YOU CAN HEAR GOD — Episode 2 Position Yourself to Hear

Sharing good news of great joy to all people.

Elation Church. Week number two in our series

that we've entitled, You Can Hear God. Look at

the person beside you and say, You can hear God.

You can hear God. Now, I can't tell you how many

times people have said, when we talk about hearing

God, they say, well, that's just not my experience.

I don't hear God. And a lot of people just want

the preacher to hear from God and then tell them

what God said. Well, that's what I want to do

too. I want to hear from God and I want to bring

a now word. Everybody say a now word. A now word

from God every week. But that doesn't mean that

you don't need to hear God too. We all need to

hear God. You need to hear God. After all, the

Bible is filled with stories, right? It's filled

with stories of people who heard God. So why

do we read these stories about people hearing

God and then sometimes we think, well, you know,

I don't necessarily hear God. Well, all these

people in the Bible, they heard God. They responded

to God. When God wrote a book, He did not quit

speaking. Jeffrey and I have written some books,

and when we wrote our books, we didn't go mute.

We didn't quit talking. Now, I'm not comparing

our books to the Bible, so don't get me wrong.

Don't say, how dare he, you know. I know that

our books are not perfect. You can find errors

in our books, even though we did the best that

we could do. But the Bible is perfect. There

are no errors in it. The only errors I found

while reading the Bible were errors within myself,

not in the Bible. Come on, somebody smile. Get

happy, something. Right? It exposed things in

me that needed to be changed. So, God did not

quit speaking when He wrote a book. We looked

at this last week. The Bible is God -breathed.

It's like God exhaling His truth. to the people

who penned it. He spoke to them, they wrote it

down, and it was spoken so it could be written

so that now we can speak it again. When an author

writes a book, he doesn't go mute. Now we're

going to talk about this in future weeks. I'm

glad we have the Word of God because God will

never speak to us and say to us anything that

will contradict what He has already said. So

it is our guidepost. It is the standard. But

everything that God has spoke to me in my life

hasn't been written in black and white in the

Bible. What about you? Has God spoke some things

to you that weren't in black and white? Things

about your personal future or personal direction

or personal situation? We don't find those things

in the Word, but... God wants to speak to us

concerning those things. Romans 8 .14 says this,

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are

children of God. All who are led by the Spirit

of God are children of God. What is this showing

us? When we are children of God, it's saying

that the Spirit of God is wanting to lead us.

God is wanting to lead us and guide us and direct

us in our lives. We're supposed to live Spirit

-led lives. Those all who are led by the Spirit

of God are children of God, and how can He lead

us if we never hear Him? Is that possible? Can

He lead us if we never hear Him? I think that'd

be difficult. Everyone needs to hear God. We

talked about this in week one. I can't re -priest

the whole thing, but it's on podcast. You can

look up the Galatian Church podcast and listen

to it if you want to, but everybody needs to

hear God because it's vital to our faith. The

Bible says without faith, it's impossible to

please God. Without faith. And then it tells

us where faith comes from. Faith comes by hearing,

and hearing by the Word of God. So we have to

hear before we can ever have faith, and we have

to have faith before we can ever please God.

So how many of you agree that hearing must be

important? How many of you agree that hearing

should be normal, should be the normal Christian

experience, should be hearing God? I just quoted

that verse. That's one of our focus verses from

last week. I might as well go ahead and throw

this out there. Faith comes by hearing. And the

thing that was like a wow moment for me last

weekend was I looked up the word and in the Greek.

I mean, who looks up the word and in Greek? I

did. It says, faith comes by hearing and hearing

by the word of God. I used to think faith comes

by hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing

and hearing. I thought that's what the and meant.

