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Rev. Paul Jeyachandran leads the Intentional Disciple Making Church (IDMC) Movement, which is all about calling churches back to its disciplemaking roots. Visit us at idmcmovement.com
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0:10 Hi, church. What a joy to meet you through this video as we study the word of God together in our life groups. Today, we are looking at part 2 of Quietening of the Noisy Soul.0:22 We looked at Psalm 62 last time, and I want you to read that again 1 more time so that we can get the big picture and refresh our minds. The Bible says, for God alone, my soul0:34 waits in silence. From him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be greatly shaken.0:46 How long will all of you attack a man to batter him like a leaning wall, a tottering fence? They only plan to thrust him down from his high position, take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with0:57 their mouths, but inwardly, they curse. For God alone, oh my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my1:09 fortress, I shall not be shaken. On God, my rest, my salvation, and my glory, my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at1:21 all times, o people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Those of low estate are but a breath. Those of high estate are a delusion.1:33 In the balances, they go up. They are together lighter than a breath. Put no trust in extortion. Set no vain hopes on robbery. If riches increase, set not your heart on them.1:45 Once God has spoken twice, have I heard this, that power belongs to God, and that to you, oh, Lord, belongs steadfast love, for you will render to a man according to his work. May the1:57 Lord bless the reading of God's word. Hallelujah. As we looked at this text the last time we studied together, we recognized there are some shifts that is taking place in
2:09 David as he writes this psalm. See, this is a journal entry. This is a reflection of a man who has gone through a circumstance where his inner inner life was in
2:20 turmoil. Look at the language. The bible says in verse 1, he says, for God alone, my soul, waits in silence. Now we already studied that this is an indicative
2:32 statement. The silence is in an indicative mood. For God alone, oh my soul, wait in silence, in verse 5. Now this is this silence is said in an
2:44 imperative form in English. In other words, it's a command. He's commanding his soul to be silent before God. Now as he does this, there's a second shift we notice.
2:56 The inner orientation, there is a shift in his orientation. What happens? I shall not be greatly shaken, he says in verse 2, and then I shall not be shaken in
3:08 verse 6. Now the reason why he says in verse 6, I shall not be shaken, is because he has already started to pour out his soul before God. See how it shifts from
3:19 greatly shaken to just shaken. Now you and I, we established that David is pouring out his heart before the Lord, and he's doing it
3:31 in silence and solitude. So this is what we talked about last time we studied together. Let's look at it 1 more time. The partnership of silence and
3:43 solitude. Well, I already established that it's a twin pair. You cannot separate them. You can't have silence without solitude. You can't have solitude without silence. You need to do it together, and let's define them
3:54 first. The discipline of silence is about abstaining from speaking and shutting out the chatter around us in order to hear God speak. What is the discipline of solitude? It's about withdrawing
4:06 from others to be alone so that we can enjoy intimacy with God. Hallelujah. Now what is the purpose of silence and solitude? Last time, I
4:18 gave you a few. This time, I want to give you 2 things in specific I want you to consider because you and I are continually being transformed into the likeness of Christ. And in the likeness of Christ, as we are
4:30 getting mature and being transformed, there are 2 key things I want you to observe in silence and solitude. 1, it helps you to express your faith in God. Look at
4:42 the Psalm 62, and read with me from verse 5 to verse 8 1 more time. And I want you to pay attention to how he describes his relationship with God, how he views God. Look at that. He says, for
4:54 God alone, oh my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. Verse 6 says, he only is my rock, my salvation, my
5:06 fortress. I shall not be shaken. On God rest my salvation and my glory. My mighty rock, my refuge is God. There are 5 key things he
5:17 says about God. Rock, salvation, fortress, glory, and refuge. Now this thing, he's able to say it. He's able to verbalize it
5:29 internally because in verse 8, it says, he's pouring out his heart before the Lord. He's doing it quietly. He's doing it silently. He's doing it in solitude. See,
5:41 he's allowing his thoughts to surface, and then he's allowing the thoughts to establish on God. And he says, my God is my rock, my salvation, my refuge, my fortress, and my glory. Hallelujah.
