Skip to content Quietening of the Noisy Soul: Part 1 Sep 8 · 31 min ...more
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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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0:09 Hi, church. It is such a joy for us to study the word of God together in our small groups. Today, we're gonna be talking about quietening our noisy soul, part 1. I0:21 wanna cover this whole message in part 2 as well. But today, we're gonna be looking at the text, Psalm 62. It's 12 verses, and I want us to read it together0:33 so that we get the big picture. Now, when you read a psalm, I want you to pay attention to the tone in which things are said. At the same times, look for the0:45 the repeated words so that you understand what is being emphasized. Let's read it together. Psalm 62 and verse 1 says, for God alone, my soul waits0:57 in silence. From him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be greatly1:08 shaken. 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.1:21 They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly, they curse. Verse 5. For God alone, my soul, wait in silence,1:33 for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be shaken. On God rest my salvation and my glory.1:45 My mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, o people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us.1:58 Those of low estate are but a breath. Those of high estate are a delusion. In the balances, they go up. They are together lighter than a breath. Put no2:10 trust in extortion. Set no vain hopes on robbery. If riches increase, set not your heart on them. Once God has spoken, twice have I heard2:22 this, that power belongs to God. And that to you, o Lord, belongs steadfast love, for you will render to a man according to2:33 his work. May the Lord bless the reading of his word. I want you to pay attention to Psalm 62. It is a psalm of David. In other words, you're getting into a2:45 peek in peek into his journal where he records the emotional turmoil that he was in, the churning within. But at the same time, he2:56 also records his posture before God, and how he poured out his soul before the Lord, and how he gained back a confidence in God. This3:08 psalm speaks about silence, and this psalm reminds us that sometimes we need to go into the presence of God to be silent and to be alone in God's3:19 presence. Look at this. In verse 1 and verse 2, David speaks about himself. Then in verse 3 and verse 4, David speaks about his enemies,3:32 and that they are also speaking. They are speaking judgment. They are speaking curse, and inwardly, they curse. Externally, they bless. They're speaking something. Then in verse3:44 5 all the way to verse 8, you find David again reminding himself to trust in the Lord, and he speaks of God this time. And then later on, he speaks about the3:56 judgment of God upon his enemies, and finally, he says, I glorify God. Now listen. When you look at a psalm like this, it is beautiful to4:08 observe the repeated words. And I want you to pay attention to a couple of things. Verse 1 and verse 5. There are twice he says, for4:19 God alone, my soul waits in silence. Then he says, for God alone, oh my soul, wait in silence. So verse 14:31 says, for God alone, my soul waits in silence. And then in verse 5, he says, o my soul, wait in silence. Now when you're studying this, observe4:42 this. You and I know that there is 3 terms when a English teacher will teach you. There are interrogatives, questions. There are4:54 indicatives, statements. And there are imperatives, commandments. Now when you read this, you gotta understand, is this an interrogative, is it an indicative, or is5:06 it an imperative? Verse 1 says, for God alone, my soul waits in silence. What is that? That's a statement. I'm waiting in the presence of God, David says.5:18 But then in verse 5, he actually goes on to say, for God alone, oh my soul, wait in silence. This time, it's an imperative. He says, I want my soul to wait in5:30 silence before God. And then verse 8 goes on to say, I pour my soul before God. Pour out your heart before him.5:41 In other words, in the psalm, David is actually pouring his heart before God. But you know he's pouring his heart in silence. See, you and I have a we can look into5:53 his journal, and we are reading this journal, and we recognize that he's singing this as a psalm later. This is a song that he has written for people to sing later, but this is his journal entry6:05 first. And you get a peek into his life. He says, I waited before the Lord in silence, and I commanded my soul to wait before God in silence. And in that silence, he was pouring out his6:17 soul before God. And there is a orientation change, an inward posture change that happens. His soul moved from restlessness to restedness.6:29 Look at the shift that happens in his inner orientation. He says, I shall not be greatly shaken. Verse 2. The word is greatly shaken.6:41 Then in verse 6, he repeats the same thing, but this time, after he has poured out his soul before God, and he knows that God is his salvation, his refuge, his glory, his6:52 fortress, and God is his rock. You know what he says? I shall not be