Experiencing God: Week 3

I have a friend who lives across the country, which

means we hardly ever rarely see each other, we hardly

have time to speak. But when we do talk on

the phone, it's like we just pick up where we

left off. We don't miss a beat. And my friend

is the most encouraging. And when I talk to him,

I feel so supportive, I feel so encouraged, I feel

so cheered on. He just like lifts my spirits. And

nearly every time we speak on the phone, before we

hang up, my friend almost always says the same thing.

He says, it's so good to hear your voice. And

I don't know how to quite explain it, but that

like touches my heart. It's so good to hear your voice.

It encourages me, It makes me feel seen, it makes

me feel heard, like he knows my voice. He's looking

forward to me talking with him, like it's so good

to hear your voice. Do you know what it's like

to hear from God in your life? Has there been

a moment where you felt God speaking to you, God

prompting you, God guiding you. Maybe you knew immediately like, yes,

that's God, I recognize that, no doubt God is talking

and showing me the way. However, if you're like me,

hearing from God can feel intimidating. It can be challenging

and very daunting. I mean, I don't know about you,

but I've often second guests myself wondered was that my thought?

Or was that from God? Or was that my own feeling?

You know, have you ever second guest or doubted what

you heard was from God. We're in this message series

that's called Experiencing God, and it's based on a book

by that title written by Henry Blackaby. And the whole

idea is that we can encounter God, we can experience God,

we can follow God. We experience God when we recognize

and hear his voice. We experience him when we listen

to his voice. And now we got to be honest.

Life is full of interruptions. Life is full of pressure

and obligation and responsibility and stress. Let's not kid ourselves.

Life is stressful. Life is hard, and hearing God can

feel challenging with all these other messages and challenges and disruptions.

But today I want to say, you can hear from God.

You can hear from God even in all of the interruption,

even all the confusion you can hear from God. And

I believe that if we will look at God's word

and apply what we learn from God's word, you will

be able to distinguish, recognize, and hear God's speaking in

your life even with all of the other disruption and

confusion and distraction. And so with that being said, we're

gonna turn to God's word right now. We're gonna open

it John chapter ten. In this passage, Jesus uses a

metaphor of a shepherd and his sheep and how the

sheep listen to the voice of the shepherd. So let's

start reading. In John ten, verse two, Jesus says, the

one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of

the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and

the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own

sheep by name and leads them out. When he has

brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them,

and his sheep follow him because they what.

Know his voice.

But they will never follow a stranger. In fact, they

will run away from him because they do not recognize

a stranger's voice. So in this metaphor, Jesus is the

shepherd and we who follow him are like the sheep.

We know his voice, we hear his voice. In just

a moment, we're gonna watch a short video of a

herd of sheep. You may have seen this on the internet.

You'll notice that there are some tourists and each one

of these onlookers they try to call and get the

sheep attention, but the sheep ignore the tourists. But watch

what happens when the last person, when the shepherd calls

to the sheep.

Let's watch this the canny.

King now, now, yeah.

About looking up.

Let us, oh, listen to what Jesus says in verse fourteen.

I'm the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my

sheep know me, just as the Father knows me, and

I know the Father. I laid down my life for

the sheep. Jesus is the shepherd, and we can know

his voice. We can follow his voice, and notice here

what it says. Jesus says, I laid down my life

for the sheep. Jesus laid down his life for you

and me when he died on the cross for our sins.

He was the sacrifice for the payment for our sins.

He gave his life for us. That's how much Jesus

loves you. Because sin has separated us from God, the Father.

Sin has alienated us from him, but Jesus's death brings

that relationship, restores that relationship. Knowing God's voice begins with

knowing Jesus. Jesus is how we know the voice of God.

You will hear God's voice in your life only if

you know God. And the only way to know God

is to put your faith in trust in Jesus as

the Lord and savior of your life. Jesus goes on

in verse twenty seven, My sheep listen to my voice.

I know them, and they follow me. I give them

eternal life, and they shall never perish. This is the

gift that Jesus gives you when you trust him as

your lord and savior. He gives you eternal life by

his death on the cross and his resurrection. Our sin

is forgiven, our past is paid for. All of our

sin has been paid by the sacrifice of Jesus, and

he offers us eternal life. And so when you trust

Jesus as you're savior, you have a relationship with God.

You see, God is not just far away. God is

not just distant God is not just removed and unapproachable.

When you trust Jesus, God comes in your life. You

have a personal relationship. You can speak with God, you

can hear from God, you can know God. To know

Jesus is to know God. I like what Henry Blackaby writes.

He says, knowing God's voice is not a matter of

honing a method or discovering a formula. Recognizing God's voice

comes from an intimate personal relationship. Knowing God's voice begins

with knowing Jesus. It's relationship. It's ironic that Jesus calls

himself the Good Shepherd because my son's name is Shepherd.

He's nearly two years old, and it's a cool God's

story how we chose that name, if you ever want

to hear it. But Shepherd has known me for his

entire life, for all twenty one some months he's been alive,

sixteen thousand plus hours that he's existed. He has always

known me. We have a relationship, and he knows my voice. Recently,

Shepherd and I were here at the church outside on

the sea sidealk I was talking to another church member

and Shepherd was enjoying a snack. He is never more

happy than when he has a snack in each hand.

And now the corner of my eye, I noticed that

Shepherd had finished his snack and he was walking down

the sidewalk toward the parking lot. And just before he

stepped off the sidewalk into the parking lot, I shouted, Shepherd, stop.

What did he do? He stopped, and he turned and

he looked at me. Because he knows his father's voice.

We have a relationship. You can know the voice of

the heavenly Father. You can hear him speaking to you.

Jesus said, my sheep, listen to my voice. And sometimes God,

the Father will say stop, don't do that, don't go there,

don't follow that person, don't be with them. Are you listening?

Other times he might say, go do this, go here.

Are you listening? You might be reading the Bible and

God will show something to you from the pages of

scripture that just speak to your heart, speak to your situation.

Are you listening? He might speak to your mind, put

a thought in your heart, a prompting Are you listening?

Or are there competing voices distracting your attention from the

voice of the Father? Look again at our text. What

does Jesus say about competing voices. In verse five, he says,

they the sheep will never follow a stranger. In fact,

they will run away from him. Why because they do

not recognize a stranger's voice. There are a number of

strange voices competing for your attention. There are distracting voices

competing for your attention, distract you from the Father. Do

you ever have those internal voices or thoughts? The negative

self talk, the intrusive thoughts, the shameful thoughts, the accusing

thoughts that fill you with fear, that fill you with anxiety,

that make you second guess or doubt yourself or doubt

your identity in Christ. And then there's there's external voices.

Sometimes there's external unfair criticism. Now, I believe that constructive

criticism is helpful. We should always seek wise counsel and advice.

But sometimes you may encounter from time to time unfair,

undeserved criticism that attacks your motives, that attacks your character.

It might be a relative, a coworker, a classmate, a boss.

And sometimes it's somebody else's insecurity or their fear or

their anger, and you're just a convenient target for their unfair,

harsh criticism, and that can be a distracting voice. What

about the voices in the culture that just distract and

pull for our attention. This culture we live in is

full of competing, distracting voices. Everybody's got an agenda, everybody's

got an ideology, everybody's pushing something. You can look on

social media, self proclaimed influencers, cable news, podcasts, whatever. Everybody's

got something and an opinion, a perspective. Ten steps to

a better you, three steps to your best life in

all of this agenda. Personally, I watch a lot of

YouTube videos when I have downtime or free time, and

they're generally helpful informative things, and I use it as

a way to get more knowledge. And so if i'm driving,

I'll turn on a podcast, if I'm exercising, listen to

like a leadership interview, you know, trying to learn and

get more knowledge. But at the beginning of this spiritual

growth journey that we're in, I felt the Lord speaking

to me, and the Lord showed me that those YouTube

videos are really just noise and distraction, and it showed

me that I'm addicted to YouTube videos because I found

myself whenever I was bored going there to watch a video,

or if I wanted to distract myself from something stressful

or difficult, I would go there and watch that. And

I told myself, well, this is a passive way to

get knowledge, to be a good learner, but really was

just filling my mind with noise and distracting me from

what God was doing. And so for the past few weeks,

I've been trying to fast from YouTube videos and instead

use that time fill that time with listening to the

Lord in my drive time, listening to God, praying, worshiping,

my downtime, being present with Him, asking him to speak

to me. And you know what, I've been less distracted,

less anxious, and I feel more in sync with the

Lord because I removed a distracting voice. Let's look again

at our text. Jesus says, I am the good Shepherd

and my sheep. Listen to my voice. God wants to

speak to you. Are you listening? This whole series is

about experiencing God. Are you listening for him? I believe

that God wants to encounter you, that God wants you

to experience him. I believe that God is calling you

to join his mission to follow his will. I believe

that there is an assignment for every single one of

us in the mission of God, in the work of God.

Even listening right here in this room, I believe there

are future in the work of God. There are future pastors,

future missionaries, future evangelists. Right here, there are disciple makers

that are going to help change lives in the name

of Jesus. Are you listening for God's voice? I believe

you will experience God and hear from Him in an

undeniable way. And when you open your heart in your

mind to receive from Him, he might challenge you to

take a step of faith. He might challenge you to

make a change or to adjust your time or energy.

God might call you to a career change, a job change.

He might call you to move. He might call some

of you to a new ministry or put a deep

new passion in your life that you had not felt before.

Are you listening, I believe that you will hear and

experience God in a way that you cannot deny, in

an undoubtable way. So we should ask how does God speak?

How does God speak to us? But we need to

recognize that God can say and do whatever he wants.

However he wants and Psalm one hundred and fifteen it

says our God is in heaven. He does whatever pleases him.

When you look throughout the Bible, you see that God

speaks in many many ways. He speaks through the scriptures,

He speaks through prophets. God sends dreams and visions. God

uses nature, a burning bush, a tornado, a storm. God's

even opened the mouth of a donkey to talk. God

can speak however he wants. And with that said, I

believe that there are three consistent ways that God speaks. First,

God speaks through the Bible. The Bible is the primary

way that God speaks to us. It is God's heart

written to your heart. The Bible is old, but the

Bible is not outdated. The Bible is complex, but it

is not confused. And the Bible has timeless, eternal truth. Because,

like we said, in our world, there's always an angle,

there's always an opinion, there's always a slant, there's always

a spin, there's lenses that the truth is presented. But

we can always count on the word of God being

the timeless, accurate, reliable truth of God. The Bible speaks

to us. I was once spending time with God praying

and seeking to hear from him. And I was making

some decisions in our family, some challenges we were facing,

and I wanted to hear from God. But I also

had distracting voices and thoughts. And I have these distracting

thoughts that were telling me that I wasn't doing a

good enough job leading my family. And some of these

thoughts and ideas came to my mind, like you need

to do better, you need a man up, you need

to take charge command. But then God's voice spoke very

clearly from the Bible when I read the words of

Jesus when he says, if you want to be a leader,

first be a servant. And God showed me that the

best way to lead my family is to serve my family,

to put their needs above mine, to deny myself, to serve,

to sacrifice, to humble myself, to serve. See God's word

the Bible speaks to us. Two Timothy three point sixteen

says all scripture is inspired by God and is useful.

Say the word useful to teach us what is true,

to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.

It corrects us when we are wrong, and teaches us

to do what is right. Whatever your situation, God's word

is useful for your situation. Let me just show you.

Are you making a financial decision financial challenges? There are

more than two thousand Bible verses about money or do

you feel stuck between a rock and a hard place?

The Book of Proverbs is the greatest collection of wisdom

about making decisions when we're hurt and grieving. When we're suffering,

Scriptures like Psalm thirty four comfort us. The Lord is

close to the broken hearted and saves those who are

rustian spirit. When you're struggling with a temptation, when you're

fighting a sin issue in your life, go to First

Corinthians ten. God is faithful. He will not let you

be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you

are tempted, he will also provide a way out. The

Bible speaks to every situation, and this is why during

the spiritual growth journey we provide the devotion books, the

Free Devotion Book where you can meet with God every day,

read from His word, listen to him from the words

of the Bible. Whatever your situation, God's word is useful

for your situation. So God speaks to us through the Bible,

and God speaks to us by his spirit, the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is not magical, he's not superstitious. But

the Holy Spirit is supernatural. He is the personal, active

presence of God in your life. When you put your

faith and trust in Jesus as your savior, not only

are your sins forgiven and you receive eternal life, you

receive God's presence in your life. Right now. You can

speak with him, hear from him. Jesus had something to

say about the Holy Spirit here in John fourteen. Jesus said,

but the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will

send in my name, will teach you all things and

remind you of everything I have said to you. See,

the Spirit speaks to us. I cannot and I will

not guarantee that you are going to hear the audible

voice of God out loud in your ear. But do

not dismiss if God does some supernatural by his spirit.

If God puts a thought in your heart and mind,

if God gives you a vision, if God sends you

a dream, don't dismiss it. If you have an encounter

with God's spirit that is supernatural. Years ago, when I

was learning to pray and listen for the Holy Spirit.

