Nearness Isn't Closeness - February 23, 2025

If you open your Bibles this morning to the book of Mark, Mark chapter 8.

Mark 8 · chapter mention

I don't know about you, but my heart has already been blessed by the singing, the praising, the worship going up.

Eli, if you'll help me, you'll get your position.

Mark chapter number eight.

Mark chapter eight.

Of course, you heard pastors out of town, and we're praying for him as he's preaching away.

And uh Amos is taking care of his newborn baby.

And so that's exciting.

They had their baby this week, and so we rejoice with them.

Mark chapter number eight.

Mark chapter number eight.

We're gonna read this together.

If you'll just follow along with me, we're gonna read it out loud together.

I'm gonna read from verse 10 to verse 21.

Bible starts in verse number 10.

Let's read this together if you're there.

Mark 8, verse, chapter 8, verse 10.

Ready?

Begin.

And straightway he entered into a ship with his disciples and came into the parts of.

Uh-huh.

I I when I read this passage, I was like, I need to figure out how to pronounce that.

And I just realized right now I didn't take time to figure out how to pronounce that.

Verse 11.

And the Pharisees came forth and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him.

And he sighed deeply in the spirit and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign?

Verily I say unto you, there shall no sign be given unto this generation.

And he left them, and entering into the ship again, departed to the other side.

Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf.

And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod.

And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread.

And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye because ye have no bread?

Perceive ye not yet, neither understand?

Have ye your heart yet hardened?

Having eyes, see ye not, and having ears hear ye not?

And do ye not remember when I break the five loaves among five thousand?

How many baskets full of fragments took ye up?

They say unto him, Twelve.

And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up?

And they said, Seven.

And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?

In this passage of Scripture, there was a nearness to Jesus, but what they lacked was a closeness to Jesus.

They heard him, but they didn't hear him.

They were in attendance, but they weren't attentive.

Their proximity to Jesus didn't affect their responsiveness to Jesus.

They were five feet from him, and yet they were 5,000 feet from him.

Spouses and parents, you know what I'm talking about when you're talking with your spouse.

You know, this doesn't happen when you're dating, but once you've been married for a while, and your spouse is talking, and all of a sudden you realize that you haven't been paying attention.

And they say those dreaded words.

What do you think?

And if you've been around long enough, you just think, man, I think that's a great idea.

Just shake your head, yes.

That's always a winner.

But no, I want your thoughts, and you kind of just you don't know what to say.

You've been there, but you haven't been there.

If you have five kids like me, this happens a lot, especially if they go on a story.

I'm here, but I'm not here.

In this passage of scripture, he speaks to both the Pharisees and the disciples, and they both had different reasons for not receiving the words of Christ, but ultimately they both failed to receive his words.

And the climax of the passage comes in verse number 18.

If you'll look at that again with me, he says this having eyes see ye not, and having ears hear ye not, and do ye not remember.

Again, this morning I want to speak to you on this subject.

Nearness isn't closeness.

Nearness isn't closeness.

Let's pray, Father.

Lord, I need your help to speak.

Lord, but just not to talk.

And I think Nathan or one of the men said it up here, not to perform.

Lord, we're not here for a performance.

We're here to hear from you.

And so, Lord, I pray that you'd you'd uh eliminate me from the equation and help me to solely think about what your word wants to say.

May I not think about anything else, how well I feel like I'm coming across, or how poorly I feel like I'm coming across.

May you help me today to solely focus on speaking your words your way.

And may you help your people today.

Please, Lord, feed your sheep.

Do only what you can do.

Be with our preacher this morning as well.

Fill him with your power and use and where he's preaching and speaking.

Speak to our hearts, for it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Eli this morning is gonna help me with an illustration.

Why don't you put those in your ear?

All right.

Can you hear?

Obviously, you can.

Me and my wife were in the front, and in San Diego, if you've been around long enough, um it's gonna distract the whole service.

At least we'll give you something to to watch.

We were sitting in the front uh area of our of our front yard, and those of you who've been around San Diego long enough know that there's these green parrots that kind of roam uh San Diego.

How many of you have ever seen them?

Right.

And uh it's almost like it's cool when you see them, right?

But it's not cool once you see them again and again and again, because that means they're annoying and they're in the area.

But the other day they were in our area and they were squawking back and forth, talking to each other, and uh it was just amusing to watch them, well, listen to them talk back and forth.