shaken. Look at that language. His inner composure has7:04 stabilized from restlessness to restedness. It is because he came before God in silence. Does this remind you of, another psalm we studied before?7:16 Psalm 73. Until he entered into the century of God, then he saw the big picture. You and I, we need to come before God's God's presence. You7:28 and I, we need to come into God's presence. And when we come into God's presence, we come in solitude and in silence. And when we are silent before God, we can empty our7:39 soul. We can pour out our soul before God even in that silence. And there is a transaction that takes place. As a result, we our7:51 inner life is being repaired and restored. Now, this is something you and I, we need to understand. The Bible says in the Old Testament, Hannah was praying in God's presence.8:03 She was actually weeping and crying and pouring out her soul. She was in so much pain, emotional pain, inflicted by people around her because she was8:15 barren. But she was crying out to the Lord. Her lips only moved, but she was quietly that no sound came out. When others looked at her, they thought she was drunk, but here is a woman who was8:27 silent before the Lord. Have you ever been silent before the Lord? Have you ever been in solitude, alone with the Lord? You8:39 know, silence and solitude go together. Do you know this is not part of our nature? Wayne Oates, the man who researched a lot about8:51 noisy hearts, and he says this, silence is not nature to my world. Silence is more than likely a stranger to your world too. If you and I9:02 ever have silence in our noisy hearts, we are going to have to grow it. You can nurture silence in your noisy heart if you value it, cherish it, and are eager to nourish9:14 it. You and I, we need to recognize that silence is foreign to us. In fact, many people equate silence to helplessness. They9:26 need to have some sort of noise in their house, either a TV on or a radio on. Young people these days have to have something pumping music in their ear with their AirPods. I want you to listen to9:38 me. Why? Because we we we equate silence to helplessness, and being alone to loneliness. But the Bible says people of God who wants to continue to mature in Christ and wants to have a grip of their9:50 inner life, wants to have a good, stable, healthy cultivate a healthy inner life, they need to learn what it means to have silence and solitude. It is a discipline. So let's talk about10:02 the practice of silence and solitude. Let me define it first. The discipline of silence is about abstaining from speaking and shutting out the chatter around10:14 us in order to hear God speak. You shut down every other noise so that you can hear his voice. That's the discipline of10:25 silence. Secondly, the discipline of solitude is about withdrawing from others to be alone so that we can enjoy intimacy with God. We10:37 need to come away from others. We need to draw ourselves away from others, wean ourselves from others, from other noises, and come before God10:49 alone in solitude so that we can quieten our noisy workshop of our hearts, and we can hear him clearly. It's the discipline of11:00 silence and solitude. Now why do I say this together? Because they are a pair. You can't separate them. You can't have silence without solitude, and you shouldn't have solitude11:12 without silence. They go together. And when you combine these 2 disciplines together, it is powerful. Now I'm not promoting a monk style lifestyle. You cannot11:23 always be silent and always live in solitude. The Bible, in fact, says, you and I, we need to be part of a loving fellowship. So there is a balance. We need to be in a loving11:35 community. We need to do life together with other brothers and sisters, and we need to share our burden. We need to share with 1 another. We need to be able to laugh and cry and do things together. But at the same time,11:47 it is equally, vitally important for us to withdraw and be alone and be silent before God. Now I wanna give you some11:59 examples from the scripture. So let's look at the purpose of silence and solitude. It is to follow the example of Jesus. In fact, the Bible says in Luke chapter12:11 4 and verse 1, after Jesus was baptized by John, the Holy Spirit came upon him. The Bible says Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, he was led by12:22 the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. And you and I know how many days Jesus spent in the wilderness. 