The most wonderful truth in the world, the most amazing truth in the world, the most marvelous truth in the world is this: God wants to have a relationship with me. That is almost too inconceivable to believe – that God would want a relationship with me.
We were made to be friends of God. The Bible says that you were created so that God could love you. You were made to have a relationship. That’s why you’re here on this earth. God made you to love you.
But there’s a problem. Something went wrong in that relationship. My sin. And your sin. And there were times in my life that I decided I was going to do what I thought was best not what God thought was best. That broke the relationship. Destroyed it.
But God did not leave it at that. He took the initiative and He came to earth in human form, in the person of Jesus Christ, to show us what God was like, to show us how much He loves us, to stretch out His arms on the cross and die for us so that the bridge could be built back to God and that relationship could be restored. That’s incredible, really wonderful, marvelous news.
The Bible tells us in 1 Timothy 2:5 “Jesus Christ is the bridge between God and man.” And in Romans 5:11 “Now we rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done in dying for our sins making us friends of God.” Circle “friends of God.” It is the marvelous truth that God has sent His Son to die for us.
If I were to summarize the Bible in one word, if I were to summarize Christianity in one word I would not use the word “religion”. I would not use “ritual” or “rules”. I would use the word “relationship”. Because that’s what the whole Bible and all of Christianity is about. God wants a relationship with you. As mind blowing as that is, God made you to have a relationship.
One day a man came to Jesus and said, “Lord, what’s the most important commandment?” We all know the Ten Commandments. Jesus didn’t quote any of those. He said, “Let me give you the two most important ones. Love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. That’s the first one and number two, Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love God, Love your neighbor. He’s talking about relationship. If you’ve got your relationship with God in order and you’ve got your relationship with other people in order, you are doing what God put you on earth to do.
Life is essentially about relationships. The most important thing in your life is not money, status, success, pleasure, fame. It’s people.
There are two problems. One of them is relationships are very fragile. They can be damaged easily so they have to be cultivated and nurtured. No good relationship happens accidentally. It’s intentional.
The second problem is nobody ever teaches us how to build good relationships. You certainly didn’t learn it in school. So most of us really aren’t that good at it. We just kind of stumble into relationship building.
For the next several weeks we’re going to do a series I’m calling “Building Bridges” and we’re going to look at improving and the relationships in your life. Your relationship with your friends. Your relationship with your spouse or your children or relatives, with your employer, with your employees, with your customers, with your competitors, your enemies. Because if your relationships are messed up, life stinks.
But today I want us to start with your relationship to unbelievers, because I hope you’re going to invite them for the rest of this series. As a believer, what should be my relationship to people who don’t accept Christ the way I do. Look at what the Bible says: 2 Cor. 5:18 “God has restored our relationship with Him through Christ, and He has given to us this ministry of restoring relationships.”
You are given a ministry of restoring relationships. Once you accept Jesus Christ, once you step across the line, you have a new life assignment. You are to become a bridge builder. Every Christian is called to be a bridge builder in life. Every Christian. A Christian, of all people, should be interested in relationships more than anybody else. Once God has restored the relationship to us, He expects us to go restore relationships with other people and help them restore a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The greatest thing you can do for anybody else is introduce them to Jesus Christ – sealing their eternity, knowing that they’re going to heaven.
We have the greatest news in the world. All my sins can be forgiven, I get a new purpose for living, I get a home in heaven and God becomes my friend. What could be better than that? Name me one thing that is better than that. It’s better than a cure for any disease because it has eternal implications, to know that you’ve helped somebody settle their eternal destiny, there is no greater achievement in life, no greater epitaph than “He/She was a bridge builder for Jesus Christ.” We do have the greatest message in the world. But you have to earn the right to share it. You have to build the bridge. If you just walk up to people that you don’t even know and start talking to them about the Lord most of them are going to go, “What planet did you come from?” You need to earn the right to be heard.
One of the problems of believers, we often forget that most of the people around us are not headed for heaven, they are not the friends of God. They need to hear the good news. So today, in starting this series, I want to give you six principles for building relationships. on how to build a bridge to unbelievers. How do you build a bridge to unbelievers? These six principles will apply to any relationship. They’ll give you a better marriage, parenting, whatever. But I want to talk specifically about how do you build a bridge to that neighbor, that co-worker, that relative, that parent or child, brother or sister, who doesn’t know the Lord? How do you build a bridge of love between your heart and theirs?
1. BE PROACTIVE.
Take the initiative in building friendships with people. Jesus said, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Don’t wait for them to make the first move. You reach out. One thing that’s for sure: Everyone wants friends, but very few people know how to make them. You go to a party with a whole bunch of strangers there, everybody is desperately wanting to talk to somebody else and everybody’s afraid to make the first move. They don’t know how to reach out. They don’t know how to step out.
The Bible says because you are called to be a bridge builder you are to take the initiative. You make the first move. You reach out to that next door neighbor, that employee, that employer, that coworker. You make the first move in love. Because you care you dare to step out and try to establish a relationship.
Today, many people are afraid of being hurt. They don’t want to be conned. They don’t want to be manipulated. They don’t want to be used. We live in a very skeptical society. In order to build friendships today, you have to meet people more than half way. You have to take the initiative. You have to go more than half way. You go the second mile. And that’s how you earn trust in order to establish relationships.
I saw a sticker: “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk.” I want somebody to make one that says, “Friends don’t let friends miss heaven.” If you care, you will be proactive. You will take the first step in building relationships to people around you.
God specifically puts people in your life and He puts them there once you’re a believer so you can tell them, so you can invite them to church, so you can talk to them about the Lord, share a word, a cd, a book, whatever. Be proactive.
2. REFUSE TO WEAR A MASK
If you want to build strong relationships with anybody – husband, wife, children, unbelievers – you have to be authentic, honest, open. You have to drop your guard. You have to be real. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians “We can say with confidence and a clear conscience that we have been honest and sincere in all our dealings.” That’s what builds friendships – honesty and sincerity, dropping your mask, being real, being authentic.
I don’t want to shock you but I want to tell you a little secret. Everybody already knows you’re not perfect. I know that’s a complete surprise to you! Everybody around you already knows you’re not perfect. Why pretend? Nobody has it all together. Nobody. I don’t. You don’t. Nobody in this world has it all together. We are all imperfect. Why don’t we quit kidding ourselves and trying to pretend before others. Let it down. Get off the pedestal and be real just like everybody else.
If you are seeking here this morning and you are not a believer yet but you’re considering the claims of Christ, I want to be honest with you and tell you, there is no difference between the believer and the unbeliever in their problems. We have the same problems. The exact same problems. We’re all in the same boat. The difference is, we know where to go to get help. That’s the only difference. We have a new power, a new source of help in our lives.
Refuse to wear a mask and stop covering up. You don’t have to be perfect to build a bridge to people. In fact, being vulnerable is how you do it.
3. IDENTIFY COMMON GROUND
If you want to build a relationship with somebody you have to identify common ground, discover what you have in common. When you’re dealing with trying to help an unbeliever trying to understand God’s love, Paul says in 1 Cor. 9 “Whatever a person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ and let Christ save him.”
How do you do that? How do you find what you have in common with that person you’re working with?
Listen. Listen with your heart. You ask a question like, “Tell me about yourself.” And you listen. People in this world are dying to be listened to. Very few people are listeners.
phone company did a study and discovered that the number one word people use in conversations on the phone is the word “I”. We’re not listening, we’re just telling about ourselves.
Experiment: Go out on the street. Find a total stranger. Get that person to talk about themselves for twenty minutes and they’ll think you’re a genius. You don't have to say anything. I learned a long time ago in counseling that I didn’t have to be profound. I just needed to be a good listener. Because people are dying to be listened to. If you’re lonely and you want more friends, you will make more friends in two months getting interested in other people than you will in two years trying to get people interested in you. Get interested in others and you’ll have all the friends you want. You’ve just got to find common ground.
Once you’ve identified that common ground, then you need to use it to build that bridge, to strengthen that relationship, to establish that friendship. If you’re talking with your neighbor who’s an unbeliever and find out he likes football. Take him to a football game or if they like shopping, take them to the fort. If you discover they’re parents and they have problems with their kids, give them a book that you read or a cd that you listened to. Relate on the same level. We all have the same problems. If they like chocolate and you go to tesco, bring them some chocolates. Establish common ground and then you use it.
4. DEMONSTRATE GOD’S LOVE
In order to build a bridge to people, we have to demonstrate God’s love. Ephesians 5:1-2 “Live a life filled with love for others following the example of Christ.” Our goal is to be like Jesus and He served in love and we have to do that too.
1 John 3:17 “Let us stop just saying we love people. Let us really love them and show it by our actions.” The Bible says don’t just say, “I love you.” Show it. Demonstrate it.
How do you do that?
You do it by meeting three of the most essential needs of every individual. Everybody has three basic needs and when you meet these needs you are demonstrating love. Everybody needs acceptance. Everybody needs affirmation. Everybody needs assistance.
First, everybody needs acceptance. You demonstrate love when you accept people just as they are. They don’t have to clean up their life for you to like them, love them, accept them. You accept them just as they are in nonjudgmental love.
You say, “But you don’t understand. The people I work with, or my family members or my relatives, they are so messed up. They’re into this lifestyle or that problem or that habit. How could I?” You need to understand the difference between acceptance and approval. There is a big difference between acceptance and approval. You can accept someone without approving of everything they do.
The model: Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ accepted everybody. He loved everybody before they cleaned up their act. The religious people of Jesus’ day couldn’t stand the fact that He would hang out with un-right people. They called Him “the friend of sinners”. I think Jesus wore that as a badge of honor. I would love to be called that. Jesus hung out with people like the lepers, the prostitutes and He showed them unconditional love. Today, He would be with homosexuals, prostitutes and AIDS victims. I have no doubt about that. Why? Because you can accept people without approving of their lifestyle. You can accept people without agreeing with everything they’re doing. Everybody needs acceptance. If you’re going to build a friendship it starts there.
Then the second thing is by affirming them. Everybody needs emotional support. I have discovered that everybody’s having a tough time. Everybody. Just in different ways. Some emotionally, some financially, some physically, but everybody’s having a tough time. When you are there for your friend, your neighbor, your co-worker in a crisis, in their illness, in the death in their family, in their big disappointment, in their financial problem, in their conflict, when you are there and you just set with them, you are building a bridge. When you affirm them and give them emotional support and you genuinely love them with affirmation, you’re concerned about the hurts, you’re building a bridge.
The Bible says “Bear one another’s burdens.” This is what friendship is all about. A friend is somebody who walks in when everybody else walks out. A friend is someone who will see you through when other people see through you. God says we’re to be affirming of the people around us.
Three, by assisting them is the way you demonstrate genuine love. Everybody needs practical love. Sometimes you can build a bridge to a friend, a neighbor, an acquaintance by offering practical assistance. You help them. You offer to drivel or you offer to baby-sit for them or you take them a meal or you help them clean out something in their back garden, repair something or help them put up their Christmas lights – practical ways of demonstrating genuine love. It is not just words. But it shows you really do care about people.
The Bible says that love is something you do. 1 Thes. 2:8 “Because we loved you, we were happy to share not only God’s good news with you but even our own lives.” That’s demonstrating God’s love. You don’t just share the good news. You share your own life.
I remember one time a foreign student explaining how he came to Christ. He said, “My friend build a bridge of friendship from his heart to mine and Jesus Christ walked across the bridge.” That’s what it means to be a bridge builder. Demonstrate God’s love.
5. GIVE CREDENCE TO THEIR FEELINGS AND THEIR FEARS
The people around you, you need to give credence, give validity to their feelings and fears. You need to realize that when you share the good news or when you invite somebody to church, that when people are resistant or slow about that, the number one reason is fear.
It could be any kind of fear. It could be the fear of “What if I turn into a religious nut? What if I become a fanatic? What if I commit to it and it’s not true? What if it’s too hard and I want to back out? What if I lose all my friends? What if I stop having fun?” All of these misconceptions they have in their mind about a relationship to Christ.
What you need to do is be understanding of that. Sympathetic. Be honest. Say, “I can understand. I had the exact same fears before I stepped across the line, before I gave my life to Christ. I had the exact same fears of what’s going to happen.”
Be patient with people and give God time to act. The Bible tells us in Romans 15:2 “For we must bear the burden of being considerate of the doubts and fears of others.” Be considerate. You don’t push people. You don’t argue anybody into heaven. You love them into heaven.
When you’ve got a little egg with a chick inside of it, there’s two ways to get the chick out of the egg. One way is to take a hammer and smash the egg. But that will probably kill the chick. The other way is to put it in a warm environment and wait.
That’s how you bring people to the love of God. Surround them with the warmth of God’s love, love them, serve them, and sacrifice for them. You be authentic and real about your own problems and say, “I don’t have it all together but Jesus Christ is the answer.” You invite them to church and just love them. Then watch it hatch. You don’t argue people into heaven; you just love them into heaven.
6. EXPECT GOD TO USE YOU.
I need to expect god to use me. You say, “If I get serious about building bridges to unbelievers in 2009, I don't know what to say.” That’s ok. In fact, you probably don’t want some kind of canned speech that sounds like some sales pitch. You don’t really need to know what to say. God will tell you what to say.
Jesus promised this to His disciples in Matthew 10 "Do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say for it will not be you speaking but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” Have you ever had this happen in your life? Have you ever had the thrill of feeling and knowing that God was speaking through you and you were saying things to somebody and you knew, “I’m not that smart. Where did that come from? I didn’t know I knew that.” You’re amazed. If you’ve never had that happen in your life, had the feeling of God speaking through you to an unbeliever, I pity you. It is the greatest thrill in the world. There is nothing more exciting. There is nothing more challenging. There’s nothing more fulfilling and satisfying than knowing that you are helping a person move from darkness to light, from hell to heaven. You are solidifying their eternal destiny. God is using you. It is the greatest feeling in the world to be able to do that. Once you’ve done it, you are hooked.
How does it happen? You make yourself available. Say, “God, use me. I don’t know what to say but I’m willing to be used by You for the people You’ve put around my life to build a bridge.” Knowing that you’ve helped somebody settle their eternal destiny and knowing they will be eternally grateful to you for building a bridge.
George Gallup just recently took a survey and discovered that 65 million Americans have no church home. But the most amazing thing in that survey that he took was that over fifty percent of the people he surveyed said they were waiting for an invitation. Fifty percent were waiting for an invitation!
Here’s your homework this week:
1. Right now, decide whom you’re going to invite during this relationship series when we talk about families and parenting and friends and work and all your relationships in life. Decide whom you’re going to bring, whom you’re going to invite. If you really care about that person, you will do whatever it takes to get them that invitation. You might start with an apology. You might go to the person like this, “We’ve been friends for two years (or whatever) and I need to apologize to you.” That will get his attention. “I’ve never told you about the most important thing in my life and I need to apologize.” Do you think he’ll be interested? Then you say, “I’ve been going to this church, St John’s, and I found a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I don’t understand it all, but it sure makes sense what I do know. I would love to tell you about this. Friends don’t keep secrets from friends. And I just need to ask you to forgive me for not telling you about it. I was afraid you’d think I was a nut.” Invite somebody.