5:54 He's able to express his faith in God as he quietens his noisy workshop of his heart. Now this is the key for you and I. Moment you spend time
6:05 alone with God, and the moment you become quiet, every other noise is shut down, what you think about God will come up, and you can refresh your heart
6:17 by just pondering over who God is. Hallelujah. You know, David Brainerd, he was a missionary in
6:29 America to the American Indians. And this missionary, in the year 17 42, on a Wednesday evening on April the 20 eighth
6:41 of 17 42, wrote in his journal now you and I need to pay attention to this. This is a man who is he's surrounded by, people who do not want to hear what he has.
6:53 He he's there to serve them, to give them the gospel, the good news, but they want to kill him and eat him. And so he's surrounded by people that wanna hurt him, and
7:04 he's alone, and this is what he wrote in his journal about how he's going to sleep that night. He doesn't know whether he'll wake up in the morning, whether he will be alive, but look at what he wrote. I'm so glad that
7:16 men of God wrote journals that we can read and glean how they express their faith in God. Read this together with me. I withdrew to my usual place of retirement in great peace and tranquility,
7:29 spent about 2 hours in secret duties, and felt much as I did yesterday morning, only weaker and more overcome. I seemed to depend wholly upon my dear
7:40 lord, wholly weaned from all other dependencies. I knew not what to say to my god, but only lean on his bosom, as it were, and breathe out my desires after a perfect
7:52 conformity to him in all things. Thirsting desires and insatiable longings possess my soul after perfect holiness. God was so precious to my soul that the world will,
8:04 with all its enjoyments, was infinitely vile. I had no more value for all the favor of men than pebbles. The Lord was my all, and that he overruled all
8:16 greatly delighted me. I think my faith and dependence upon God scarce ever rose so high. I saw him such a fountain of goodness that it seemed
8:27 impossible that I should distress him again or be in any way anxious about anything that should happen to me. Wow. I
8:39 want you to listen to me carefully, church. Can you see the big picture? When a man is alone, his thoughts are surfacing, his anxieties, his aspirations, all
8:51 those things, and what is of most importance comes and dominates his thoughts. And there, he's able to take them into captivity and bring them into subjection to the Lord and to offer faith.
9:03 Where where fear existed, he replaced it with faith. Where anxiety crippled him, he's able to come to a place of peace. And that is done in silence and
9:14 solitude. I remember the time when my wife was, heavily pregnant, 35 weeks pregnant, and we were in Singapore on a 1 night transition stopover.
9:26 're coming back from a mission trip in India, and we stayed in a hotel in Singapore for just 1 night. That afternoon, I was so tired, was sleeping, because I was 3 weeks, I was in ministry in India, and
9:38 I was so exhausted. My wife wife woke me up and said, no, we are going to go to the hospital because my water bag broke. We went there, and they said, we need to we need to look after her because
9:50 we don't know what complications may arise. We we don't know her case. We don't know the baby, and so we need to monitor all this. So they took me into the management room and asked me to sign
10:02 a document. And in that document, it says it may cost up to 100000. Now, cut the long story short, I did not have any travel insurance at that time, and I don't have I
10:14 don't have hundred thousand at that time. And all I know is, my goodness, I'm, this is my predicament. I signed anyway. I trusted the Lord. I signed. I left my wife in the in
10:26 the maternity ward, and I went to find a quiet corridor. And in that silence, in that solitude, I was pouring out my soul before God. And, you know, when
10:38 I pray, I sometimes scream and yell and cry, and I was weeping before God. But after a moment of all that, probably about a couple of hours had passed, I knew I was
10:50 silent before God, and I heard him speak very clearly into my soul. That peace of God fell upon my soul to know that he is absolutely in control, and I have the full
11:01 assurance that God is with me. Walked away, went and had some of my favorite food in the whole of Singapore, cendol. I had about 4 or 5 cups of