That we need to keep on hearing. Now, it's good

to keep on hearing. Look to the person beside

you and say, there's nothing wrong with keeping

on hearing. We need to keep hearing. But that

and, when there's two terms put together, I found

out in the concordance, when there's two words

put together with this word and between them,

the second or the following clause is giving

us information about the first one. It's explaining

the first one. So faith comes by hearing. Well,

what kind of hearing? Well, let me explain what

kind of hearing it's talking about. That's what

the and means in this sentence. Faith comes by

hearing. What kind of hearing? Well, hearing

the Word of God. And the Greek words here are

rhema christos. It means the spoken utterance

of God. Actually, the spoken utterance of the

anointed. So if we're going to have faith, we're

going to have to hear. Not necessarily with our

ears. Because I don't know if I've ever heard

God with my ears that are on the side of my head

like I normally hear in the natural realm. We

have to hear Him because He is a spirit. We have

to hear Him in the spiritual realm. And before

we can have faith, we've got to hear an anointed

utterance from God. What does anointed utterance

mean? It means that it needs to become now. It

needs to become personal. It needs to become

alive in us. Somebody smile. That was last week's

message. That was free. Part of last week's message.

John 10 verses 1 through 5. This is Jesus' parable.

John 10:1–5

He said, I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks

over the wall of the sheepfold rather than going

through the gate, must surely be a thief and

a robber. But the one who enters through the

gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper

opens the gate for him and the sheep recognize

his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep

by name and leads them out. After he has gathered

his own flock, he walks ahead of them. And they

follow him because they know his voice. They

won't follow a stranger. They will run from the

stranger. They run from him because they don't

know his voice. And Jesus has given us a parable

to let us know that his sheep hear his voice.

And they follow him. Now, back in this time,

there would be a large sheepfold where multiple

shepherds would come in and keep their sheep.

If they couldn't tend to them and take them out

to pasture, like maybe overnight or something

like that, they would bring them to a big sheepfold,

and there could be multiple herds of sheep in

the one sheepfold. And when the shepherd would

arrive, the gatekeeper would know that his sheep

were in there. he would go into the gate and

he would begin to talk. And then his sheep would

recognize his voice. And even though there might

be 300 sheep in the sheepfold, all of a sudden

his 50 or 60 sheep would hear his voice, recognize

his voice, and follow him out of the sheepfold.

The other sheep would not follow him because

he wasn't their shepherd. They would wait to

hear the voice of their shepherd. They didn't

have to separate them. They didn't have to brand

them. They didn't have to put marks on them,

like putting your initials on it, like you're

carrying a... Anybody play softball or baseball

growing up? Do you put your name on your glove?

My parents put my name on my glove like four

times. Because they didn't want anybody else

going home with my glove. Nobody would go home

with my glove because it was marked. Well, they

didn't have to mark the sheep. They didn't have

to, you know, put a certain color on them or

something to know whose sheep they were. They

knew the shepherd. And they followed the voice.

Every single one of us can hear God. If Jesus

said, my sheep hear and recognize and know and

follow my voice, then if we are his sheep, we

should know his voice. We should hear his voice.

We should recognize his voice. That's what this

series is about. We're wanting to help everyone

who comes to... to understand how important it

is, to take hold of how important it is to hear

God and to come to the point where you can recognize

His voice. Because there may be some people in

the room who say, well, I just don't hear God.

Maybe you are hearing Him and you don't recognize

that it's Him. We talked about that last week.

But we can hear God. And it's important that

we do. I want to run through this story again

real quick. As I was saying this story last week,

all of a sudden some things came out of my mouth

and I'm like, I've never thought that before.

I've never said that before. I've never recognized

that before. And it fits right in with what we're

going to talk about today. I went to Romania

a couple of times on a mission trip. And Ploiest

has an I on the end of it. I don't think you

pronounce the I, Ploiesti or whatever. It's okay.

I'm not good with foreign languages, as most

of you know when I try to read them. But I was

there on a mission trip, and we were going to

minister at a women's prison, and I was with

a group from my home church in Alabama. And we

were riding in a van, and we had no interpreter.

The guy driving the van was from the church.

He spoke no English. We spoke no Romanian. We

were just riding. All of a sudden, we're down

this two -lane road. All of a sudden, he puts

on the brakes really hard, and he starts blowing

the horn. I mean, I'd been busy talking with

the guy sitting beside me, and all of a sudden,

I look up, and this is not an actual picture

because it's so long ago, the picture would be

blurry. It wouldn't be 4K like this that you

can see. He rode up on a group of sheep that

were across the road. And he rode up right to

them. I mean, he was very close. I mean, you

could touch the front of the van and touch a

sheep. That's how close he was if you were in

front of the bumper. And he was blowing the horn

because he wanted those sheep to get out of his

way. And you know what the sheep did? They went...