Uh we were at home the other night, and right in the middle of the night, we woke up because there was howling.

There were these coyotes in the back.

They were howling a pack of them, just hoo, and uh just listening to them howl back and forth.

We used to have a rooster, and every morning that rooster would crow in the very early morning times.

As I began to think about this passage of scripture, really the Holy Spirit spoke to me this way.

He told me, he says, you know, Abes, as you think about nature, communication is really the lifeblood of everything that strengthens and defines and sustains everything.

When you think about communication, it's happening all the time.

Right now I'm standing up here and I'm speaking to you, I'm communicating to you, but even you in your seats, you're communicating, whether a listening posture or an attentive, I want to hear what you're trying to say.

There's always communication going on.

Matter of fact, your body is built on communication.

If your body doesn't communicate within itself, it's going to get hurt.

You touch something that's painful, your body says, that's painful, let's not touch that again.

There's constant communication.

If a husband and wife cease to communicate or don't communicate well, the relationship will break down.

The birds who were squawking, there was some crow that were around, and basically they were alerting it, get away, get away from here.

They were communicating to those other birds.

Those coyotes were communicating in the middle of the night.

There is communication all around, but here's what we find when communication breaks down, or when there's a lack of communication, bad things happened.

You think about a child who's who's not taught out of the womb.

None of my children were told, hey, if you want anything, just cry.

They just cried.

They just screamed, and this one screamed the loudest.

Apparently he can still hear me.

I have failed.

But when communication breaks down, bad things happen.

If a communication from a bird to a bird doesn't happen, then a bird may fall into a trap.

If communication within the body doesn't happen, your body may deteriorate.

If the communication doesn't happen between a baby and a mother, that baby could die.

If communication doesn't happen between a husband and a wife, a husband's a wife relationship can break down.

And so when Jesus says in verse number 18, we'll look at it again, when he says, having eyes see ye not, and having ears hear ye not, and do ye not remember, he's highlighting a very dangerous position.

He's saying this, I have spoken clearly to you, and you should have heard it, and not just have heard it, it should have sunk into your heart, but you didn't hear the voice of God.

Wars are lost because of failed communication.

But I wonder what would happen to a Christian when the Lord is speaking into that Christian's life, and that Christian fails to hear the voice of God.

Not that they weren't in church, not that they weren't reading their Bible, they were there, if you could put it this way.

The disciples were attending service that day.

They heard Jesus speak.

The Pharisees heard Jesus speak.

All of them, this was not an audible or a nearness situation.

It wasn't because they didn't go to church, they didn't read their Bible, they were listening to the Word of God speak, and yet the Word of God had no effect on their heart.

I wonder what would happen to a Christian if they failed.

As we see animals, they will die if they don't communicate, or a body will break down if it doesn't communicate, a child will pass away if he's not communicating to his mother, if there's a lack of communication.

It seems like it's pretty standard things perish.

Kind of like the scripture tells us in Proverbs, if you'll put that one up there.

Proverbs 29, 18.

The scripture says this where there is no vision, the people perish.

Really, we like to use that word vision like as dream forward.

You need to set a dream forward.

But in reality, the word vision here speaks of the word of God, the open revelation.

In that time, they didn't have the full Bible yet.

And so there was a vision that they would get to receive the word of God.

And Solomon writes, if there is no word of God, if there is no voice of God, the people perish.

You could define perish a lot of ways, but just to shorten it up, it just doesn't sound like a great thing.

Nobody says, hey, I'd like to perish this morning.

That sounds great.

Nobody says that that man, get me perish for Christmas.

I want to perish.

Nobody wants that.

But what it says clearly is when they where there is no vision, the people perish.

He's saying when a Christian fails to hear the voice of God, there is a promise of failure.

They say that the Titanic was warned several times of icebergs in the vicinity before it went down.

They say that when the challenger space shuttle went up, the folks who created or made the O-rings, I believe they were called, warned them if it's too cold, those things can cause problems, but they didn't listen.

And in both instances, there was a perishing.

So when the Word of God says there is no vision, the people perish, he's speaking to a Christian, and he's saying, If you don't listen to the voice of God, there is a destination for your life, and it's not one of abundance, it's one of perishing.

But I wonder if we would think on the opposite end of not the negative, but the positive, and on the positive side, if we'll put Psalm 13 up there, on the positive side, the scripture says, And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.