2. If you want to get some training in this, “mind the gap” we’re going to do a series on “How to share your faith” in a natural, not a salesman job, but a natural, casual, comfortable way. We’re going to be doing that from the 4th June for three weeks. I encourage you to come on Thursday nights.
What we’re talking about this morning is the most important thing in the world – getting people out of hell, into heaven, with a purpose for living, their sins forgiven and becoming friends with God. There’s nothing more important than that. It has eternal implications. This is the number one task of everything we do here at St Johns. Because everybody needs Jesus.
Why are we doing this? Because I need more work? You’ve got to be kidding! Do I have a death wish and I’m looking for an early grave? Why are we doing this?
Because everybody needs Jesus. And people without Christ go into a Christ-less eternity. This is a fact for me that is almost unbearable. As long as there is one person within driving distance of this church, who does not know that their sins can be forgiven, that they can have a purpose for living, that they have a home in heaven, and that God can be their friend, we are going to keep reaching out. We’re going to keep reaching out at sacrifice and personal expense and inconvenience and all the energy that it takes.
But I can’t do this by myself. It will take all of us together, working together as a symphony to reach this county for Jesus Christ. All of us doing our part. Everybody has to have a role to play. We can’t have any spectators. Everybody has a role to play.
It takes 30 volunteers to pull off the typical service at St John’s. That’s for each service. Children’s workers, welcomers, musicians, tea people, prayer people, sound team, computer crew and on and on in the different ministries. 30 people just to pull off one service!
People are growing in discipleship because of the services here. You meet the Lord right here. And now it’s your turn to step up to the plate and say, “I will help. I will serve. Pray about this, look at this. Will you help make a difference in people’s lives in ’09? Will you let God use you to bring other people into His kingdom. If you are growing in this Church, it’s your turn to make it possible for others.
You never know what God will use to bring somebody into His kingdom. I get a lot of cards and letters all the time. Let me read you some letters that are typical of the ones I get:
Ordinary people, serving as a musician, a welcomer, a children’s helper/worker. People are going to be in heaven because they stepped out and said, “I’m not going to be a spectator. I’m stepping up to the plate. I’m going to be a bridge builder.”
Would you do that? Will you do that in 2009?
The Mercedes commercial that has the president of Mercedes talking about how they did not patent the crash protector in the Mercedes frame because it’s a very crash resistant frame. They didn’t patent it. He said, “Some things are too important not to share.”
The good news of Jesus Christ falls in that category. It is too important not to share. The greatest use of your life is to invest it in that which will outlast it, helping people get into God’s kingdom. What a privilege to affect somebody’s eternity. What a privilege to lead someone to the good news of Christ! There is no finer epitaph for your life that, He/She was a bridge builder for Jesus Christ. Can you imagine the potential impact on Dalkeith if just the people in this one service would say, “In ’09 we are going to be bridge builders and we’re going to look around and see the people that God has placed in our lives are there for a purpose. And He wants us to share and invite and care and love and build bridges so they too might know the good news.”
I end with this question: Will anybody be in heaven because of you? You’re going, but will anybody be in heaven because of you?.
Why don’t you pray the most dangerous prayer. Two words: “Use me.” Say, “God, use me as a bridge builder in 2009. Use me anyway, anytime, anywhere that I might share the great things You’ve done for me with others and help them and change their eternal destiny. In Your name I pray, Amen.”
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
“Are You Abandoning God’s Kindness?”
Series: Having a Heart for Nineveh
Jonah 2:1-9
INTRO
I love the sea
-but it is where I have had some of my more unpleasant experiences
-more than one deep sea experience has been ruined by seasickness
-the longest day of my life
Jonah had his own unpleasant experience with the sea—one he reflects on in chapter two
Up to this point-Jonah has been on the run—fleeing from the call of God to go and preach to Nineveh
-heading down to Joppa, down to the port, down to a ship, down to its interior
-Jonah was running as far away from God as he could get
-God would have to find some other prophet dumb enough to go
-but God is tenacious—and will not easily release His grip on those He calls
And so God sent a violent storm—but Jonah stood defiant
-he would rather die than fulfill God’s mission
And so chapter one tells us Jonah took up new residence—from the bowels of a ship heading west—to the belly of a whale bound for the east-read 1:17
-It’s here Jonah had time to ponder-read 2:1
In the sanctuary and solitude of this belly, Jonah broke his silence with God and prayed
1. The first thing that stands out is that it is prayer that is passionate
-for Jonah has moved from narrative to poetry
-and poetry, by its very nature, is intestinal language
-language that flows out of the depths, language from the gut
2. It is a prayer that acts as a journal-describing Jonah’s near death experience
-I’ve had a few—a couple on my bike
-once teaching my wife to drive
-but nothing like Jonah’s
Jonah begins by recalling his distress-read verse 2
Jonah’s language reveals a man confined, hemmed in—lit “out of my straights”
Running from God places us in a tight place-where life is restricted
Jonah may have enjoyed a moment under the Mediterranean sun, cruising confidently under full sail
-the sea breeze and salt air deepening the sensory expectation of Tarshish
-but on the run—he soon experienced the dark, dank confinement that eventually comes to those living outside of God’s will
-confinement that feels like hell
-like being in the “belly of sheol”—the place of the dead—the symbol of utter darkness
-here Jonah screamed—and one could hear him saying—
-SO TAKE MY MISERABLE LIFE!!
-and God heard Jonah’s prayer and did—almost-read verse 3
God called Jonah’s bluff-accommodated to Jonah’s death wish
-hurled Jonah into the deepest of the deepest part of the sea
-where the currents boxed him in
-what we hear are the words of a dying man—coming to grips with the force of God’s powerful judgment
-the unnerving realization of death’s harsh terror
But something even more terrifying took place-read verse 4 Jonah began to sense a fate worse than death
-he began to feel the emptiness of being driven out, banished from God’s presence
-the same language is used in Lev 21:7 of a woman whose husband has divorced her
-he had committed careericide—and now its painful reality was hitting him hard
-he was no longer God’s go to man—no longer a prophetic voice
-and while it never paid well-being a prophet was not a glamorous life
-it came with the priceless privilege of intimacy with God
-Jonah could look back—but could not go back—his usefulness to God was over
Feeling abandoned by God has to be the most terrifying experience
-St John of the Cross—confined to a barbaric dungeon—felt discarded —and cried out--
“Where have you hidden.
Beloved, and left me groaning?
You fled like a stag having wounded me;
I went in search of you, and you were gone”
CS Lewis—after his wife died—wrote—
“Where is God? Go to Him when your need is desperate, and what do you find?
-a door slammed in your face and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside—and after that—silence”
I have spoken to a few who as we chat speak about a loved one gone
-inevitably-the conversation turns to God
-and they told me they has not spoken to Him since—they are still too angry
Dark nights of the soul—we will all experience them
-some-like Jonah’s—are self induced
-others we cannot explain
-we find ourselves in the agony and confusion and deep sense of letdown
-life makes no sense Jonah’s descent continued-read verse 5
Jonah found himself surrounded--enclosed by the deep
-seaweed imprisoning his head-he has the sensation of dying
-verse 6 is even more graphic of this descent (read verse 6a)
Jonah is on an elevator to hell—he has moved from the prophet’s suite to the
lower basement
-his descent goes not just to the bottom—but to the roots of the sea’s terrain—beyond the base of the mountains
-Jonah has finally hit bottom—there’s nothing underneath this underneath
-where he feels confined to a watery grave
But as life often reveals—
-when God seems most absent from us—He is doing His most important work in us
-work that--if He were not absent—He could not do Jesus’ death underscores this
-those three hours on the Cross—where Jesus screamed—God where are
You—why have You forsaken Me?
-were the moments God and the Son were reconciling the world
In our sense of abandonment—God is often doing what we cannot see—but what we must always trust
-FOR IT IS ALWAYS GOOD
-Crabb puts it this way—
“Imagine the comfort we would experience and the hope we would feel if we realized that during His absence, Jesus is working to cut the chain from our ankles, to remove the weight that keeps us from flying”
This was the case with Jonah
-in the absence—God’s grace was working—
1. To cut the chains from Jonah’s self-centeredness-read verses 6b-7
2. Grace was working to bring Jonah’s prophetic voice-read verse 8
Jonah is back to doing what prophets do—speaking against the dominant culture around them
-speaking out of the lessons he has learned—
THOSE WHO HANG ON TO VAPORS OF NOTHINGNESS…
-who regard things that are ultimately worthless—that amount to nothing— who run after the Tarshish’s of this world—who hasten after their own will and not God’s
-who chase after things temporal
-FORFEIT GOD’S KINDNESS, God’s love--ABANDON what they could
have had
-as long as you think you can manage your way
-as long as you choose to pursue life apart from God
-you stand to lose what we all need most—God’s generous, intimate kindness
3. Grace was working to bring Jonah back to faithfulness-read vs 9
Jonah’s prayer ends where prayer should end
APP
So what are the lessons from Jonah’s prayer?
1. When people choose to go their own way—what the Bible calls sin
-worlds inevitably fall apart—maybe not immediately—but ultimately
2. While we can choose our sin—we cannot choose the consequences
-they have an energy of their own—only God controls them
-sometimes the consequences result in total loss-as Jonah’s did
-loss of reputation, integrity, respect
-loss of responsibility, material security
-loss of relationships, career
Jonah’s world was undone because he ran from God’s will
3. Sometimes God must let us go all the way to the bottom
-like the prodigal son—all the way to the bottom of the pigpen
-some of us—like Jonah—remain in our stubbornness
-until we come to the end of ourselves—our world, is reduced to nothing
-for God to intervene prematurely will be to enable one in one’s sin
4. If we hit bottom—even there—we will find God
-there is no place too low—too beyond God’s rescue
-His love is that deep
Part of what we do here at st john’s is invite faith stories
-stories where failure connected with grace
-stories that underscore what we have just learned…
Does all of this tell us about God?
-it’s here we see both God’s justice and God’s powerful mercy
-justice that brings Jonah to the place where he must face the consequences of sin
-but mercy—that gives him yet another chance
God has to sometimes allow us to hit bottom---but brings out the good for those who are his loving children.
Jonah 2:1-9
INTRO
I love the sea
-but it is where I have had some of my more unpleasant experiences
-more than one deep sea experience has been ruined by seasickness
-the longest day of my life
Jonah had his own unpleasant experience with the sea—one he reflects on in chapter two
Up to this point-Jonah has been on the run—fleeing from the call of God to go and preach to Nineveh
-heading down to Joppa, down to the port, down to a ship, down to its interior
-Jonah was running as far away from God as he could get
-God would have to find some other prophet dumb enough to go
-but God is tenacious—and will not easily release His grip on those He calls
And so God sent a violent storm—but Jonah stood defiant
-he would rather die than fulfill God’s mission
And so chapter one tells us Jonah took up new residence—from the bowels of a ship heading west—to the belly of a whale bound for the east-read 1:17
-It’s here Jonah had time to ponder-read 2:1
In the sanctuary and solitude of this belly, Jonah broke his silence with God and prayed
1. The first thing that stands out is that it is prayer that is passionate
-for Jonah has moved from narrative to poetry
-and poetry, by its very nature, is intestinal language
-language that flows out of the depths, language from the gut
2. It is a prayer that acts as a journal-describing Jonah’s near death experience
-I’ve had a few—a couple on my bike
-once teaching my wife to drive
-but nothing like Jonah’s
Jonah begins by recalling his distress-read verse 2
Jonah’s language reveals a man confined, hemmed in—lit “out of my straights”
Running from God places us in a tight place-where life is restricted
Jonah may have enjoyed a moment under the Mediterranean sun, cruising confidently under full sail
-the sea breeze and salt air deepening the sensory expectation of Tarshish
-but on the run—he soon experienced the dark, dank confinement that eventually comes to those living outside of God’s will
-confinement that feels like hell
-like being in the “belly of sheol”—the place of the dead—the symbol of utter darkness
-here Jonah screamed—and one could hear him saying—
-SO TAKE MY MISERABLE LIFE!!
-and God heard Jonah’s prayer and did—almost-read verse 3
God called Jonah’s bluff-accommodated to Jonah’s death wish
-hurled Jonah into the deepest of the deepest part of the sea
-where the currents boxed him in
-what we hear are the words of a dying man—coming to grips with the force of God’s powerful judgment
-the unnerving realization of death’s harsh terror
But something even more terrifying took place-read verse 4 Jonah began to sense a fate worse than death
-he began to feel the emptiness of being driven out, banished from God’s presence
-the same language is used in Lev 21:7 of a woman whose husband has divorced her
-he had committed careericide—and now its painful reality was hitting him hard
-he was no longer God’s go to man—no longer a prophetic voice
-and while it never paid well-being a prophet was not a glamorous life
-it came with the priceless privilege of intimacy with God
-Jonah could look back—but could not go back—his usefulness to God was over
Feeling abandoned by God has to be the most terrifying experience
-St John of the Cross—confined to a barbaric dungeon—felt discarded —and cried out--
“Where have you hidden.
Beloved, and left me groaning?
You fled like a stag having wounded me;
I went in search of you, and you were gone”
CS Lewis—after his wife died—wrote—
“Where is God? Go to Him when your need is desperate, and what do you find?
-a door slammed in your face and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside—and after that—silence”
I have spoken to a few who as we chat speak about a loved one gone
-inevitably-the conversation turns to God
-and they told me they has not spoken to Him since—they are still too angry
Dark nights of the soul—we will all experience them
-some-like Jonah’s—are self induced
-others we cannot explain
-we find ourselves in the agony and confusion and deep sense of letdown
-life makes no sense Jonah’s descent continued-read verse 5
Jonah found himself surrounded--enclosed by the deep
-seaweed imprisoning his head-he has the sensation of dying
-verse 6 is even more graphic of this descent (read verse 6a)
Jonah is on an elevator to hell—he has moved from the prophet’s suite to the
lower basement
-his descent goes not just to the bottom—but to the roots of the sea’s terrain—beyond the base of the mountains
-Jonah has finally hit bottom—there’s nothing underneath this underneath
-where he feels confined to a watery grave
But as life often reveals—
-when God seems most absent from us—He is doing His most important work in us
-work that--if He were not absent—He could not do Jesus’ death underscores this
-those three hours on the Cross—where Jesus screamed—God where are
You—why have You forsaken Me?
-were the moments God and the Son were reconciling the world
In our sense of abandonment—God is often doing what we cannot see—but what we must always trust
-FOR IT IS ALWAYS GOOD
-Crabb puts it this way—
“Imagine the comfort we would experience and the hope we would feel if we realized that during His absence, Jesus is working to cut the chain from our ankles, to remove the weight that keeps us from flying”
This was the case with Jonah
-in the absence—God’s grace was working—
1. To cut the chains from Jonah’s self-centeredness-read verses 6b-7
2. Grace was working to bring Jonah’s prophetic voice-read verse 8
Jonah is back to doing what prophets do—speaking against the dominant culture around them
-speaking out of the lessons he has learned—
THOSE WHO HANG ON TO VAPORS OF NOTHINGNESS…
-who regard things that are ultimately worthless—that amount to nothing— who run after the Tarshish’s of this world—who hasten after their own will and not God’s
-who chase after things temporal
-FORFEIT GOD’S KINDNESS, God’s love--ABANDON what they could
have had
-as long as you think you can manage your way
-as long as you choose to pursue life apart from God
-you stand to lose what we all need most—God’s generous, intimate kindness
3. Grace was working to bring Jonah back to faithfulness-read vs 9
Jonah’s prayer ends where prayer should end
APP
So what are the lessons from Jonah’s prayer?