They didn't get out of the road, but they got

all nervous. They were moving around. They didn't

want to be the sheep closest to the van anymore,

but they would not get out of the road. And then

I looked over to my right. There was a house.

It was just surrounded by... I guess farms or

whatever, but there was one house. And I looked

over there, and there's a lady. I shared this

last week. Not many houses in Romania, people

don't keep their yards. They don't cut the grass

and have flowers and all that kind of stuff.

They just let it grow. This lady, however, she

was taking care of her yard. It might have been

the only yard I saw the whole time I was there

that looked like somebody cared about it. Well,

all the sheep weren't just in the road. They

were completely filling her front yard too. Some

of them were even eating. Which was not good

since she had some flowers around the house.

So, I see this lady. She has a broom in her hand.

And she's coming off the front porch, just swinging

that broom at those sheep, trying to get those

sheep out of her yard. What were the sheep doing?

They didn't want to be the sheep closest to the

broom. But they weren't moving out of the yard.

They weren't moving out of the road. We had to

sit there more than five minutes. Horn blowing,

lady swinging a broom, sheep just... They don't

want to get hit, but they're not going anywhere.

All of a sudden, a man appears from the side

of the house. And he walks out. He's not screaming

now. He's not the loudest voice. Everybody say

that. He's not the loudest voice. The horn is

way louder than he is. The lady's screaming,

swinging the broom. She's way louder than he

is. I can hear her. I can hear the horn. I cannot

hear this guy. He's just walking out, but I can

see his mouth moving. And as he walks out, he

walks through the sheep. He walks into the road,

walks across the road, and every single one of

those sheep follow him. He wasn't the loudest

voice, but listen to me. His voice was doing

something that those other voices were not doing.

Oh, don't miss this. His voice was doing something

that the other voices were not. I want to say

it again. His voice was doing something that

the other voices were not. The sheep were no

longer in a panic mode. All of a sudden, the

sheep were flooded with peace. The sheep were

giving clarity. They were giving clarity. They're

like, oh, there's my shepherd. I think I'm going

to follow him. All of a sudden, they began to

ignore the horn and ignore the lady. The horn

was still blowing. The lady was still screaming.

But the sheep, all of a sudden, lost all that

turmoil, everything going on around them that

was scaring them, overwhelming them. All that

stuff just lost its... when they heard the voice

of the shepherd and they followed him. They just

followed him. And they were all out of the road

and we proceeded to go. Lady went back in her

house. It was all over. Because the sheep heard

the voice of the shepherd. His voice wasn't the

loudest voice. We need to hear God. Jesus says

that he's the good shepherd. The Bible tells

us that Jesus is the good shepherd. Jesus says

that his sheep hear his voice. They know his

voice. They follow him. Hearing God is something

that's now and personal. We talked about that

last week. His words bring peace. His words bring

clarity. His words bring direction. So if we're

ever at a point... Hello, somebody. If anybody

in this room, including myself, if we're ever

at a point where we need peace, where we need

clarity, where we need direction, we need to

hear the voice of God. That didn't happen in

Romania just by happenstance. God continues to

use that to speak to me. Last week we talked

about this. Every Christian has already heard

God. If you're a Christian, you had to hear God.

Because you're saved by grace. It's a gift of

God. It's God's goodness and favor. His acts

of goodness and favor towards us that we don't

deserve. But we receive it by faith. So the good

news about Jesus had to become personal, had

to become alive in our hearts. It had to call

us to repentance and call us to confess Jesus

as Lord. We had to hear that. Now we may think

that that was just the preacher. Now, how many

of you can look back over your life and say,

well, I've heard the preacher a lot, but I only

heard that the way that I heard it that one time.

Hey, my dad was a preacher. I heard the gospel

a thousand times probably before I heard it.

Before it was a rhema Christos, a now word for

me. And that's when I received Christ. And I've

never been the same since. But it all began with

hearing God's voice. Now, I didn't understand

that at that time. But I understand it now, looking

back on it. Have you ever been in a service where

you're like, God spoke to me today? And the funny

thing is, somebody right beside you could say,

I didn't get nothing. I think the preacher needs

to pray more or study more or something. Because

I didn't get nothing except a good nap time out

of this. But somebody else sitting right beside

you could say, I heard God today. I heard Him

speak to my heart. The Word came alive. That's

the difference. That's the difference. Today

we're going to look at a story in Luke chapter

Luke 10:38–42

10, verses 38 through 42. And I want you to keep

the sheep in mind. Keep that story in mind as

we look at this story. Now it happened as they

went that he entered a certain village. And a

certain woman named Martha, everybody say Martha.