40 days and 40 nights. And when he came back from that12:34 season of solitude, that season of being alone with God, being silent before God, the Bible says in verse 4, in verse 14,12:45 Jesus returned in the power of the spirit to Galilee. Look at that. He went into the wilderness full of the holy spirit, yielding to the holy12:57 spirit, being led by the spirit. But when he came out of that silence and solitude time, he was empowered by this holy spirit. He was empowered. There was a power that was made manifest in13:09 his ministry. Now this is why Jesus has a regular practice. The Bible says in Matthew chapter 14 and verse 23. It says, after he had dismissed the13:20 crowds, he went up to the mountain by himself to pray. See, Jesus sought the father's help by himself. When evening came, he was there13:32 alone. He was having communion with the father. He was having intimacy with the father. And to do that, he needed to pull away from the crowd. Look at another passage, Mark chapter13:44 1 and verse 35. And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. This is a pattern in Jesus' life. You13:56 will always see him either get up very early, and he will find a place, a desolate place, a lonely place, and there he will spend time with14:07 the father. See, I wanna give you a principle. Take this down. Whenever you want to do silence and solitude like Jesus, there was a regular place, there was a regular time,14:20 and there was a regular pattern. You and I, we need to discipline ourselves to find these rhythms in our life. He had a regular place where he would go. He had a regular time where he14:32 would go, and he will have a regular pattern, what you do when you're there alone. And this is what I want you to explore together with me. In fact, Mark chapter 1, the whole chapter speaks about how14:43 Jesus was so busy from morning till night. Jesus had a busy day, long day of ministry. But the very next day, Jesus withdraw himself to go alone to14:55 be in the father's presence. Silence and solitude was necessary even for our master. Secondly, to hear the voice of God better.15:07 You know, when you are surrounded by noise, it is very difficult for us to hear what God is saying. See, we are so over15:19 connected. In fact, our mobile devices we can see the whole world in our mobile devices. You can watch movie after movie. You can watch advertisement after advertisement. You can watch cat15:30 videos after cat videos. People waste their time surfing the Internet, flicking through 1 video after another in their Instagram or in their Facebook. They are always connected. There's so much going on in the15:42 world. But you and I, we need to hear the voice of God. We need to disconnect and come away and be in God's presence. Now the Bible says in15:54 first Kings chapter 19 and verse 11 and verse 12, Elijah. Elijah was in the mountain. It's Mount Sinai. There are 3 times the Bible16:06 says that God was not in that thing. 3 times. I want you to read this passage. He says, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind16:18 tore the mountains, broke in pieces and rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord16:30 was not in the fire. And after the fire, the sound of a low whisper. And the next verse says, and the Lord spoke to Elijah. Now listen to me. Why did God say he is not in the wind, not in the fire,16:42 not in the earthquake? It is for your benefit and my benefit that God sometimes doesn't speak to us in the spectacular manner. These are spectacular things, but God speaks to us in a16:53 gentle, quiet whisper. That's why you may miss hearing the voice of God if you do not come to a place of silence and solitude before17:05 him. Habakkuk chapter 2 and verse 1, the bible says this, I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower and look out to see what he will say to me and what I will answer17:17 concerning my complaint. You and I studied Habakkuk together. Here, this is what he says, I will go and set myself up alone in the watch post, and I'll watch for what he will say.17:28 Listen. When you are in in a silence and solitude, you will hear God better. Jonathan Edwards, the famous preacher,17:40 wrote in his journal about his wife. When she was a teenager, he observed this, and he wrote this in his journal. And I'm giving you this journal entry so17:52 that you know how to read other people's journal and get edified. You write your journal. 1 day, your family will be edified by your journal. Keep a record of what God is saying to you. Look what he18:04 writes about his future wife as a teenager. She hardly cares for anything except to meditate on him. She loves to be alone, walking in the fields and groves, and seems to18:16 have someone invisible always conversing with her. I love it. She's conversing with someone always. She loves to be alone, fields and groves. We don't have fields18:28 and groves, but you may have a reserve next to you. You may have a park somewhere where you can go and take a walk with Jesus and have that time alone with him. Thirdly, it is to18:40 seek the will of God. See, many times, people want to know the will of God, but in the busyness of schedule, in the frantic life that we have, We are living so fragmented lives, distracted18:51 lives, overloaded lives, hurried lives. We don't have time to seek the will of God. We don't know what is his will. See, the will of God, you cannot discern19:03 it when you are hurried and overloaded and frustrated and distracted and fragmented. You need to come away and be in God's presence in silence and solitude. Look at what the Bible says in19:15 Luke chapter 6 and verse 12 and verse 13. Jesus spent all night in prayer. Why did he spend all night in prayer? Because verse 13 says,19:27 when the day came, he called his disciples and chose from them 12 whom he named apostles. 12 people are being chosen to be apostles. This is a major decision that Jesus has to make. Why? Because these19:39 12 will be with him always. 