Journey Through the Wall: Embracing Spiritual Growth

Summary

### Summary

Good morning, Sanctuary family. Today, we continue our series on "Emotionally Healthy Spirituality," based on the book by Pastor Pete Scazzero. Our focus is on the journey through the wall, a metaphor for the crises and challenges we face in our spiritual lives. We explored Job 42:1-5, where Job, after enduring immense suffering, declares, "My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you." This signifies a deeper, more intimate knowledge of God that comes through enduring and overcoming life's trials.

Our spiritual journey is not linear; it involves starts, stops, detours, and delays. Sometimes, we find ourselves at a wall—a place of spiritual dryness and crisis. Contrary to what some might believe, becoming a Christian does not guarantee a life free of hardship. In fact, these walls are essential for our spiritual growth. They compel us to look inward, confront our hidden issues, and allow God to transform us deeply.

We discussed the stages of faith development: the initial awareness of God, discipleship, active life, and then hitting the wall. The wall is a place where our usual spiritual practices no longer seem effective, and we feel stuck. This can be triggered by various crises like job loss, illness, or betrayal. However, these walls are not meant to destroy us but to purify us and fill us with God's love.

Job's story exemplifies this journey. Despite being a righteous man, he faced immense suffering, losing his wealth, health, and family. Yet, he chose to wrestle with God rather than give up. Through this, he moved from merely hearing about God to truly seeing Him. This transformation is what God desires for all of us.

I shared my own experience of facing a wall through a painful public betrayal. It exposed my idolatry of reputation and forced me to rely solely on God. This journey through the wall was long and difficult, but it led to deeper spiritual maturity and freedom from the need for external validation.

In conclusion, the wall is an opportunity for profound spiritual growth. It allows God to purge our unhealthy affections and fill us with His love. We must choose to journey through the wall, trusting that God will bring us to a place of deeper intimacy and transformation.

### Key Takeaways

1. The Wall as a Spiritual Necessity: The wall is not a sign of spiritual failure but an essential part of our journey with God. It compels us to confront our hidden issues and allows God to transform us deeply. This process is painful but necessary for true spiritual maturity. [12:46]

2. Job's Example of Perseverance: Job's story teaches us that even the most righteous can face immense suffering. His journey through the wall led him from merely hearing about God to truly seeing Him. This deeper knowledge of God is the reward for enduring and overcoming life's trials. [49:33]

3. Personal Transformation Through Crisis: My own experience of facing a wall through a public betrayal exposed my idolatry of reputation. It forced me to rely solely on God, leading to deeper spiritual maturity and freedom from the need for external validation. [1:12:46]

4. The Purpose of the Wall: The wall serves to purge our unhealthy affections and fill us with God's love. It is not a punishment but an opportunity for profound spiritual growth. We must choose to journey through the wall, trusting that God will bring us to a place of deeper intimacy and transformation. [1:25:33]

5. Embracing the Journey: Our spiritual journey involves starts, stops, detours, and delays. The wall is a place of spiritual dryness and crisis, but it is also where God does His most transformative work. Embrace the journey, and allow God to lead you through the wall to a place of deeper spiritual maturity. [1:35:46]

### YouTube Chapters

[0:00] - Welcome
[0:45] - Introduction and Series Overview
[2:30] - Scripture Reading: Job 42:1-5
[4:00] - Opening Prayer
[5:30] - The Concept of the Wall
[8:15] - Stages of Faith Development
[12:46] - The Wall as a Spiritual Necessity
[16:30] - Job's Journey Through the Wall
[22:00] - Personal Testimony: Facing My Own Wall
[30:00] - The Purpose of the Wall
[35:00] - Embracing the Journey
[40:00] - Closing Prayer
[42:00] - Final Remarks and Benediction

Study Guide

### Bible Reading
- Job 42:1-5

### Observation Questions
1. What does Job declare about his understanding of God in Job 42:5?
2. According to the sermon, what are the stages of faith development mentioned? [8:15]
3. What personal experience did the pastor share about facing a wall, and what did it expose in his life? [30:00]
4. How does the sermon describe the purpose of the wall in our spiritual journey? [35:00]

### Interpretation Questions
1. What does Job's statement, "My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you," signify about his spiritual journey and transformation? [22:00]
2. How can the concept of the wall as a spiritual necessity change our perspective on crises and challenges in our lives? [12:46]
3. In what ways did the pastor's experience of public betrayal lead to personal transformation and deeper reliance on God? [30:00]
4. How does the wall serve to purge our unhealthy affections and fill us with God's love, according to the sermon? [35:00]