Martha welcomed him into her house. And she also,

and she had a sister called Mary. Everybody say

Mary. Who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his

word. But Martha was distracted with much serving.

And she approached him, Jesus, and said, that's

what she said, Lord. Do you not care that my

sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore,

tell her to help me. Make her get up and come

into the kitchen and help me. Can't believe she's

not helping me. And Jesus answered and said to

her, Martha, Martha. I'm going to calm you down

here. I need to bring it down a notch. Martha,

Martha. Martha, Martha. You are worried and troubled

about many things. But one thing, everybody say

one thing. One thing is needed. And Mary has

chosen that good part which will not be taken

away from her. In the story we see that Martha

invites Jesus. And there were other people too.

I think some of the other disciples were there.

She invited Jesus over to her house. With the

intention of spending time. Getting to know him

better. Isn't that a good way to get to know

somebody? Is to go eat with them. Go hang out.

Spend some time together. Share a meal together.

So that was Martha's intention. Something happened

along the way. Martha comes to the point where

she confuses proximity with intimacy. She wanted

Jesus in her house. But she was so busy, she

wasn't spending any time with him. And there's

a difference between proximity and intimacy.

Just like there's a difference between reading

your Bible and hearing God, or praying and hearing

God, or coming to church and hearing God. All

those things are good things. Let's not confuse

proximity, just getting around the things of

God. Hello? Because so many times we think if

we can just get around the things of God, then

that's the goal. But that's not the goal. Don't

confuse proximity with intimacy. Jesus was in

her house. But she wasn't spending any time with

him. The Bible tells us three things about Martha.

Everybody say three things. Just because I want

you to stay engaged and not wander off into a

daydream. This text tells us three things about

Martha. Martha was distracted. Everybody say

distracted. There's the Greek word. I'm not going

to try to pronounce it. It means to be distracted,

to be pulled away. or to be over -occupied. We

need to think about these things. Because these

things that Martha is described by these things,

these are the things that will keep us from hearing

God. Don't need to say that again. These are

the things that will keep us from hearing God.

Being distracted. Being pulled away. Being over

-occupied. They kept Martha from hearing Jesus.

Jesus also lets us know a couple of more things

about Martha. Martha was worried. Everybody say

worried. There's the Greek word. And here's the

definition. She was anxious. She was worried.

She had cares that seemed more important. These

things, just like they kept Martha from hearing

God, they will keep us from hearing God. And

then, Jesus also said that she was troubled.

Here's the Greek word. Here's the definition.

To disturb. To make an uproar. To trouble. So

she was troubled. And her trouble and her worry

and her distraction had ramped her up to an uproar.

Has anyone ever been ramped up to an uproar before?

Come on, somebody. Smile. Take ownership. We

all have. She was disturbed. Now her inward uproar

becomes an outward uproar. Her inward trouble

becomes an outward trouble. Don't shout me down

while I'm preaching good. She was distracted,

she was worried, and she was troubled. And those

things were keeping her from hearing God. Who

wants to hear God? These are some things that

will keep us from hearing Him. I mean, just get

in Martha's mind for a moment. Everybody's here.

Oh no, did I sweep under the couch? What if Jesus'

foot pulls out some lint from somewhere? What

if Jesus gets dog hair on His robe? I mean, I'm

not ready. They got here ten minutes before I

thought they were going to get here, and I'm

just, I'm freaking out. I hope we have enough

room. How many disciples did He bring with Him?

Hope I have enough knives and forks for everybody.

I sure hope everybody likes Brussels sprouts.

I see the faces of some of you. I have so much

to do. I am overwhelmed. Where is my sister?

For crying out loud, where is my sister? Why

is she not helping me? Why am I doing all this

by myself and nobody's helping me? My sister

Mary, she is such a deadbeat. I'll tell you what

I'm going to do. I'm going to barge in the room

and I'm going to tell Jesus to make her get up

right now and come help me. Is that what happened

or not? Am I reading too much into the story?