1 of them will betray him. 1 of them will deny him. 1 of them will doubt him. 1 of them is from the devil, the Bible19:50 says. How much more Jesus needed to discern who to bring closer to him? He spent all night in prayer. Listen to me carefully. Through that prayer, he20:02 discerned who he needs to bring closer to him. Story was told of Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor, the missionary from China. He was20:13 on leave, on sabbatical in the in England, in a city called Brighton. And there, he was filled with restlessness because he felt in his heart that God was saying to20:25 him, take the missionary work inland in China. See, up to that point, all the missionaries stayed on the coastal cities. They only ministered in the coastal cities, but God was placing within him,20:37 go into inland and preach the gospel. And he knows it's a huge endeavor. It'll require a lot of funds, and he knows that there are so many challenges. So he was20:48 restless. He was young. He was exhausted. He was not even feeling well. So he went to stay in Brighton with some of his friends. And 1 Sunday afternoon, he went21:00 for a walk near the beach. And as he was walking in the beach, suddenly, he says, his spirit lifted, and his thought became clear, and he quickly penned this down. And this is21:12 his journal entry. I want you to read this. Why, if we are obeying the Lord, the responsibility rests with him, not with us. Thou, Lord, thou shall have all the21:24 burden. At thy bidding, as thy servant, I go forward, leaving results with thee. How restfully I turned away from the sands. The conflict ended.21:36 All was joy and peace. I felt as if I could fly up the hill to mister Pierce's house. And how I did sleep that night, My dear wife thought Brighton had21:47 done wonders for me, and so it had. Beautiful, isn't it? He was restless, but as he was silent and solitude, taking a walk in the beach before the Lord,22:00 The Lord put in his heart, the conflict ended, he says. He could even fly up. Wow. When the clarity comes into your heart, all the confusion22:12 leaves, the clarity comes, Your compass is now steadied. There is a sweet composure in your soul. That's what he had. Silence and solitude brings22:23 this into our lives. Lastly, to seek the salvation of the Lord. Look at Lamentations chapter 3 in verse 25, 26. The Lord is good to those who wait for22:35 him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that 1 should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. See, many times, we struggle. We we want to do things on our own. We wrestle in our22:47 flesh. We want to do things. We wanna help God. We want to make things faster. But you know what God says? Those who wait for him quietly, they will experience the22:59 salvation of the Lord. Now salvation of the Lord can be interpreted in 2 ways. For a pre believer, salvation is salvation from sins. You23:11 are redeemed, saved. But for a believer, salvation means that you're going through a dangerous situation, you're going through a crisis, and you need to be rescued. You need to be saved. And23:23 God says, for a believer, it is good for you to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. I wanna give you a sermon23:34 snippet that Charles Spurgeon You know, he is a man who writes his entire sermon. So this is a sermon snippet. This is also in his journal entry. I want you to read together with me. I commend solitude to23:45 any of you who are seeking salvation. First, that you may study well your case as in the sight of God. Few men truly know themselves as they really are. Most people have seen themselves in a23:57 looking glass, but there is another looking glass which gives true reflections into which few men look. To study oneself in the light of God's word and carefully to go over one's24:09 condition, examining both the inward and the outward sins, and using all the tests which are given us in the scriptures would be a very healthy exercise. But how very few care to24:21 go through it? You know what Spurgeon was saying? If you really want to be godly, if you really want to be delivered and saved and rescued and redeemed, you need to have24:33 this discipline of having silence and solitude, where you are looking in the looking glass. What is a looking glass? It's a mirror. Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest24:45 of them all? You look at it daily. You and I, we need to look at the mirror. The word of God is the mirror. As you read, let the word of God read you. As you study the word, let the word24:57 of God study you. Let it bring forth your thoughts. You know, 1 thing I've always discovered is this. When I'm reading the scripture in silence, in solitude before God,25:09 my inner thoughts, my inner aspirations, ambitions, my inner drives, my inner frustrations, anxieties, they all surface. And the Lord usually uses25:20 the word of God and help me to reflect upon my life and cleanse bring cleansing. See, you and I, we need to be silent and alone for us to be25:32 even hear our own thoughts, and more importantly, what God says to us. That's why this is an important thing. So we25:43 establish the principle. We establish the