His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

Now, prosper, that's the Amazon package I want.

Order me prosper.

That's what I want.

I want to prosper in my life.

And yet it seems very clear that the person that is listening to the voice of God, he's promised to prosper.

He's like that tree planted by the river of water, and it's springing forth and there's fruit growing off it.

But the Christian who fails to hear the voice of God or deafens his mind to God's voice, it seems like his destiny is a lot different.

I would say that this morning in this room of hundreds of people, that we have folks in here who are saying, Man, Brother David, I'm living the prosperous, victorious, abundant Christian life.

And yet in the same church and following the same types of uh of actions, there could be somebody saying, I feel like I'm perishing.

I feel like I'm a dead on the vine.

And yet the same voice of God is speaking to the person who's prospering.

And he's speaking to the one who's perishing.

But it's a matter of listening to the voice of God.

A deafness, a coldness to God.

So when we come to this passage of scripture, I would ask ourselves this.

I wonder how many of us as Christians live mediocre lives because we have a deafness to the voice of God.

I wonder how many in this room I like to see Pastor in the things that he succeeds in.

I like to see him living.

And sometimes my brain can deceive me to think that he's unique.

And nobody can quite live on that level where they're excelling and they're and not saying pastor never has a bad day, but they're living the victorious Christian life.

Sometimes my brain can say that's for him, but that's not for me.

He can see success.

That person can see energy, and that person can see their business be blessed, and that person can be blessed by God, and that person can have a good family, and that person can have a good life, but that's not me.

And the word of God would disagree with you and say, when you are planted by the river of water, when you are listening to the voice of God, you're not just surviving, you are thriving.

So why?

So why is it that sometimes we can be on this side of, man, we're flourishing like a tree, planted by the rivers of water?

And how come sometimes we can perish?

And really, I believe the answer is found in our passage of scripture.

If you'll look with me again at verse number 10, if you're in Mark chapter 8, the Bible says in verse number 10 he enters into the ship and comes to the place that we can't pronounce.

Mark 8 · chapter mention

And the Pharisees came forth and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him.

Don't miss it.

Their questions had the appearance of wanting to hear from God, but in reality, they did not want to hear from God.

No, listen, they were having a conversation.

Here's God, he steps off the boat, and here the Pharisees come and they surround themselves around him and they ask him, we have some questions to ask of you.

As if the conversation was going to lead them to a revelation.

As if like they really wanted to know what God had to say on the matter.

But in reality, they had no desire to really hear from God.

They just wanted a reason to say, ah, see?

See?

That doesn't make any sense.

They weren't truly seeking God to hear his voice.

They were just seeking God so they could say, Yeah, we had we talked to God.

Kind of like when a Christian really doesn't want to stop doing what God has told them to stop doing, or really doesn't want to do what God has told them to do.

And so they say, I pray to God.

I've sought God on this, but God didn't speak to me.

As a matter of fact, we'll find this passage, he doesn't say one word to them at all.

I wonder if there's somebody in here this morning that would say, Man, I've prayed about this, but but it seems like God hasn't given me an answer.

The reality may not be that it's God's problem because he's not speaking.

The reality may be it might be my heart problem because I really don't want to hear what God has to say.

Let me give you this.

Often it's not that God isn't speaking, we're just not in a listening position.

Oh, God's talking.

But we're not there to listen.

We're there as the deaf man.

Isn't it interesting that next week pastor will go into a man being healed of blindness?

But isn't it interesting if you remember a few weeks ago, Pastor was preaching on deafness.

There was a man who was deaf.

And right snugged into this passage of scripture is the Pharisees who are both deaf and blind to the voice of God.

Let me give you this first statement this morning.

God hears the heart of prayer more than he hears the words of prayer.

You could be on your knees.

Oh God, I will do whatever you say.

Here's the problem: God knows your heart.

I was watching, I was trying to find a clip of, I've seen these things funny where it says, like, you know, God show me a sign.

And there's this guy, he said, God, just show me if if she's the one, I want to hear from you, God, just speak to me.

And God speaks out and he says, I want you to stop drinking.

And the man literally says, God, we're not talking about my drinking.

I, Lord, I need to hear from you.

But isn't that our nature?

God, I need your voice here.

And God says, What about this?

And here's what's so interesting.

We think that the two aren't connected.

We think, listen, the man, let's give this illustration.

We think the man is saying, Hey, God, speak to me if she's the one.

I want to know if I go forward in this relationship.

And God says, You need to give up this in your life.

And we think that this and this are not connected.

But in reality, God says, before I can move you forward this way, I need you to move forward in this.

And once you got this settled, then we can talk about this.

Because if I give you this, before you've handled this, you will ruin this.

God, I just need a sign.

And God says, here's the sign.

But that's not what I'm praying for.

But that's what you need.

Because before you get to step one, before you get to step three, you have to go to step one.

There's somebody here saying, God, give me wisdom in my business.

And God says, read your Bible every day.

And you're like, how does that connect?

It connects.

And God says, How do I get wisdom to go forward in this situation?

And God says, How about you pray a little bit more?

But God, I don't, that doesn't connect.

Because we truly don't have a heart that says, God, truly speak to me.

I think our our invitation song this morning is, I surrender all.

Really, before we get to hear the voice of God, I would ask you this morning, is all on the altar?

Does God really have full say in my life?

It reminds me of Balaam.

You remember Balaam in the scriptures?

Who says, God, should I go with these men?

And God says, No.

And then he comes to God, should I go?

And God says, if the men come to you, I'll go.

You can go.

But all Balaam heard was, you can go.

Balaam gets up and he goes.

You know the story.

And there's an angel in the way preventing him.

And there's the donkey that says, uh-uh, you may be a dumb dumb, but I'm no dumb dumb.

I'm not going forward.

And I love this illustration because I remember years ago, I was wanting to go forward in an area of my life.

And I remember Gina wasn't sharing that energy.

You ever have that as a husband or a wife?

I want to go forward in this.

And your spouse looks at you like, you sure you got that from God?

Balaam gets off.

If you know the story, Balaam gets off and he beats the donkey.

I wonder how many times God is saying no to us, or don't go down that road, or stay away from it, but we've shut off our ears, and then God places somebody in our life, like a spouse, that says, uh.

And instead of getting the hint, we hurt the folks.

They're trying to say, we're about to hurt ourselves.

We're about to step into it.

I wonder if there's anybody in here this morning that would say, maybe God is one or two things calling you into this next step, and you're like, I stepped into a relationship before and it broke me.

I stepped into ministry before and it broke me.

I stepped into this situation.

I'm not doing that again.

And God is calling you and saying, This is the next step.

This is where I want you to go.

But because of the fear or the worry or whatever it is, it's preventing you to go forward.

Or maybe it's somebody who you're going forward into something, and God is saying, You've have you have you pricked, have you fought against the pricks long enough?

Like Saul.

But if my heart and my mind does not really want to hear from God, I will not.

Let me give you this statement.

When you're not truly seeking God, he won't reveal himself to you.

Can I just be honest with you?

Sometimes I come into church and I'm like, whoo, man, God showed up today, didn't he?

And the music and the preaching.

God showed up.

And sometimes I walk in church and say, man, where was it?

And here's what I think sometimes, Dale.

Man, the music team's got to get together, man.

Pastor must have not been studied up today.

But in reality, you know what is more times the problem than not?

This heart right here.

Because this heart really didn't come in to hear from God.

This coming, because that's what we do on Sunday morning.

We come to church, we check off the this is what we do Sunday morning.

And yet my heart wasn't.

I remember one of the very first times that we started coming to victory.

And it's different.

It's just different when you come in as those who were the worship team or those who serve on the platform.

It's different when you come in and you don't really have something to do.

Where you just come to sit and glean hear from the Lord.

And I remember waking up and thinking one of the very first times we were coming back to victory, not thinking about, I've got to go set up this classroom, I gotta preach, I gotta teach, I gotta do that.

Just coming into the seat.

And I remember as I was getting ready, I thought, as I was getting ready, I wasn't getting dressed to be on the platform.

And I wasn't thinking about, oh, I gotta talk to this person, that.

The only thing in my mind, Brother David, was I gotta hear from God today.

And it convicted me because I thought, isn't that how it always should be?

I come into service, I'm like, man, I want to see Brother So and so.

I gotta talk to him about that, and I gotta talk to Sister So and so, and God's like, what about me?

What about hearing from me?

What about calling out to me as in church about hearing from the voice of God?

No, I wonder today as we walk out these doors and we get into our car, I wonder if the word of God has enough power to seep into our heart and not just stay with us for the afternoon, but on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday.

And when we hit that issue on Friday, we remember the message on Sunday and we say, God, I need that voice to speak into my life.

What are you saying, Brahes?

I'm saying that a heart that says, God, I need you, is a heart that God says I'm there.

But don't think that you can't do your part in crying out for God and God's just gonna show up just because.

That's presumptuous.

It's presumptuous to think that just because I'm a child of God, he's gonna just speak into my life.

What are you saying this morning?

I'm saying simply sometimes we don't hear God because we truly don't desire to hear from God.

Now look at verse number 12.

And he sighed deeply in his spirit and saith, why does this generation seek after a sign?

Many of you parents know that phrase, sighed deeply in his spirit.

I won't tell you which one of my children, and my children better not tell anybody which child this was.

But I had a child at one time where I got an email from his teacher, and it said that they were, did something, I'll just put it that way, because I don't really I got two teenagers here, so I have to be careful.

One of my teenagers asked me, Dad, what illustrations are you using today?

Did something that I was so embarrassed, and I won't tell you what it was, but it was so embarrassing.

I remember as I read that email, I thought, oh, my kid.

When Jesus hears their attitude, he sighs deeply within himself.

And then he asks this question why does this generation seek after a sign?

Don't miss this.

When God asks questions, he doesn't do so for information.

Let me give you this statement.

When God asks questions, he never does so for information, he does so for your personal reflection.

He's not asking the question, why are they asking for a sign?

I don't get it.

I don't get them.

Uh-uh.

He's saying, why, disciples, are they asking for a sign?

He wants them to reflect on the heart of the question, not the question itself.

Why is it?

Because what he's about to do is he's about to walk away from them.

And they have to understand why is God walking away from the situation?

Why isn't God answering their question?

It's because it's the heart of the question.

The heart doesn't desire to know the answer.

The heart isn't really seeking me, the heart is contentious, the heart is rebellious, the heart is deceitful, the heart is against me, and therefore there will be no answer.

He says, Therefore, there shall no sign be given to them.

Why?

Because of the heart of their question.

It's like somebody who says, All believe, we've there might be someone in this room.

All believe, God, but I just need, I just have a couple of questions.

And somebody has sat down with you and they've answered your questions, but you know what happens?

You come out, I got more questions.

I wonder if there's somebody here in this room who you've never trusted Jesus as your savior because in your mind, I just have to get things figured out first.

I just have to get things answered, and then I'll take the step.

And the reality is your heart is preventing you from following God.

God sigh here is a reflection of his sorrow for their condition of their heart.

This isn't God frustrated.

You know how sometimes you, as a parent, you'll tell your kids, hey, go take care of this, and they come back, they say, It's done.

And then you go back and you're like, No, it's not done.

This isn't him being frustrated, oh, I told you guys this.

Why don't you, why don't they get it?

This is not, this is God, and I love this is the character of God.

This is God feeling the result of not listening to his voice.

He's not frustrated that, I have to tell you, do I have to tell you one more time?

He's hurt that because of their fail to listen, they're gonna perish.

Because they're not listening to the word of God.

Can I just pause here for those who don't accept that Christ?

We we are burdened in the church.

We're about to have a missions conference, we're about to, why?

Because we're burdened of the fact that there may be some people in the world that may never hear the gospel, and that burdens us, but it also burdens our community when somebody comes in and hears the gospel and they don't receive it because we know that the Bible tells us that one day there is a penalty for sin.

And if Jesus Christ doesn't pay it for you, you'll pay it for yourself.

And according to the scripture, that's hell and separation from God forever and all eternity.

And there isn't a one Christian who, woo-hoo, every one of us sigh deeply within our soul because we know those who don't receive the word perish.

But what about your life?

What have you got comfortable with hearing the voice of God and setting it aside because that area of life it perishes?

He sighs within himself.

Now, verse 13.

Read these four words with me together.

Are you ready?

Begin.

And he I was reading this passage of scripture and I read that, and he left them.

And my heart sank.

My heart sank because I realized that when he left, they probably weren't disappointed.

When the Pharisees were questioning him, and he doesn't say a word to them, and he just gets on a boat, it's more than likely every one of those Pharisees thought, yes.

I don't have to listen to that anymore.

