Loud and Clear-"If"- Pastor Kipp Penrod

Thank you for listening to this message from Life House Church.

Amen, listen, turn to somebody beside you right now, give them a high five, tell them

they're looking pretty good on a Sunday.

Looking pretty good.

Your hair got wet out there this morning and you're still looking good, right?

Come on, it's true.

Some of you don't have any hair, so you don't even got to worry about it.

I was looking back over, I saw the shine as I was looking back over.

No, it's good to have you here at Life House this morning.

Man, you could go home right now and just say you experienced God's presence, right?

During the worship, it was amazing.

I love when we feel God just sweep in and feel His presence come in.

It really just, sometimes it's just thick.

The word I use is just thick.

It's good to be here.

It's good to see you.

And this is the final message in the message series, Loud and Clear.

We kind of got it posted on both walls.

We've had it all over the place for the last four or five weeks.

And this is the final message.

And I've really enjoyed preaching down through this message series about hearing God.

And I hope, our hope in prayer is that you've heard from the Lord, that you've maybe kind

of stepped up your prayer life and in some way you're hearing more from Jesus now than

you ever heard before in your life.

And we've learned some things along the way, right?

We've learned that hearing from God is not some kind of special endowment, right, that

is just on a few people, but it really is about positioning ourselves in our Lord and

Savior, right?

It's about how we get ourselves postured before God, that Jesus wants to speak to all His

children, to His sheep, right?

That we can know His voice.

And when He calls and if we follow close enough to the Master, the sheep will hear His voice

and He will call them by name.

That's what the Word of God says, right?

Remember that message?

Say it.

Yeah, I know you all were there.

All right.

And the Holy Spirit resides with us.

He really does.

And He wants to speak with us openly and that the Father speaks to Him and to Jesus and

Jesus speaks to the Spirit and the Holy Spirit speaks into our spirit and we can hear from

God.

And if we go to a spot to pray, how many know you need a prayer spot?

You need a prayer closet.

You need a place that you call where you meet God.

If you go there on the regular, you're going to start hearing from God on the regular.

And one of the final truths that I want to really extract from God's Word today and bring

across to you, I pray it gets across to you, is that when the Holy Spirit speaks to our

spirit, He doesn't always speak the same way.

He doesn't speak the same way.

God does not speak the same way to us all the time.

It's different.

We don't communicate to one another in the same way and in the same manner all the time.

And neither does God.

There are all kinds of ways to communicate and some are better than others.

Some are better than others.

Some of you can yell.

Some of you can scream.

Probably not such a great way to communicate.

Some of us can talk in a whisper.

Turn to the person beside you right now.

Whisper something to him.

Say I'm whispering right now.

It used to be a commercial.

I remember this commercial.

If you want to get somebody's attention, you just whisper.

How many remember that commercial?

It's like it's 110 years old.

I'm the only one in the whole house remembers that.

I'm telling you it's legit.

Look it up.

And we can send text messages.

We can send emails.

It can go anything from sentences to words to even like grunts in size.

Some little things that are sometimes just a look communicates something.

How many know a look can be worth a thousand words sometimes?

Yeah.

In fact, the longer you've known someone, the more communication patterns evolve and

they grow and communication expands.

Some of you that have been married for a while and you've got some years under your belt,

you can almost communicate without any words at all.

Hardly any kind of communication or audible expression is needed to communicate.

You can pick up on one another's subtle cues and subtle communication methods.

A slight sigh.

A gentle grunt.

I just communicated with some of you right there.

It can mean all kinds of things.

A sigh can mean you're an idiot.

It can come out just like that.

Or a gentle grunt can mean it's going to be a long ride home.

It can be those kinds of things.

And they didn't even verbalize an entire word.

It was just part of a word.

It was just part of something.

So there's a lot of ways to communicate.

And how many of you know that doesn't even happen on your first date, right?

First time or two you go out, you can make all kinds of noises that are looking at you

like, what's going on?

Right?

You're clearing your throat and you think they're choking on something.