11:13 cendol, because that's the only shop that was open at that late night. Had that and then went to sleep. The next day morning, the baby came out, and David was born a healthy baby, and both
11:25 mother and child did very well, by the grace of God. After 11 days of staying in the hospital, because he had some, some, they needed to keep him in observation, then they released him 11 days as a 11
11:37 day old baby. We flew him back to Sydney. Now the total cost came about 4000 dollars, not hundred thousand, only 4000. I'm so grateful to the Lord the way God has
11:49 protected and provided for us. The reason I'm saying this is because you you can be so filled with anxiety, or you can come to a place where you spend time alone with God, silence and solitude, and
12:01 let him calm your anxieties. Let him let him bring that restedness within your restless soul. And that is where you bring about who God is,
12:13 his character, his nature, and his promises, and you depend upon him. And that is the place where you can be fully assured in the presence of God. That's the first thing silence and solitude will bring. Secondly, to
12:24 learn control of the tongue. I want you to pay attention to this. Psalm 34 verse 11 and verse 13 says this. Come, oh children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires
12:36 life and loves many days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. I want you to pay attention to verse 11. Second part, it says, I wanna teach
12:48 you the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord, the Bible says, is the beginning of wisdom, isn't it? You and I, we want to learn how to fear the Lord, the healthy fear. See, Christian life is about learning
13:00 to leave the wrong kind of fear and embrace the right kind of fear. Here, the bible says, fear the lord. How? Verse 13 says, keep your tongue from evil.
13:12 Now all of us desire to have long life. We want to see many good days in our life, and we want to enjoy life. The key secret is found here. Verse
13:24 12 says, what man is there who desires life and loves many good days that he may see good? The thing key secret is, verse 13, keep your tongue from
13:35 evil and your lips from speaking deceit. You and I, we need to learn to control the tongue. In fact, James says this in James chapter 3 and verse 2. He says, for we all stumble
13:47 in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man. You know? And he's also able to brittle his whole body. The tongue controls
14:00 your future. The tongue controls your sanctification. The tongue controls how your life will flow, how your relationships will be. Life and death are
14:12 in the power of your tongue. The bible says here, if a man can control his tongue, he's a perfect man. You know, the more and more you become Christ like, you and I need to
14:24 take stock of how we speak, what we speak, and we need to have control over our tongue. The reason I'm saying this is because we don't really take
14:36 stock of what we are saying. But when you are in silence and when you're in solitude, those things that are dominant in your thoughts, those things that you have spoken will come back to
14:48 your memory, and you are able to go through that words that you have spoken in instances where you have been either you were angry or frustrated and you said something. Those things you need to be able to
15:00 recollect so that you can take charge of it. The reason I'm saying is because there are 3 ways you can damage your own life when it comes to words that are being spoken. Let me give
15:12 you 3. 1, you could make a rash promise. What is a rash promise? Remember that, in John chapter 6, actually, in Mark chapter
15:23 6, from verses 22 to verses 27, the bible records for us how king Herod make a rash statement. This man is a
15:35 carnal man. He looked at a woman that was dancing, and he was so emotionally stirred that he was so well pleased. The bible says he says to her, I will give you anything you ask, even up to
15:47 half my kingdom. The girl was smart. She went to her mother, and she said, what do you want me to ask the king? And the mother said, ask for the head of John the Baptist. Because John the Baptist
15:59 was against this union between this woman and king Herod, so she wanted him gone. She wanted to silence the prophets, the prophet's voice.
