40 DAYS IN THE WORD WEEK 3

SEEING WHAT GOD WANTS ME TO SEE

40 Days In The Word  by   Rick Warren

as adapted and abrodged by John Donnelly for CCQF

SECTION  A:  WEEKLY THEMES

Week 1: Inspiration

Week 2:  Action

Week 3” ILLUMINATION: Letting the Holy Spirit show me the ________of God’s Word and how it _________to my life

SECTION B    WORDS OF POWER

1.      “He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all ______.”  John 14:17 (NLT)

2.      “I pray also that the    ____      ______      ____   ______     may be enlightened , in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.  Eph. 1:18

3.        Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.”  Genesis 21:19

4.            "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”  Matt. 7:7

5.       “He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.”             Psalm 25:9

6.            “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”     Prov. 3:5-6

Welcome to week three everybody of 40 Days in the Word.  Have you ever thought this: “I just never get anything out of the Bible.  When I read it it’s just flat out boring.  I don’t get anything out of it.  I don’t understand it.  It doesn’t make sense.  I don’t know what the big deal about it is.  It seems like a closed book to me.” 

If you’ve ever felt that way you picked a good day to come to church.  Because I’m going to explain why the Bible is a closed book to you and how God wants to open it up and how you can start seeing what God wants you to see.  The fact is the Bible is a difficult book if you don’t understand the principle of illumination.  That’s what we’re going to talk about this week.

This week we’re going to look at the issue of illumination. Please take out your 40 Days book mark, and let us read together the key verse for is under week # 2 from Psalm 119.  Saying together, “Open my eyes that I may see  Wonderful things in your law.”     

God’s Word uses the metaphors of light and sight to describe reading God’s Word with inspiring insight.   The key to understanding the Bible is based on illumination.

Now pls turn to your sermon notes, and those of you at the end of the pews, pass those pens on down your pew.  Please keep your book mark and your sermon notes out, as you are going to need to use both.

So, looking at  Section A,  What is illumination?  Pls fill in the blanks Letting the Holy Spirit show me the meaning of God’s Word and how it applies to my life.    Let us read that together: Illumination is letting the Holy Spirit show me meaning of God’s Word and how it applies to my life. That’s the power to interpret, to understand,  

& to see things you’ve never seen before.  This is the Holy Spirit’s job.

Looking at Section B, verse # 1 “He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all TRUTH.”  It is the Holy Spirit who leads you to understand what the truth is in the Word of God. Illumination is God’s Spirit saying, this is what this means in your mind, as you read it.  So as we seek illumination from the Bible, the Holy Spirit whispers in my ear, He puts thoughts, he puts impressions, He opens my eyes.  He illuminates, he lightens.  The light goes on in my mind – oh, that’s what that’s all about!  You can ask, what does he mean here? Look at verse # 2 and fill in the blanks:

Ephesians 1:18-19 explains it.  “I pray also that the _____   Fill in   eyes   of

your heart may be enlightened [illuminated] in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.”

Look back at the phrase “the eyes of your heart.”  What’s he talking about there? 

God gives you spiritual senses and you get spiritual ears to hear some things you never heard before.  And you get spiritual eyes, and all of a sudden you start to see some things about life you didn’t see before. And all of a sudden you feel some things that you didn’t feel before.  These are the eyes of your heart, the spiritual senses. 

It says, “I pray that the eyes of your heart [that’s your spiritual eyes] will be enlightened…”  Circle “enlightened.”    So one day you are hearing the bible read in church, or you are reading it on your own, and all of a sudden one day the light bulb comes on in your mind and you go “Bam!  I’ve never seen that before!”  It’s the ah-ha moment!  You go “Whoa!  I’ve read that verse a lot of times but I’ve never seen that before.  That’s exactly what I needed.  That’s exactly what I needed today, right now, to encourage me, to help me to know which way to go.  Wow!  Ah-ha!  Eureka!  I’ve found it!  Yes!  I understand it!”

That is illumination.  And how do you receive such illumination.  You have to ask. Jesus says, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”  Matt. 7:7

For example:  God can use the Bible to show us answers to our problems.

In today’s Old testament story, we hear of Hagar and her son, Ishmael, who were dying in the desert without water and food. Hagar prayed to God.

We pick up the story in verse 19 on your outline.  “Then God opened her eyes [circle “opened her eyes”] and she saw a well of water.  So she went and she filled the skin [the canteen] with water and gave the boy a drink.”  Here’s the point:  She had the solution right in front of her – this well of water – but she couldn’t see it until God opened her eyes, illuminated her mind, helped her see it from a different perspective. 

Now Bob, would you tell us what Rick warren has to say about this:

Bob: Rick Warrens says, quote,  “I don’t know what problem you may be  going through right now. But you may be saying to yourself “Frankly, I don’t see any way around this.  There’s no answer to it.  I can’t see the solution.  It just looks like one dead end after another.  I cannot see the solution.”  You need the Holy Spirit to enlighten your mind.  You need God to open your spiritual eyes so you can see the solution in His Word.  You need to see it from God’s point of view.   The answer may be right in front of you.”

SLOW   Other times we pray, and God does not immediately present the solution.  Other times, we pray and God calls us to trust Him, and to wait, until the solution is revealed in the future. This happened to me this past week.  There is a problem in my family, that’s  so embarrassing because it is so trivial and childish.  But now it has blown up, and it is a complicated mess. For several weeks, I have felt frustrated, because I have prayed and not seen any solution.  So, I  stopped praying and just quietly brooded about it. 

  Well, a parishioner came to visit me and explained how he was receiving help from Jesus, who was leading him to deal with his  problem.  Suddenly, the light bulb went on in my head.   I had become so convinced that my family’s problem could not be solved, that I had  doubted God’s willingness to help.  Then   I remembered one of the memory verses for our  40 days, which I would like for you to repeat after me: Please look at  your book Marker,  week #  6,and let us read that together:  Your word is a lamp to my feet, And a light upon my path.   PAUSE So, I was reassured that God had a plan, even if I did not know what it was right then.  All I had to do was to choose to trust Him.   

Now, return to your sermon notes, verses # 5

Psalm 25:9 “He guides [and that’s what you need.  You need guidance this week] the humble [If you’ll be humble and sincerely ask God, He  will guide you] in what is right and teaches them his way.”

And let us read together verse # 6, saying, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.  In other words,  He’ll point you on the path to success.   PAUSE

Right now, I wonder if there is a problem that you are facing, for which you do not have the answer?

·       I wonder if you need to ask God for help, with the understanding that you are important to him and that if Ask, He will help, as he promises in His Word?

 Today, we are not just going to be hearers of the Word, but doers of the word.  Instead of affirming our faith by reciting the creed, today you will have a chance to affirm your faith by asking God for illumination. Right now,  I invite you to pray about a problem or yours, or of someone you know. We are going to pray that Christ will shine  His light of hope into that problem, so that you can see a path forward…to  lead us to resolve the problems that can be resolved, to make peace with problems never be resolve,  and for the wisdom to know the difference.  Once we begin, you ask God for help either aloud or silently.  The benefit of doing it aloud is that everyone else in the room can affirm your prayer as we pray it with you.   Also, if you would like to receive the comfort of praying with our Healing Team, they will be by the rocking chair, ready to pray with you from now through the Peace.

So, now, let us begin.  Pls bow your heads for a word of prayer: PAUSE.    Father God, your word says that we are important to you, and we are growing to know that to be true. And if we are important to you, then our problems are important to you, too. Now, inspire us to give you one problem, asking for your illumination, which you will give in your own precious time: