How To Hear The Voice Of God

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Would you pray with me?

Speak, Lord.

Your servants are listening.

I'll say speak, Lord, and if you'll say your servants are listening, speak, Lord.

The Lord is our shepherd.

You lack nothing.

He makes you lie down in green pastures.

He restores your soul.

He leads you beside waters.

He leads you in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Speak, Lord.

Even though I walk through the valley of deep, deep darkness, you are with me.

I will fear no evil.

For you are with me.

Your rod and your staff they comfort me.

Prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies.

Speak, Lord.

Prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies.

My cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.

And I and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever.

Speak, Lord.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

I know most of you are seen most of you before.

If you're new or I haven't seen you yet, I'll turn my back and you can go early to the Golden Corral.

Is it just me or did it get thin in here real quick?

Jack, thank you.

Thank you.

We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the power of our testimony.

I uh I'm slightly dyslexic, which means I get the things out of order sometimes.

Um and I'm gonna start with the invitation.

Would you take a minute if you've got a pen?

Great.

If not, God forbid take out your phone without getting on anything other than notes.

I just want you to jot down a couple thoughts.

What do you think the Lord's saying to you right now?

We just heard Scripture sang scripture, saw it incarnated in obedience.

What might the Lord be wanting to say to you this morning?

I just want to make space for that before we jump in further.

What do you think the Lord might be saying to you?

What's the Holy Spirit putting a highlighter on this morning?

This is new to you, just have fun, child.

You're not gonna damage the kingdom.

We're just little kids taking out crowns, drawing pictures of her daddy.

Let him remind you who you are in Christ first, if this is a new exercise.

Father, remind me through your spirit how you see me.

Pure, holy, without blemish.

Sacred, set apart.

My beloved son or daughter in whom I'm well pleased.

The old is gone, the new is come.

You're a new creation in Christ.

Just let me remind you who you are.

Maybe jot that down.

It's one thing when it's up here, it's another thing when it finds expression.

And then is there anything you you don't need to put off anymore?

Is there something been stirring that you you you've lacked the courage or the time or the place to be obedient to?

Is there something that's already happened in this service that you went, man, that's like the third time.

I'm spending too much energy avoiding or being disobedient to that promise, and I'm done.

Shout that down.

Some of you are looking at me like, pump the brakes, buddy.

Listen, you're here to tell me what the Lord's speaking to me.

I I don't want Hey Moses, you go up and talk to God.

We we don't want to hear that voice.

Because then two things are gonna happen.

We'll be responsible for what we heard, and we can't blame you when it doesn't work out.

It's your fault.

Speak, Lord.

Amen.

Okay.

Here's the open invitation.

Um there's pastors, staff members, elders in this room right now.

Raise your hand if that qualifies for you.

Raise your hand.

Great.

There they are.

If you don't need to need hear another word and you just need to be obedient and go talk to one of those people, go ahead and do it now.

Nothing would make us happier.

I'm not trying to embarrass you.

I'm just feeling that there are some people who have been putting off, it's time to surrender Christ, right?

I need to get baptized.

Oh, there's this sin that's besetting me that I finally just need to confess.

I can't carry the weight of it anymore.

The Lord's calling me to do something that sounds half crazy and I haven't spoken it out loud, and I just need to get it off my chest so I don't lose it or keep it inside because it's like a fire in my bones.

If that's what you showed up here for this morning and it's time, go ahead and be obedient.

Just stand up, walk out, someone will follow you.

That's what we're here for.

We're here to hear from the Lord.

We're here to obey.

So you're welcome to do that.

Okay?

Just know that's an open invitation.

We'll have one again at the appropriate place for those of you who are linear thinkers like, come on, guy, let's get over here.

It'll be time at the end, but I just want to make space for that.

Good?

Thank you, Lord.

If you hear the Lord's voice again, do not harden your hearts like you did at Meribah.

I meet uh every Friday with a buddy of mine named Davy Fisher.

I'm super spiritual because it takes like an hour round trip, and I hate driving in the car.

We go meet for coffee for two mornings on Friday mornings, and he's what I would call a soul friend.

Uh, we meet for mutual accountability, encouragement, just try to dust for the fingerprints of God in our life, confession of sins one to another, that we might be healed.

Uh, and it's truly been a gift.

This last Friday I was out there with him, and he was talking to me about a bedtime ritual he has with his youngest son, Calvin, who's nine years old.

And Davey, like many dads, understands the weight and the gravity, the responsibility and the privilege of trying to raise up your children uh and understanding who God is and have a relationship with him and want to see God's faithfulness throughout every generation.

Amen and amen.

And so he they've had this little ritual that they started where uh Calvin will ask his dad, Davy, hey, tell me one thing about Jesus.

And I'll tell him one thing about Jesus.

And then Davy will ask Calvin, hey, tell me one thing about Jesus.

And I'll tell him one thing about Jesus.

And I'm like, oh, that's good.

I'm gonna steal that.

Can I have that?

He's like, yeah.

He said, so that's been going really good, but Chris, there's this area that I really don't know what to do with.

I said, what is it?

He says, anytime I ask Calvin to pray, he gets really embarrassed and shuts down.

Even at the dinner table, Calvin, do you want to pray?

No.

Uh and I don't I don't know what that's about.

And so we were having this great interaction the other night at bedtime, and I said to him, Hey Calvin, would you like to pray?

And immediately this back and forth talking about Jesus just stops.

He buries his head in the pillow, and I just hear a muffled, no.

So he rubs his hand on Calvin's back and says, Oh, buddy, what's going on there?

You know you can talk to Jesus like a friend and like you talk to me.

It's not that big a deal.

And Calvin lifts up his face and turns his uh eyes to his dad and says, Dad, I do talk to God, but he never talks back to me.

He said, Chris, what should I say?

I started patting my front pockets looking for my Marlboro red.

So I'm like Uncle Jimmy.

I'm like, I'm gonna need a minute here just to take a pause.

Like, we didn't cover that in seminary.

What would you have said to Calvin?

I talk to God, but he doesn't talk back to me.

Better yet, how many of you in here would say I am a child of God?

And I talk to God, but I've never heard him talk back to me.

I think it's your birthright to hear your father's voice.

I think it's one of the roles of the Holy Spirit to lead you, guide you, instruct you, and remind you.

And so this morning we're gonna look at a scripture and then we're gonna see what the Lord wants to unfold for us.

And I honestly want to put down a code of primer for how the people of God can hear the voice of God together.

Amen.

Amen.

So if you have your Bibles, we'll be in 1 Samuel chapter 3.

1 Samuel 3 · chapter mention

We're gonna read the whole chapter.

I'm gonna pray for us while you're turning there.

Father, would you give us eyes to see and ears to hear?

Jesus, would you go before us in this text and make a way?

And together we say, Speak, Lord.

Your servants are listening.

Amen?

Amen.

2 Samuel or 1 Samuel chapter 3.

1 Samuel 3 · chapter mention

The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli.

In those days the word of the Lord was rare, and there were not many visions.

One night Elizabeth, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord where the ark of God was.

Then the Lord called Samuel.

Samuel answered, Here I am.

And he ran to Eli and said, Here I am, you called me.

But Eli said, I did not call you.

Go back and lie down.

So he went and lay down.

Again the Lord called Samuel.

Samuel got up, went to Eli, and said, Here I am, you called me.

My son, Eli said, I did not call you.

Go back and lie down.

Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord.

That doesn't mean he didn't know God.

It means he wasn't yet familiar with his voice.

He understood who God was.

He was in the temple, but he hadn't had that personal interaction where he could discern the voice of the Lord.

The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

A third time the Lord called Samuel.

And he got up and he went to Eli and said, Here I am, you called me.

Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy.

So Eli told Samuel, Go and lie down.

And if he calls you, say, Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.

So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

Trying to keep my emotions under control.

The Lord came and stood there.

Come, Lord Jesus, come.

Calling as the other times, Samuel, Samuel.

And Samuel said, Speak, for your servant is listening.

And the Lord said to Samuel, see, I'm about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears tingle.

At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family from beginning to end.

For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about, his sons blasphemed God and failed to restrain them.

Therefore I swore to the house of Eli, the guilt of Eli's house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.

Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the Lord.

He was afraid to tell Eli the vision.

But Eli called to him and said, Samuel, my son.

Samuel answered, Here I am.

What was it he said to you, Eli asked, Do not hide it from me.

May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide anything he told you.

So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him, and then Eli said, He is the Lord.

Let him do what is good in his eyes.

The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel's words fall to the ground.

And all of Israel, from Dan to Bathsheba, recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord.

The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his words.

I'll say the word of the Lord if you'll say thanks be to God.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

So let's uh the text I just dropped you in, let's do a quick background and bio.

Let's click on Samuel's picture and see what information is in the bio.

Samuel, which literally means in Hebrew, Shema El, hear God, God hearer, or in the neighborhood, it's here comes herd God.

What's up, heard God?

Awesome.

Now, if you'll remember, he's an open adoption from Eli, his birth mother Hannah, came up to the temple to pray.

She's weeping and praying, saying, I want to have a kid, I can't have one.

Eli's like, What's up?

Why are you drunk?

Have you been hitting the boons farm at the festival?

She's like, No, apparently you've forgotten what it looks like when people are so desperate, their prayers are transformed into tears.

He said, My bad.

Hey, go home.

You're gonna have a child by this time next year.

She has a child, she says, Lord, I'm gonna dedicate him back to you.

And so she gives him back to God, and he is serving in the temple.

In this text, we say that Eli's sight is fading, and it's also a parallel for his influence in the position of priest.

But juxtaposed to that is the light and the lamp of the Lord that Samuel is spending the night by.

And Eli still has enough courage and confidence to teach Samuel how to listen and engage with the voice of God, which at the beginning of the text it says the word of the Lord was rare.

There was a famine in the land for the word of the Lord.

And I just wonder, was that because God wasn't speaking, or is it because his people weren't listening?

But Samuel continues to grow in admonition and fear of the Lord.

Now, this is Samuel, okay?

Which I would submit he belongs in the Hebrew Hall of Fame.

Like his resume is ridiculous.

He was a Levite and a Nazarite.

Like that's that's incredible back then.

That's great lineage.

He was Israel's last judge and first prophet.

He is one of eight people recorded in Scripture that God called by name twice.

That's nice.

He anointed two kings, right?

And then had to confront both of those kings for sins against God and their people.

Hey, by the way, for those of you who are in leadership, regardless of it, when you anoint other people to take leadership, your job's not done, it's just begun.

You have a responsibility to them.

And Eli, what's embarrassing here is because I can see so many patterns of this, God is being gracious to him and giving him an opportunity to bring up Samuel in his old age, but he has neglected his own sons.

And stepping to them and trying to restrain them and saying, hey, what you're doing, it's not right.

You stealing from the Lord and all the other stuff.

That's in the chapter before.

If you want to get in the nitty-gritty details of what they've done and evil eye, just takes a step back.

Even Samuel, who of it was said, everything he said from God came true.

Even Samuel needed help hearing the voice of the Lord.

And I would say, so do we.

We need help, we need practice, we need a community that helps us to figure out what it looks like to keep in step with the Spirit.

So simply this morning, all I want to remind you of is you have a choice to hear God's voice.

Speak, Lord.

Your servants are listening.

You have a choice to hear God's voice.

Now, I'm gonna go fast and furious.

Um there was a part of me that uh before I surrendered to ministry and preaching, uh, and I love it.

I wanted to be a college professor just because I had a really influential college professor.

I'm about to get my teacher on, okay?

And it's gonna move fast.

Some of you is gonna light you up like a Christmas tree, okay?

Don't try to take notes.

You can take pictures of screens, but what I again, what I'm gonna try to do is lay down a biblical primer for you so that you can start painting in the own colors of your personality, your community, and your ability to hear the voice of God and obey.

Not just make them ancillary additions, but the foundations of your life.

Now, two things, two caveats before we jump in, okay?

When I say hear the voice of the Lord, I don't mean audibly.

If you hear the voice of the Lord audibly, which I am not against or beyond or whatever, but if you do, I'll take two of what you're having.

And please come, I'd like to spend a silent retreat with you.

That would be awesome.

That's not something I I've gotten yet, but if I need to receive it, I will.

What I mean is God communicates to us in ways that we can understand.

And that is the Bible's job description of the Holy Spirit that you are given, that lives and reigns within you.

The Holy Spirit's job is to steal our salvation, reveal God's thoughts, and teach us and guide us.

The Holy Spirit handed you his business card.

Here are the titles that Scripture gives him comforter, helper, advocate, convictor, empowerer, reminder.

I want to remind you who you are.

That's not who you are.

Let me restrain that.

Right?

That's self-control.

Let's let's lean into that.

This is why uh, even if you consider this a cheesy saying, I don't care.

It's really, really accurate.

We want to be people who are word-fed and spirit-led.

Word fed, spirit-led.

When I say you have a choice to hear God's voice, I mean that God is communicating to you through the power of the Holy Spirit.

At least for me, this is what it looks like.

It's a really strong impression that leads to a compression.

And I pay attention to that.

So pay attention in your body, what does it feel like when you sense the power of the Holy Spirit reminding you who you are and what you need to step into?

For me, it twists right here.

I don't even know what that is.

Is that my upper intestine?

I call it splanka.

I'm like, it'll it'll drop down and I'll be like, oh, ooh, like I'll tighten up.

And my first reaction is sometimes I don't want to do that.

That's embarrassing.

Okay.

I don't want to grieve the Holy Spirit, Lord.

I want you to trust me.

And then sometimes, like just right before I stepped up, man, it it's it's this it's this weighted blank blanket over my heart.

And and my my body begins to feel like I just got out of a hot tub.

Do you know that?

Like it's it's totally relaxed and like what's going on?

Why all of a sudden I'm usually really amped up or adrenaline right before it's time to come up and pastor and preach, but all of a sudden it's just like, ooh, is that you?

What are you doing?

What would please you in this moment?

I also want to say that when I tell you you have a choice to hear God's voice, that is both a delightful and dangerous statement.

Um when you say the words God told me, it carries serious consequences.

In the Old Testament, if it wasn't God, you'd be put to death.

In the New Testament, we least need to give you an ecclesiastical.

Ecclesiastical time out and say, hey, we we need to rethink some of those things.

And at least in my community, we have uh several members who are coming out of cult experiences, and they need to know that, hey, there's a plurality of leadership where we practice mutual submission one to another under the authority of Christ.

And I understand some men and women have stood before you and said, this is what God said, to exploit you for their selfish and sinful desires.

I understand that's a real danger.

What I don't want though is that you decide not to hear the heavenly Father's voice because it is your birthright.

Do not sell it for a bowl of lentil stew.

We practice hearing the voice of God in community, and we practice mutual submission one to another.

All right.

Um, I'm trying to learn how to fix more stuff around the house.

And uh, do you guys know what quick creet is?

You ever use that junk, right?

Some of you real Texas guys are like, welcome to the party, buddy.

Um but I got like some uh brick culverts right in our front of our driveway, and we're constantly running them over and they're breaking or whatever.

And so I go out and I get that quick crete and I mix it up, and you slap it down, and some of you're like, that's not even what you're supposed to do.

It's tough, it's working.

Okay, and then it just goes, This is what I'm about to do.

This is gonna be quick crete, okay?

It's gonna go fast and furious.

All right, and as concrete as I can make it, because my son Simon, right, is like, ah, what do you mean, hear the voice of the Lord, Dad?

Okay, how God speaks, how to hear God when he speaks, and how do I know if it's really God speaking and not just me talking to myself?

Sound good?

How does God speak?

How do I know it's God when he speaks?

Uh yeah.

You got it.

We're gonna go through it.

Here we go.

It's really hard for me to be logical and linear.

All right, how God speaks.

First of all, his word.

God speaks through his word.

Uh, I love the African American uh professor who I was listening to.

He says, What does God sound like?

He sounds like what he wrote.

I can't say that that way, but he did it.

It was awesome.

What does the voice of the Lord sound like?

It sounds like what he wrote.

You want voice recognition software?

Eat it up, eat it up, yum yum, get you some.

It tastes like honey.

I want to digest it, right?

For the word of the God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing division, soul and spirit, joints and marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

God sounds like what he wrote.

And hear me, men and women.

This is why it's so much important for us to be word-fed, because at some point it's not just that we think about scripture, we start to think scripture.

Because you have the mind of Christ.

And it becomes reflex, not effort, it's reflex.

Why?

Because I'm marinated in that.

I'm learning the voice of my father, I'm learning his character, I'm learning the ways that he interacts with us.