16:11 And the girl came and asked Herod, I want you to give me in a platter, in a in a platter, the head of John the Baptist. Oh, the Bible says in Mark chapter 6 and verse 26, and the king was
16:23 exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her. That's a rash promise. He was sorry that he gave made that promise, but yet he had to fulfill it
16:34 because he is a king, and he said, and his words mean business. I want you to recognize that sometimes in our frustration, in our anger, we say things
16:46 that deeply wound the people who are close to us. And usually, when a man is frustrated, the wife suffers. The children suffer. And I want you to see that it's not
16:58 just about the rash promises. Promises overpromise and under deliver, or promises that you can never keep, but you just say it. You've got a godly man, a mature man, a sanctified
17:10 man, a crucified man will take stock of these things. Secondly, it's the reckless words. Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 18 says, there is 1 whose rash words are like sword thrust, but the
17:21 tongue of the wise brings healing. It's either your tongue is used as a instrument to bring healing, or it is like a sword that thrusts and hurts deeply, and it's a reckless word. In other
17:33 words, it's a word that was spoken thoughtlessly, carelessly. You and I, we need to take stock of the words we speak because it cannot be taken back. What is said cannot be
17:45 unsaid. So listen carefully. Thirdly, it's the rumor mongering. Rumor mongering is Proverbs chapter 26 and verse 20. The Bible says, for lack of wood, the fire goes out, and where there is no
17:57 whisperer, quarreling ceases. What's a whisperer? That's a word for a gossiper. When there is no gossip, the quarreling ceases. But when people keep talking about the same
18:09 thing, when people are not around and they keep talking about these things, what will happen is it keeps the quarrel keeps stirred up again and again. Verse 22, the words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels. They
18:20 go down into the inner parts of the body. I want you to pay attention to this. The Bible says, the words of a gossiper will go down into the
18:32 inner parts of the body. In other words, it it somehow affects your psyche. It becomes a seed that is implanted within your thoughts, within your soul. So listen
18:43 carefully. If you're in the presence of a gossiper, and you know that the person is gossiping about stuff that they shouldn't be talking about, they don't understand everything. It's just that they have they they want to
18:54 be the big shot and say things that that are beyond their pay scale or paycheck. Listen. You need to pull yourself out of that place. My mentor used to say, this may be crude for some of you, but I
19:06 want you to listen to me carefully, so let this image get stuck in your head. A gossiper is someone like this. You walk into a building, and so many people are crowding
19:18 there, and they all get into the lift, and you're in there. It's packed like sardines. And suddenly, in that lift, in that confined space, somebody let go.
19:31 It is stinky. It is so awful, but you can't do anything because everybody is acting sophisticated as this nothing has happened. And then the next
19:43 moment, the door opens in a in a floor. Even if it's not your floor, you run out. You rush out. Why? Because you're suffocating inside. That is
19:54 what gossip does to you. The more you entertain those things, it will go into the psyche. It will go into your thing. It'll cause you to sin, and this is what the Bible says. You and I, we need to pay
20:06 attention to this. So pay attention to people who talk too much. There are guys who talk too much. There are women who talk too much. You know, story was told of a woman who went to Africa and came back with a sunburn.
20:18 You know where? In her tongue. Because she talks too much. Listen. Great minds discuss ideas. Mediocre minds discuss events.
20:31 Average small minds discuss other people. So if you get together and all you're talking about is people, you're a small mind. In other words, you only think
20:43 about small stuff. But if you're a great mind, you discuss ideas, principles. This is what helps build. Now listen to me carefully. The reason why I'm saying all this is
20:54 because you may not pay attention to what you're saying and what is being spoken, but when you are silent in solitude and you reflect upon the days, events, the weeks, events, and
21:06 different encounters you had with people, and what was the main dominant conversation. When you reflect on it, you will be surprised how much of it was gossip, how much of it was
21:18 unnecessary, nonessential chatter. And this is important for us to pay attention to. So there are 2 purposes I share with you. Let me share the third thing, the practice
21:29 of silence and solitude. What is the practice of silence and solitude? I want you to listen to this, poem someone wrote. We mutter and sputter. We
21:41 fume and we spurt. Our we mumble and grumble. Our feelings get hurt. We can't understand things. Our vision grows dim when all we need
21:53 is a moment with him. How many of you recognize that all you need is a moment alone with God? Otherwise, you will be grumbling and complaining, and there's so much churning on the
22:05 inside. That's why you and I, we need to have a regular practice, a scheduled practice of silence and solitude. So how do we do that? To effectively do that, I wanna give you 4 things. Number 1,
22:17 carve out margins. Like, for example, if you're giving a sheet of paper to your toddler, and you say, I want you to do your homework. Start writing in this paper.
22:30 If the paper has no margin you know, some paper have margin? The child will start if there's no margin, the child will start to write from the corner, from 1 corner to the other corner.
