"Do You Hear Me Now?" // Assistant Pastor Darry Davis

Hallelujah.

There is a word from the Lord this morning.

I'm so excited about this word.

How many excited.

Hallelujah, hallelujah.

Praise and worship is awesome, coming together is awesome, hallelujah.

But there's nothing that can replace the word of God.

There's nothing that can replace God's word.

God's word is life.

Hallelujah to us.

I have a powerful word for you this morning.

Let's pray, lord.

We thank you for your word, we thank you for Jesus, the living Word.

We ask you this morning, as we go into the Word, as we hear a word from you, lord, god, hallelujah, to clean out our ears, open up our hearts, hallelujah, god.

Arrest our minds, lord, god, that we won't miss what you're trying to say, god, but that we'll grow closer to you.

In the mighty name of Jesus.

We pray amen.

If you believe it, shout amen, hallelujah, hallelujah.

So I've been the Lord, been dealing with me in preparation for this message, and I thought about an old commercial that used to be out, where they would say do you hear me now?

I can't remember what company it was.

Do you hear me now, verizon?

And they tried to drive to another.

Okay, they walk around with the cell phone.

Do you hear me now?

Do you hear me now Trying to get a connection.

And the thing was, if you switch to this company, you won't have that problem.

Amen, you can get a clear message.

I thought about that in preparation for this message, because even on last week our youth pastor, harris, preached an awesome message and gave clear instructions.

He didn't have to preach along, it was very precise, very clear, step one, step two, step three.

And those of us who the scripture says, he says we ought to not just be hearers of the word but do us.

But many messages come just like that.

I mean, you know, we hear preaching all the time.

We hear preaching all the time, but then we don't realize that even after that message throughout the week comes to challenge us and test us, to see if we're going to live according to the word God and spoken to us.

And here is the thing that I find that a lot of us have a problem with.

I realize that sometimes it's not even that the instructions are not given, it's not that the word of God is not being preached, it's not that the God is not speaking, but the problem is can we hear him?

Can we hear him?

Can we hear him?

I thought about a scenario.

I said I said, a scenario painted out in my mind Monday morning.

God had all night long in a dream God has been speaking, but we wake up in the morning and we forget what we dreamed about.

Then, early in the morning, before you started, god was trying to speak to you.

He's speaking in the morning, but we reached for our cell phone and started scrolling.

And then, on the way to work, while we're driving our car, god's trying to speak, but we turned the radio up, put on Beyonce's new album and we just drowned out everything God was trying to say.

Then we get to work and then we have the most horrible day that you could ever imagine.

We literally fall into every pitfall and trap.

The enemy set for us to destroy our day.

Then we come home frustrated, tired, wore out, mad, and then, before you know it, I'll ask all of this is the place back in your mind.

By the time you hit the bed and you came to hardly rest your mind because it's such a day you had just thinking about how, today, everything that went wrong, and the cycle continues.

Tuesday, wednesday, thursday, Friday, saturday.

Here we are here on Sunday morning.

Finally, somehow somebody made it to the house of the Lord and it feels like to me that God is like that person that's standing in your face snapping your fingers and saying, all right, all right.

Can you hear me now?

Can you hear me now?

I've been talking to you all week long.

Can you hear me?

It's the problem.

Can you hear me?

Hallelujah is a problem.

Tell somebody, can you hear me now?

This is what God is saying.

Can you hear me now?

Do you realize we serve a speaking God?

He's not an idol that sits on our shelf, that we, just when we feel like it, we get down and bow and light incense and pray.

But yeah, he's a living speaking God.

He's not a statue on our mantle, he's a living speaking God.

My question is what do you have to do to get our attention?

Hallelujah?

What must he do?

What must he do?

Must he speak through a burning bush, moses?

Must he stand in your living room and must an angel appear in your living room?

That you got a wrestle all night, jacob?

What does he have to do?

Does he have to shine out from heaven on your way to work while you're driving and almost be blinded by the light?

So what must God do to get your attention, that you can actually open up your ears and hear him.

God is talking to me about this morning.

God is saying that the problem with our life is not that God is not giving us good instruction.

It's not that God is not speaking, but the problem is do we have an ear?

Are we listening?

Are we listening to God?

If you're in a space in your life and you confuse and you don't know where to go and you're trying to figure it out, are you actually listening to God?

There's many people, many people.

They find themselves in a place where they're trying to figure out what to do, and then we want to pray and we've been ignoring God all the time.

I gave you the scenario.

And then we pray when we really finally result our last result to try to see what God has to say and we're getting it great and then, because we don't hear a direct, quick answer, we think God is not speaking.

God is speaking all the time.

Who am I talking to?

Maybe there's nobody in here, maybe it's on you online.

God has been speaking all the time.

Are you listening?

Are you listening?

Hallelujah?

God's saying can you hear me now?

Can you hear me now?

I wrote down I got four points to help us to open up our ears and begin to hear God.

There's a question that many times people ask, especially people who newly saved and first give their life to Christ.