Underneath his word, and I would put that, that's the banner over everything, okay?

The banner over everything, over which every other one of these categories falls.

God speaks through people.

Uh you ever got Saul's conversion and he comes to Ananias and he says, Hey Ananias, I'm gonna use you to speak to Paul.

And he's like, You mean the terrorist who's been knocking us off one by one?

Yeah, you're gonna go to his house, but I'm scared.

It's okay, let's go.

So he uses Ananias to speak to Paul.

God speaks through people.

Uh, real quick levity moment here.

Um, if God starts speaking through you, don't get really cocky about it, okay?

Don't think you're like super special.

One of my favorite artists, Rich Mullins, who's passed away.

He tells the story of a college professor who said, Hey, just so we're clear, God spoke through Balaam's jackass.

That's a donkey.

And if he speaks through you, chances are you're a jackass like the rest of them.

What am I trying to do?

Lighten up.

Hey, we're the children of God.

Let's try to figure out how to play and practice and discern the voice of God and let your children in on this, right?

Is there a reason why children learn foreign languages better at a young age?

When's the last time at the dinner table you looked at your son or daughter and said, What do you think God's trying to say to you today?

Let's listen to the voice of God together, speak the voice of God together.

And by the way, just so we know, people don't always agree about what the spirit is saying to them.

Right?

That's Acts 21.

The church, Paul finds the disciples, they get together on the beach, and it says they prayed through the Spirit and asked Paul not to go.

And Paul said, Thank you.

Goodbye.

This is just part of living in the context of community, of being led by the Spirit and trying to figure it out and walk through that.

God speaks to us through circumstances, God speaks to us through creation.

Anybody just feel the presence of Jesus in certain places?

For me, the trifecta is if I got woods, wind, and water, I'm like, thank you, Lord.

You love me today so much.

Oh, it's good.

It just helps my soul breathe.

I just picture myself holding Jesus' hands, like, hey, what do you want to talk about?

I'm so happy to be in your presence.

Um, music.

Music is a big deal, right?

There's that uh verse in 2 Chronicles where they started praising the Lord, and immediately their worship was a weapon and it routed foreign armies.

And it does something to our brains and our hearts, man.

The worship is incredible.

Uh, God speaks to us through thoughts and impressions.

We have the mind of Christ.

He speaks to us through pictures and images.

Psalms are full of that, the parables as well.

And he also speaks to us uh through dreams.

Um, that's also in Acts.

And also what we're noticing a lot of times in Muslim ministry is he's Jesus is appearing to Muslims in dreams because that's a big way to communicate in their culture.

That's not the norm for me.

I have friends who it is, I love it.

Um I had a dream one time when I was trying to lean into hearing the Holy Spirit's voice, uh, and I was hoping it'd be something really cool, but uh, it was my next door neighbor.

We're standing by a tree, there's a yellow ribbon tied around it, and we're talking, and Jesus is standing next to me and whispers to me, ask him if he's forgiven me for the death of his mother.

Boom, I wake up.

I tried to go back to sleep and forget it.

I didn't want to hear that.

Uh uh, that's not from him, that's not from him.

And the more I try to go to sleep, the more I wake I am.

Like, please, Lord, no.

That's so goofy.

Lord, that's not even theologically accurate, right?

You want to know if he's forgiven you?

So I go to one of my buddies, right?

Mutual submission, revelation, interpretation, application.

Hey, we were trying to lean into the voice of the Lord.

I'm like, man, check this out.

I had this weird dream last night, and like I felt like the Lord said, hey, to tell my neighbor, hey, have you forgiven me for the death of your mother?

I'm like, that's not right.

He's like, are you gonna be obedient?

That's not what I wanted to hear.

But I do want to be trustworthy.

Think God trusts his word to trustworthy people.

That was not fun.

Uh, I was like a junior high kid trying to ask a beautiful senior girl to the prom.

We're out hanging out.

And by the way, we're not great friends, we're like neighbor friends.

Like, hey, let's have a Miller Light and talk about Alabama football.

And I I try to live my life not being the weird pastor guy, but let's just embrace it.

We I wait till his kids go in.

It's weird.

Why am I hanging out this long in his backyard?

