDEN
  1. Grievously Vexed
    1. You can hear and even see her desperation…not just vexed but grievously…the severity of the situation and circumstances….
    2. Yet scripture says: “Jesus answered her not a word….”
  2. What do you do when your Crisis Doesn’t Move God
    1. People who really don’t know God will think the worse the crisis, the quicker the Move of God…
    2. Jesus remains unmoved by the severity of her Crisis.
  3. The Cross
    1. Our crisis and discomfort doesn’t move a God whose emblem is a Cross
    2. Our suffering doesn’t necessarily move a suffering savior
  • He told us to “Take up your cross and follow me.”
  1. He declared, “If you suffer with me you shall also reign with me.”
  2. “He who sows in tears, will reap in Joy.”
  3. We aren’t going to cry our way to a Miracle sometimes…

Transition:  God is not moved by the magnitude of our discomfort….so don’t get offended when a Person who was beaten so bad his guts were hanging out, who was spat upon, whose beard was pulled out and he had nails driven into his hands…when he isn’t moved by our issues of discomfort….

I think between the movies and us preachers we have caused people to believe that there are always quick answers, and it will work out in an hour and a half…like the movies…but somethings may take 10 years for you to get through.

Mom/Dad What Do You Do When God is Quiet and Your Need is Great

To begin to answer the question…let me go to the beginning

  1. Genesis
    1. Was
      1. “In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the earth WAS…”
      2. Not sure how long it was…
  • Archaeologists and Geologists tell us it “was” maybe for millions, even potentially for billions of years…
  1. Darkness
    1. Darkness covered the face of the deep…
    2. How long was it dark…
  • With the absence of light, we don’t have heat…geologist tell us of multiple ice ages…do to the lack of heat thus the presumed absence of light…
  1. Darkness…how long…God how long Lord will it feel as if I am sitting in darkness and cold…
  1. Let
    1. Let there be light…
    2. Let means something was attempting to constrain or hold back the light from coming forth…
  • When God said, “Let…everything that was trying to constrain and resist Light from Coming forth had to loose its grip.
  1. Moses told Pharoah…”Let my people God…” Pharoah your constraints are being broken…

Transition:  But my question is:  How long was God silent…?

  1. Silent Times
    1. Abraham’s Covenant with God
      1. Your people will be in captivity for 400 years
      2. 400 years silence from the voice of God…without a Let….
  • After 400 years they’ll come out with Great Substance…that was the promise…sometimes we don’t carry great substance, because we can’t take the silence.
  1. And Jesus answered her not a word….
    1. Jesus is acting like His Father about her daughter….
    2. 400 years God didn’t say a word about Abraham’s Children…the Children of God being in Captivity…
  • But when God spoke…they came out weighted down with Blessing…matter of fact, Moses took up an offering in the Desert…and so much came in He had to tell the People to Stop Giving…
  1. They came out of the Silence Weighted with Blessing
  1. Between Malachi and Matthew
    1. There are 400 years of silence between the testaments…
    2. Can I go a bit deeper and I’ll wrap up?
  • In the silent years the Maccabees began to restore the priesthood and worship during the silent years…
  1. So, Israel has priests in the silent years, but no King….
  2. So God brings forth John the Baptist out of the Silence of his Priestly Father to prepare the way…for the King…”The Son of David.”

Transition:  Your Praise can begin to break the Silence…

  1. Closing
    1. Back to my text…Jesus begins having a conversation about her…before he has a conversation with her…
      1. Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father this morning having a Conversation about you…
      2. Your consistent crying out to God may get on the nerves of other Jesus followers…but your about to Break the Silence…
    2. Jesus moves from Talking about her to having a Discussion with her…she hasn’t prevailed yet, but she has provoked…
      1. Jesus compares her to a dog…
      2. If you have a rejection complex you are about to check out on me and check out on Jesus…
  • Now at first glance…you may not understand what is happening…but when Jesus refers to her as a dog…but word is speaking of a lab dog, a house dog…it isn’t an insult, as it is as much an acknowledgement that she is getting Close….
  1. I came to tell somebody today…you are getting close…
  2. Tell 3 People…You’re Close!!!!
  1. Jesus shifts the conversation again from talking to her…to talking about her…and He says in essence…”her faith has broken my silence.”
  • Altar
    1. Do I have any Faith Filled People in this Place…who is willing to Give God a Praise before He Blesses You or heals you or sets you free…
    2. Some have been experiencing the Silence of God…but it may be because you haven’t exercised your Faith in Him to Save you…

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