What a poor place to be that when Jesus leaves the conversation, our heart rejoices.

That's why sometimes when we come into church and we hear something we don't like, it's the danger of being in America.

You can go two blocks down the road and find a preacher that preaches what you like and then listen to him because the other preacher that says that what you don't like bothers you, so you just leave.

God's trying to speak to you, and God's trying to talk to you, and God's trying to keep you from perishing, and God's trying to help you, and he's trying to prevent you from getting into that bad situation, and yet our spirit sometimes can be like, uh that preacher, he's just on one.

That though they just are stuck on.

And the reality is, is God's trying to speak to you.

God's trying to talk to you.

What a sad day it was when they were left.

Don't miss this part.

Not only did they miss God's voice in their life, they missed Jesus because they didn't like the one who was saying it.

Here's what you have to understand.

When they saw the Messiah, they didn't like that he claimed to be the Messiah or that he was the Messiah.

They didn't like who was saying it.

So because of who was saying it, they decided we're not, even if what he was saying was true, they said we want nothing to do with it.

Don't miss this.

This is the Lord really got me here.

This statement.

What if the voice of God speaks loudest through the people we hate most?

They hated Jesus.

They ran him out of town.

Who is it in your life that you're trying to run out of your life?

And God is like, whoa, that's the person I'm speaking to most in your life.

Because your hatred, because your bias doesn't allow you to hear what is actually being said.

You know what I found in my life?

I found sometimes in the most darkest of nights when people are hurt have hurt me or have done things against me, my natural reaction is I don't want to talk to them, I don't want to be around them, I don't want to listen to them.

But it's sometimes, it's sometimes it's not even what those people are saying, but it's through the hate and through the hurt and through the suffering that God is speaking to me and ministering to me.

No, listen, sometimes it's the people that are closest to me that hurt me, that I go through that pain and suffering, and I think, God, I would never choose that for myself, but God chose it for me.

Why?

Because if it's in those darkest hours that God is speaking to me and ministering to me.

So when I come back up on the valley, all right, come up back up in the mountain, I have a word from the Lord.

So why is it that those who've gone through the most difficult of hurts and pains seem like they have a touch of God in their life that the others of us don't?

It's because sometimes in the things that we hate most or the people we hate most, God is speaking through those.

I wouldn't have chosen for myself, and if it was me, I would have ran the people off that cause hurt in my life.

If you would have told me this person's gonna cause you hurt and pain, I would say, Ah, push them out of my life.

But God says, if you would have pushed them out of your life, you never would have heard from me.

Just like the Pharisees wouldn't listen to God because they hated him, therefore they never heard from him.

We're in the middle of three miracles: a miracle from a deaf man, a miracle of bread, and next week a miracle, or whenever pastor preaches, a miracle of blindness.

But right smack in the dab in the middle of it, nothing happens because they couldn't see past their hatred.

I wonder who it is in your life right now that you're begging God, God, take them out of my life.

They are causing me pain, they're causing me suffering.

And God says, No, because through that pain and through that suffering I am speaking loudest.

Oh God, I I would hear you if you could just get this out of my life.

And God says, uh-uh.

Matter of fact, you wouldn't come to me if they weren't in your life.

Sometimes we miss the voice of God because we run off the people and the things we hate most.

And God is trying to speak to us.

Now, verse 14.

Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread.

Neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf.

And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod.

This passage or this message that Jesus just gave to the disciples, it went way over their head.

Jesus is on the boat and he and he says, Hey, watch out for the leaven, and we'll get to what he means.

Watch out to the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod.

And the disciples are like, huh?

Oh, he's mad.

He's so mad because we forgot to bring bread.

And I love his response.

Look what the look what he says.

I forgot to date bread.

He charged him saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven and of the Pharisees.

He points out two things here before we get into the passage.

The latter verses, he says, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.

What was the leaven of the Pharisees?

The leaven of the Pharisees was pride.

It wasn't, it was that they really didn't have a conversation with the Lord.

They didn't pray.

Nobody in here would say, I know what I'm doing.

I don't need God.

I got this.

But I wonder how many of us even asked God this morning before we got up.

Lord God, help me make wise decisions today.

Lord, help me to parent.

You know, when I was growing up, there was a, and I'm not saying anything negative, I had an amazing childhood, and I'm so blessed and thankful for the different people that God placed in my life.