Is that the story? Now, I just got in her brain

with my glorified imagination, but that's the

story. I don't know if they had Brussels sprouts

or not, but that's the story. That's the story.

Jesus' words were filling Martha's home. I have

no doubt that she could hear the sound. Of his

voice. But there's a problem. Because her thoughts.

Were louder. And took priority. Over. The voice

of God. I'm just sitting here. Just laying it

here. Is that alright? Does this apply to anyone

in the room? Anyone in the room? Do we allow

the thoughts about what's going on, what's around

us? Now listen, just like those sheep. What am

I going to do? What am I going to do? Somebody's

springing a broom at me. There's a big van. It's

blowing a horn at me. What am I going to do?

I don't know what I'm going to do. I might die.

I'm really scared right now. I don't know what

to do. Don't know what to do. Don't know what

to do. Does anybody let their thoughts get louder

than the voice of God? This should make your

nerves good. It can be better. I'm here today

to tell you it can be better than what you're

experiencing today. It can be better. You just

need to hear His voice. Because when the shepherd

walked through the sheep, all of a sudden, there's

direction. There was peace. There was no longer

chaos. Bye chair. See you later. of God. Wait

a minute. There's a chair being moved. Can't

hear God. I'm distracted. There's a chair. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Wait a minute. Can't hear the preacher.

There's a chair. Somebody's getting a chair.

There's Buffy. She's getting a chair. And we

wonder why we don't hear God. We've got to hear

God. Because we're all going through situations

and circumstances right now where it's vital

that we hear God. But we're always distracted.

We're always worried. We're always troubled.

Look at the person beside you and say, be merry.

See, Martha became so focused and overwhelmed

with the natural things around her that she lost

sight of the spiritual. And she didn't realize

that the spiritual can transform the natural.

Right in the middle of the chaos, when she comes

in there and says, Jesus, make my sister get

up and come help me. Because she had blown her

top. Jesus looks at her and says, Martha, Martha.

There's only one thing. Really, when it comes

down to it, only one thing is needed. Only one

thing is necessary. And that's what your sister

chose to do. And no, I'm not going to make her

get up and come help you right now. Because she

chose the best thing. And I'm going to ad -lib

a little bit here too. Jesus said, look, I don't

care if you just run down the street and go to

Taco Bell, the meal's not what's most important.

What's most important. is that we can spend time

together. And you know what? He's still saying

that today to every single one of us in this

room. What's most important in your life, what's

most important today, what's most important right

now isn't the lady swinging the broom. It isn't

the van blowing the horn. What's most important

right now is not the food. What's most important

right now, spend a little bit of time with me.

Because if you spend a little bit of time with

me, and you hear me, I'm going to be just like

that shepherd in Romania. I'm going to bring

peace in the middle of chaos. I'm going to bring

clarity. I'm going to bring direction. I know

you don't know where to go or what to do, and

you're spinning out of control right now, but

I'm going to bring some clarity and direction

into your life if you will just spend some time

with me. Undistracted. Putting aside all the

distractions, putting aside all the worry, putting

aside all the trouble, just come spend some time

with me. And if you do, your life is going to

be so much better. So much better. What did Mary

do? From verse 39, we see that she chose to sit

at Jesus' feet and hear His words. There's a

difference. Between hearing and listening. Martha

could hear. But she wasn't listening. And the

Greek word that describes the way that Mary heard

carries with it the idea of listening. Here's

a Greek word. Here's a translation. To hear.

So hearing, right? But it also means to listen.

I got a friend in Texas who preached at a lot

of our events and stuff, and he would always

say, I know you can hear me, but if you're listening,

say I am. And he would make everybody say I am.

He would just keep saying it until everybody

in the room said I am. I'm listening. I'm focused.

I'm intentional. I'm not just hearing. Like when

we go to church so many times, we're just hearing,

but we're not listening. Because we're distracted.

