1 Welcome to our Deep series. A series dedicated to thinking and living deeply. Yes, this is going to be DEEP! We are created with depth in mind. No goofing off in the shallow end, we are diving in the deep end of the pool! One of the characteristics of God is how deep He is and since we have been created in His image that is central to our original design. Romans 11:33, Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Together we will take the plunge in discovering principles that lead to thinking and living deeply and then make applications to all facets of life. Lets think and live deeply when it comes to ourselves, our families, our marriages, our finances, our workplace. Lets think and live deeply in our response to culture and current events. Lets think and live deeply in all areas of our faith, our mission and our view of the world. We will address what I call superficial generalizations that are plaguing us in a negative way and instead respond to life in deep and thoughtful ways. Richard Foster, in his classic book Celebration of Discipline says: Superficiality is the curse of our age... The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people." Valentine s Day: We tell our loved ones we love them from the bottom of our heart. That means my love for you comes from a deep place. Alchimedes invented the term, an ancient Greek philosopher. They had the brain and the heart reversed, but we understand his intention. We don t say my love comes from the top of my heart. That is a very thin layer, a sliver of shallow love. Have you ever been shallow with people? And usually it instigates a shallow reaction from others. We can actually cultivate shallow relationships and shallow living. We don t say I love you from the middle of my heart either. That sounds inconsistent at best, a 50-50 love. Half the time I love you, half the time I am indifferent. When it comes to love are we a middle of the road type of person? 1
2 If there is one big message in the bible it is that God loves us deeply and He desires that we deeply love. Loved deeply to deeply love. That is what Jesus did. He was deeply loved by the Father and He deeply loved people. Jesus truly loves you from the bottom of His heart, not the top, not the middle, from the bottom. We will look at a very short verse today but that is very deep. Psalm 42:7 Deep calls to deep. We can learn so much from this short verse. The depth of God is calling out to the depths within people. From the depth of God, with His whole heart He is calling out to the deepest places in your life. Just the fact that He characterizes us as deep says we all have this capacity. It is almost as if He is searching for people to open up to Him at a deep level. Will you allow God s call to reach the deepest places of your life? In the context of this Psalm the writer is in a deep place of disturbance. He even asks himself, soul, why so disturbed within me? Whenever we are deeply disturbed what we need most is God s voice to attend to it. A great point of vulnerability is when disturbance in the depth of our lives is ignored and unattended to. You and I can be deep in a variety of things. Deep in joy or deep in pain. Deep in peace or deep in anger. Depending on the nature of that which occupies the depth of our hearts determines what comes out of our lives. Right now we are all living from what resides deep in us. Jesus even said what we speak comes from the fullness or the depth of our hearts. If you words are calming it means you have a measure of calm deep in your life. If your words are hurtful that means there is some hurt deep within. We speak from the deep places. We live from deep places. My life as you see it is a product of what is deep in my life. Deep places, because of sin, don t naturally produce healthy fruit. That is why we all require the depth of God s heart, His call, His invitation to speak into the depth of our hearts. To change the nature of our deep. 2
3 PetCo illustration: She was deep in anxiety. I will pray for deep peace in your life. I could see her whole countenance change. She received this promise deep in her heart. I also thought this is how God wants us to communicate with each other. From deep in my heart to deep into your heart. That was a short exchange but an example of deep to deep. Basically God wants to change the nature of our deep to resemble the nature of His deep. Speaking of deep Miner illustration In August of 2010 33 Chilean miners who were trapped 2,000 feet below the surface for 69 days. They had to live in the dark, with almost no food, cut off from the rest of the world. They didn't know if they would ever see daylight again. Many of the miners, face-to-face with imminent death, took stock of their lives and realized they had a lot of regrets. Somebody asked Jose Henriquez, a Christian, if he would pray for everyone. As he got down on his knees, some of the other men joined him, and he began to talk to God: "We aren't the best men, Lord, but have pity on us." He actually