And finally it's him and his wife, and like, hey, Riley, uh, I just want to let you know, I've been praying for you, and this could be bad pizza or whatever.

I just need to tell you this.

Last night I had a dream.

Here's what happened.

And the Lord told, I felt like the Lord said to me, Um, have you forgiven him for the death of your mother?

His wife goes, and runs inside.

My Lord, this is not what's supposed to happen, Jesus.

He's like, Oh, yeah, that is weird.

Thanks, thanks for telling me.

Okay, bye.

Like, how do you recover from that?

This is me trying to learn my clarity and my confidence in the Lord.

Um, uh, eight months later, his wife would be in a Bible study with my wife, and they were talking about the gift of prophecy, and she shared that story.

She said, Riley had a lot of issues about his mom, the death, and how God fit into all that, and that wound up cracking open a conversation for him to re-engage in his relationship with God.

And you don't always get those stories when you're obedient.

You be obedient, the results are up to the Lord.

All right, I am losing time quickly, so uh here we go.

Okay, how do you hear God speak?

First, let me say here's why this is so important.

Because I'm around people and my heart breaks, they are desperate to experience the power in the presence of King Jesus and hear their father's voice.

And yet, so few people are willing to practice the presence of God daily by themselves.

And what this leads to is a haphazard chasing of random and rapturous spiritual moments that are devoid of any holy habits or discipline.

Let's redirect that energy chasing all this stuff around and see if we can't develop some holy habits that start to lead us to some holy hunches.

So I don't know if you, in Neil's words, I don't know if you woke up this morning and shaved your legs for this, but you ready for this brain buster?

Have a quiet time.

Spend time with the Lord in his word, in prayer.

Holy Spirit's job sometimes is just to remind you.

Word fed, spirit-led.

Here's some things that I would simply suggest when you do this.

Sit still and quiet yourself.

Smile back at God and say hi.

That's just something I do.

Uh by the way, the the Hebrew blessing, right?

May God be gracious to you and bless you and cause his face to may he turn his countenance to you and give you.

So that's saying you're asking the face of God to shut upon you.

What do you think the look on his face is?

Where the spirit of the Lord is there's freedom, and the joy of the Lord is our strength.

The definition of joy is the look on someone's face when they're happy to see you.

That's Dr.

Morning's out.

Hey, Abba.

Good to see you this morning.

I love you.

Thanks so much.

I want to be in your presence.

Exercise the authority of Christ over voices clawing and clamoring.

Our modern-day translation of this is called monkey brain.

The Bible would call this spiritual warfare.

Prayer is spiritual warfare to the last breath.

So you take authority over that stuff.

And when it when you find yourself like me going down a rabbit hole, just quietly come back, go, sorry, Lord.

I'm back.

Ask God to make his presence known to you.

Ask God to speak to you.

Speak, Lord.

Right?

Ask God to search your heart, bring up anything that needs his healing touch.

And then I also say, write down any impressions God gives to you.

This is the fun part, right?

Like I journal my prayers, but then I have a section down here like, hey Lord, what might you want to say to me?

I let him remind me who I am, just what we did here.

Hey, is there anything I need to do that I've been kind of putting off?

Hey, is there anybody you want to bring to my mind today that I need to reach out to?

Here's real fun.

I'm like, because a lot of times you're like, I gotta get stuff done.

I gotta get stuff done.

I gotta get stuff done.

So I'll I'll invite the Lord into that conversation.

Hey, here's the top three things I need to get done.

Which one, how do you want me to prioritize those?

Here's the thing I'm avoiding because I'm really afraid of it.

Okay, maybe I'll start with that first.

It's incredibly practical.

Um, hey, common barriers to hearing God, unrepentant sin, pride, busyness of life, distractions away from God, unresolved conflict with others.

Unforgiveness for others, lack of faith, and God lack of effort.

I don't do that to shame you.

I just let you know these are the obstacles in your way, and faith comes from hearing the word of God.

Lord, increase my faith.

God gives us both the will and desire to obey Him.

Lord, help my effort.

I want to respond to you.

What hearing God is not, it's not a trump card.

You don't get to come in the room and said, God said, and there's the end of discussion.

Quick note, I had a buddy in seminary.

Um uber, uber spiritual, right?

And he was dating this girl and they're uh on their way towards marriage, and then like he listened to a John Piper sermon and decided they need to break up for the glory of God.