1. When people choose to go their own way—what the Bible calls sin
-worlds inevitably fall apart—maybe not immediately—but ultimately
2. While we can choose our sin—we cannot choose the consequences
-they have an energy of their own—only God controls them
-sometimes the consequences result in total loss-as Jonah’s did
-loss of reputation, integrity, respect
-loss of responsibility, material security
-loss of relationships, career
Jonah’s world was undone because he ran from God’s will
3. Sometimes God must let us go all the way to the bottom
-like the prodigal son—all the way to the bottom of the pigpen
-some of us—like Jonah—remain in our stubbornness
-until we come to the end of ourselves—our world, is reduced to nothing
-for God to intervene prematurely will be to enable one in one’s sin
4. If we hit bottom—even there—we will find God
-there is no place too low—too beyond God’s rescue
-His love is that deep
Part of what we do here at st john’s is invite faith stories
-stories where failure connected with grace
-stories that underscore what we have just learned…
Does all of this tell us about God?
-it’s here we see both God’s justice and God’s powerful mercy
-justice that brings Jonah to the place where he must face the consequences of sin
-but mercy—that gives him yet another chance
God has to sometimes allow us to hit bottom---but brings out the good for those who are his loving children.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Learning to Hear God's Voice - Part 3 of 4
HOW TO RECOGNIZE GOD'S VOICE
I John 4:1 (Living Bible)
We're continuing in our series on Learning to Hear God's Voice. Last week we talked about four ways you can hear God speak. One of the ways is God gives us impressions in our mind. I told you we would come back to this today and finish up the message because it causes a lot of confusion. If God gives me impressions, how do I know when they're really from God. How do I know I'm not just talking to myself. Do you ever do that? I like to talk to myself. I like to have somebody intelligent to talk to. So I talk to myself all the time! I've found it very easy to confuse my desires with God's will. The Bible says Satan can talk to us. We can read things and they get put in our mind and we think that it's God, but it's just Time magazine.
So how do you know when it's really God? This may not be a big issue if you're just trying to decide what restaurant to go to after church. But if you're talking about who to marry or a major career change, this is a major issue. You need to hear from God. God wants to talk to you. So how do I know when it's really God speaking to me?
I John 4:1 "Don't always believe everything you heart just because somebody says it's a message from God. Test it first to see if it really is." Circle "test it." The Bible says we must learn to distinguish God's voice. We've got to figure out if it's really God or not. I want to give you the seven ways to test an impression. Seven ways to know if it's really God talking to you or not. They form a filter and they're all inter related. You can't pick and choose.
If an impression does not pass all seven of these tests you know it's not from God. You can disqualify it.
On the other hand if you apply these seven tests to an idea or impression that you've got and it passes all seven, you can know with absolute certainty you've heard from God.
Ok here we go!
1. DOES IT AGREE WITH THE BIBLE?
God never contradicts His written word. Luke 21:33 "heaven and earth will pass away but My words will never pass away." God will never tell you to violate anything in this book. Never.
God will never tell you to ignore or disobey anything in this book. He doesn't say one thing one time, and another thing another time. God is consistent. If He said it in the past, He's going to say it in the future. He is always consistent. He is never inconsistent. The Bible tells us very clearly, "Pay your taxes" so God is not going to give you the impression... "the government wastes your money anyway so just cheat, lie about it because they're not going to use it the right way anyway." God would never tell you that. We always get into trouble when we doubt God's word, when we don't listen to what it says.
New job, great money great prospects,
The only thing is I won't get to go to church anymore or read my Bible, but I think it will be OK. Mafia! Psalms 1 says not to hang around with crooks and people like that. But that was written a long time ago. I really think God wants me to take this job. Besides, they made me an offer I couldn't refuse!
God will never tell you to do something inconsistent with what He's already said. Most of God's will for your life is already right here in this book. You don't even have to pray about it. Just do what it says. Some asks me "Do you pray about getting up in the morning and going to church?" No, I don't. I just get up. I don't pray about tithing, I just do it. I don't pray about telling other people the good news, I just do it. Because it's right here in God's word. When you build your life on this book, you're going to ask the right questions. If you don't build your life on this book, you're going to miss God's will much of the time.
So the first step is to check it out. It's better to memorize it. Then God can bring those verses to mind.
2. DOES IT MAKE ME MORE LIKE CHRIST?
Philippians 2:5 "In your lives you must think and act like Jesus Christ." Jesus is the standard by which we measure everything we do. God says very clearly in the Bible that His goal for your life is to make you like Jesus. Not to be a god but to be godly. To have character, to have love, joy, peace, patience, all the qualities that Jesus had -- in your life. He would never tell you to do anything that contradicts or would hinder you from reaching that goal.
A practical application of what Christ likeness is in James 3 "If you harbor envy and selfish ambition, such wisdom doesn't come from heaven In other words, you know that impression doesn't come from God if it causes bitterness, envy or selfish ambition. The wisdom that comes from God is pure, peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, impartial and sincere."
These are filters that you can test the idea. God's wisdom is not selfish ambition. If you get an idea of how to promote yourself in a better way or how to achieve instant fame, instant wealth, instant comfort it's not from God. God doesn't give you ideas for self-promotion, self-serving, selfish ambition.
On the other hand, if the thought is pure then it's from God. If you get an impure thought that one obviously isn't from God.
His wisdom is peace loving. Ideas from God promote harmony rather than conflict. If you get an idea that's going to promote conflict it's probably not from God. It's considerate. You have to think what would this idea do to other people? Would it hurt them or harm them? Would it build them up or tear them down? Encourage them or discourage them?
If an idea is genuinely from God, the Bible says it's considerate. It's considerate of how other people think. A lot of people say, "God told me to do this" and they just bowl over everybody and don't care how it hurts anybody. Because "God told them to do it." God didn't tell them to do something like that. The Bible says God's wisdom is considerate. So you don't be dogmatic. It's submissive. If you've really heard from God you're not going to be arrogant and bragging about it. Some people think they've heard from God but their behavior shows they really haven't because they're self-righteous, egotistical and always putting everybody else down. "God told me this and therefore you're nothing!"
God's wisdom is full of mercy. If you've really heard an idea from God it's going to cause you to be more gracious towards people rather than judgmental. If after I've heard from God, it makes me more judgmental, and put you down, and tell you what you're doing wrong and always criticizing you, you didn't hear from God. That's not the way Jesus lived. Jesus is our model.
Ask this question: Would Jesus do this? First, does it square up with the Bible? Second, Does it make me more like Christ? Would Jesus do this?
Would Jesus do it? That's the second way to test an impression.
3. When I'm trying to figure out whether I've got this idea from God or not, I need to ask "DOES MY CHURCH FAMILY CONFIRM IT?"
When you become a believer, a follower of Christ, you not only get a new relationship to God, you get a new relationship to other people. It's called the church, the family of God. You become a member of the family.
God never meant for you to make a major decision in life on your own. He wants you to get help and advise from wise mature Christians, other believers who are grounded in the faith and have a little more Bible under their belt than maybe you have. Check it out over and over. The Bible says, "Smart people get advise. Fools don't." Fools just think they know the right thing to do and act on their own intuition without ever checking it out with anybody else who is a mature
Christian.
The third question you need to ask is, Does my church family confirm it? Ephesians 3:10 "God's intent is that through the church the manifold wisdom of God who should be made known." If God has genuinely spoken to you, you've got an idea, an impression, He's going to confirm it through other believers. The biggest reason people mess up their lives, Christians, too, -- is they try to live their life without any accountability to anybody else, without any support, without any confirmation, any council, any guidance. The Bible says, "In a multitude of counselors there is safety." When we try to live a Lone Ranger approach to the Christian life we're going to fall flat on our face. Because this is the third way God works. We need to be open to the checks, the counsel, the correction of mature believers, pastors, Christian leaders, other people in the church who have been believers longer than we have. We ought to check it out. When in doubt, check it out.
If you don't do this then typically you're going to make a lot of unnecessary mistakes in life. Your stress level will be much higher than it needs to be. It doesn't have to be there. You will fumble and fall, waste time, energy, and money on decisions you should never have made in the first place. You need to check it out.
Check it out with other believers. If you don't, you're going to get in trouble. Isn't it typical that what we often do is start asking for advice and we keep asking until we find somebody who will agree with what we want to do anyway? As a minister, I want you to know, that's happened often to me. A couple will come to me and ask me for advice that clearly God doesn't want them to do and I tell them "Don't do it!" so they go to another church. They find a pastor there but if the pastor is grounded, he'll tell them No, too. I've actually been in a small group of pastors in this area where we've talked about couples or individuals who have been to five or six different pastors trying to get the right answer but nobody will tell them what they want to hear.
Another reason why we don't like to check out major decisions with other believers is because we don't want to be told we're wrong. But it's better to be told you're wrong before you waste the time, energy and money than it is after and you have all the heartache and hurt from a stupid decision. If you've heard from God, really heard from God, other Christians are going to confirm it.
Proverbs 11:9 "The wisdom of the righteous can save you." Save what? Money, time, reputation. It is safe to ask mature believers to evaluate impressions. You need to get people who love you enough to level with you.
If you have an idea and you've wondered, Is this really from God and you check it out with other mature Christians, if other mature believers question it, you should too. I'm not saying not do it, I'm saying a red flag ought to go up, a yellow warning light ought to go on that says, Maybe I'm not getting this right. If other mature Christians question it, you ought to also. If you get an idea and you think it's from God and you can't find any mature believers (you might find an immature
one -- a brand new Christian or someone not walking with the Lord to agree with it) but if you can't find any mature Christian to agree with the decision, don't do it. Drop it! The Bible says God speaks through His word, He speaks if it makes us like Jesus, and He speaks through the body as a whole. We need each other. That's why you need to be in a house group. You can check things out with your house group.
4. IS IT CONSISTENT WITH HOW GOD HAS SHAPED ME?
Ephesians 2:10 "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance [circle this] for us to do." Before you were born God planned your life.
God made you for a purpose. You're not here by accident. You're here for a reason. That reason is a purpose and God designed you specifically for that purpose.
Example: A chair is designed in a certain way. It has a back, a seat -- the design was made to fulfill a purpose. The purpose of a chair is to sit in. A microphone has a very different design. It fulfills a different purpose. Chairs were designed to sit on. You weren't designed to sit on a microphone. You speak through microphones, you sit on chairs. Not vice versa.
The design reveals purpose. Design reveals purpose. The same thing is true of you. You were designed a certain way. We call that SHAPE. God has shaped you for a career, a ministry, for life involving your Spiritual gifts, your Heart (your passions, desires -- some things turn you on, some things you could care less about; some things you love to do, some things you hate to do; some things you're interested in and some things you're bored to tears with). Your abilities, your personalities and your experiences. Where do you think you got that? God gave it to you. He gave us all different make ups. Different hearts. Why? He wants all the work in the world to get done. Some people love to do accounting and some people can't stand accounting. Some people love to do mechanics, some people can't stand mechanics. Some people love to cook, some people hate to cook.
He's given you Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, You may be good with words. You may be good with numbers. You may be good with animals. You may be good with people. You may be
good with mechanical things. Then He's given you a Personality. You may be extroverted or introverted. You may like routine or you may like variety. You may like to work all by yourself or you might like to work in a team. Who do you think gave you your personality? God did. He was designing you for a purpose. Then He gives you Experiences -- vocational experiences and spiritual experiences and educational experiences and painful experiences. All of these things shape your life.
Just as the design of a chair reveals it's purpose, the design or shape of your life reveals your purpose -- what God wants you to do. For instance, why would God gift you as a great musician and then tell you to be a mechanic. He wouldn't. That would be a waste of the shape He's given you. On the other hand, if you're tone deaf forget trying to become a concert pianist. If you're good at planning then your ministry in life will involve planning. If you're good at art or writing or with numbers or leading, then your life, your career, your ministry, your place, your niche in this world involves what God gave you.
When you get an impression from God you ask "Is it consistent with how God's shaped me?" If God were to say to me, "I want you to leave st John’s and become a math teacher." I would know without a doubt that is not from God because I failed maths. I didn't and I don't know much about it! So God would not have me do something He had not shaped me to do. A lot of God's will for your life has to do with looking at your design. What are you good at? What do you love to do? God says you can discover a lot about His will for your life by just looking at what you're good at.
Romans 12:6 "God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well." God's voice will not contradict how He shaped you to be.
God's will for your life will never contradict how he has basically designed you. If you ever sense a leading in your life that is contrary to your basic shape, your personality, your experiences, ignore it. It's not from God.
5. The fifth test is this: DOES IT CONCERN MY RESPONSIBILITY?
If it's not your responsibility why in the world should God talk to you about it? In John 21, Jesus is talking to Peter and He tells him how he's going to die. He explains that he's going to have to suffer for being a Christian. Peter, very inquisitively, turns around and points to John the Apostle and says, "What about that guy? How's he going to die?" Jesus says (Mack translation) "It's
none of your business! Don't worry about it"
I only have to worry about what's going on in my life, I don't have to worry about God's will for your life. I can't figure out my own motives most of the time, much less figure out yours. If God is going to talk to you, you need to ask "Is He really talking to me or is He talking about something else? If it's somebody else, does it concern my responsibility?" When you listen for
God to speak to you, you need to listen for God to speak to you, not your son or your wife. You need to say, "What is God's will for me?"
Romans 14 "We will all be judged one day not by each other's standards or even by our own, but by the judgment of God. It is to God alone that we shall have to answer for our actions." When you listen for God's voice, listen for yourself, not for somebody else.
You need to be very careful when you think God's told you about something, somebody else should do. It's very dangerous. A lot of well meaning Christians, well intentioned but also presumptuous, have caused enormous amount of damage because they thought God was talking to them about what somebody else should do. For instance, God told me to tell you that you're going to get well. God told me to tell you that you're supposed to invest all your money with me.
God told me your secret sin. Why would God have to tell you my secret sin. I know my secret sin. God knows my secret sin.
We all have direct access to God. God can speak directly to each of us through Jesus Christ, His son. You need to be very, very careful about saying "God told me to tell you to do..." Every believer has a direct access to God and you have enough difficult time handling your own sins much less worrying about anybody else's. God can take care of that.
Does God ever speak to me about other people? Yes, He does occasionally. But three qualifications:
1. God will use you to confirm what He's already said to them. It's very unlikely He's going to tell you first. God will use you to confirm what He's already said. I've had God speak to me many times but I wasn't really sure I'd heard from God or not and then another person would say,
I really feel this is happening, and it would be a confirmation.