### Application Questions
1. Reflect on a time when you felt spiritually stuck. How did you respond, and what did you learn from that experience? [12:46]
2. Job's perseverance through immense suffering led to a deeper knowledge of God. How can you apply Job's example to your current challenges? [22:00]
3. The pastor shared about his idolatry of reputation being exposed through a painful experience. Are there any "idols" in your life that a current or past crisis has exposed? How can you address them? [30:00]
4. The sermon emphasizes the importance of journeying through the wall rather than avoiding it. What practical steps can you take to embrace and navigate through your current spiritual challenges? [35:00]
5. How can you support others in your small group or community who might be facing their own walls? What specific actions can you take to encourage and walk alongside them? [35:00]
6. The wall is described as an opportunity for profound spiritual growth. What specific areas of your life do you feel God is calling you to grow in through your current struggles? [35:00]
7. Reflect on the idea that our spiritual journey involves starts, stops, detours, and delays. How can you cultivate patience and trust in God's timing and process in your life? [35:00]

Devotional

Day 1: The Wall as a Spiritual Necessity
The wall is not a sign of spiritual failure but an essential part of our journey with God. It compels us to confront our hidden issues and allows God to transform us deeply. This process is painful but necessary for true spiritual maturity. The wall is a place where our usual spiritual practices no longer seem effective, and we feel stuck. This can be triggered by various crises like job loss, illness, or betrayal. However, these walls are not meant to destroy us but to purify us and fill us with God's love. Embracing the wall as a spiritual necessity allows us to grow in ways we never imagined, leading to a deeper, more intimate relationship with God. [12:46]

Isaiah 48:10 (ESV): "Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction."

Reflection: Think of a recent crisis or challenge you faced. How did it compel you to look inward and confront hidden issues? How can you see this experience as a necessary part of your spiritual growth?

Day 2: Job's Example of Perseverance
Job's story teaches us that even the most righteous can face immense suffering. Despite being a righteous man, Job faced immense suffering, losing his wealth, health, and family. Yet, he chose to wrestle with God rather than give up. Through this, he moved from merely hearing about God to truly seeing Him. This deeper knowledge of God is the reward for enduring and overcoming life's trials. Job's perseverance through his trials led him to a profound transformation and a more intimate relationship with God. This transformation is what God desires for all of us. [49:33]

James 5:11 (ESV): "Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful."

Reflection: Reflect on a time when you faced a significant trial. How did you respond to God during that time? What did you learn about God's character through that experience?

Day 3: Personal Transformation Through Crisis
Personal crises often expose our hidden idols and force us to rely solely on God. My own experience of facing a wall through a public betrayal exposed my idolatry of reputation. It forced me to rely solely on God, leading to deeper spiritual maturity and freedom from the need for external validation. These painful experiences are opportunities for profound personal transformation. They strip away our unhealthy dependencies and draw us closer to God, allowing us to experience His love and grace in new and deeper ways. [1:12:46]

2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV): "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

Reflection: Identify an area in your life where you have placed your trust in something other than God. How can you begin to shift your reliance to God alone in this area?

Day 4: The Purpose of the Wall
The wall serves to purge our unhealthy affections and fill us with God's love. It is not a punishment but an opportunity for profound spiritual growth. These walls are essential for our spiritual growth. They compel us to look inward, confront our hidden issues, and allow God to transform us deeply. This process is painful but necessary for true spiritual maturity. We must choose to journey through the wall, trusting that God will bring us to a place of deeper intimacy and transformation. [1:25:33]

1 Peter 1:6-7 (ESV): "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Reflection: Think about a current or past trial you have faced. How can you view this trial as an opportunity for God to purge unhealthy affections and fill you with His love?

Day 5: Embracing the Journey
Our spiritual journey involves starts, stops, detours, and delays. The wall is a place of spiritual dryness and crisis, but it is also where God does His most transformative work. Embrace the journey, and allow God to lead you through the wall to a place of deeper spiritual maturity. The journey through the wall is long and difficult, but it leads to deeper spiritual maturity and freedom from the need for external validation. Trusting God through these challenging times allows us to experience His transformative power in our lives. [1:35:46]

Psalm 66:10-12 (ESV): "For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance."