got more specific: "Victor Segovia knows that he drinks too much. Victor Zamora is too quick to anger. Pedro Cortez thinks about the poor father he's been to his young daughter " Nobody objected. It was the beginning of something special. In the deep down dark, buried under the earth, with death staring them in the face, the men got real before God and each other. They met every day to eat a meager meal, hear a short sermon, and then get on their knees and pray: "God, forgive me for the violence of my voice before my wife and my son." Or "God, forgive me for abusing the temple of my body with drugs." They confessed to each other too: "I'm sorry I raised my voice." Or "I'm sorry I didn't help get the water." They were deep in fear and isolation then it became a sanctuary of His presence and healing took place and lives were changed. What started both literally and spiritually as a deep dark fearful place became a place of deep confession and healing and positive change. The 3
4 deep of that cavern started to resemble the deep of God s heart. Changing the Deep Often God starts with deep messes and produces deep beauty. So if you are in deep pain He desires to bring deep comfort. If you are deeply confused He wants to bring deeper levels of insight. If you are deep in shame and regret He wants to bring deep forgiveness and cleansing. If you are deep in pride He wants to bring in deep humility. He wants to change your deep into His deep. Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. I love this verse. God does not steer away from chaos and deep emptiness. The Spirit is just waiting to begin a new work. There is no mess God can t clean up, whether is it the chaos of the cosmos or the chaos of our lives. God first of all perceives the deep emptiness in which He begins a creative process. God is a realist. There is no form, function or productivity. He sees this in our lives as well. There is potential but no productivity. If you leave this alone it will stay as it is. If you leave your emptiness alone it will stay as it is and the nature of chaos will be free to extend it s nature. How does God stop the chaos of the deep? Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. Into the dark, chaotic and deep emptiness God commands there to be light. God s light is targeted to dark places. Sometimes we have secrets we don t want anyone to see. We want to keep them in the dark. These secrets in deep and dark places though hidden still impact us. A wound, a hurt, a betrayal, a sin, an abandonment, though a secret is still alive in the depth. The secret thoughts about ourselves, about people and circumstances. These secrets can either be your demise or your ministry. Just depends on how much light they get. One of the first steps in thinking and living deeply is allow God s light to shine on your secrets. Why? 4
5 1. Illumination Accuracy leads to remedy. We can either take things too seriously or not serious enough. We need God s impartial and perfect light to provide definition of our secrets. I developed a list of people I apologized to after receiving Christ. I saw how I mistreated people not through my light but through God s light. 2. Warmth Light gives warmth and ultimately the warmth of God s love heals the deep places of our lives. God s light is not just to expose but to repair, heal and mend. Give God all of your history. Apply forgiveness, apply grace, apply God s heart for second chances. Some of us hold a personal secret that God doesn t really give us second chances, so it is cold in the deep places of our lives. I love the story of Samson. It is the story of a second chance. We need the warmth of second chances. Divorce, abortion, sexual immorality, and you feel you will always be a second class citizen of heaven. It produces coldness, you re holding back. The story of Peter, the story of Paul. Second chances! That is the warmth of God s light. 3. Productivity The light begins a process leading to high levels of productivity. Ultimately God wants the deepest parts of our lives functioning at a high level and cooperating with His principles that bear fruit. This chaos of Genesis turned into a highly productive, multiplying planet of life, vegetation, animal life, marine life, seasons, etc. When God fixed the deep it created the world. When God fixes your deep you will blossom again. Just like our planet. We get stuck in life when something deep in our lives is stuck. We are not functioning within the design God created for us. If my relationships are stuck, my marriage is stuck, my faith and service to God is stuck it is because I am stuck deep within. My car got stuck. Mike Dodds: My friend helped me change my head gasket on my car. I was losing horsepower. Something deep in the car needed repair. Some of 5
6 us need a season of repair. We undid the whole engine compartment. It got worse before it got better. Relationships Ministry Maturing Psalm 42:7-8 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me a prayer to the God of my life. 6