2. If God speaks to you to help somebody else, He'll usually do it without you knowing it.
That way your ego doesn't get in the way and you start taking pride and thinking you're some super saint. He will usually use you without you knowing it. Many times He will talk through you and you're not aware that what you said is meeting a need much deeper than you could possibly have imagined in their lives.
3. Trust God to speak to that person first before you talk to them.
6. IS IT CONVICTING RATHER THAN CONDEMNING?
Conviction is from God, condemnation is from the devil. Conviction points the way to change, condemnation just makes you feel bad. When God convicts you of sin in your life it is always specific. He says, Here's an attitude, behaviour, or something in your life that needs changing.
He'll be very specific and put His finger right on it. "You're blowing it in this area." He will be very specific.
On the other hand, condemnation which comes from the devil, is very vague and very general and basically says, "You're bad. You're no good. You're worthless. You stink. God could never use you. Forget ever trying to be a Christian." He's very general.
So if you have this very general sense of guilt that's condemnation. When God speaks to you about something that needs changing in your life, He's very specific.
Conviction always leads to an action to change; condemnation just makes you feel bad. When God is speaking to you, He'll say, "Here's what's wrong in your life and here's what you need to do." He'll give you specific things. The result is it always leads to confession, repentance and then forgiveness and the feelings leave.
On the other hand, condemnation is the devil saying to you, "You're worthless. You call yourself a Christian? Who do you think you are? You should give up trying to live for God because you can't do anything. You just keep falling and falling." He's always putting you down. Conviction comes from God, the Holy Spirit. Condemnation comes from the devil and you need to recognize the difference. Too many Christians, mistake their low self worth for God speaking. What they do is they've taken the voice from their past of an unpleasable parent who, no matter how much you tried it was never good enough, if you got C's they wanted B's, if you got B's they wanted A's, if you got A's they wanted straight A's. You've taken that voice of an unpleasable parent from your past and put it on your heavenly Father and you think God is mad at you all the time.
He's not. God is not out to beat you up.
If you are a Christian, if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ and asked Him to forgive all your sins and asked Him to be your saviour and Lord, it means this: Everything you've ever done wrong is forgiven. Not just the sins of your past but the ones you're going to do today. And the ones you haven't even thought about tomorrow. They were all nailed on the cross. That's why Jesus said, "It's finished! It's paid for! It's done!"
Should a Christian ever feel guilty? Yes! For about one nano second. That's about how long it takes to realize "I blew it!" and you come and confess to God and He instantly forgives and it's taken care of, it's wiped away. Many people think that to be spiritual you should walk around all the time feeling "I'm so guilty! I've really let God down!" No, you don't let God down because you're not holding Him up. He holds you up. You can never even disappoint God because God already knows every sin you're going to commit. He already knows.
So what you do, when you've done something wrong, you immediately breathe in God's Spirit (Say, "God fill me with your Spirit") and breathe out your sin. It's just that quick. You get instantly back into the fellowship. God does not want you carrying around guilt all the time. Say, "God, I blew it. I was wrong! Help me change!" then get on with it. Keep short accounts with God. Don't let it stockpile.
Conviction from God leads to confession, repentance, and forgiveness -- 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins to him, God can be depended on to forgive us and cleanse us from every wrong." He wipes the slate clean. God does not hold grudges. On the other hand, if you still feel guilty about something you've admitted to God that was wrong and you've asked Him to forgive
you for it and you still feel guilty after you've confessed it, that guilt is not from God. It's from Satan. Satan minimizes your sin before you do it, "It's no big deal!" and after you do it he goes "Look at what you did!" He wants you to walk around in constant guilt because guilty Christians are worthless in serving God. He will maximize it after you confess it. If you have confessed it and it is forgiven, any guilt you feel after you've confessed it is not from God. It's from the devil.
Revelation 12:10 says Satan is the accuser of the brethren, believers. That means God never tells you that you're worthless. And God will never tell you that you're hopeless. Is it convicting rather than condemning and you'll know whether it's God or not.
7. DO I SENSE GOD'S PEACE ABOUT IT?
1 Corinthians 14:33 "God is not the author of confusion." So if you're feeling confused that confusion is not coming from God. It may be coming from yourself or other people, but it's not coming from God. If you feel pressured and overwhelmed and driven to make a hasty decision, a major decision in life, and you're very pressured to make it, question it. That's not the way God works. There's not one single example in the Bible where God says, "Rush!" to a major decision. Not one. So question it. The Bible says God is patient. God would rather have you make the right decision than have you make the quick decision. We even say that when you're considering coming to Christ. Take the time to make the right decision. I believe if you listen to what God has to say, you will inevitably come to the right conclusion that you need to give your life to
Christ and live your life the way God made you to live, fulfilling your purpose.
If you're pressured, if you're stressed out, that pressure and stress are not coming from God. Not at all! It's coming from inside you, or from the devil, or from some other source. Do you want your kids to feel stressed out, pressured? No. Neither does your heavenly Father. The only time you're going to feel stressed out and pressured is when He's told you something to do and you don't do it. That's going to create stress in your life. That's going to create pressure -- when you know the right thing to do and you keep procrastinating. Satan drives us compulsively while God's spirit draws us compassionately, gently.
Colossians 3;1 "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts." If God is genuinely speaking to you and you think this idea is from God, it's going to bring peace to your heart IF you follow it. God's Spirit produces a calm spirit. Worry and anxiety are never from God. Never. In the Bible it says, "Don't worry!" We are commanded not to worry! If you get an idea that is a worry, it's not from
God! What if? and you start worrying about it then it's not from God. God would never give you an idea that He's commanded you not to have. You need to look for His peace.
Some of you have taken the voice of an unpleasable parent and put it in the form of God and you think all God does is set around and beat you up and tell you everything you're doing wrong.
You don't understand grace if you think that way. You don't understand that it's all been paid for. It's been forgiven! You want to live for Christ not because God is constantly beating you up saying "Do better!" That's not the way God treats His children. He says I've already forgiven every sin in your life and you're on your way to heaven and in gratitude you want to live for God.
I want to live for Jesus because He loves me that much. I want to do it not because He's beating me up and making me feel bad, but I want to do it because the peace that comes when I'm in a relationship with God and there's harmony between us.
There is nothing more vital in your life than you hear from God. Nothing. Because you were wired and made to have a relationship with God and if you miss that you miss the purpose you were made for. It may not be a big deal if you miss God on whether you buy all bran or Cherrios -- that's not that big of deal. But there are many major decisions in your life that you need to hear
from God about and if you're out there making decisions without taking the time to listen and saying, "God, what do You want me to do? What's the next step?" and you're checking it out with other Christians and you're reading the Bible and you're doing these seven steps, you are setting yourself up for failure after failure in your family life, in your business, in your parenting, in your finances, in your health and in every other area of your life. It makes sense to listen to your creator.
God does not want to play games with you. God is not trying to confuse you. It's not a cat and mouse game of "Let's see if you can figure out God's will and let's see how hard I can make it!" And God sits up there in the sky and laughs at the maze you keep knocking your head into.
That's not the way God acts to His children. He wants you to know His will, so much that He's given us these seven keys in which He says "Here are some ways that you can filter out and know if it's you or is it God talking to you?"
The secret to hearing God clearly is get to know Him better and better every day. The more you understand Him, the better you know Him, the easier it is to hear His voice in a split second when He wants to talk to you. Get to know God better and better every day. You may think you've never heard God speak to you. That's a good indication that you don't have a relationship to Him. John 8:47 "He who belongs to God hears what God says." The reason you don't hear is that you don't belong to God. If you've never heard God it means you need to establish a relationship to Him. And that's real easy to do and I can lead you in a prayer this morning that will help you take that step.
Others of you are believers and in the past God's voice was very clear to you at different times but right now it's been a little fuzzy, a little distant. Maybe there's some static on the line and you haven't heard from God in weeks and maybe months. What's happened? How come you don't hear God as clearly as you used to? You've allowed sin to block the channel in your life. There is something that is wrong in your life that has come between you and God and until you deal with that, the channel is blocked. Your heart has grown hard and you're not as sensitive to God as you used to be. Come home to Jesus Christ. Come home and say Jesus, "I want that relationship that I had before. I want to be able to talk to You and hear You and I want You to lead me and guide me and help me avoid all these mistakes in life. Direct me in the right way." Come home to Jesus.
Prayer:
If you've never opened your life to Christ, pray, "Dear Jesus Christ, I want to hear Your voice. I need it. I need to know the direction You want me to go, God. I want to establish a relationship with You through Your Son, Christ. I ask You to come into my life the best as I know how and put Your thoughts in my mind and Your love in my heart. Help me to start growing spiritually in You. I don't understand it all but as best as I know how I open my life to You."
Others of you have Jesus Christ in your life but you haven't heard His voice in a long time because your heart has grown cold and your ears have gotten stopped up. God doesn't have laryngitis. He's still speaking. The problem is on your end. Would you say, "Jesus Christ forgive me for allowing sin to come between me and You. Things I knew were wrong but I've allowed them anyway in my life. I ask You to forgive me and help me to deal with these issues so I can change and make things right where possible. I want to hear Your voice in my life on a daily basis. Speak to me. Help me to sense Your love. Forgive me for having false images of the way You are. You not a god who wants to beat me up but You want to guide me and love me. I want to love You and follow You. In Jesus name. Amen."
I John 4:1 (Living Bible)
We're continuing in our series on Learning to Hear God's Voice. Last week we talked about four ways you can hear God speak. One of the ways is God gives us impressions in our mind. I told you we would come back to this today and finish up the message because it causes a lot of confusion. If God gives me impressions, how do I know when they're really from God. How do I know I'm not just talking to myself. Do you ever do that? I like to talk to myself. I like to have somebody intelligent to talk to. So I talk to myself all the time! I've found it very easy to confuse my desires with God's will. The Bible says Satan can talk to us. We can read things and they get put in our mind and we think that it's God, but it's just Time magazine.
So how do you know when it's really God? This may not be a big issue if you're just trying to decide what restaurant to go to after church. But if you're talking about who to marry or a major career change, this is a major issue. You need to hear from God. God wants to talk to you. So how do I know when it's really God speaking to me?
I John 4:1 "Don't always believe everything you heart just because somebody says it's a message from God. Test it first to see if it really is." Circle "test it." The Bible says we must learn to distinguish God's voice. We've got to figure out if it's really God or not. I want to give you the seven ways to test an impression. Seven ways to know if it's really God talking to you or not. They form a filter and they're all inter related. You can't pick and choose.
If an impression does not pass all seven of these tests you know it's not from God. You can disqualify it.
On the other hand if you apply these seven tests to an idea or impression that you've got and it passes all seven, you can know with absolute certainty you've heard from God.
Ok here we go!
1. DOES IT AGREE WITH THE BIBLE?
God never contradicts His written word. Luke 21:33 "heaven and earth will pass away but My words will never pass away." God will never tell you to violate anything in this book. Never.
God will never tell you to ignore or disobey anything in this book. He doesn't say one thing one time, and another thing another time. God is consistent. If He said it in the past, He's going to say it in the future. He is always consistent. He is never inconsistent. The Bible tells us very clearly, "Pay your taxes" so God is not going to give you the impression... "the government wastes your money anyway so just cheat, lie about it because they're not going to use it the right way anyway." God would never tell you that. We always get into trouble when we doubt God's word, when we don't listen to what it says.
New job, great money great prospects,
The only thing is I won't get to go to church anymore or read my Bible, but I think it will be OK. Mafia! Psalms 1 says not to hang around with crooks and people like that. But that was written a long time ago. I really think God wants me to take this job. Besides, they made me an offer I couldn't refuse!
God will never tell you to do something inconsistent with what He's already said. Most of God's will for your life is already right here in this book. You don't even have to pray about it. Just do what it says. Some asks me "Do you pray about getting up in the morning and going to church?" No, I don't. I just get up. I don't pray about tithing, I just do it. I don't pray about telling other people the good news, I just do it. Because it's right here in God's word. When you build your life on this book, you're going to ask the right questions. If you don't build your life on this book, you're going to miss God's will much of the time.
So the first step is to check it out. It's better to memorize it. Then God can bring those verses to mind.
2. DOES IT MAKE ME MORE LIKE CHRIST?
Philippians 2:5 "In your lives you must think and act like Jesus Christ." Jesus is the standard by which we measure everything we do. God says very clearly in the Bible that His goal for your life is to make you like Jesus. Not to be a god but to be godly. To have character, to have love, joy, peace, patience, all the qualities that Jesus had -- in your life. He would never tell you to do anything that contradicts or would hinder you from reaching that goal.
A practical application of what Christ likeness is in James 3 "If you harbor envy and selfish ambition, such wisdom doesn't come from heaven In other words, you know that impression doesn't come from God if it causes bitterness, envy or selfish ambition. The wisdom that comes from God is pure, peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, impartial and sincere."
These are filters that you can test the idea. God's wisdom is not selfish ambition. If you get an idea of how to promote yourself in a better way or how to achieve instant fame, instant wealth, instant comfort it's not from God. God doesn't give you ideas for self-promotion, self-serving, selfish ambition.
On the other hand, if the thought is pure then it's from God. If you get an impure thought that one obviously isn't from God.
His wisdom is peace loving. Ideas from God promote harmony rather than conflict. If you get an idea that's going to promote conflict it's probably not from God. It's considerate. You have to think what would this idea do to other people? Would it hurt them or harm them? Would it build them up or tear them down? Encourage them or discourage them?
If an idea is genuinely from God, the Bible says it's considerate. It's considerate of how other people think. A lot of people say, "God told me to do this" and they just bowl over everybody and don't care how it hurts anybody. Because "God told them to do it." God didn't tell them to do something like that. The Bible says God's wisdom is considerate. So you don't be dogmatic. It's submissive. If you've really heard from God you're not going to be arrogant and bragging about it. Some people think they've heard from God but their behavior shows they really haven't because they're self-righteous, egotistical and always putting everybody else down. "God told me this and therefore you're nothing!"
God's wisdom is full of mercy. If you've really heard an idea from God it's going to cause you to be more gracious towards people rather than judgmental. If after I've heard from God, it makes me more judgmental, and put you down, and tell you what you're doing wrong and always criticizing you, you didn't hear from God. That's not the way Jesus lived. Jesus is our model.
Ask this question: Would Jesus do this? First, does it square up with the Bible? Second, Does it make me more like Christ? Would Jesus do this?
Would Jesus do it? That's the second way to test an impression.
3. When I'm trying to figure out whether I've got this idea from God or not, I need to ask "DOES MY CHURCH FAMILY CONFIRM IT?"
When you become a believer, a follower of Christ, you not only get a new relationship to God, you get a new relationship to other people. It's called the church, the family of God. You become a member of the family.
God never meant for you to make a major decision in life on your own. He wants you to get help and advise from wise mature Christians, other believers who are grounded in the faith and have a little more Bible under their belt than maybe you have. Check it out over and over. The Bible says, "Smart people get advise. Fools don't." Fools just think they know the right thing to do and act on their own intuition without ever checking it out with anybody else who is a mature
Christian.
