Introduction:
• Our culture breeds numbness. How?
o The American dream says get my comfort all figured out
o The American dream says get more than I need so I don’t have to worry about anything.
o The American dream says comfort is king.
• With our comfort and wealth as king, there is no room for Jesus on the throne.
• Our goal is comfort, and numbness is the goal. Not feeling anything is good. No wonder
Buddhism is working so well in America. Nirvana is the state of ultimate being that suggests
that we can be free from all this cycle of scramble and toil.
• Pop-Buddhism’s expert Eckhart Tolle says, that this peace of being, is not out there, it is in you.
(The box you the beggar sit on contains the treasure you have been looking for, -The power of
now) You work it out, you figure it out. It is within you. So we work towards numbness and
nothingness so as to somehow obtain this peace within us.
Tension:
• Think about how your life is organized…I need a break; I need some peace and quiet. I need to
get this retirement thing figured out so I can just finally relax. I need to get to this place of peace
and quiet soon.
• We are striving for numb.
• This is not what Jesus modeled or asked us to be like.
• He models awareness and seeking .
In this kind of culture how do we cultivate spiritual awareness into our lives?
Jesus and His Father:
• John 5.17-20 – NLT “But Jesus replied, “My Father is always working, and so am I.” So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.
So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he
sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son
and shows him everything he is doing. In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater
works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished.
• John 12.49-50 – NLT “I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it. 50 And I know his commands lead to eternal life; so I say whatever the Father tells me to say.”
• John 7.16 – NLT “So Jesus told them, “My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me.”
• John 7.29 – NLT “But I know him because I come from him, and he sent me to you.”
• John 14.6-7, 9 – NLT “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. 7 If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is.[a] From now on, you do know him and have seen him!” “…Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?
• John 17.11 – NIV “…so that they may be one as we are one.”
• In these passages you see an intimacy between Jesus and His father.
The solution is INTIMACY with a Person…JESUS.
1. Intimacy with Jesus Relationally
• John 15.4-5 – NLT “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.
“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.
• Abiding/Remaining
• John 6.56-57 –NLT “Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me.
• Communion is a picture of submission (Ezekiel’s call)
• John 10.14-15- NLT ““I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, 15 just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep.”
• John 10.3-4 – NLT “The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice.
• Knowing His voice/home group/Time together
2. Intimacy with Jesus Practically
• John 13.13-15 – NLT “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. 14 And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. 15 I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.”
• John 14.12 – NIV “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”
• John 15.12 - NIV “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
• John 15.10 – NIV “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.”
• A life of doing what Jesus did.
Conclusion:
1. This numbness only goes away as we press into Jesus.
2. This numbness always creeps back in…no days off.
3. This numbness walks hand in hand with a sense of entitlement that we carry…we deserve nothing.
4. Awareness is knowing Jesus’ character, ways, likes, dislikes.
5. Awareness is seeing where Jesus is working.
6. Awareness is doing what Jesus does.
Questions/feedback or help getting someone in Spokane connected to Jesus and His church:
Richie Shaw – rshaw@reallifeministries.com
Pray with us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rlmspo
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