I was with a group of pastors and there was

one pastor in our group who was visiting the US

from Mozambique. His name was Pastor Sergio, and Pastor Sergio

shared with us that he pastored a congregation that often

met outdoors in the open air under a large tree

because they didn't have a building. And Pastor Sergio also

told us that recently his family had lost their home

some kind of natural the disaster or accident lost their home.

So while he was in the US, his wife and

his children were living with family and relatives and moving

from house to house as people could host them and

take care of them. And so we all gathered around

Pastor Surgio to pray for him, and we were listening

to the Holy Spirit and we were praying. And immediately

when we were praying, I had this thought in my mind,

and that thought was the Lord will build the house

in January. And I said, no, God, I'm not gonna

tell this homeless pastor he's getting a new house. I

don't believe in healthy, wealthy prosperity gospel. I don't want

to overpromise something. I don't want to get his hopes up.

No way, not me. And so we were continuing to pray,

and all the others were praying great prayers and encouragement

and praying scripture and encouraging Pastor Sergio. And then finally

I was the only person who had not prayed yet

out loud, and so everyone's just kind of waiting, you know,

for me. And I was like sweating and my voice

was shaky, and I said, Pastor Sergio, I don't know

if this is from God or not, but while I'm

praying for you, I have this thought, the Lord will

build the house in January. Does that mean anything to you?

And his eyes got really big, he got this big

smile on his face, and then he told us what

he had not told us before, and that is his church.

The congregation that met outside in the open air under

a tree had recently secured property to build their first building,

but they were having challenges securing and construction material and

building material and tools. But they were scheduled to break

ground in January. But they had all of this this

bureaucracy and challenges. So this was God's way of saying,

He's going to solve the challenges. He's going to take

care of the roadblocks, and God is going to build

the Lord's house in January. See, he wasn't my job

to interpret or try to understand it. My job is

just to humbly share what God was showing me. So God,

he speaks to us through the Bible, he speaks to

us through his whole spirit. And this brings us to

a third way that God consistently speaks to us, and

that is by trusted believers. God communicates through trusted believers.

I'll tell you how I've seen this in my own

personal life. Since Lauraen and my wife, was very young,

She's had a problem with her eyes. Her eyes do

not converge well. That means if an object gets close

to her, she cannot focus and converge her eyes, so

she sees double. Even when I would lean in for

a kiss, she would see two of me. And Lauren

will tell you that one of me in her life

is more than enough. And we often wondered what it

would be like if if we ever had a child

or a baby and Lauren, how Lauren would cope with

such close face time. And Lauren would often have migraines

and headaches, her eyes would get weak looking at screens

was challenging. She could not go to a movie theater

without getting sick and her sometimes her nerve the muscles

around her eye would fatigue and start to twitch and spasm,

and we got really concerned one afternoon when Lauren lost

vision in one eye for quite some time that afternoon,

and so Lauren sought the help of a neurological optometrist

and the specialists accurately diagnosed her and began a treatment

plan and a course of action to help strengthen our

muscles and our nerves. During the same season of life,

Laura and I attended a ministry conference in Ohio with

about five hundred other people, people we didn't know from

around the region. And during that event, there was an

opportunity where folks at the event could come forward and

share any words of knowledge they felt like the Holy

Spirit was putting on their heart in their mind. And

one person, who I don't even know their name and

had not met them, didn't know them, one person came

forward and said that they felt like God was speaking

to them out somebody who has a vision trouble, the

ocular nerve and muscle spasming or twitching on the right

eye side of their face. Lauren was experiencing all of

those symptoms at that that same day, So shyly, Lauren

walked up and introduced herself to this person. That person

prayed for Lauren, and Lauren's eyes were healed. When we

returned home, Lauren saw her specialist and the doctor confirmed

that her eyes were cured. Only God, only God, can

do something like that, because God speaks through trusted believers.

Let me say that again and emphasize one word. God

speaks through trusted believers. Be careful of anyone who says

God told me to tell you. Be careful of somebody

who says, I have a word from the Lord most

High for you. It is a very arrogant thing to say,

thus saith the Lord. Of course God speaks to us.

Of course God prompts us. But we should not be prideful.

We should be humble in what we hear and what

we share. And that's why our prayer partner teams. If

you've ever prayed with them and they share anything with you,

they are trained to pray humbly and to say, while

I'm praying for you, I have this thought. Does that

mean anything to you or I'm thinking about this. This

may be from God, it may not be from God.

That's for you to discern. Or they might say, can

I just share something with you that comes to mind.

It's our posture, it's our humility. God does not need

us to speak for him, but he chooses to use

this if we are humble, He speaks through trusted believers.