But sometimes there would be a preacher that would come along and he would preach the fear of God, but he would almost preach it sometimes, especially to teenagers, in a way, like, if you don't follow God, you're gonna be struck down with that kind of intensity.

Almost like a fear of God, like I should be afraid of him.

Like if I fell, I went the wrong way, every my whole life was gonna fall apart.

The negative sense.

You know what I've learned as I've grown?

The greatest fear of the Lord is not that a lightning bolt's gonna come down from heaven.

You know the greatest fear I have of the Lord is that when I call out or when I need him most, there's silence.

When I say, God, I need wisdom on how to how to parent this child, and God says, He's 18.

Where were you at 12?

At 13, at 14.

You say, God's not gonna give you wisdom at 18, he'll give me wisdom at 18, but he's not gonna give me wisdom back there to fix what's happening now.

You know the biggest thing with the Pharisees is their prideful heart said, we don't need God.

And sometimes the pride of our heart doesn't even seek the Lord.

You know what I'm scared to death?

I'm scared to death of not hearing the voice of God.

You know what this passage tells me?

This passage tells me because the heart of the Pharisees were so hardened, God didn't speak to them.

I'm fearful that my heart actually is so hardened and I don't really want closeness to God.

I just want to fix this issue.

I just want to fix this problem, I just want to get the answer to get out because I really don't want closeness.

I just want answers from God, that God would be silent in my hour of need.

You see, God would never be silent.

He would be silent when my heart is hardened towards him.

When I truly don't want fellowship with him, I'm just looking for the answers to the test.

I love the pastor says, God is not my genie.

I don't get to rub the lamp and say, Oh, God, I want three witches from here.

No, God says, I will speak to you in quotes when your heart is softened and when you call out to God as a child saying, God, I can't do this, I don't know where to go.

It's in those moments that the Lord hears his child and he answers the call.

But when my heart is hardened towards God, there's silence.

And sometimes that silence is the worst place to be.

If you've never been in a place where you've got where you've gotten silence from God, and it's not because God is being silent, it's because you have spent time away from him.

It's a scary place to be.

Because I need help as a parent.

I got five children.

I need the wisdom of God to craft these young men into how God designed them to be crafted.

I need that, I got a wife.

I have 17 years now, I got the wisdom to how to give to give her wisdom and to help her and to strengthen her.

I'm a parent, I'm a father, I'm a businessman.

I need wisdom from God to go forward.

But the pride sometimes in my heart.

Well, let me give you this one.

He says, the leaven of the Pharisees, he says the leaven of Herod.

What's the leaven of Herod?

Sinfulness.

Oh, don't miss this.

I'm not talking about sin because we all have it.

Sin in this fact that there's stuff in my life that I've just got comfortable with.

Ah.

I know God doesn't want that, but don't worry about that one, God.

But Lord, give me wisdom on how to parent.

God says, but what about this over here?

That's, God, I need wisdom at a parent.

Yeah, but your double life, Abe, I if I give you wisdom to be a parent, it doesn't matter because your double life here is going to negate what you're trying to teach them.

You see, the voice of God is silent where there's sin.

I'm not talking about, listen, we're all sinners.

We've all done wrong this week.

I'm talking about a heart that's hardened and says, No, God, this I get to keep.

The rest you have, but this I get to keep.

Art of sinfulness.

Sin doles our ears to God's voice in our lives.

Now we're coming to a close.

Verse 16.

And they reason among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread.

They think he's upset with them because they didn't take bread.

They missed the miracle, but it's bigger than that.

And look what he says in verse 17.

And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye because ye have no bread?

Think about this.

God just multiplied bread, few fishes, a few pieces of bread to thousands.

How is it that ye don't understand?

Why reason ye because yeah, perceive ye not yet?

Neither understand?

Again, he's not asking for information, he's asking for reflection.

Why is it that your heart doesn't understand these things?

Have ye or yet your heart yet hardened?

Having eyes ye see ye not, and having ears hear ye not.

And here is a phrase, and do ye not, what's that word, church?

Help me out one more time.

And do ye not when I break the five loaves among five thousand?

How many baskets full of fragments took ye up?

They say unto him, 12, and when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up?

And they said, Seven, and he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?

Don't miss this.

They think he's upset with them because they didn't take bread.

They miss the miracle, but it's bigger than that.

They miss the voice of God because they really didn't understand how God worked in their lives.