The third question you need to ask is, Does my church family confirm it? Ephesians 3:10 "God's intent is that through the church the manifold wisdom of God who should be made known." If God has genuinely spoken to you, you've got an idea, an impression, He's going to confirm it through other believers. The biggest reason people mess up their lives, Christians, too, -- is they try to live their life without any accountability to anybody else, without any support, without any confirmation, any council, any guidance. The Bible says, "In a multitude of counselors there is safety." When we try to live a Lone Ranger approach to the Christian life we're going to fall flat on our face. Because this is the third way God works. We need to be open to the checks, the counsel, the correction of mature believers, pastors, Christian leaders, other people in the church who have been believers longer than we have. We ought to check it out. When in doubt, check it out.
If you don't do this then typically you're going to make a lot of unnecessary mistakes in life. Your stress level will be much higher than it needs to be. It doesn't have to be there. You will fumble and fall, waste time, energy, and money on decisions you should never have made in the first place. You need to check it out.
Check it out with other believers. If you don't, you're going to get in trouble. Isn't it typical that what we often do is start asking for advice and we keep asking until we find somebody who will agree with what we want to do anyway? As a minister, I want you to know, that's happened often to me. A couple will come to me and ask me for advice that clearly God doesn't want them to do and I tell them "Don't do it!" so they go to another church. They find a pastor there but if the pastor is grounded, he'll tell them No, too. I've actually been in a small group of pastors in this area where we've talked about couples or individuals who have been to five or six different pastors trying to get the right answer but nobody will tell them what they want to hear.
Another reason why we don't like to check out major decisions with other believers is because we don't want to be told we're wrong. But it's better to be told you're wrong before you waste the time, energy and money than it is after and you have all the heartache and hurt from a stupid decision. If you've heard from God, really heard from God, other Christians are going to confirm it.
Proverbs 11:9 "The wisdom of the righteous can save you." Save what? Money, time, reputation. It is safe to ask mature believers to evaluate impressions. You need to get people who love you enough to level with you.
If you have an idea and you've wondered, Is this really from God and you check it out with other mature Christians, if other mature believers question it, you should too. I'm not saying not do it, I'm saying a red flag ought to go up, a yellow warning light ought to go on that says, Maybe I'm not getting this right. If other mature Christians question it, you ought to also. If you get an idea and you think it's from God and you can't find any mature believers (you might find an immature
one -- a brand new Christian or someone not walking with the Lord to agree with it) but if you can't find any mature Christian to agree with the decision, don't do it. Drop it! The Bible says God speaks through His word, He speaks if it makes us like Jesus, and He speaks through the body as a whole. We need each other. That's why you need to be in a house group. You can check things out with your house group.
4. IS IT CONSISTENT WITH HOW GOD HAS SHAPED ME?
Ephesians 2:10 "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance [circle this] for us to do." Before you were born God planned your life.
God made you for a purpose. You're not here by accident. You're here for a reason. That reason is a purpose and God designed you specifically for that purpose.
Example: A chair is designed in a certain way. It has a back, a seat -- the design was made to fulfill a purpose. The purpose of a chair is to sit in. A microphone has a very different design. It fulfills a different purpose. Chairs were designed to sit on. You weren't designed to sit on a microphone. You speak through microphones, you sit on chairs. Not vice versa.
The design reveals purpose. Design reveals purpose. The same thing is true of you. You were designed a certain way. We call that SHAPE. God has shaped you for a career, a ministry, for life involving your Spiritual gifts, your Heart (your passions, desires -- some things turn you on, some things you could care less about; some things you love to do, some things you hate to do; some things you're interested in and some things you're bored to tears with). Your abilities, your personalities and your experiences. Where do you think you got that? God gave it to you. He gave us all different make ups. Different hearts. Why? He wants all the work in the world to get done. Some people love to do accounting and some people can't stand accounting. Some people love to do mechanics, some people can't stand mechanics. Some people love to cook, some people hate to cook.
He's given you Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, You may be good with words. You may be good with numbers. You may be good with animals. You may be good with people. You may be
good with mechanical things. Then He's given you a Personality. You may be extroverted or introverted. You may like routine or you may like variety. You may like to work all by yourself or you might like to work in a team. Who do you think gave you your personality? God did. He was designing you for a purpose. Then He gives you Experiences -- vocational experiences and spiritual experiences and educational experiences and painful experiences. All of these things shape your life.
Just as the design of a chair reveals it's purpose, the design or shape of your life reveals your purpose -- what God wants you to do. For instance, why would God gift you as a great musician and then tell you to be a mechanic. He wouldn't. That would be a waste of the shape He's given you. On the other hand, if you're tone deaf forget trying to become a concert pianist. If you're good at planning then your ministry in life will involve planning. If you're good at art or writing or with numbers or leading, then your life, your career, your ministry, your place, your niche in this world involves what God gave you.
When you get an impression from God you ask "Is it consistent with how God's shaped me?" If God were to say to me, "I want you to leave st John’s and become a math teacher." I would know without a doubt that is not from God because I failed maths. I didn't and I don't know much about it! So God would not have me do something He had not shaped me to do. A lot of God's will for your life has to do with looking at your design. What are you good at? What do you love to do? God says you can discover a lot about His will for your life by just looking at what you're good at.
Romans 12:6 "God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well." God's voice will not contradict how He shaped you to be.
God's will for your life will never contradict how he has basically designed you. If you ever sense a leading in your life that is contrary to your basic shape, your personality, your experiences, ignore it. It's not from God.
5. The fifth test is this: DOES IT CONCERN MY RESPONSIBILITY?
If it's not your responsibility why in the world should God talk to you about it? In John 21, Jesus is talking to Peter and He tells him how he's going to die. He explains that he's going to have to suffer for being a Christian. Peter, very inquisitively, turns around and points to John the Apostle and says, "What about that guy? How's he going to die?" Jesus says (Mack translation) "It's
none of your business! Don't worry about it"
I only have to worry about what's going on in my life, I don't have to worry about God's will for your life. I can't figure out my own motives most of the time, much less figure out yours. If God is going to talk to you, you need to ask "Is He really talking to me or is He talking about something else? If it's somebody else, does it concern my responsibility?" When you listen for
God to speak to you, you need to listen for God to speak to you, not your son or your wife. You need to say, "What is God's will for me?"
Romans 14 "We will all be judged one day not by each other's standards or even by our own, but by the judgment of God. It is to God alone that we shall have to answer for our actions." When you listen for God's voice, listen for yourself, not for somebody else.
You need to be very careful when you think God's told you about something, somebody else should do. It's very dangerous. A lot of well meaning Christians, well intentioned but also presumptuous, have caused enormous amount of damage because they thought God was talking to them about what somebody else should do. For instance, God told me to tell you that you're going to get well. God told me to tell you that you're supposed to invest all your money with me.
God told me your secret sin. Why would God have to tell you my secret sin. I know my secret sin. God knows my secret sin.
We all have direct access to God. God can speak directly to each of us through Jesus Christ, His son. You need to be very, very careful about saying "God told me to tell you to do..." Every believer has a direct access to God and you have enough difficult time handling your own sins much less worrying about anybody else's. God can take care of that.
Does God ever speak to me about other people? Yes, He does occasionally. But three qualifications:
1. God will use you to confirm what He's already said to them. It's very unlikely He's going to tell you first. God will use you to confirm what He's already said. I've had God speak to me many times but I wasn't really sure I'd heard from God or not and then another person would say,
I really feel this is happening, and it would be a confirmation.
2. If God speaks to you to help somebody else, He'll usually do it without you knowing it.
That way your ego doesn't get in the way and you start taking pride and thinking you're some super saint. He will usually use you without you knowing it. Many times He will talk through you and you're not aware that what you said is meeting a need much deeper than you could possibly have imagined in their lives.
3. Trust God to speak to that person first before you talk to them.
6. IS IT CONVICTING RATHER THAN CONDEMNING?
Conviction is from God, condemnation is from the devil. Conviction points the way to change, condemnation just makes you feel bad. When God convicts you of sin in your life it is always specific. He says, Here's an attitude, behaviour, or something in your life that needs changing.
He'll be very specific and put His finger right on it. "You're blowing it in this area." He will be very specific.
On the other hand, condemnation which comes from the devil, is very vague and very general and basically says, "You're bad. You're no good. You're worthless. You stink. God could never use you. Forget ever trying to be a Christian." He's very general.
So if you have this very general sense of guilt that's condemnation. When God speaks to you about something that needs changing in your life, He's very specific.
Conviction always leads to an action to change; condemnation just makes you feel bad. When God is speaking to you, He'll say, "Here's what's wrong in your life and here's what you need to do." He'll give you specific things. The result is it always leads to confession, repentance and then forgiveness and the feelings leave.
On the other hand, condemnation is the devil saying to you, "You're worthless. You call yourself a Christian? Who do you think you are? You should give up trying to live for God because you can't do anything. You just keep falling and falling." He's always putting you down. Conviction comes from God, the Holy Spirit. Condemnation comes from the devil and you need to recognize the difference. Too many Christians, mistake their low self worth for God speaking. What they do is they've taken the voice from their past of an unpleasable parent who, no matter how much you tried it was never good enough, if you got C's they wanted B's, if you got B's they wanted A's, if you got A's they wanted straight A's. You've taken that voice of an unpleasable parent from your past and put it on your heavenly Father and you think God is mad at you all the time.
He's not. God is not out to beat you up.
If you are a Christian, if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ and asked Him to forgive all your sins and asked Him to be your saviour and Lord, it means this: Everything you've ever done wrong is forgiven. Not just the sins of your past but the ones you're going to do today. And the ones you haven't even thought about tomorrow. They were all nailed on the cross. That's why Jesus said, "It's finished! It's paid for! It's done!"
Should a Christian ever feel guilty? Yes! For about one nano second. That's about how long it takes to realize "I blew it!" and you come and confess to God and He instantly forgives and it's taken care of, it's wiped away. Many people think that to be spiritual you should walk around all the time feeling "I'm so guilty! I've really let God down!" No, you don't let God down because you're not holding Him up. He holds you up. You can never even disappoint God because God already knows every sin you're going to commit. He already knows.
So what you do, when you've done something wrong, you immediately breathe in God's Spirit (Say, "God fill me with your Spirit") and breathe out your sin. It's just that quick. You get instantly back into the fellowship. God does not want you carrying around guilt all the time. Say, "God, I blew it. I was wrong! Help me change!" then get on with it. Keep short accounts with God. Don't let it stockpile.
Conviction from God leads to confession, repentance, and forgiveness -- 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins to him, God can be depended on to forgive us and cleanse us from every wrong." He wipes the slate clean. God does not hold grudges. On the other hand, if you still feel guilty about something you've admitted to God that was wrong and you've asked Him to forgive
you for it and you still feel guilty after you've confessed it, that guilt is not from God. It's from Satan. Satan minimizes your sin before you do it, "It's no big deal!" and after you do it he goes "Look at what you did!" He wants you to walk around in constant guilt because guilty Christians are worthless in serving God. He will maximize it after you confess it. If you have confessed it and it is forgiven, any guilt you feel after you've confessed it is not from God. It's from the devil.
Revelation 12:10 says Satan is the accuser of the brethren, believers. That means God never tells you that you're worthless. And God will never tell you that you're hopeless. Is it convicting rather than condemning and you'll know whether it's God or not.
7. DO I SENSE GOD'S PEACE ABOUT IT?
1 Corinthians 14:33 "God is not the author of confusion." So if you're feeling confused that confusion is not coming from God. It may be coming from yourself or other people, but it's not coming from God. If you feel pressured and overwhelmed and driven to make a hasty decision, a major decision in life, and you're very pressured to make it, question it. That's not the way God works. There's not one single example in the Bible where God says, "Rush!" to a major decision. Not one. So question it. The Bible says God is patient. God would rather have you make the right decision than have you make the quick decision. We even say that when you're considering coming to Christ. Take the time to make the right decision. I believe if you listen to what God has to say, you will inevitably come to the right conclusion that you need to give your life to
Christ and live your life the way God made you to live, fulfilling your purpose.
If you're pressured, if you're stressed out, that pressure and stress are not coming from God. Not at all! It's coming from inside you, or from the devil, or from some other source. Do you want your kids to feel stressed out, pressured? No. Neither does your heavenly Father. The only time you're going to feel stressed out and pressured is when He's told you something to do and you don't do it. That's going to create stress in your life. That's going to create pressure -- when you know the right thing to do and you keep procrastinating. Satan drives us compulsively while God's spirit draws us compassionately, gently.
Colossians 3;1 "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts." If God is genuinely speaking to you and you think this idea is from God, it's going to bring peace to your heart IF you follow it. God's Spirit produces a calm spirit. Worry and anxiety are never from God. Never. In the Bible it says, "Don't worry!" We are commanded not to worry! If you get an idea that is a worry, it's not from
God! What if? and you start worrying about it then it's not from God. God would never give you an idea that He's commanded you not to have. You need to look for His peace.
Some of you have taken the voice of an unpleasable parent and put it in the form of God and you think all God does is set around and beat you up and tell you everything you're doing wrong.
You don't understand grace if you think that way. You don't understand that it's all been paid for. It's been forgiven! You want to live for Christ not because God is constantly beating you up saying "Do better!" That's not the way God treats His children. He says I've already forgiven every sin in your life and you're on your way to heaven and in gratitude you want to live for God.
I want to live for Jesus because He loves me that much. I want to do it not because He's beating me up and making me feel bad, but I want to do it because the peace that comes when I'm in a relationship with God and there's harmony between us.
There is nothing more vital in your life than you hear from God. Nothing. Because you were wired and made to have a relationship with God and if you miss that you miss the purpose you were made for. It may not be a big deal if you miss God on whether you buy all bran or Cherrios -- that's not that big of deal. But there are many major decisions in your life that you need to hear
from God about and if you're out there making decisions without taking the time to listen and saying, "God, what do You want me to do? What's the next step?" and you're checking it out with other Christians and you're reading the Bible and you're doing these seven steps, you are setting yourself up for failure after failure in your family life, in your business, in your parenting, in your finances, in your health and in every other area of your life. It makes sense to listen to your creator.
God does not want to play games with you. God is not trying to confuse you. It's not a cat and mouse game of "Let's see if you can figure out God's will and let's see how hard I can make it!" And God sits up there in the sky and laughs at the maze you keep knocking your head into.
That's not the way God acts to His children. He wants you to know His will, so much that He's given us these seven keys in which He says "Here are some ways that you can filter out and know if it's you or is it God talking to you?"
The secret to hearing God clearly is get to know Him better and better every day. The more you understand Him, the better you know Him, the easier it is to hear His voice in a split second when He wants to talk to you. Get to know God better and better every day. You may think you've never heard God speak to you. That's a good indication that you don't have a relationship to Him. John 8:47 "He who belongs to God hears what God says." The reason you don't hear is that you don't belong to God. If you've never heard God it means you need to establish a relationship to Him. And that's real easy to do and I can lead you in a prayer this morning that will help you take that step.