And so he went over to her apartment and he said, Hey, look, I just felt like God told me we're supposed to break up.

And she looked at him and said, Well, God didn't tell me until he does, we're staying together.

Happily married.

Hey, hey, uh, and by the way, just a caveat: one of the most difficult places to hear the voice of God sometimes is in your romantic relationships.

So just make sure you got people helping you out there.

Um, it's not a hammer where you just go around beating people and beating things.

I think it's a pry bar that cracks open the coffin of your own self-condemnation and the crate of God so that you can experience his glorious riches with all God's saints and experience his incomparably great power for those of us who believe.

Therefore, there's no condemnation now for those of us who are in, yeah, you get the point.

Um, and then it's only for the super spiritual, wrong.

It's your birthright.

Stop wholesaling that out to paid professional ministers.

Our job is to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry.

Our job is to help you hear the voice of the Lord and obey it.

And I think another what hearing from God is not, it's not easy.

Takes practice.

Takes practice.

How do I know if I'm actually hearing from God or just talking to myself?

I would just say, hey, there needs to be confirmation with the scriptures, cooperation with the spirit, and collaboration with your spiritual family.

Bring those three things together, and then you're learning to hear the voice of the Lord in the context of community.

Uh I'll I'll I'll I'll try to do this really, really quickly.

And then um we're gonna sing, we're gonna pray, we'll be, we'll be dismissed.

Uh I what I really want is the spirit of God and the voice of God in the ordinary and the mundane tasks.

And so, just for example, right?

Like, I'm in the kitchen, I hate doing the dishes, I despise them.

It angers me.

My wife can do it, like it brings her joy to clean things up.

Like, it's just it's just natural for her.

And then I'm in the kitchen, I see dirty dishes, and I think, should I should I load the dishwasher?

Do I need to hear the voice of the Lord in that moment?

Or do I know I need to love my spouse as Christ loved the church?

And that is a simple sacrificial way to express that, right?

There's character stuff that I I don't always need that for.

And again, I want to hear the Spirit of the Lord when I'm talking to people and all this other stuff.

And it's not just for big stuff, I want to practice it in small stuff so that when big stuff comes, I can do it.

Most of us should wait for a time of crisis and say, speak, Lord.

He's like, I've been speaking the whole time, buddy.

Well, we haven't been listening.

We have four children, our last one's adopted.

Um, and in the journey of adoption uh for us, it was it was a big deal.

My wife wanted another child.

I'm like, have you seen our bank account?

Um I really think it and she yeah.

So we decide, okay, we're I think we're we're gonna pursue adoption.

A lot of circumstances, a lot of things happen in our ministry and our context that led us to that point.

Um, so we're in the beginning phrases of this.

I'm taking a shower one day, and I think I hear the voice of the Lord say, Your son's waiting for you in Africa.

And I hit the floor and start weeping.

Like, what, what, no, that's not it.

Are you kidding me?

What's going on?

Blah blah blah.

I share it with my wife.

I said, Here's what I heard, I don't know what that means, you know, blah, blah, blah.

She's like, okay, that was the moment that we started looking to adopt transracially outside of our own cultural whiteness.

Okay.

I'm from up north, I have a multi-rational family.

No big deal.

She's from the dirty south, big deal.

So we started working through that.

It's about a year into it.

We're saving, trying to figure it out.

We take a day to pray and fast.

It's Ash Wednesday.

We know if we're gonna do international adoption, we need to start now and start putting money towards that.

So we pray and fast.

I I said to the Lord, all I got was a headache that day.

He didn't talk to me.

All he did is remind me of the Abrahamic blessing.

I will make you the father of many nations.

Well, I would like something more specific, please.

Apparently, my wife, who just walks on Holy Spirit pixie dust, goes into the chapel, starts praying, and starts journaling.

She says, As soon as I started praying, Chris, Jesus just brought to my mind so-and-so, who was in high school.

She got pregnant, her parents set her away, and she put the child up for adoption.

I think we need to partner with a single birth mother who wants to bring their child to birth, not abort them.

Okay.

So was I wrong?

Did I hear the voice?

I just want to let you know, I I'm working through this as well, right?

I'm letting it continue to reveal and to partner and all this other good stuff.