You get ready to do the Heimlich maneuver, right?

That doesn't mean anything to you.

But the longer you're together, the communication changes.

And we don't always communicate the same way.

Neither does God.

The longer you follow close behind God, the longer we slide up beside Him as sheep who

follow closely, right, to the shepherd, He begins to communicate to us in different ways,

in different methods.

And here's the truth about God.

He is crazy creative.

OK?

He is the Creator.

And He finds all kind of ways that He can communicate with us.

Everything in the universe is at His disposal to use.

He can use anything to communicate.

The earth is His and everything therein belongs to God so He can use it to communicate to

His own.

He can speak through a book.

As a matter of fact, He does.

He's got a collection of 66.

It's called the Bible, right?

He can speak through a book.

He can speak through nature.

He can speak through people.

He can speak through your best friend.

He can speak through an enemy.

Right?

He can speak to you Spirit by Spirit.

The Holy Spirit, we learned this a week or two ago.

He can speak, the Holy Spirit can speak directly into our spirit.

He can use anything, anything to speak to us.

And sometimes He'll speak one way and the next time He might speak another way.

It might be completely different.

In the Old Testament, Moses, say Moses.

Moses initially heard from God by the angel of the Lord, at least the first place it's

written about Moses here from God.

It's an angel of the Lord who speaks to Moses out of a burning bush.

It says this in Exodus 3.1.

One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian.

He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God.

There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush.

Moses stared in amazement, though the bush was engulfed in flames.

It didn't burn up.

This is amazing.

Moses said to himself, why isn't the bush burning up?

I must go see it.

When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of

the bush, Moses, Moses.

Here am I or here I am.

Moses replied.

He said, God said, do not come any closer.

The Lord warned, take off your sandals for where you are standing, you are on holy ground.

I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

And when Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.

God can get our attention and he can do it in a big way.

He can get a message across any way he chooses.

And when he speaks, when he really truly speaks to us, wherever that is becomes a holy place.

Wherever that is, it is a reverend place.

It is holy ground.

I'll never forget a day of hunting in the woods and for generations, for four generations,

my family hunted in a place called Sipes Mills.

It's in Fulton County.

You can look it up on the map.

And we had a particular farm down there we hunted on for four different generations.

And I remember going there since age 12.

I got my license, went with my dad, my grandfather, my uncles.

We all went down there to hunt and we would go spend time down there.

So it was it was this really great connection for me with my family.

But I remember as a young man, as an adult being in that area hunting and down at the

end of that that hollow, it was a big field and it was this ravine.

And at the bottom of that ravine one day, God spoke to me in the woods.

He spoke something very clear.

He did.

And you want to hear the story sometime.

You get 35 bucks and take me out to lunch and I'll tell you.

All right.

I'll give you the whole deal.

Right.

But I got to the end of that ravine and God did an amazing thing and spoke to me.

I'll never forget it.

God spoke and it's almost holy ground to me.

I got pictures of that place on my computer.

That land got sold.

We can't go in there anymore.

I might sneak in someday just for fun.

All right.

As you get back in there.

And I've even gone as far as this.

I said when I die one day, you know, I want my ashes to be spread with Dixie's ashes somewhere.

And then I want just a pinch of me to be there.

I told my kids just take a pinch and throw me somewhere out there because that place is

sacred to me.

It's where I met God.

Right.

He spoke to me in that place.

And it can be it can be God roaring from a mountaintop or it can be subtle as as a whisper

in your spirit.

It can be a burning bush moment kind of thing.

Or it can be just God whispering into our soul in a just quiet moment in your quiet

spot in a prayer spot.

What am I saying?

Don't stick God in your little communication box.

Right.

Don't put him in with what you think, how things work and how things are communicated

and what it all looks like.

Right.

We've all got boxes.

You got raise your hand if you got a box, you got a communication box.

You do every one of you do.

Right.

You got this idea of what things look like, how God's supposed to speak to you, what this

might be.

Right.

God doesn't fit in your little box.

He owns it all.

And he doesn't communicate the same way.

He is sovereign.

He is ruler of the universe.

He created.

He spoke it in existence.

And all things are at his disposal.

And he can speak through them.

Right.

And as long as he's and as long as whatever is being spoken to you lines up with the will

of God and the word of God, it is him.

You got to check that.

You got to make sure.

Right.

You got to make sure it's just not something else speaking in your spirit or or you speaking

in your spirit.

But if it lines up with God's will and it lines up with the word of God because the

Holy Spirit wrote the word of God and he was he is God.

Right.

I think we missed God's communication sometimes because we have this narrow slice of communication

view of God.

Right.

It's this thing.

And I'm not talking about wacky stuff.

Right.

Like seriously, there's some wacky stuff out there.

I get it.

Right.

Some people like, you know, like my cereal bowl talks to me in the morning.

Right.

Every time I pour Lucky Charms in there, you know, it's speaking something.

Well, if it's speaking the word of God and the will of God.

OK, I'll go with that.

Right.

But if not, it's just a wacky thing.

Right.

I like Lucky Charms.

Right.

They're not spiritual, though.

All right.

But at the same time, don't downplay what God can do, what he can use to get your attention,

to speak to you.

Don't put God in your box.

And one of the most amazing stories of God communication in scripture that's outside

the box is the story of Balaam.

So I want to I want to read to you and preach down through the story of Balaam.

It's wild.

It's crazy.

It is unusual.

I love it.

It's amazing.

Right.

Numbers twenty two one says this.

Then the children of Israel moved and camped in the plains of Moab on the side of the Jordan

across from Jericho.

Now Balaam say Balaam, the son of Zippor, so that all Israel had done to the Amorites

and Moab was exceedingly afraid of the people because they were many and Moab was sick with

dread because of the children of Israel.

Now let me fill in just a little bit here.

The people of Moab, their king is Balaam and he had good reason to be afraid of Israel

because God was going before Israel in every fight.

Every time the nation of Israel was moving, they were a nomadic people at that point.

Every time they were moving, God was going out before them and fighting with them or

for them in front of them.

And people start hearing about it.

And just if you read in the Word of God, just the chapter two before this, Israel was traveling

down the road and they need water.

Listen, there's a million plus people in this group, right?

And they need food and they need water for their livestock and for their children and

for all the people that are going along.

And they would meet and they would run into these kingdoms that they wanted to pass through.

And they would go to the kings and they would say, look, we'll buy the water, we'll buy

the food, just let us pass through.

And some of these kings wouldn't, right?

Like the king of Arab, who was the king of the Canaanites who dwelt in the south.

And they heard that Israel was coming on the road and the king of Arab come out to fight

against Israel and took some prisoners from Israel.

So Israel does this.

They pray, they stop, they don't go out to war.

They stop and pray and God says, just go ahead and get them.

I'll be with you in the fight.

And they go in and they take out the Canaanites.

They get their people back and God goes before them.

You go a little further down the road in chapter 21 and Israel sends messengers to Seehan,

king of the Amorites.

And he asked, they asked permission.

They're coming into the land.

They said, look, we won't go to the left or the right.

We won't go into the fields to eat.

We won't do any of those things.

We won't take in water.

We just want to pass through your land quickly to get to where we're going.

And King Seehan says he doesn't not only say no, that they have to go around somewhere.

He said he comes out to war against them and God gives before them and they crush.

Israel crushes this king, crushes this kingdom.

And not only that, they take all their possessions.

Right.

So there's a reputation now with Israel and people around the lands around are hearing

that God is with Israel, that God goes before them.

So when the king of Moab, Balak hears that they're coming his way, he's worried.

Right.

He he's sweating it because God's favor is with Israel.

How many want God's favor in front of you?

Right.

He's with you in the fight.

You want God going before you in the fight.

So King Balak, King of Moab, he has good reason to be sweating it.

Right.

And he knew he couldn't win.

He knew he couldn't win with just military might.

You know, it wasn't going to happen.

And he realized that this is spiritual in nature.

This is a healing king.

And he realized this is a spiritual fight.

So it says in verse four.

So Moab said to the elders of Midian, now this company, this company will lick up everything

around us talking about Israel as an ox licks up the grass of the field and Balak, the son

of Zippor was the king of the Moabites at the time.

He sent messengers to Balaam.

Now say Balaam.

All right.

Got a lot of bees today.

We got Balaak and Balaam.

Right.

The son of Baor of Pathor.

Balaam is a prophet.

He is a powerful prophet, which is near the cover of near the river of the land of the

sons of his people to call him saying, look, a people has come up from Egypt.

See they cover the face of the earth and are setting settling next to me.

Therefore please come at once.

Curse this people for me.

Balak realizes this isn't just a physical fight.

He's going to hire a prophet to curse Israel for they are too mighty for me.

Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land.

For I know that he whom you bless is blessed and he whom you curse is cursed.

A king, a heathen king who has nothing to do with God realizes that he is in a spiritual

fight and he needs spiritual ammunition.

Now I can stop and talk and I could preach right here because there's a lot of Christians

I know this still don't realize they're in a spiritual fight.

You need spiritual ammunition.

King Balaak.

He understands that he gets it right.

So he's going to hire Balaam to curse Israel.

So the elders, it says this in verse seven.

So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with diviners fees in their hand.

They're going to Balaam to curse or to pay him to curse Israel.

They're hiring him and they came to Balaam and spoke to him the words of Balaak and he

Balaam said to them, lodge here tonight and I will bring back word to you as the Lord

speaks to me.

So the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam when God came to Balaam and said, who are

these men with you?

So Balaam said to God, Balaak the son of Zippor, king of Moab has sent to me saying, look a

people has come up out of Egypt and they cover the face of the earth.

Come now curse them for me.

Perhaps I shall be able to overpower them and drive them out.

And God said to Balaam, you shall not go with them.

You shall not curse the people for they are blessed.

Balaak comes to hire Balaam as the prophet to curse.

Balaam says, hey, you messengers, you just stay right here.

I'm going to pray to God tonight.

Find out what God has to say.

God comes and meets with Balaam and he tells Balaam, you're not going out.

You're not going to curse Israel.

The people of Israel are blessed by me.

Right?

How many know that's clear communication when God says you shall not.

Right?

Hey, you're not.

I don't care what they're paying you.

You're not going.

It's not happening.

Don't go.

It's not happening today.

It's not happening.

Period.

Forget about it.

Right?

And he sends him back to Balak.

He says, I can't do it.

God's forbid me for do it for doing this.

And he sends him back.

But Balaak, he's persistent.

He sends messengers back to Balaam again with more money.

And he says, I want you to go and, you know, I want you to convince him to come.

And Balaam again tells the messengers that come the second time.

He says, I can't go.

I can't go even if they fill up Balaak's palace with silver and gold and give it to me.

I cannot because the Lord told me I can't go.

But while he's, how many know you get in trouble when the butt comes in.

Right?

But while he's saying it, and while he's telling these guys I can't do it, God said no.

He throws in a statement of reservation about the decision.

He tells the messengers to stick around for another evening.

And I'll see if God has more to say about the matter.

Now I don't know.

I don't know if the money started looking good.

Right?

I don't know if he's thinking, well, maybe if I talk to God long enough, he'll change

his mind.

I don't know if he didn't get the message.

I think he got the message loud and clear when God said you shall not go.

Right?

How many know how many know if somebody tells you shall not do something you shall.

That means don't.

Right?

Listen to Numbers 22, 18.

Then Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, though Balak were to give me his

house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do

less or more.

Now listen, Balaam should have shut up right there.

He should have quit talking right there.

But he doesn't.

He says it's now therefore, please you also stay here tonight that I may know what more

the Lord will say to me.

Right?

He's flirting with the idea.

He's going to go to God again.

And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, says the second time around, if the men

come to call you, rise and go with them.

But only the word which I speak to you that you shall do.

So Balaam rose in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab.

Balaam knows it's wrong to go.

He knows God's will in this matter, but he keeps pushing it with God.

Right?

And God says, now, how many know there's an if in statement sometimes.

Sometimes you got to look close at what's in the word of God.

God said, if, if God's praying, Balaam's praying, God speaks to me, says, if the men come to

call you, how do we know if is conditional?

That means there has to be a condition met.

Right?

God says, if they come on calling you tomorrow, then go with them and I'll tell you what to

say.

But Balaam doesn't do that.

Balaam just gets up in the morning.

It doesn't say the men come back and ask them again.

He just gets up in the morning.

He saddles his donkey and he heads off with these princes.

Numbers 22, 22 says this, then God's anger was aroused because he went and the angel

of the Lord took his stand in the way of the adversary against him.

Sometimes God says, if when he's communicating with us.

Sometimes don't ignore the if when God speaks if to you, don't make your own interpretation

of if don't make if if statement, a green light, a yellow light or a red light.

Don't interpret it that way.

If God says if that means there's a condition attached, right?

If you do this, I will do that.

If this is supposed to be, this will happen.

And how many know I don't ignore Dixie's ifs, right?

My wife Dixie, I don't.

Right?

If I say I want to buy something, she says you can buy this if we get X amount of dollars

in the savings account.

How many know it's a bad idea if I go beyond the if, right?

If I read into the interpretation of that, right?

There if I got to say that it can get iffy if you ignore the if.

Right?

I had to do it.

It's right there.

Right?

It can get iffy if you ignore the if.

And that's exactly what Balaam does.

Balaam loads up his donkey.

He goes with these guys and God is ticked off at Balaam.

He's a prophet who's hearing from God and God himself dispatches an angel with a sword

to stand in the way of Balaam going to curse Israel.

The angel appears on the road.

Now if you read on in the story, the angel appears on the road and Balaam is riding on

a donkey and the only one that can see the angel on the road at this point is the donkey

and the donkey that he's riding goes off into a field and stops and Balaam gets angry.

Right?

The donkey sees the warrior angel, the warrior death angel standing in the way.

The donkey goes off into the field.

Balaam gets ticked off because he doesn't see all this and he starts beating the donkey.

That's what the word of God says.

And Balaam forces the donkey back onto the road and the angel goes out a little further

on the road a second to a second place where there's a wall in this side and a wall on

that side and the donkey starts up through between these walls and the donkey sees the

angel with the sword and he begins to slide over to one of the walls to go around.

Right?

The angel with the sword and when he does he crushes Balaam's foot into the wall and

Balaam gets mad again and he beats the donkey again and a third time the angel moves out

ahead further on the road and the donkey is gone and this time Balaam's donkey lays down.

He's not going to go to the right.

He's not going to the left.

He's not going to go to the side.

The donkey literally lays down road and Balaam is furious.

He's furious at the donkey.

The word of God says that he starts to beat this donkey.

He starts beating and it says this.

Now remember I said God is terribly creative and he can do amazing things.

Numbers 22, 28 says this, then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey and she said to Balaam,

what have I done to you that you have struck me these three times?

I just watched the Chronicles of Narnia last night with my grandson.

We were talking about the animals talking.

Let me tell you something.

If God wants an animal to talk, it can talk.

Right?

And Balaam said to the donkey because you have abused me and Balaam's still furious.

He's out of his mind furious.

I don't even think he realized he's talking to a donkey.

Right?

Because you have abused me, I wish there were a sword in my hand for now I would kill you.

That's what he said to the donkey.

So the donkey said to Balaam, am I not your donkey on which you have ridden ever since

I became yours to this day?

Have I ever disposed to do this to you?

And he said no.

And the Lord opened Balaam's eyes and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way

with a drawn sword in his hand and he bowed his head and he fell flat on his face.

And the angel of the Lord said to him, why have you struck your donkey these three times?

Lord I have come out to stand against you because your way is perverse before me.

The donkey saw me and turned aside from me these three times.

If she had not turned aside from me, surely I would have killed you by now and let her

live.

Amen.