Because if they understood how God worked in their lives, it would have given them clues as to what mattered and did it matter to him.

Let me give you this phrase.

We miss the voice of God because we have not reflected on how God works in our lives.

Oh, this is so good.

You know, one of the biggest reasons that we miss God's voice?

Because we really don't know how we He speaks and how he works.

If I asked you this question, how does God speak to you in your life?

What has God used in your life to speak to you?

And if our mind is, then when he says something, it'll go right over your head.

Oh, he's speaking, but my mind is, oh, he he thinks bread is important.

It's not about the bread, guys.

Haven't you studied how I've worked in the past?

Don't you know that that's not hard for me?

I'm not worried about the bread.

I'm trying to speak to you on spiritual matters, but your mind is so focused on the things that have no significance that you miss the spiritual working in your life.

It's kind of like those of us who are married, you know this.

How many of you have been married more than 10 years?

Raise your hand.

All right, put your hands down.

You know how when you just get married, you're still learning your spouse, right?

You don't know what they like, you don't know really their dislikes, then you move in with them and you find out they're they're not as quite as clean as you thought they were.

This is not a personal testimony, okay?

This is just.

And uh went to Universal Studios.

I cheated on Disneyland, please forgive me, Lord.

But we had a good time this week and we spent some time, but sometimes there were things where something would happen, and I wouldn't say anything to my wife because there were people around.

You know what I'm talking about?

When you want to be the word is cheesema in Spanish, it'd be a little gossiper.

But you can't say it because they're right in front of you line, but you want to tell your spouse something, so you kind of just give them the look and you kind of and then you both know what you're talking about.

You know what that is?

That's over time we have learned our faces each other.

We've grown to understand each other.

We understand, we communicate, even sometimes without even communicating.

A look, a face.

You men know when you've done something and your wife looks at you or you said something, and you're like, stink, I'm on the couch tonight.

But the reason that is, is because over time you've learned your spouse.

It ought to be to those who have been in Christ longer that you know and can discern the voice of the Lord because you've learned and studied his work in your life.

It ought not to be you're 10, 15 years in now, and you, I don't even hear the voice of God.

You're not in sin, you have no pride, but you've not studied how God works in your life.

And so when he does speak, it goes right over your head and you miss it.

Because you haven't taken time.

This is why it's so important for you to read your Bible, because as you read your Bible, you know what you learn?

How God works.

And then once you see the pattern in the scriptures, you start seeing the pattern in your life.

And then when you have a decision that you must make, you already know that this is the right decision because you know how God has worked in your life.

The disciples missed it because they didn't remember.

Do you not remember what I just did?

And then he walks them through it.

Remember the loaves?

You remember the fishes?

Yeah, yeah.

So I'm not talking about that, am I?

No, I'm not.

No, you're not.

Talking about a spiritual matter.

If we don't know his voice, we will make the same mistakes again.

A few years back, we lost Benjamin, my third son, at Disneyland for one hour.

And I went home, we we finally found him, obviously.

But we went home, I told my dad about it.

He's like, oh, he's like, we lost you at Target for an hour.

It's different when you're the one that was lost, right?

And I said, Well, tell me the story.

He says, Well, you were you were sitting at a target, he says that you were kind of sitting between two uh walls there, and you were looking at a television.

And he says, We called all around the store, we're yelling your name, trying to find you, but you were so locked into that television, you didn't get up, you didn't hear us, you were just locked in.

And when I thought about that, I thought, what a perfect illustration.

Whatever the television is, pride, sinfulness, not a desire to hear from the Lord, you fill in the blank.

We could hear the voice of God, but because we're so locked in on whatever it is that's taken us away from God, we miss the voice of God.

If this illustration would have worked right, and he couldn't have heard anything, then although he was the closest to the preaching, he would have learned and groaned.

He would have learned to groan at all.

Because nearness isn't closeness.

Just because we showed up today doesn't mean we get a gold star and our life is different.

We showed up today, and if we heard the voice of God, nearness became closeness.

But it only does when we allow the Lord to take off the blinders.

You're still alive.

We take off the ears, we take off the headphones, and we allow the Lord to speak into our life.

The message is very simple this morning.

Are you hearing the voice of God?

And if you're not, is it because there's something that's hindering his voice?

May God help us to be Christians that when he speaks, we listen, and because of it, we prosper.