Reflection: Reflect on your current spiritual journey. Are there areas where you feel stuck or dry? How can you embrace this part of your journey and trust God to lead you through it?

Quotes

1. "It is impossible to be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. And he talked about the ways in which our spirituality is often like an iceberg, where there are the parts of it, the 10% that is exposed, and that we focus a lot of our attention on, but we often ignore, or maybe aren't even aware of the 90% beneath the surface. And that 90% is impacting every single aspect of our lives." [14:50] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

2. "Journeying through the wall. That's what we're talking about, today's sanctuary. And I want to invite you, if you have your Bible, let's look together at job, chapter 42. Job 42, beginning with verse one, and we'll read through verse five. Here's what God's word says. Then Job replied to the Lord, I know that you can do all things. No purpose of yours can be thwarted. You ask, who is this that obscures my plans? Without knowledge, surely. I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know." [22:50] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

3. "Our journey with God, brothers and sisters, is described accurately as a journey. Our walk with God is a journey that is an incredible metaphor, an accurate metaphor for our life with Christ. The idea of a journey works for a description of our christian life because it represents movement, it represents fluidity. Things are not always as they will be. We are changing and growing and moving the entire time. As we think about our life in Christ, we are always headed somewhere." [26:00] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

4. "Maybe you're watching this service today and you are one of those folks who were told by some people that because you became a Christian, your life was going to be an inheritance of ease. It was going to be nothing but easy days once you made Jesus your lord and savior. Or maybe you're watching today and you're one of the people. You prayed that sinner's prayer back at Covenant Pines in the summer of 96. Shout out to 96. Or perhaps you're one of those people who walked that aisle at the such and such missionary Baptist church way back in the day, and you thought that because you gave your life to Christ that you would immediately become Jesus. Junior, you thought that everything in your life from that point forward would be easy." [28:00] (50 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

5. "The effect of encountering the wall is that you feel stuck. You feel stuck. The religious practices that you have adapted and adopted to that point, the ways in which you have thought about God, to that point, it doesn't produce in you the same feelings and the same emotions. It doesn't move you and affect you in the same way it once did. All those warm and fuzzy feelings that you used to get, in all those ways in which you. You had wonder about who God is, it goes away at the wall." [33:00] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

6. "You see, Job was a wealthy man. In fact, the Old Testament describes him as the wealthiest man in all of the east. He had a large family. He had extensive flocks. He was a baller and a shot caller. In fact, the text says he was the wealthiest man in all of the east. He was blameless. He was upright. He was always careful to avoid doing evil because he feared the Lord. Job was a righteous, God fearing man, and he still encounters a wall. You see, the wall is not about righteousness and unrighteousness. And just because someone reaches a crisis in their life does not mean it is about sin." [45:00] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

7. "This idea of the wall, this dark night of the soul, is about two things. First, it is about God purging our affection. There are some things in us, in our life, in our hearts, that God has to get out of us. Pride and discontent and anger and wrath and slothfulness. God wants to purge those things from having control of our lives. And in place of those things, God takes those things away from us so that God might actually fill us with God's love." [1:00:00] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

8. "When you journey through the walls, you develop a deeper ability to wait for God. You don't put God on a timeline. No need to make it happen yourself, which is really an admission that you don't think God is actually going to make it happen. And then you experience a greater detachment. Those things that had power over you before, your reputation, your possessions, your job, those initials at the end of your name, they lose the power that they have over you as you learn to journey through the wall." [1:18:00] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

9. "Sanctuary, family, we are in the middle of a global pandemic. It is a crisis, and it has exposed in all of our lives just how much work there still is for God to do in us. And I want to encourage you today, as we sit in the middle of this moment, as we sit before this wall, I want to encourage you not to ignore what God is showing you about yourself in this season. Instead, I want to encourage you to journey through the wall to say with God that I am open, God, to what you want to do in my life in this moment." [1:21:00] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

10. "The invitation today is to journey through the wall, to remain present with God, and to allow God to purge us and fill us with his love. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the opportunity you have given us today to be together in worship. Thank you for the ways in which your word is always, always teaching us who we are and reminding us of who we are called to be. So, God, I pray for every brother, every sister who will come across this service, all who are watching today. God and I pray that you would do a healing work in their lives." [1:23:00] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

Chatbot

Transcript

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