practice, the purpose. Now let's talk about the product of silence and solitude. The product of silence and solitude is threefold. But before I go into that, I25:55 want to read a couple of scriptures with you. Read Isaiah chapter 30 and verse 15. Look at this. For thus said the Lord God, the holy 1 of Israel, in returning and rest, you shall be saved. What is26:07 returning? In other words, you repent. You come back to him. You return to him, and then rest. You know your Christian life begins with a rest. You rest in the fact that Christ has done the work for you. The26:19 more you rest, the more you're saved. Hallelujah. In quietness and in trust shall be your strength. In other words, the more you are established in that quietness, there is a soul that is at rest. There is a quietness26:30 before God, and there is an absolute surrender and a trust before the Lord. It will become your strength. In other words, you will overcome anything in your life. The word of God says,26:42 that is something you and I need to develop. Develop. Quietness and trust, we need to develop. But you cannot develop if you're running around doing things. You have to come26:54 away to be able to do that. Every now and then, take a time to pause, hit the pause button, go into the presence of God, and be filled again with his presence.27:06 Be filled with the spirit. Yield yourself more and more to him. Let the word of God read you and and and transform your inner life. These are important things. That's why 3 things27:18 this will bring to us. The silence and solitude will bring 3 things, rest, repair, and realign. Rest, meaning it'll bring restedness. Just like Psalm has said,27:30 I'm not greatly shaken. Then he said, I'm not shaken. There is an orientation change. There's a change. There's a restedness that comes in because you're pouring out your soul before God. Secondly, there's a repair.27:42 He repairs your fragmentation, your distraction. He repairs your overloaded life. He repairs your hurried life. You can come before him and and get repaired in your soul. Thirdly, you27:53 realign. In other words, you get a different perspective. You see his will. You hear his voice. Now you know what you need to do. You can realign your life back to him. You know, a story was28:05 told of a coach. During the third quarter of the game, he usually leaves the sidelines. He will climb up to the top of the stadium, and he will spend the whole quarter28:17 watching the game from the top. And then in the fourth quarter, he will come down and give his team a winning strategy. So the reporters asked him, why do you keep going to the top? Do you28:29 get what do you get there? Do you get any more information, or do you get inspiration? He said, no. No. No. I go to the top not inspiration or information. I go to the top to get a better perspective,28:40 the big picture perspective. And that's what you and I need sometimes. We need to withdraw ourselves. Can I humbly say this? Embrace this. Discipline of silence and solitude.28:53 How often are you alone and quiet before God? Ask yourself this reflection question. How often are you alone and quiet before God? How can you do29:05 silence and solitude over the next 2 weeks? I want you to discuss in your groups and put it in your calendar. Because you and I, if we don't schedule it in,29:17 it will never happen. But schedule it in. You know, every time I travel, I always take some time in my busy schedule, a few hours to just spend time alone in29:29 silence and solitude before God. And the Lord always has spoken so many rich things into my life. But in my day to day busy29:40 schedule, I also find a chunk of time every week to be alone with the Lord, an extended time of prayer, an extended time of reading of scripture,29:52 and an extended time to stay in silence, switch off my mobile phone, switch off any other devices, and by myself. And this is important for us,30:04 and I pray that you will embrace this discipline of silence and solitude together, and let's continue to cultivate our inner life. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for helping30:16 us understand the importance of coming away and spending time with you. We recognize that if we don't come away, we may come apart. I30:28 pray in Jesus' name for every person under the sound of my voice, that they will cultivate this discipline of silence and solitude, that they will not just be chickens like30:40 chickens that have their head cut off, running frantically from things to things, hurried life, divided life, distracted life, fragmented life, but rather, Lord, that they will come before30:51 you and reorientate their life. And in silence and solitude, they will hear you better. They will know your will. They can realign their life back to you, recalibrate their heart back to you, and in that31:03 process, you will be glorified. Our lives will be restored, and we will live a whole life, an integrated life. Lord, I pray for our inner lives to be31:14 healthy and our inner lives to glorify you. We ask this in Jesus' name, and the people of God said, amen and amen. Have a blessed time in your small groups. We love you.
Paul Jeyachandran
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