Make Room - Greg Surratt
Seacoast did a series on making room for God, and this is the first sermon from it. It's based on 2 Kings 4:8-37, when a well-to-do woman literally made a room in her house for Elisha, the man of God, to stay. Some miraculous stuff happened and it's a great story, though I'm surprised that they could do an entire series based on it, because it seems pretty straight-forward. I guess we'll see what kind of wisdom there is to gleam from it.
What really stood out for me is the idea of going where God is likely to be. This is something I'd done some thinking on when trying to figure out some kind of direction for my life. My first instinct when dreaming of the future is that I want to start big things and be in charge. I'm not saying this is a bad thing necessarily, but God is already working in plenty of places, and maybe I just need to join in where He's already active and help where I'm needed. I've heard that in Jewish culture, when a disciple follows a rabbi, he calls it being "covered in his dust;" meaning that he follows his rabbi so closely that he physically gets covered in dust in the process. What a beautiful image for our own relationship with Christ.
I also like how this sermon really highlights that experiencing God happens in community. Church isn't just where you get "fed," but should be where we have a family of people that we live life with in our collective and individual pursuit of Christ. I wrote some things about this here, in the last two sections about sermons from Ray Vander Laan.
What really stood out for me is the idea of going where God is likely to be. This is something I'd done some thinking on when trying to figure out some kind of direction for my life. My first instinct when dreaming of the future is that I want to start big things and be in charge. I'm not saying this is a bad thing necessarily, but God is already working in plenty of places, and maybe I just need to join in where He's already active and help where I'm needed. I've heard that in Jewish culture, when a disciple follows a rabbi, he calls it being "covered in his dust;" meaning that he follows his rabbi so closely that he physically gets covered in dust in the process. What a beautiful image for our own relationship with Christ.
I also like how this sermon really highlights that experiencing God happens in community. Church isn't just where you get "fed," but should be where we have a family of people that we live life with in our collective and individual pursuit of Christ. I wrote some things about this here, in the last two sections about sermons from Ray Vander Laan.
- Making room for God begins with an invitation
- She urged him to come to his home for a meal
- Stalk God a bit -- go where He is likely to be
- God is more often found in the quiet places of life
- Experiencing God happens in community
- Most of scripture was written to communities, not individuals
- Anytime you make room for God, He'll fill it
- Best done in community
- You may have to convert space that could be used for something else
- She built a room for the man of God
- Make space for God and He fills it
- "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."
- You don't have to make a lot of room
- Let's make a "small room" for Elisha
- Small steps
- Luke 6:38
- Whatever you need, if you give it to God, He will multiply and give it back to you.
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