22:42 But if there's a margin, you will start to write from the margin. That's human nature. That's why you need to have margins carved out in your schedule. The reason why there is so
22:54 much so much divorces, so much chaos in families, so many heartaches in marriages is because they they are running frantic
23:05 lives. They're living a hurried life, overloaded life. They're living a fragmented, divided life. They have somehow compartmentalized their life and said, oh, that's my work life. This is my family
23:17 life. That's my ministry life. And they are they are busy. In fact, 1 psychologist called it that people are wearing so many different hats. They actually are too many different
23:29 personalities. I want you to listen to me. We need an integration of our soul. We cannot be so fragmented in our soul. We can't be 1 person on the stage and 1 person in this in the in the
23:41 in the in at home. We need to be able to have integration. How is that integration happening? You need to take time to think about things. That's why creating margins in life
23:53 is important. Do you hold a regular Sabbath? You know, I take my car for service once a year. But once a year, it goes into the service
24:05 station, and they do a overall service. But then, that's once a year. But every month, I take it to a place where they can wash my car and clean out both inside and outside
24:18 because it allows us to maintain, check the oil, do things, and all that. But on a weekly basis, you fill petrol. And on a daily basis, you check for the air pressure
24:30 and all that. Even to maintain a car to be able to help you, you've got to look after it. Once a year, take it to the mechanic. Once once a month, you take it and clean it up. And once a week, you fill
24:41 petrol. And once a day, you check that everything is working well. How much more your life and my life? How much more in your marriage? How much more in your parenting? Do you take time to really take stock of
24:53 these things? That's the reason why you need to be silent and in solitude. So once a year, I go away, and I spend time with God and with my family. I spend time with God. And in that time, I
25:05 cry out to the Lord to reflect upon my happenings in that year, and to ask God for a fresh mandate and a fresh vision and a fresh purpose and fresh promise
25:17 for the new year. Once a year. But you can't just rely on this few days where you get away at the end of the year. Every month, I have an extended time alone
25:29 with God. And in that extended time, I go before God and and and read a passage of scripture, not for preaching, but for my own edification. I keep reading a book over and over again until it washes my
25:41 soul, but it's an extended time, a whole day before the Lord where it allows me to be washed and be ready. But on a weekly basis, there is also a think
25:52 time. A 4 hour block, either from a morning breakfast to lunch or from lunch to dinner, there's a 4 hour block where I block out just to go before God and to say, Lord, this is my life. Help
26:04 me. This is important. And then every single day, I have an hour of power. In other words, go before the Lord and wait upon him in worship, in prayer, and and and and communing
26:16 communing with him. Now this is important. That's why you need to carve out margins. Schedule these things in before anything else takes over your calendar.
26:28 Secondly, create safe places. What is create safe places? Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6, go to your room, close the door, and
26:39 privately pray. The father will see what you do in secret and reward you in public. In other words, there's a place that is safe. The Bible says about Jesus, he always rose early in the morning before anybody
26:51 else, and he went to a desolate place or a lonely place. Jesus had a pattern of place, a safe place where he can go and be alone and be silent. Where is that safe place for you? Maybe you
27:03 may say, but pastor, I'm a busy mom with 3 kids, and I have to look after them. They're all little children. You know what? Susanna Wesley had 19 children to look after. 19
27:15 children. And she had a very small house where they all lived. And this is what she did. Every day, she will sit in the same kitchen bench where she is working
27:27 the whole day. She will sit in the kitchen, and she will take her apron and cover her head, and there she will create a tent. And in that tent, she will be quiet alone with God.
27:38 Wow. You can create a safe place where you can spend time alone with God. But this is an important key. Cultivate a fixed routine. That's the third 1.