Others of you are believers and in the past God's voice was very clear to you at different times but right now it's been a little fuzzy, a little distant. Maybe there's some static on the line and you haven't heard from God in weeks and maybe months. What's happened? How come you don't hear God as clearly as you used to? You've allowed sin to block the channel in your life. There is something that is wrong in your life that has come between you and God and until you deal with that, the channel is blocked. Your heart has grown hard and you're not as sensitive to God as you used to be. Come home to Jesus Christ. Come home and say Jesus, "I want that relationship that I had before. I want to be able to talk to You and hear You and I want You to lead me and guide me and help me avoid all these mistakes in life. Direct me in the right way." Come home to Jesus.
Prayer:
If you've never opened your life to Christ, pray, "Dear Jesus Christ, I want to hear Your voice. I need it. I need to know the direction You want me to go, God. I want to establish a relationship with You through Your Son, Christ. I ask You to come into my life the best as I know how and put Your thoughts in my mind and Your love in my heart. Help me to start growing spiritually in You. I don't understand it all but as best as I know how I open my life to You."
Others of you have Jesus Christ in your life but you haven't heard His voice in a long time because your heart has grown cold and your ears have gotten stopped up. God doesn't have laryngitis. He's still speaking. The problem is on your end. Would you say, "Jesus Christ forgive me for allowing sin to come between me and You. Things I knew were wrong but I've allowed them anyway in my life. I ask You to forgive me and help me to deal with these issues so I can change and make things right where possible. I want to hear Your voice in my life on a daily basis. Speak to me. Help me to sense Your love. Forgive me for having false images of the way You are. You not a god who wants to beat me up but You want to guide me and love me. I want to love You and follow You. In Jesus name. Amen."
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
HOW GOD TALKS TO YOU
Learning to Hear God's Voice - Part 2 of 4
Job 33:14
Today, we're going to continue in the series on Learning to Hear God's Voice. We're going to look specifically at how God talks to you. When we talk about people listening to God and God talking to people, many people think this is something very mystical, like it's something unusual or extraordinary that God talks to people. But the fact is, He does it all the time. A number of years ago there was a Time magazine that came out with a headline that said, "God is dead". The next day the reporters lined up at Billy Graham's home and said, "Is God dead, Dr. Graham?" He said "Are you kidding? I just talked to Him." Any of us can talk to God and God wants to talk to you. The Bible says that God wired you up in order to talk to you, that He created you with the ability to tune into Him, to hear Him, to listen to Him, and to talk back to Him. It's nothing unusual. All of us can do it.
Job 33:14 "God does speak, sometimes one way and sometimes another, even though people may not understand it." He's saying the problem is not that God isn't talking. The problem is our perception. Sometimes we're just not tuned in. God wants to communicate with you because you can't have a relationship without communication. God wants to have a relationship with you. He wants to talk to you. He's created you with that capacity to hear His voice.
HOW DOES GOD TALK TO US?
God is not limited to any single way. There are many, many ways. That's why this series is talking about the many different ways that God talks to us. The Bible has some really spectacular ways.
I would have been shocked by some of them. God spoke once through a burning bush. God spoke one time through a cloud. He often spoke through angels. One time He spoke through a pillar of fire. Another He even spoke to Balaam through a donkey.
Today we're going to identify the four most common ways that God speaks to us. Honestly, more effective than me explaining it to you is for you to hear a story that illustrates all four of these. But first let me identify the ways.
1. GOD SPEAKS THROUGH THE BIBLE. This is the number one way God speaks.
2 Timothy 3:16 "The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It is God's way of making us well prepared at every point." Notice it says God's way of talking to us first is through His Bible. The Bible is not just a good collection of wonderful thoughts and ideas of men, just a nice inspired collection. Circle "by inspiration". The word literally means in Greek, "God breathed." That means that the Bible is absolutely reliable. There is no other book in the world that is reliable like this book. It can be counted on. It will guide you. It will correct you. It will comfort you. It will help you. But if you don't ever get in it, how can God talk to you? This is why it's so important to have a daily quiet time where you set down for 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes -- it doesn't matter the amount of time -- and you talk to God in prayer and you let God talk to you through His word. If you're not doing that on a daily basis, you're missing the number one way God wants to talk to you.
Someone says, "God never talks to me." Are you in the Bible every day? This is how He wants to speak to you. If you're not reading the Bible, your phone is off the hook. He's getting the busy signal and He can't get through to you.
If I told you that tomorrow the Gordon Brownwanted to meet with you at 4 a.m. in the council offices on Buccleuch st, I don't care what you think of the Prime Minister, you'd get up and you'd go. When somebody that important wants to meet with you, you go. Even more important, God wants to meet with you tomorrow and you don't even have to go to Buccleuch St. You can do it in your own back garden, sitting at your table with a cup of coffee, in a big comfy chair with your P.J.s on. He is waiting. The creator of the universe wants to have a conversation with you all the time, on a regular basis, You need to get into God's word because this is the number one way that God speaks to us. If the only time you're in it is every other week or so, you're going to miss a whole lot.
I admit that the Bible can be an intimidating book. In the first place, how many other books do you know that are bound in leather? I've met some non believers that don't even want to touch it!
How many other books that you know has a number before each sentence? That's kind of strange. And if you use an older translation you have the thee's and thou's and lots of words you don't understand and some strange names and strange places and foreign words and customs that don't make sense. The Bible can be intimidating. But this book is the manual for life. It's the owner's manual.
A couple years ago I bought a new car. When I did, they gave me in the glove compartment, an owner's manual. That is the designer's original intent for the car. If I read that owner’s manual and follow what it says, my car is going to last a whole lot longer. It teaches me how to keep from putting my car under stress.
That's what the Bible does. Why many of you are under stress is because you don't know what's in here and you're not following what it says to do. So you're stressed out. This is the owner's manual for life. When in doubt, consult the manual. God speaks through His word.
How do I get started in this book? Do I start at Genesis and just start reading through it? I wouldn't suggest that. Not if you're just getting started in the Bible. In the first place, you need to get a new translation. There are many of them. The Bible was originally written in Greek and Hebrew. I'd suggest you get the New International Version or The Living Bible. There are a number of good ones. Then you might want to get a study Bible that will give you some guides and aids. My favorite is the Life Application Bible. It helps explain some of those customs and things you don't understand.
Then you need to set a regular time in the word. Then get involved in how to study the Bible. There are a lot of tools you can get and use to get yourself going.
I would start in the New Testament. If you've never read the Bible at all, I would start with the book of James. James will give you some practical stuff just to get you going in the Christian life. You need to get into God's word because that's the number one way He speaks to us.
2. GOD SPEAKS TO US THROUGH GIFTED TEACHERS.
Have you ever sat in a church service and felt like God was speaking directly to you, that nobody else in the audience mattered, that God was speaking directly to your heart? He was. At that very moment God was speaking through a gifted teacher to tell you what He wants to say to you. God often uses other people to share His word with us.
I Thessalonians 2:13 "When we preached to you, you didn't think of the words as being just our own, but you accepted it as the very Word of God -- which, of course, it was -- and it changed your lives."
God speaks through teachers, preachers, pastors. And it changes our lives when we listen to them. Many years ago when I was a teenager I remember one church service I was setting on the back row of a very small church next to my girlfriend and I was not interested at all in what the preacher was saying. I was very interested in who was setting next to me. I don't remember a single thing that the pastor said in that service until he got to the end. At the very end of the message he said something like this, "What are you going to do with your life? Are you going to make it count or are you just going to waste it? You'll never be happy until you do with your life what God made you to do. And until you be with your life what God made you to be." Bam!
That was right on the forehead to me! It got my attention and it was a turning point in my life. That one simple message. God spoke to me through a gifted teacher. If you had told me 20 years ago that I would be pastoring in a church, much less a growing exciting church, I'd said "You're mental!" I had a promising career as a rock star! I had no intention of ever being a pastor! I often look back and think "What if I had missed that message? that turning point in my life?" That's why I hate to miss church. Even when I go on holiday, if we're going through a town and it's Sunday, I'll try to find some little church of some kind. I always wonder, "What if God had that minister prepare that message directly for me and what if I miss it?" I don't ever want to miss God talking to me. I want to show up whenever I can.
The Bible says God gives us gifted pastors and teachers to communicate His word. I've had many people tell me "After today's message, I feel like you've been reading my mail." I'm not smart enough to think all this stuff up. I'm not that smart to come in here week after week, Sunday after Sunday, 52 weeks a year for now over 7 years and hit it on the head every week. I can't do it! But God is. So I pray. I say, "God, You already know in advance who You're bringing to church next Sunday. You know who's going to be there and You know what their needs are. Would You give me something to say to the people You're planning on bringing. Help me to have something to say on Sunday that's going to help them on Monday morning." And He does. He impresses in my mind certain ideas and truths and as I study God does speak to you.
Am I saying God speaks through me? I have no doubt about it! I'm amazed by it and I don't deserve it. but I have no doubt about it. An even more amazing factor is if you're a believer, God speaks through you. Many times you don't even know it. How many times, if you could go back over your life, a friend has come to you for counsel or you've said something that was a real turning point thing in a person's life. You didn't think twice about it. It was just an idea that popped into your mind. Where do you think it came from? God was speaking through you. If you are a Christian, God often speaks through you and you don't even know it. It's not some big supernatural thing, it's just the way God wired you. He has an ability to get into your mind without you even thinking about it. He plants ideas. God speaks through gifted teachers.
2 Corinthians 2:13 "We do not speak in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, as we explain spiritual truths." When gifted teachers teach, they're actually talking the words of God, what God wants to say to us. The more teaching you hear the more God can talk to you. Obviously, the more teaching you hear the more God will have the opportunity to speak to you. That's why once a week is not enough. You need regular input of gifted teachers in your life more than just once a week.
What if you fast six days a week and then on the seventh day you pig out? You'd have a great case of indigestion. Some of you have spiritual indigestion. The only Bible you ever get is for 30 minutes on Sunday morning, the rest of the week you have no more teaching in your life. That's why you need to get into a house group.. There are some good radio teachers that you can listen to. Internet is wonderful, And you can listen to podcasts. I'm not just a book worm, I'm a pod worm! (joke worked better with tapes!) I have about 800 sermons on my IPOD and I rotate them. I hardly ever get into my car without putting a podcast on. I'm filling my mind, learning the word of God, on a regular basis.
A lot of Christians get into the car, turn on the radio and get all news. The problem with Britain is we know everything about the last 24 hours, we know nothing about our history and we know nothing about the future. We're in this generation that we think we have to know what's going on up to the minute. I know people who listen to the news 3,4,5 times a day. If you watched sky news all day yesterday, how much does that matter today? Not a bit. Anything that happens that is really significant you're going to hear about it more than simply right then. The problem we have today is we have many people who know everything about what happened in the last 24 hours and they know nothing about their past heritage or they know nothing about the future.
You don't have to know everything that is going on in the world. But you do have to know the universal principles that God has laid down that will help you cope with tomorrow.
So you make a choice. Am I going to be at a house group or am I going to watch television? Am I going to listen to a sermon or am I going to listen to the radio? What's going to last over the long haul? God speaks through gifted teachers.
3. GOD SPEAKS THROUGH IMPRESSIONS
He puts ideas in our minds. When God puts an idea in your mind we call that inspiration. "I was inspired. I got a creative idea." Where do you think that creative idea came from? It came from the creator! God is the creator. When you are being creative you're being most like God. We're made in God's image. God's the creator, human beings have the ability to be creative. When God puts an idea in your mind we call it an inspiration. When the devil puts an idea in your mind we call that a temptation. So He's trying to speak to you.
John 14:26 "The Holy Spirit will be your teacher and will bring to your mind [circle this] all that I have said to you." "Bring to your mind" means He gives us impressions. He gives us ideas. He gives us hunches. He gives us these gut feelings. God often does this. Some of your most brilliant ideas weren't yours. They were God's. God was giving them to you. A brilliant business idea, a brilliant family idea, a brilliant relational idea, a brilliant financial idea. Where do you think you got some of those ideas? God, who loves you, who cares about you, who infinitely interested in all the details of your life. It didn't feel like God because it's so natural. You were made to receive ideas from God. A lot of the things you think up, you're just not that smart either. God gives you those ideas.
There's a lot of confusion about how we receive impressions from God. Next week we're going to spend an entire message on it. We're going to look at how to receive inspiration, how to receive impressions from God. Then I'm going to give you how to test impressions from God.
How to evaluate them to figure out whether they're really from God or a bad curry last night and it's indigestion.
There are two extremes you need avoid when thinking about impressions: one is the rationalist, the other is the mystic.
The rationalist denies that God ever speaks to us through the mind. He says God only speaks through the Bible and never gives you any impressions.
The mystic thinks that every impression they get is from God. That's obviously wrong too.
I feel sorry for both of these extremes. The rationalist, who thinks "God never gives m an idea" misses out on God's counsel, God's comfort, God's care, God's concern, God's challenges and guidance in the ways of life. They miss it all. On the other hand, the mystic who thinks that every impression they get is from God tends to make a lot of stupid mistakes and they embarrass themselves. They say, "God told me to do this," and then they go bankrupt. What happened?
You missed God. Both extremes are wrong.
You look on TV at some of these people getting all these weird ideas and you tend to be skeptical of this. You hear these people say, "There's somebody out there in the audience supposed to give me a million quid." Sure, I've had that vision too, many times! Never let a religious nut keep you from experiencing the real thing.
Any time you find something counterfeit that is evidence that there is a real thing somewhere.
Have you ever seen a counterfeit three-pound note? No, because there's no such thing as a real three pound note. Wherever you find counterfeit that means there must be something genuine somewhere. Wherever you find a false teacher that means there are true gifted teachers. Wherever you find false leaders, there are also genuine Christian spiritual leaders. Wherever you find false prophets, that means there are also real prophets. The existence of something phony, fake, counterfeit implies there must be something real. Satan does not counterfeit anything that doesn't exist. He's just trying to throw people off track.
Job 33:14 "God speaks again and again in dreams and in visions at night when the deep sleep falls v 18 as people lie on their beds. He opens their ears in times like that, and gives them wisdom and instruction." Notice it says God sometimes speaks in dreams and in visions. Why?
Why would God speak to us when we're asleep? Because we're relaxed, not distracted, our defenses are lowered at that moment. God speaks through dreams and visions.
The best way to do this is to ask God a question right as you're going to sleep. There are many times I'll say, "God, what do You want me to do about this situation with ...." I'll ask that and then I'll go to sleep. I say, "God, if you want to tell me, fine. If you don't, that's OK." Many times I don't get any answer at all. But sometimes I do. It's up to God. Sometimes I'll say as I'm going to sleep, "God, what's the next step? What's the next step with my family? What's the next step with our church? What's the next step in my relationship with .... God, tell me what You want to do. I'm open. If you want to talk to me tonight in my sleep, go ahead." I have done this many times with messages. Hundreds of messages I've given to you. I'd been thinking and praying and studying all week and as I go to sleep I say, "God, You know what these people need. Would You put it together in my mind tonight?" I wake up the next morning and the outline's there. It just comes together.
Ask God a question and you give Him the opportunity. Sometimes He'll say something and many times He won't. Most of your dreams are not God speaking. Scientists tell us when we're dreaming our mind is simply reorganizing information. Just reorganizing all the facts and the sights and the sounds that you've got. You read something and watch a movie and talk to somebody and see something in the paper and hear something on the radio and when you go to sleep at night you dream you're the ax killer! That's not God speaking to you. Not everything that you dream is from God. A lot of times it's just things get mixed up and you get put into pictures or stories you've already heard. It's highly unreliable.