We're thinking about, well, what am I going to

have for lunch today? Hope the preacher don't

go quite as long as he did last week. Has she

colored her hair? That's about the brightest

shirt I've ever seen. We're so distracted. We're

worried. I got this going on in my life and I

just don't know how it's going to work out. I'm

just so upset and I'm so worried. I just don't

know. Sitting here right now, listening to the

Word of God, you're just like, that preacher

really don't know what I'm going through. He

don't know the trouble that I'm facing right

now. He don't know. And I mean, he's up there

talking and I can't really listen because, You

know, what's happening to me has never happened

to him before. It might apply. It might preach

a good message, but it really don't apply. I'm

telling you, it applies. There is no situation

that you face that the Word of God does not speak

to and does not apply. Every single one of them.

Hallelujah. To hear, to listen, to understand.

So it's not just hearing some noise, it's listening

and then it's understanding. It's both a physical

act of hearing, but it's also the deeper understanding

of what is heard. See, Mary wasn't just sitting

there thinking about everything else going on

in her world. No, she's listening to understand.

And that takes intention. The kind of listening

she was doing was beyond just hearing noise.

But it was attentive. And it even includes this.

An attentive and obedient response to what is

heard. She was listening to understand and she

was listening to follow the shepherd who was

speaking to her. It wasn't just hearing for more

intellectual experience. It was hearing with

the anticipation for it to be applied to her

life. Hallelujah. I want to tell you, God is

speaking to you. Whether you've heard Him or

not, He's speaking to you. I believe He's speaking

to you every day. I believe every time you face

any situation in life, I believe He starts speaking

to you. Because He's a speaking God. He's a faith

God. And He knows you can't reply in faith unless

you hear Him speaking. So He's speaking. He begins

to speak to you. Listen. Only those who are positioned

to hear are going to hear. I'm going to say that

again because most of you are looking at me with

a really, like, how dare you tell me that kind

of face. God is speaking, but the only way we're

going to hear Him is if we're positioned to hear

Him. He's not going to smack us upside the head

and say, listen. He's not going to grab us by

the shoulder and say, listen to me. Mary was

positioned to hear. She was at his feet. She

was focused. And because of that, we don't know

what words she heard, what words she applied,

but we know how she was listening. And listen,

if we would have heard the words that Jesus was

saying that day, maybe our focus would be on

what he said instead of what we need to do to

hear. Just a thought. But the purpose of the

story is not what Jesus was teaching that day.

It was how important it is to position yourself

to hear from God. I'm glad y 'all are having

fun because I'm having a blast. Jesus said one

thing is necessary. One thing is necessary. And

my question for you today is what is necessary

in your life today? What is the most necessary

thing? Jesus said one thing is necessary. That

doesn't mean we never do anything. It doesn't

mean that we all move off to some monastery and

sit in a dark room with candles and go... What

it does mean is it's necessary for each one of

us to seek first the kingdom of God. Most important.

One thing. Seek God. Every day. Every situation.

One thing is necessary. Hear God. Spend some

focused, intentional, intimate time with God.

Receive a word from Him. And since He is your

good shepherd, His word is going to bring you

the peace that you desire. His word is going

to bring the joy that will give you strength.

His word is going to bring you direction. His

word is going to bring clarity to the situation

that you're facing. His word is going to give

you spiritual wisdom and insight that cannot

be obtained by human reasoning. His word is going

to give you revelation Does anybody in the room

realize that's what we really need? That's what

we really need. Because when we have that, that's

going to take care of every other thing. If we

only believe God is big enough. Listen, we can

go through the religious mechanical activities.

of praying. All right, I've got to pray five

minutes, ten minutes every day. I've got to pray

before every meal. So I've got to go through

this series of vain repetition things that I've

memorized, and I've got to go through that, or

God's not going to be happy with me. So we go

through this spiritual mechanical activity of

praying, of reading our Bible. Hey, we're even

sending you, read a chapter a day in the New

Testament, so we see how fast we can read it,

so that we can check that off. I finally caught

up. You know, I was three weeks behind, but I

finally sped red as fast as I can to catch up.

So, you know, God's happy now. The preacher's

going to be happy now because I've read my Bible

reading plan. This is a thing of the past. We

go through the spiritual mechanical activity

of going to church every week. Somebody say every

week. Hallelujah. Every week. all those things

and still not experience God's presence or hear

His voice. Because it's more than just spiritual

mechanical activity. It's more than that. What's

it going to take? What's it going to take for

us to position ourself to hear the voice of God?