27:51 Why do you need to cultivate a fixed routine? You have to have a routine where you do this over and over again in the same pattern. See, as people of God, sometimes we don't appreciate what other
28:02 faiths have. Why do the Muslims wake up in the morning at that time before dawn? Why do they worship? And they worship 5 times. They pray 5 times throughout the day. These are
28:14 all disciplines that help them to be to be to to have a fixed routine so they are reminded of God. They go back into the presence. As people of God, we live in the
28:26 new covenant. We are so free. We are filled with the grace of God, but we fail to develop those disciplines. Now I want you to develop a discipline. There should be a ritual in your life that
28:38 you follow. Like in all my prayer, there will be times where that it's the same fixed routine of how I pray when I go before God, and what I do when I'm praying. Now
28:50 this is important for us to cultivate. What works for you, it may it it would I want you to follow that. So you could create a safe haven in in your car as you're driving to work. Maybe you're
29:01 traveling in a in a in a public transport, that 1 hour to work. You should create that kind of a pattern, what you do in that. Rich make it a ritual. Make it something that you that you are able to do it
29:13 before God as a as a regular pattern. This is important. Lastly, capture your reflections. You need to come before God, and you process, and you wait
29:25 upon him, and you develop that sense of intimacy and communion with him. But then he downloads something. The thoughts of God becomes your thoughts. And those things you need to
29:37 capture. Those things you need to write down. I can give you story after story how, in my silence and solitude, how the in that in that stillness, how God spoke, and what I have written down has
29:48 navigated my life in all my major decisions, in what I do and what I don't do. It has helped me a lot in my life. I want you to listen to me. So as I bring this message to a close, can I help
30:00 you with 1 thing? What is the application here, pastor? I wanna give you this application. Cultivate a regular think time, a weekly think time. Take a chunk of about a block of
30:12 3 hours or 4 hours. You may say, but pastor, I can't do 3 hours, 4 hours. If you can't do, then start with just 1 hour, just chunk a chunk of time, 4 or just 1 hour. In that 1 hour, what do I do?
30:25 Consistently do these things. I do 4 things. Number 1, I usually assess my life. I look at this in terms of what has happened in this week, people that I met, the conversations
30:37 I had, decisions I had to make, where did I spend my money, where did I spend my spare time, I assess my life. As I assess my life, I do also the second thing. I
30:49 appreciate my work. In other words, I appreciate the work that God did through me. The people who may have said, pastor, that really helped me, or the person that I counseled or person that I met with.
31:02 I appreciate the work, how God has done what God has done. So I give glory to God, but I appreciate the work. Thirdly, it helps me to affirm my values. In other
31:14 words, to remind myself what is of great importance, what is of worth that I should be doing consistently. So it helps me to affirm my values. Things that I shouldn't be doing, I will just say, that's not my value. I
31:25 don't need to continue on that, or I should do this. So I have a stop doing list and start doing list, and I will just continue to affirm these are my values. Finally, I wanna adore my
31:37 master. I wanna give time for him to I wanna worship him, glorify him, and pour out my soul before him, and adore him, and to say, Lord, thank you for counting me worthy that you have given me stewardship of a family,
31:48 stewardship of a ministry, and I want to be faithful. I adore you. I worship you. I give you all the glory. Now these 4 things I do regularly. It has helped me in my own journey, and I want to share that with you
32:00 so that it may help you in your own pilgrimage. I pray that you will develop this discipline of silence and solitude, and do it together. Keep each other accountable in your life group. Ask
32:12 each 1, whenever you meet, hey. When was the last time you had a time alone with God? When was the last time you did silence and solitude? Show me in your schedule. Show me in your in your journal. What did you write?
32:22 What did God speak to you? Those things, when you share from your pilgrimage, it will build a sense of accountability, but it'll also encourage each other in their own pilgrimage with Christ. So God bless
32:34 you. I'm praying for you, and I believe the best days are ahead of us. God bless you. Let me pray. Heavenly father, I pray your blessing upon your people. And Lord, help us to
32:45 come away and be alone with you. Help us to build this into our life as a lifestyle. Lord, we don't do this as duty. We do it
32:57 because we delight in being with you. Lord, I pray that you will give us grace to cultivate the discipline of silence and solitude and to truly come to a place where we are rested in you and
33:09 our inner life is continually being healthy and brings glory to you and builds your kingdom. In Jesus' name, and people of God said, amen and amen.
33:21 God bless you. We love you.
Paul Jeyachandran
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