Before we end a day, I want to share some

practical steps we can take to hear from God, to

listen for his voice. First, daily practice, daily practice. You

will only get better at recognizing and hearing the voice

of God if you're daily practicing hearing from Him. And

you have to determine what are the practices best for

your life, for your situation, your your age and stage.

Is it is it waking up early to be alone

with the Lord in prayer and reading the Bible? Is

it following that devotion book that you have for these

six weeks? Is it using drive time to worship and

talk to the Lord. Maybe if you're married, praying with

your spouse, praying with your children, like you have to

decide what are the practices for you. I'm a big

fan of prayer journaling, get a notebook and write down

your prayer, your requests, your needs, and anything that God

shares with you, any insights that He shows you. Maybe

you need to pick up that book Experiencing God and

use that as a as a guide a daily practice

listening to God. One of the practices that I've often

used is called the prayer of examine. In most days,

I'll try to find time at the end of the

day to be alone with the Lord for a few

minutes and examine my day, reflect on the day, and

I usually ask myself the same questions similarly, what gave

me life today, what drained me today? What did I

learn today? And where did I see Jesus today. This

is a way to kind of ground my heart and

my soul and the Lord at the end of the

day and to allow God to speak and say anything

that he wants to reveal. But you have to find

the practice that works for you, that's best for you.

Look at our text one more time. In verse four,

Jesus speaking about the shepherd. When he the shepherd has

brought out all his own he goes on ahead of them,

and the sheep do what sheep follow him because they

know his voice. God does that work around you. God

is on the move. God is changing, God is transforming,

and he's leading you where he wants you to go.

You have to decide to follow him. That's why the

next step we take is immediate obedience. Immediate obedience, you

have a choice to make when you've heard from God.

When you sense God speaking to you, will you obey him?

Henry Blackaby writes, too often when the spirit of God

speaks to us, we launch into a protracted discussion with him,

questioning the correctness of his directions. I encourage you to

review on a regular basis what you sense God has

been saying to you. If God speaks to you and

you hear but do not respond, a time may come

when you will not hear his voice. I'm guilty of

ignoring God's voice more times than I'm willing to admit.

A while back, I was getting gas at a gas

station before I had a long drive ahead of me,

and I was impatient to get on the highway before

four sixty five came to a standstill. And as I

was there at the gas pump, I noticed a man

approaching others asking for money, and I saw him kind

of working his way from each car to the next car,

and so I had time to kind of prepare. I

knew he was gonna make his way to me, and

so I knew what I was gonna say. I knew

how I was gonna respond to him. And as he

approached and we made eye contact, I sharply said, sorry,

can't help you. And then I got into my car

and drove up the ramped for sixty five and then

God's Spirit spoke to me, probably because the traffic slowed

down enough for me to hear him, and gently and kindly,

not condemning, just gently and kindly. The Lord said, Andrew,

you missed it. You didn't have to give him money,

to give him God's love. Could have prayed with him,

You could have learned his name. You could have told

him that God loves him. I missed it. Sometime later,

I was once again at a different gas station getting gas,

and another stranger approached me, asking for help. I don't

know if it's something about how I look or my

car that attracts this kind of interaction, but I know

what it is. It's God's spirit. It's a divine meeting.

And this time I listened, and this person shared that

he and his wife that they had lost their jobs.

They were moving across the country and just kind of

making their way as they went. His wife was pregnant.

They had all their belongings in their car, and they

would get to one place and stay in a hotel

and he would drive in the evenings for door dash,

just to make enough money to pay their hotel and

get some gas to move on. And I was so

thankful that God brought this person to me, and I said,

I'm a Christian. I want to tell you that God

loves you. And of course I helped them and I

prayed for them. But then I was so excited to

tell them about our church, to say that we can

help you. We're a people of grit, we love our neighbors,

we have a food pantry, we've got support industries. We

can assist you. And guess what the next week that

family came to church on Sunday. Be encouraged. Even when

you miss it, just like I did. God will continue

to speak to you. God will continue to guide you.

Are you listening God is speaking? Are you willing to

obey him when he speaks to you? One more thing

in this text, verse four, when he the shepherd has

brought out all his own. The sheep listened to his voice.

He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

Jesus is leading you. Are you following him? I want

to close by telling you one story, a story of

how the people of church at the Crossing, our people

hear God and obey him. Nearly two years I was

leading a training event for volunteers in our church, and

I felt like God spoke to me at this training event.