Smart donkey.

Do not ignore God's if.

Do not ignore if he said thou shall do something.

Right?

God is way more patient with us about getting clarity about what he says.

If God says something, he's okay with you coming back and saying, Lord, I'm not sure

about this.

Right?

Can you give me a sign?

Can you give me, can you do something to let me know this is you?

He's fine with that.

He's okay with you coming and getting clarity along the way.

But do not read into the if.

Do not read into the if he says thou shalt not.

And Balaam, I love Balaam now.

And Balaam said to the angel of the Lord in verse 34, I have sinned for I do not know.

I did not know you stood in the way against me.

Now therefore, if it displeases you, I will turn back.

No kidding.

Right?

Now you're going to listen.

Right?

Now you're going to get it.

Then the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, go with the men.

But only the word that I speak to you that you shall speak.

So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.

And if I can give you the rest of this story, God sends Balaam from there to go to Balak.

Now he goes before King Balak three times.

He goes to curse Israel and God tells him, ah, you're going to bless Israel.

He's standing in front of the king, King Balak of the Moabites.

This king can kill him.

He could take him out in a heartbeat.

And this king is paying him to curse Israel.

And every time he stands up, he stands up one time.

He takes him a place over look Israel and he starts to speak.

And all he speaks is blessing over Israel.

And this king is irritated.

He is frustrated.

King takes him to another spot.

Says, I want you to curse him.

And every time Balaam opens his mouth.

How many know when you disobey God, you get yourself in a pickle?

He's standing.

He's probably every time he's blessed in Israel, he's thinking I'm going to die.

Ten minutes later.

Right?

This king is going to take my head off.

He's paid me to curse and all I can do is bless Israel.

All I can do is speak amazing favor over Israel over and over.

Disobedience gets us into pickles.

It gets us in a jam.

I think God was just up there smiling like, OK, you want to go prophesy, go prophesy.

Right?

But you want to speak blessing, not cursing.

Right?

He puts us into place.

God.

Here's the thing.

God can speak to you through anything.

He can use a donkey.

I was going to use the biblical term for that, but I thought I'll leave that out.

Look that up later.

All right.

He can use a donkey.

Right?

He can use a donkey with a sword in his hand.

He can use a burning bush.

He can use a wind.

He can use a whirlwind.

He can use the Bible.

He can use the Holy Spirit to speak directly into your spirit.

He can use people, places and things to say anything that he needs to say.

Just stay close.

Don't put him in your box.

Don't put him in your little communication box.

Don't read into the ifs.

Hear from them.

Get clarity.

Amen.

I should stand.

I should stand this morning.

Listen, as you stand here in the house and maybe wherever you are, if you're listening

online and at East Shore, Pastor Eric and his team are coming forward right now to close

out up there.

But as you're standing and you're and you're processing and if you're with us online today,

maybe you're somewhere and you need to get to a place to pray.

Maybe it spoke to you and you got it.

You can maybe kneel down right where you're at.

I always tell people, listen, if you listen online and you're in a car, please pull over

somewhere.

Find a safe place to pray.

But if that's you this morning, this is the last message in this series.

I'm here to tell you God can speak to you.

He can use anything and everything to speak to you.

Anything and everything.

We just got to know it's him.

We just got to know it's his will.

We just got to know that it lines up with his word.

We got to make sure there's not an if.

And if there is an if, we got to wait for the condition and make sure we fulfill the

condition before we move forward.

God will give you listen, the Holy Spirit.

I told you before in this, the Holy Spirit is not a silent partner.

He did not come into your life to be a silent partner.

He came in to speak the will of God in your life for your purpose, for his purpose, for

the kingdom and for your benefit.

That's how he does it.

God's really amazing that way.

Right.

Everything he does in our life.

Somehow it's amazing for the kingdom of God and it's for your benefit.

I don't know how God does it.

He just does it every time.

He really does.

So how many you want to continue to hear from God?

God will give you the Holy Spirit.

God will give you the Holy Spirit.

God will give you the Holy Spirit.