What's it going to take? Well, first of all,

we have to believe that He's speaking to us.

We have to believe that He's concerned about

us. We have to believe that He cares. And we

have to believe that He's big enough. To lead

us and guide us. We've got to believe that. Because

if you don't believe that He wants to speak to

you and help you, and that He's big enough to

help you, if you don't believe that, well then

you're just wasting your time. You've got to

believe it. You've got to believe that it's possible.

But you can sit back and believe that it's possible

all day long and nothing really ever come of

it because you've got a desire to hear the voice

of God. You've got to want to. You've got to

come to the point where you realize just how

important it is and then that becomes your desire.

And then after you believe it and after you desire

it, Then you've got to expect it. Expectation

is a big part. God, I believe that you want to

speak to me. God, I desire for you to speak to

me. And we can get locked up right there and

never have any expectation. God, I expect you

to speak to me. God's not a vending machine.

You can't put in 37 seconds and pull the trigger

and all of a sudden in a speaker coming out of

the vending machine, this is God. I have a word

for you. I think Jeffrey put some low end in

my microphone. Hello. Normally it's so thin I

can't. It could still take some more low end

for the explosion moments, but anyway. You have

to expect. Expect to hear from God. And then

you've got to do something about your priorities.

You have to prioritize some time with God. How

many people in the room are busy? Am I the only

busy person in the room? I've had things on my

to -do list that have been there over 10 years.

We're busy. And some people might be sitting

there saying, I don't have any time for God.

What do you think? Follow me around and see how

much free time I have to get together with God

today. You're not the only busy one. It has to

become a priority. It has to be the one thing

that's non -negotiable and most important to

you. You've got to prioritize for it to happen.

Just like everything else in your life. Hello?

We prioritize a lot of things. But the Bible

says there's something that we need to seek before

everything else. And Jesus said that there's

one thing that's most necessary above every other

thing. And listen. This time with God will make

a difference in all the rest. It'll make a difference

in all the rest. So we have to prioritize. And

we've got to acknowledge. That word just keeps

burning in my heart. We've got to acknowledge.

That God is not way out somewhere beyond the

Milky Way in some heaven that, boy, if it takes

light, you know, thousands of years to get here.

Where is God? You're the temple. He's in you.

God is in you. God the Holy Spirit is in you

and with you all the time. He's closer than the

person sitting beside you right now because He's

in you. And He's saying, I want to be your comforter.

I want to be your helper. He's actually saying,

I am your comforter. I am your helper. I am your

peace. I am your victory. I am your life. I am.

And you keep searching for all those other things

from the external. You keep searching for those

things just in your human intellect and reasoning.

I am those things. Spend some time with me. Spend

some time with me. And I'll show you how you

can have it all. Then you have to act. Because

it's one thing to believe, desire, expect, prioritize,

and acknowledge, but if you never spend time

with God, You can do all those things and never

spend time with him. Because you can, there's

always, always, always an opportunity to be distracted,

to be worried, to be troubled. You're not the

only one in this room. Every single one of us

have that opportunity constantly. We've got to

come to it. Be with him. That has to rise to

the top of our list on a daily basis. that has

to rise to the top of our list of first response.

Hallelujah. Ultimately. If you want to hear God's

voice, you've got to put your hand on the volume

button. That'll put your soul on the volume button.

That'll put your spirit on the volume button.

Because if you're going to hear Him, you're going

to have to turn down the importance of all the

other external voices and internal voices. You've

got to turn down the importance of those and

turn up the importance of God's voice. And it's

all a decision that we're individually going

to have to make. I can't make that decision for

you. You can't make it for me. But I'm telling

you, I promise you, I guarantee it, that if you

will, your life will be different. Life will

be different. This online worship experience

was brought to you by the friends and partners

of Elation Church. Over the years, Jeffrey and

I have learned that the greatest battles we face

are usually fought in our minds, but won with

our mouths. When we've chosen to speak God's

promises in the face of our fears, failures,

and problems, we've seen God do what only He

can do. This truth has changed our lives, and

it's why we wrote Talk to Your Giants, to show

you how to fight the good fight of faith, speak

in agreement with God's Word, and discover the

victory that comes when you stop talking about

your giants and start talking to them order your

copy of talk to your giants today on Amazon