You've heard us say repeatedly that Pastor James and I

have longed to start Celebrate Recovery here at our church.

It's a program, a ministry that brings the hope and

the gospel of Jesus to those who are struggling, those

who are broken, those who might have hurts and wounds

or even addictions, and brings healing. But Celebrate Recovery is

a big undertaking. It's not like just starting a class

or a Bible study. It is a whole program with

training and curriculum, and there's a whole worship service. And

so we need the right lead or the right team

of leaders, and we've been praying and seeking that and

so on that Saturday morning, I was at a training

event for our volunteers, and I felt like the Lord

spoke to me, and he said, Andrew, would you not

trust any one of these volunteers to lead Celebrate Recovery

if I called them? And I looked around about thirty

or forty people, and I knew most of them, know

their faithfulness, their faith journey, and I thought, yes, of

course I would trust. I know these people, I know

these leaders. They're great. I would trust any one of them.

So I stood up in front of the group and

I just shared, Hey, I've been praying about Celebrate Recover.

I've been praying for the right leader for it, and

if you are interested in that, please let me know. Well,

nobody came forward. About a week later, I received a

message from Sherry, who was interested in learning about Celebrate Recovery.

Cherry was at that training event on Saturday and heard

what I had said, and they got her curious, and

she started praying, and then she sent me a message.

But here's the supernatural part. Here is the divine part,

of the miraculous part. Sherry wasn't even supposed to attend

that training event in the first place. She was supposed

to be out of town. She had plans to travel,

but leading up to that Saturday, something the Lord was

telling her, go to the training, go to the training,

delay your trip, pone your trip, go to the training.

And so she obeyed and she went to the training

with her husband and then they left the training and

the whole drive on their trip, all they talked about

was Celebrate Recovery. And so then Sharon and I met

several times and she took the next step. She got

advice from trusted believers. Then she went and got training

from Celebrate Recovery, went to a conference, and then decided, yes,

this is what God was calling her to do, and

she helped build the team to launch Celebrate Recovery. And

you've probably heard that. Sherry's whole life was leading to

this point. She's walked the road of recovery with family members.

She's worked in a medical environment helping those with addictions

get sober and clean. She's served in prison ministry. Like

God was leading her and speaking to her about this,

Cherry did everything that we're talking about here today. She

listened to the voice of God and obeyed him by

going to that training. She listened to the voice of

God and obeyed him by reaching out and learning more.

She got advice from trusted believers, and ultimately she obeyed God.

And today Celebrate Recovery is changing lives. Lives are being healed,

families are being transformed. New people are coming. Every single

week on Tuesday night, we've baptized two people from Celebrate

Recovery and more are to come. And it all started

because some people listen to God and obeyed him. What

might God do in you if you will listen to him?

What might God do through you if you obey him?

How might you experience God if you will hear from

Him and obey him in faith? May it be said

that Church at the Crossing is a people who hear

and obey the voice of God. May it be said

that God is the one who is leading us. That

we do not listen to the voice of fear. We

do not listen to the voice of culture. We do

not listen to the fear of the voice of insecurity,

we don't listen to popular opinion. We listen to God

and we go where He leads us by faith. That

be our legacy. And so today we're gonna just take

a moment to listen to God and to see if

he may speak to us, put something on our heart,

on our mind, guide us. But first, it's possible that

there is someone listening right now and God is speaking

to you about the condition of your soul. Jesus says

that he's the good Shepherd, But do you belong to him?

Are you one of his? Today? If you're listening and

you want to make a decision to put your faith

and trust in Jesus as your Lord and as your savior,

you can do that right now, all of us. Would

you buy your head and close your eyes with me?

And if you want to put your faith in Jesus,

simply just pray this prayer after me, say, Dear God,

admit that I'm a sinner and I need your forgiveness.

I believe Jesus died for me on the cross and

rose from the dead to save me. Today I confess

Jesus's Lord of my life. I receive your Holy Spirit

in my life. And now, for all of us, would

you just take a moment to hear from God. Open

your heart, open your mind. You can't make God speak,

you can't force God to speak, but you can make

yourself available. So make yourself available, and then I'll close

U in prayer. Brother God, thank you that you speak

to us, that you guide us, that you prompt us,

that you direct us. And so God, I trust that

if you have spoken to us about anything today, put

something on our heart that you will give us the faith.

You will give us the courage, the humility to obey,

to follow you, to go where you're leading us. God,

would you increase our faith In Jesus's name, we pray Amen,

i'm gonnavite you to stand, and we're going to say

in worship one more time