And Satan can speak to you, too. Warning: Always test an impression. Never make a decision on an impression alone. You need to test that impression. Next Sunday I'll give you the seven ways to test an impression. It always has to match what the Bible says. If you ever get an impression that is opposite to what God said in the Bible, I guarantee that it's not from God. God never contradicts what He's already said.
He's not going to give you an impression contrary to what's in the Bible. I've had guys come to me and say, "I've prayed and I really feel God speaking to me that I'm supposed to leave my kids and go marry this 16 year old bimbo!" Hello? Who are you kidding? or "I know God wants me to be happy and He's said don't have sex with people you're not married to, but I really love this person. So I'm going to move in with them even though I'm not married. I know God's told me to do that." Are you kidding? God has said over and over, for your own protection, for your own benefit sex is for marriage only. It's real clear. About 90% of our problems in that area, the emotional scars, the unwanted pregnancies, the diseases, the broken hearts wouldn't be there if people would just obey what God says to do. When we say, "I know God wants me to be happy, but ..." you better check it out with the Bible. When you ignore the owner's manual -- If I don't put oil in my car every so many thousand miles, guess what? It's going to wear out. And it's going to die real quick. When you don't do what the Bible says you're not hurting God, you hurt yourself and others. This is for your benefit.
4. GOD SPEAKS THROUGH PAIN.
Are you acquainted with this way? We don't change when we see the light. We change when we feel the heat. None of us really like to change and so we fear what it might do to us. We fear change and we don't change until the pain becomes greater than the fear of change. Once the pain is greater than the fear, we change. God is so interested in speaking to you and so interested in having a personal relationship with you and loving you and you loving Him and being able to talk about everything, He will even resort to this in order to get your attention.
Proverbs 20:30 "Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways." Everyone of you know this one by experience. Not all pain is God speaking to you. Not every little hurt, ache, and pain that you have is God. But some of it is. And God often has to use pain in order to slow us down to get our attention. All Star Basketball player and he had back trouble and had a bunch of disks that went out. in the hospital, "Why do you think this happened?" He said, "God had to lay me flat on my back to get me to look up to Him." Has God ever had to do that to you?
There are some lessons we only learn through pain.
"I used to wander off until you punished me; now I closely follow all you say. The punishment you gave me was the best thing that could have happened to me, for it taught me to pay attention to your laws." Pain gets our attention. It's God's hearing aid. God whispers to us in our pleasures. But He shouts to us in our pain. Pain is God's megaphone. When you're hurting God is saying, "Hey! There's somebody here who wants to help! You can depend on Me. I'll help you through that tough time if you'll just let Me." Pain is God's way, often, of getting your attention.
That's what this church is all about, teaching people to hear God speak. When you hear God speak, really, in your heart, you are changed.
Why is it so important to really hear God speak? Three reasons:
1. It is assures me that I'm in God's family.
The proof that you really know Jesus Christ, that you have a relationship, is that you hear God speak to you. Jesus said, "I know those who are Mine and they hear My voice." If you've never heard God speak to you, if you've never sensed His speaking to you in your heart and in your mind, you have every reason to doubt that you're really a true believer, that you're in the family of God and that you're on your way to heaven. You have every reason to doubt it because Jesus said "Those who are Mine hear My voice."
Some of you may be brand new believers and when you first get started sometimes it's a little bit difficult to figure out "Is this God talking to me or not?" You're not used to His voice. But if you're really a child of God you're going to know your father's voice. When I call Sophie I don't have to say, "This is Keith Mack, your father." I just start talking to her and she knows my voice, so does Christopher. When Sophie calls me she doesn't have to say, "This is Sophie, your daughter" -- I know hervoice. Why? Because I have a relationship. If you don't have that, if you don't ever hear God speaking to you, you need to be saved because you're not going to heaven unless you have a relationship with Christ. It's really clear. It is available to anybody who says, "Jesus, I want a relationship with You. God, I want to know You. I want to communicate with You."
Some of you know about God, but you don't know Him. Some of you know about Jesus, but you don't really know Him. You have a religion not a relationship. You may have gone to Sunday School or catechism as a kid and you're here in church every week but you don't have that relationship.
There's a guy who comes to my house every single day of my life except Sunday. He's called the postman. I know who this guy is. I know what he looks like, I know his name, I say Hi to him. He's even brought gifts to my door. But I don't' really know him. I know about him. But I don't really know him. That's the difference.
One of the proofs that you know you're a Christian is that God talks to you on a regular basis and you listen and you hear and you talk back. Many people think God only speaks to super saints.
No. Those of you who are parents, do you only talk to your smartest kid? (I hope you're going to say no.) God talks to all His true children -- young believers, old believers, baby believers, grown up believers. It assures me I'm in God's family.
2. It protects me from mistakes.
The Bible says in Job "God speaks causing them to change their mind and keeping them from pride and from falling into some traps." If you listen, God will warn you in advance and you'll avoid a whole lot of mistakes in life, if you really start tuning into God. He'll tell you.
Situation where everyone was saying “go for it” Glad I didn’t, going to Florida to see Todd Bentley
I can't tell you how many times we've been saved from major mistakes here at St John’s Why is this church so growing ? Because God has protected us from so many mistakes. Because we stay open and we don't move unless He tells us to. When God says "Don't!" we don't do it, even if the whole world and everything else says, "Go ahead and do it!" On the other hand, when God says do it and everything logically says, "Don't do that!" we do it anyway. Because we listen to God in this church. We are still learning, but we listen. It will save you a lot of mistakes.
There are some of you here that are considering a divorce. God says to you real clearly, "Don't!" Some of you are considering moving in with somebody who's not your husband or your wife and not marrying them. God says, "Don't!" Every time I ignore God's will I get in trouble. Some of you are being challenged to make an unethical decision at work and God is saying, "Don't do it!"
Some of you are being challenged to put other priorities ahead of God and your family. God says, "That's foolish! Don't do it." He'll save you from mistakes.
3. It is the secret of a productive life, listening to God on a moment by moment basis.
The more I depend on God's guidance, the more successful I am. Success is knowing God's will and being right in the center of it. If you want to make an impact with your life, if you want to be effective, it's real simple, tune into God and do what He tells you to do.
God is speaking, God wants to speak to you, He'll use many different ways -- these are the four most common but He'll use other ways too. Why does God go to all that trouble to talk to us? Because He loves you. Because you matter to Him. Because you are important. He created you not just to take up space on this earth. You were made to have a relationship with God and if you don't ever establish it you'll die missing your very purpose for living. You will miss the very reason you were created. He wants to have a relationship with you.
Some of you have sensed God speaking to you today. What does God have to say to you today? Hebrews 3:15 "Today, if you hear God's voice speaking to you, do not harden your heart against him." No matter how long you've ignored God and His voice, He still loves you and He still wants to have a relationship with you.
Prayer:
It's obvious that some of you are in pain today. Some of you are depressed. Some of you are filled with anxiety. It may be over a health issue. It maybe over finances, your marriage, or your desire to get married, or you're in a relationship you're not sure of and you're anxious, fearful, worried. Others of you are fatigued and you're worn out because you're trying to do too much. You just crawled in here this morning -- you're really tired. Many of you are stressed out by innumerable things. Some of you are lonely and that ache in your heart – that loneliness -- is sometimes almost unbearable. All of these things create pain. God is trying to get your attention. There needs to be some changes in your life and He'll help you make those changes. But you have to have a relationship with Him. Maybe you've let that relationship wane and wan and put on the back burner of your life. Or maybe you've never established one. Would your pray this prayer in your mind? "Jesus Christ, I understand that You want a relationship with me. I want to get to know You and I want to talk with You. Help me to spend some time every day reading Your word. Help me to take advantage of the Bible studies and the classes and the teachers and the tapes that You provide for us. Help me to be open to impressions that You want to give me. Help me to see how that even pain can bring me closer to You. Today, Jesus Christ, I want to open up my life and ask You to be the manager of my life and lead me and guide me and save me." If you prayed that prayer and meant it God heard you. You're beginning a brand new journey called the Christian life.
A relationship. The first thing you need to do is tell somebody about it. Tell the closest person to you -- your husband, your wife. "Today I stepped across the line for Jesus Christ."
Job 33:14
Today, we're going to continue in the series on Learning to Hear God's Voice. We're going to look specifically at how God talks to you. When we talk about people listening to God and God talking to people, many people think this is something very mystical, like it's something unusual or extraordinary that God talks to people. But the fact is, He does it all the time. A number of years ago there was a Time magazine that came out with a headline that said, "God is dead". The next day the reporters lined up at Billy Graham's home and said, "Is God dead, Dr. Graham?" He said "Are you kidding? I just talked to Him." Any of us can talk to God and God wants to talk to you. The Bible says that God wired you up in order to talk to you, that He created you with the ability to tune into Him, to hear Him, to listen to Him, and to talk back to Him. It's nothing unusual. All of us can do it.
Job 33:14 "God does speak, sometimes one way and sometimes another, even though people may not understand it." He's saying the problem is not that God isn't talking. The problem is our perception. Sometimes we're just not tuned in. God wants to communicate with you because you can't have a relationship without communication. God wants to have a relationship with you. He wants to talk to you. He's created you with that capacity to hear His voice.
HOW DOES GOD TALK TO US?
God is not limited to any single way. There are many, many ways. That's why this series is talking about the many different ways that God talks to us. The Bible has some really spectacular ways.
I would have been shocked by some of them. God spoke once through a burning bush. God spoke one time through a cloud. He often spoke through angels. One time He spoke through a pillar of fire. Another He even spoke to Balaam through a donkey.
Today we're going to identify the four most common ways that God speaks to us. Honestly, more effective than me explaining it to you is for you to hear a story that illustrates all four of these. But first let me identify the ways.
1. GOD SPEAKS THROUGH THE BIBLE. This is the number one way God speaks.
2 Timothy 3:16 "The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It is God's way of making us well prepared at every point." Notice it says God's way of talking to us first is through His Bible. The Bible is not just a good collection of wonderful thoughts and ideas of men, just a nice inspired collection. Circle "by inspiration". The word literally means in Greek, "God breathed." That means that the Bible is absolutely reliable. There is no other book in the world that is reliable like this book. It can be counted on. It will guide you. It will correct you. It will comfort you. It will help you. But if you don't ever get in it, how can God talk to you? This is why it's so important to have a daily quiet time where you set down for 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes -- it doesn't matter the amount of time -- and you talk to God in prayer and you let God talk to you through His word. If you're not doing that on a daily basis, you're missing the number one way God wants to talk to you.
Someone says, "God never talks to me." Are you in the Bible every day? This is how He wants to speak to you. If you're not reading the Bible, your phone is off the hook. He's getting the busy signal and He can't get through to you.
If I told you that tomorrow the Gordon Brownwanted to meet with you at 4 a.m. in the council offices on Buccleuch st, I don't care what you think of the Prime Minister, you'd get up and you'd go. When somebody that important wants to meet with you, you go. Even more important, God wants to meet with you tomorrow and you don't even have to go to Buccleuch St. You can do it in your own back garden, sitting at your table with a cup of coffee, in a big comfy chair with your P.J.s on. He is waiting. The creator of the universe wants to have a conversation with you all the time, on a regular basis, You need to get into God's word because this is the number one way that God speaks to us. If the only time you're in it is every other week or so, you're going to miss a whole lot.
I admit that the Bible can be an intimidating book. In the first place, how many other books do you know that are bound in leather? I've met some non believers that don't even want to touch it!
How many other books that you know has a number before each sentence? That's kind of strange. And if you use an older translation you have the thee's and thou's and lots of words you don't understand and some strange names and strange places and foreign words and customs that don't make sense. The Bible can be intimidating. But this book is the manual for life. It's the owner's manual.
A couple years ago I bought a new car. When I did, they gave me in the glove compartment, an owner's manual. That is the designer's original intent for the car. If I read that owner’s manual and follow what it says, my car is going to last a whole lot longer. It teaches me how to keep from putting my car under stress.
That's what the Bible does. Why many of you are under stress is because you don't know what's in here and you're not following what it says to do. So you're stressed out. This is the owner's manual for life. When in doubt, consult the manual. God speaks through His word.
How do I get started in this book? Do I start at Genesis and just start reading through it? I wouldn't suggest that. Not if you're just getting started in the Bible. In the first place, you need to get a new translation. There are many of them. The Bible was originally written in Greek and Hebrew. I'd suggest you get the New International Version or The Living Bible. There are a number of good ones. Then you might want to get a study Bible that will give you some guides and aids. My favorite is the Life Application Bible. It helps explain some of those customs and things you don't understand.
Then you need to set a regular time in the word. Then get involved in how to study the Bible. There are a lot of tools you can get and use to get yourself going.
I would start in the New Testament. If you've never read the Bible at all, I would start with the book of James. James will give you some practical stuff just to get you going in the Christian life. You need to get into God's word because that's the number one way He speaks to us.
2. GOD SPEAKS TO US THROUGH GIFTED TEACHERS.
Have you ever sat in a church service and felt like God was speaking directly to you, that nobody else in the audience mattered, that God was speaking directly to your heart? He was. At that very moment God was speaking through a gifted teacher to tell you what He wants to say to you. God often uses other people to share His word with us.
I Thessalonians 2:13 "When we preached to you, you didn't think of the words as being just our own, but you accepted it as the very Word of God -- which, of course, it was -- and it changed your lives."
God speaks through teachers, preachers, pastors. And it changes our lives when we listen to them. Many years ago when I was a teenager I remember one church service I was setting on the back row of a very small church next to my girlfriend and I was not interested at all in what the preacher was saying. I was very interested in who was setting next to me. I don't remember a single thing that the pastor said in that service until he got to the end. At the very end of the message he said something like this, "What are you going to do with your life? Are you going to make it count or are you just going to waste it? You'll never be happy until you do with your life what God made you to do. And until you be with your life what God made you to be." Bam!
That was right on the forehead to me! It got my attention and it was a turning point in my life. That one simple message. God spoke to me through a gifted teacher. If you had told me 20 years ago that I would be pastoring in a church, much less a growing exciting church, I'd said "You're mental!" I had a promising career as a rock star! I had no intention of ever being a pastor! I often look back and think "What if I had missed that message? that turning point in my life?" That's why I hate to miss church. Even when I go on holiday, if we're going through a town and it's Sunday, I'll try to find some little church of some kind. I always wonder, "What if God had that minister prepare that message directly for me and what if I miss it?" I don't ever want to miss God talking to me. I want to show up whenever I can.
The Bible says God gives us gifted pastors and teachers to communicate His word. I've had many people tell me "After today's message, I feel like you've been reading my mail." I'm not smart enough to think all this stuff up. I'm not that smart to come in here week after week, Sunday after Sunday, 52 weeks a year for now over 7 years and hit it on the head every week. I can't do it! But God is. So I pray. I say, "God, You already know in advance who You're bringing to church next Sunday. You know who's going to be there and You know what their needs are. Would You give me something to say to the people You're planning on bringing. Help me to have something to say on Sunday that's going to help them on Monday morning." And He does. He impresses in my mind certain ideas and truths and as I study God does speak to you.