I will tell you this.

There was a time, it took us about three years to bring Christopher home.

And there was a time I was really questioning it.

And I was like, I don't know if I can do this.

We had failed placements.

My wife was grieving children she never met.

Um, and I just as racial tensions continued to go up, Lord, am I hurting instead of helping?

I don't know if I'm really called to this.

Did I make all this stuff up?

So I'm cleaning out a closet uh in a bunch of journals, and this is back before I started journaling consistently, and I came across this one.

I'm like, oh, cool, one of my old journals.

Uh and I'm just praying the Lord, like, cool, uh, you want to encourage me with anything?

February 18th, 2003.

Bullet point number seven.

This is me just trying to figure out the voice of the Lord.

Like, here's what I some of the things I'm saying.

That God, I feel like you're saying to me some of my daddy wounds are still fresh.

Correct.

Hey, uh, speak value to my children this weekend.

It's okay to cut deep, but don't neglect speaking hope.

Gotcha.

Um, you may be asking me to enter a season of poverty.

Is this how you're gonna teach me to provide for the poor?

Am I adopt a son without a father, especially a black boy where the percentage is 80%?

I threw it down.

I threw it down.

I said, What is that?

What is that?

That's 18 years ago.

In seminary, I was listening to Focus on the Family on the radio, and they had a guy come in and talk about the African community and the epidemic of fatherlessness.

And I just was like, oh man, Lord, are you calling me like February 18, 2003?

Fourteen years later, or 10 years later, and 10 days later, Christopher would come home.

You have a choice to hear God's voice.

Speak, Lord.

Your servants are listening.

Amen.

Amen.

So we want to hear the voice of God clearly, preach the word of God clearly.

There'll be some prompts on the screen, which are just ways that we're trying to raise up your inner priesthood to hear the voice of the Lord.

Let's listen together.

And then we'll pray and bless you guys and get out here.

Here's what's happening at Grunkway Baptist Church.

Come kick off the Christmas season with us on Saturday morning, December 7th, from 9.30 to 11:30 a.m.

Our Christmas festival is a wonderful event for your whole family that includes bounce houses, Christmas trains, nativity with live animals, snow, and more.

Get your family registered through our website today.

Also help us get the word out in your community about this free event by picking up a yard sign and some flyers in our mission center or kids' lobby.

On December 18th at 6:30 p.m.

in the lobby of our worship center, all are welcome for Christmas carols, hot chocolate, and coffee.

Bring a friend who could use some Christmas cheer.

The stand is being replaced by Regeneration.

While the stand focused solely on men struggling with sexual sin, regeneration is a more comprehensive discipleship ministry.

The first session is on January 13th in the student building.

The doors will be open at 5 30 p.m.

For more information, please contact our men's pastor, Travis Dunham, at Travis at Grandparkway.org.

Spring midweeks are returning.

Our women-only Bible study begins on January 14th.

And the sessions for everyone, from preschool-aged kids to adults, start on January 15th.

Here are some course-offering titles.

Kids with a mission.

This is for preschool-aged kids.

Spark experimental learning.

This is for kids in kinder through third grade.

Bible parables for the fourth through sixth grade students.

Decode.

Understanding what gets misunderstood.

For 7th through 12th grade.

Engaging the Word.

For women only on Tuesdays.

For all adults, habits of grace in a hurried world.

Parenting in the Christian home.

Being human.

Eight ways human boundaries reflect God's Good Design and the Apostles' Creed.

What Christians believe, teach, and confess.

To find out more information about these classes or to register, look at the Midweeks page on our website.

For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org.

If you have any questions about the sermon, email them to Blake at Grandparkway.org.

Also, if you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

Awesome, would you stand with me?

If you're comfortable, put your hands out in a posture of receiving a speak of prayer, blessing over us.

Uh-oh, it looks like you got some opportunity to be word-fed and spirit-led.

So if you're trying to figure out where do I start with that, Yahweh always provides.

There you go.

Come forward, be faithful.

May you this week make the choice to hear God's voice.

May you take the chance to be spirit led and spirit fed, and may you accept the challenge, not only to be led by the Spirit, but to keep in step with the Spirit as you hear and obey.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and all God's people said, Go in grace and peace to love and serve the Lord.