Am I saying God speaks through me? I have no doubt about it! I'm amazed by it and I don't deserve it. but I have no doubt about it. An even more amazing factor is if you're a believer, God speaks through you. Many times you don't even know it. How many times, if you could go back over your life, a friend has come to you for counsel or you've said something that was a real turning point thing in a person's life. You didn't think twice about it. It was just an idea that popped into your mind. Where do you think it came from? God was speaking through you. If you are a Christian, God often speaks through you and you don't even know it. It's not some big supernatural thing, it's just the way God wired you. He has an ability to get into your mind without you even thinking about it. He plants ideas. God speaks through gifted teachers.
2 Corinthians 2:13 "We do not speak in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, as we explain spiritual truths." When gifted teachers teach, they're actually talking the words of God, what God wants to say to us. The more teaching you hear the more God can talk to you. Obviously, the more teaching you hear the more God will have the opportunity to speak to you. That's why once a week is not enough. You need regular input of gifted teachers in your life more than just once a week.
What if you fast six days a week and then on the seventh day you pig out? You'd have a great case of indigestion. Some of you have spiritual indigestion. The only Bible you ever get is for 30 minutes on Sunday morning, the rest of the week you have no more teaching in your life. That's why you need to get into a house group.. There are some good radio teachers that you can listen to. Internet is wonderful, And you can listen to podcasts. I'm not just a book worm, I'm a pod worm! (joke worked better with tapes!) I have about 800 sermons on my IPOD and I rotate them. I hardly ever get into my car without putting a podcast on. I'm filling my mind, learning the word of God, on a regular basis.
A lot of Christians get into the car, turn on the radio and get all news. The problem with Britain is we know everything about the last 24 hours, we know nothing about our history and we know nothing about the future. We're in this generation that we think we have to know what's going on up to the minute. I know people who listen to the news 3,4,5 times a day. If you watched sky news all day yesterday, how much does that matter today? Not a bit. Anything that happens that is really significant you're going to hear about it more than simply right then. The problem we have today is we have many people who know everything about what happened in the last 24 hours and they know nothing about their past heritage or they know nothing about the future.
You don't have to know everything that is going on in the world. But you do have to know the universal principles that God has laid down that will help you cope with tomorrow.
So you make a choice. Am I going to be at a house group or am I going to watch television? Am I going to listen to a sermon or am I going to listen to the radio? What's going to last over the long haul? God speaks through gifted teachers.
3. GOD SPEAKS THROUGH IMPRESSIONS
He puts ideas in our minds. When God puts an idea in your mind we call that inspiration. "I was inspired. I got a creative idea." Where do you think that creative idea came from? It came from the creator! God is the creator. When you are being creative you're being most like God. We're made in God's image. God's the creator, human beings have the ability to be creative. When God puts an idea in your mind we call it an inspiration. When the devil puts an idea in your mind we call that a temptation. So He's trying to speak to you.
John 14:26 "The Holy Spirit will be your teacher and will bring to your mind [circle this] all that I have said to you." "Bring to your mind" means He gives us impressions. He gives us ideas. He gives us hunches. He gives us these gut feelings. God often does this. Some of your most brilliant ideas weren't yours. They were God's. God was giving them to you. A brilliant business idea, a brilliant family idea, a brilliant relational idea, a brilliant financial idea. Where do you think you got some of those ideas? God, who loves you, who cares about you, who infinitely interested in all the details of your life. It didn't feel like God because it's so natural. You were made to receive ideas from God. A lot of the things you think up, you're just not that smart either. God gives you those ideas.
There's a lot of confusion about how we receive impressions from God. Next week we're going to spend an entire message on it. We're going to look at how to receive inspiration, how to receive impressions from God. Then I'm going to give you how to test impressions from God.
How to evaluate them to figure out whether they're really from God or a bad curry last night and it's indigestion.
There are two extremes you need avoid when thinking about impressions: one is the rationalist, the other is the mystic.
The rationalist denies that God ever speaks to us through the mind. He says God only speaks through the Bible and never gives you any impressions.
The mystic thinks that every impression they get is from God. That's obviously wrong too.
I feel sorry for both of these extremes. The rationalist, who thinks "God never gives m an idea" misses out on God's counsel, God's comfort, God's care, God's concern, God's challenges and guidance in the ways of life. They miss it all. On the other hand, the mystic who thinks that every impression they get is from God tends to make a lot of stupid mistakes and they embarrass themselves. They say, "God told me to do this," and then they go bankrupt. What happened?
You missed God. Both extremes are wrong.
You look on TV at some of these people getting all these weird ideas and you tend to be skeptical of this. You hear these people say, "There's somebody out there in the audience supposed to give me a million quid." Sure, I've had that vision too, many times! Never let a religious nut keep you from experiencing the real thing.
Any time you find something counterfeit that is evidence that there is a real thing somewhere.
Have you ever seen a counterfeit three-pound note? No, because there's no such thing as a real three pound note. Wherever you find counterfeit that means there must be something genuine somewhere. Wherever you find a false teacher that means there are true gifted teachers. Wherever you find false leaders, there are also genuine Christian spiritual leaders. Wherever you find false prophets, that means there are also real prophets. The existence of something phony, fake, counterfeit implies there must be something real. Satan does not counterfeit anything that doesn't exist. He's just trying to throw people off track.
Job 33:14 "God speaks again and again in dreams and in visions at night when the deep sleep falls v 18 as people lie on their beds. He opens their ears in times like that, and gives them wisdom and instruction." Notice it says God sometimes speaks in dreams and in visions. Why?
Why would God speak to us when we're asleep? Because we're relaxed, not distracted, our defenses are lowered at that moment. God speaks through dreams and visions.
The best way to do this is to ask God a question right as you're going to sleep. There are many times I'll say, "God, what do You want me to do about this situation with ...." I'll ask that and then I'll go to sleep. I say, "God, if you want to tell me, fine. If you don't, that's OK." Many times I don't get any answer at all. But sometimes I do. It's up to God. Sometimes I'll say as I'm going to sleep, "God, what's the next step? What's the next step with my family? What's the next step with our church? What's the next step in my relationship with .... God, tell me what You want to do. I'm open. If you want to talk to me tonight in my sleep, go ahead." I have done this many times with messages. Hundreds of messages I've given to you. I'd been thinking and praying and studying all week and as I go to sleep I say, "God, You know what these people need. Would You put it together in my mind tonight?" I wake up the next morning and the outline's there. It just comes together.
Ask God a question and you give Him the opportunity. Sometimes He'll say something and many times He won't. Most of your dreams are not God speaking. Scientists tell us when we're dreaming our mind is simply reorganizing information. Just reorganizing all the facts and the sights and the sounds that you've got. You read something and watch a movie and talk to somebody and see something in the paper and hear something on the radio and when you go to sleep at night you dream you're the ax killer! That's not God speaking to you. Not everything that you dream is from God. A lot of times it's just things get mixed up and you get put into pictures or stories you've already heard. It's highly unreliable.
And Satan can speak to you, too. Warning: Always test an impression. Never make a decision on an impression alone. You need to test that impression. Next Sunday I'll give you the seven ways to test an impression. It always has to match what the Bible says. If you ever get an impression that is opposite to what God said in the Bible, I guarantee that it's not from God. God never contradicts what He's already said.
He's not going to give you an impression contrary to what's in the Bible. I've had guys come to me and say, "I've prayed and I really feel God speaking to me that I'm supposed to leave my kids and go marry this 16 year old bimbo!" Hello? Who are you kidding? or "I know God wants me to be happy and He's said don't have sex with people you're not married to, but I really love this person. So I'm going to move in with them even though I'm not married. I know God's told me to do that." Are you kidding? God has said over and over, for your own protection, for your own benefit sex is for marriage only. It's real clear. About 90% of our problems in that area, the emotional scars, the unwanted pregnancies, the diseases, the broken hearts wouldn't be there if people would just obey what God says to do. When we say, "I know God wants me to be happy, but ..." you better check it out with the Bible. When you ignore the owner's manual -- If I don't put oil in my car every so many thousand miles, guess what? It's going to wear out. And it's going to die real quick. When you don't do what the Bible says you're not hurting God, you hurt yourself and others. This is for your benefit.
4. GOD SPEAKS THROUGH PAIN.
Are you acquainted with this way? We don't change when we see the light. We change when we feel the heat. None of us really like to change and so we fear what it might do to us. We fear change and we don't change until the pain becomes greater than the fear of change. Once the pain is greater than the fear, we change. God is so interested in speaking to you and so interested in having a personal relationship with you and loving you and you loving Him and being able to talk about everything, He will even resort to this in order to get your attention.
Proverbs 20:30 "Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways." Everyone of you know this one by experience. Not all pain is God speaking to you. Not every little hurt, ache, and pain that you have is God. But some of it is. And God often has to use pain in order to slow us down to get our attention. All Star Basketball player and he had back trouble and had a bunch of disks that went out. in the hospital, "Why do you think this happened?" He said, "God had to lay me flat on my back to get me to look up to Him." Has God ever had to do that to you?
There are some lessons we only learn through pain.
"I used to wander off until you punished me; now I closely follow all you say. The punishment you gave me was the best thing that could have happened to me, for it taught me to pay attention to your laws." Pain gets our attention. It's God's hearing aid. God whispers to us in our pleasures. But He shouts to us in our pain. Pain is God's megaphone. When you're hurting God is saying, "Hey! There's somebody here who wants to help! You can depend on Me. I'll help you through that tough time if you'll just let Me." Pain is God's way, often, of getting your attention.
That's what this church is all about, teaching people to hear God speak. When you hear God speak, really, in your heart, you are changed.
Why is it so important to really hear God speak? Three reasons:
1. It is assures me that I'm in God's family.
The proof that you really know Jesus Christ, that you have a relationship, is that you hear God speak to you. Jesus said, "I know those who are Mine and they hear My voice." If you've never heard God speak to you, if you've never sensed His speaking to you in your heart and in your mind, you have every reason to doubt that you're really a true believer, that you're in the family of God and that you're on your way to heaven. You have every reason to doubt it because Jesus said "Those who are Mine hear My voice."
Some of you may be brand new believers and when you first get started sometimes it's a little bit difficult to figure out "Is this God talking to me or not?" You're not used to His voice. But if you're really a child of God you're going to know your father's voice. When I call Sophie I don't have to say, "This is Keith Mack, your father." I just start talking to her and she knows my voice, so does Christopher. When Sophie calls me she doesn't have to say, "This is Sophie, your daughter" -- I know hervoice. Why? Because I have a relationship. If you don't have that, if you don't ever hear God speaking to you, you need to be saved because you're not going to heaven unless you have a relationship with Christ. It's really clear. It is available to anybody who says, "Jesus, I want a relationship with You. God, I want to know You. I want to communicate with You."
Some of you know about God, but you don't know Him. Some of you know about Jesus, but you don't really know Him. You have a religion not a relationship. You may have gone to Sunday School or catechism as a kid and you're here in church every week but you don't have that relationship.
There's a guy who comes to my house every single day of my life except Sunday. He's called the postman. I know who this guy is. I know what he looks like, I know his name, I say Hi to him. He's even brought gifts to my door. But I don't' really know him. I know about him. But I don't really know him. That's the difference.
One of the proofs that you know you're a Christian is that God talks to you on a regular basis and you listen and you hear and you talk back. Many people think God only speaks to super saints.
No. Those of you who are parents, do you only talk to your smartest kid? (I hope you're going to say no.) God talks to all His true children -- young believers, old believers, baby believers, grown up believers. It assures me I'm in God's family.
2. It protects me from mistakes.
The Bible says in Job "God speaks causing them to change their mind and keeping them from pride and from falling into some traps." If you listen, God will warn you in advance and you'll avoid a whole lot of mistakes in life, if you really start tuning into God. He'll tell you.
Situation where everyone was saying “go for it” Glad I didn’t, going to Florida to see Todd Bentley
I can't tell you how many times we've been saved from major mistakes here at St John’s Why is this church so growing ? Because God has protected us from so many mistakes. Because we stay open and we don't move unless He tells us to. When God says "Don't!" we don't do it, even if the whole world and everything else says, "Go ahead and do it!" On the other hand, when God says do it and everything logically says, "Don't do that!" we do it anyway. Because we listen to God in this church. We are still learning, but we listen. It will save you a lot of mistakes.
There are some of you here that are considering a divorce. God says to you real clearly, "Don't!" Some of you are considering moving in with somebody who's not your husband or your wife and not marrying them. God says, "Don't!" Every time I ignore God's will I get in trouble. Some of you are being challenged to make an unethical decision at work and God is saying, "Don't do it!"
Some of you are being challenged to put other priorities ahead of God and your family. God says, "That's foolish! Don't do it." He'll save you from mistakes.
3. It is the secret of a productive life, listening to God on a moment by moment basis.
The more I depend on God's guidance, the more successful I am. Success is knowing God's will and being right in the center of it. If you want to make an impact with your life, if you want to be effective, it's real simple, tune into God and do what He tells you to do.
God is speaking, God wants to speak to you, He'll use many different ways -- these are the four most common but He'll use other ways too. Why does God go to all that trouble to talk to us? Because He loves you. Because you matter to Him. Because you are important. He created you not just to take up space on this earth. You were made to have a relationship with God and if you don't ever establish it you'll die missing your very purpose for living. You will miss the very reason you were created. He wants to have a relationship with you.
Some of you have sensed God speaking to you today. What does God have to say to you today? Hebrews 3:15 "Today, if you hear God's voice speaking to you, do not harden your heart against him." No matter how long you've ignored God and His voice, He still loves you and He still wants to have a relationship with you.
Prayer:
It's obvious that some of you are in pain today. Some of you are depressed. Some of you are filled with anxiety. It may be over a health issue. It maybe over finances, your marriage, or your desire to get married, or you're in a relationship you're not sure of and you're anxious, fearful, worried. Others of you are fatigued and you're worn out because you're trying to do too much. You just crawled in here this morning -- you're really tired. Many of you are stressed out by innumerable things. Some of you are lonely and that ache in your heart – that loneliness -- is sometimes almost unbearable. All of these things create pain. God is trying to get your attention. There needs to be some changes in your life and He'll help you make those changes. But you have to have a relationship with Him. Maybe you've let that relationship wane and wan and put on the back burner of your life. Or maybe you've never established one. Would your pray this prayer in your mind? "Jesus Christ, I understand that You want a relationship with me. I want to get to know You and I want to talk with You. Help me to spend some time every day reading Your word. Help me to take advantage of the Bible studies and the classes and the teachers and the tapes that You provide for us. Help me to be open to impressions that You want to give me. Help me to see how that even pain can bring me closer to You. Today, Jesus Christ, I want to open up my life and ask You to be the manager of my life and lead me and guide me and save me." If you prayed that prayer and meant it God heard you. You're beginning a brand new journey called the Christian life.
A relationship. The first thing you need to do is tell somebody about it. Tell the closest person to you -- your husband, your wife. "Today I stepped across the line for Jesus Christ."
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