They ask the question how do we know God's voice?

How do we hear God?

How does God speak?

We want to figure out how to recognize and understand God's voice.

Have us, we've been saved a long time and we still struggle with that how to hear and recognize God's voice.

I'm going to help you this morning, is that?

Okay?

I'm going to help you.

Revelations 2 and 29 have a few scriptures.

I have about four scriptures.

I want to read Revelations 2 and 29.

Revelations 2 and 29 says this we that have an ear, let him hear what the spirit said unto the churches.

This is telling us that there's a requirement to hearing the voice of the Lord.

He says you have to have an ear.

When you say, pastor, I got two ears, I mean explain this to you God's voice is speaking, but everybody can't hear it, even though you got good hearing, you had your ears tested, you cleaned them out this morning.

God's spirit is speaking, but everybody can't hear it.

Okay, he's a requirement.

He said he that have an ear.

I got, I got.

I'm going to help you this morning, is that all right?

I want to call this conscious hearing.

You might want to take notes.

I want you to take notes.

Conscious hearing.

This would be a modern definition of trying to capture this spiritual understanding.

Conscious hearing is defined as this the act of being intentionally present during communication between yourself and another, while being aware of your own and the other's feelings and needs.

Conscious hearing it's being present during the communication.

This is good, because most of the time where we're failing is God.

God is speaking, but we're not present with somewhere else.

We're not present in the conversation.

We don't have conscious hearing.

That means we're unaware that he's speaking because we're not present.

It'd be just like me talking to you and then, by the time, I done been talking for 10 minutes and then, all of a sudden, 10 minutes, you said, oh, oh, you talking to me.

Oh, oh, oh, you're talking to me.

Oh, my bad, I didn't know you won't present, you won't consciously listening.

Conscious hearing we have to have conscious hearing.

How do we have conscious hearing?

We have conscious hearing.

Hallelujah, hebrews 12 and 2 says looking to Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith.

We have conscious hearing when we're actually looking to Jesus.

Okay, so that means if you're not concerned about God, you won't hear his voice.

If you're not concerned that he's speaking, you won't be listening.

If you're not aware that you took that you serve a speaking God, you won't.

You'll be busy doing everything else and won't realize that he's speaking all the time.

You have to be conscious, you have to be a conscious listener.

That means when I wake up in the morning, I'm consciously aware that God is probably speaking to me.

Now I need to listen.

When I'm going throughout the day, I should be conscious God.

Conscious that God may speak to me at any moment, at any time.

In fact, he is speaking and conscious listening is actually actually attentive to what he's saying.

Lord, is that that you, lord?

Listening is conscious Lord.

What are you trying to say to me today?

Conscious, this is how we understand the scripture.

That say that we ought to pray without ceasing.

That's called conscious listening.

Prayer without sin.

Prayer without ceasing means that you're always conscious of God, you're always looking to God and everything you do You're fully unconscious.

You're fully looking to him.

You act like you go through your day like he's right there with you.

That's prayer, without ceasing.

It's conscious listening, amen.

Let's move on to point two Psalms 19, 119 and 105.

Psalms 119, verse 105, says this you probably going to have to grab your scriptures and follow me quickly.

Psalms 119:105

I don't want to take up a lot of time.

I want you to hear this word.

The word of God says this Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path Right down this next point.

This is called active listening.

Conscious listening requires you to be present and aware.

What is active listening?

Active listening is defined as this.

Active listening is the practice of preparing to listen, observing what verbal and nonverbal messages are being sent and then providing appropriate feedback for the sake of showing attentiveness to the message being presented.

Active listening is listening on purpose.

If you think that God, that you're just going to stumble upon hearing God, come on.

That's not how he works.

In order to hear God, you got to be a conscious listener and an active listener.

Come on, somebody.

Look at Moses.

He saw the bush.

It got his attention, but he had to actually go to the bush and be active to hear what the voice was saying.

Come on, somebody.

You think you just going to stumble upon the God's word.

I just felt like one day God said something to me.

God of the blue, I wasn't even looking for it.

Tell somebody.

That's why you don't hear God like you should, because you're trying to just stumble upon a word of God, you trying to just something happen one day.

No, we're supposed to be conscious and we're supposed to be active in our listening.

I'm preaching to somebody this morning.

I'm going to help you this morning because I found out that we can't live without the word of God.

We cannot only get it on Sunday and live a blessed life.

We cannot keep on going through the week and badly hanging on, trying to figure out what to do, and keep making bad decisions and met in our day going and we don't even know how to predict it.

It's so random.

We got to have God's word active in our life.

We have to be active listeners Hallelujah.

Active listening, listening on purpose.

Listening on purpose requires you to take time to listen to God.

Listening on purpose requires you to have some prayer time.

Listening on purpose requires you to have some word time when you actually open up your Bible.

The scripture that says active listening is to prepare to listen.

You actually have to open up your Bible during the week to actively listen.

You actually have to get into prayer during the week, throughout the day, to actively listen to God.

It requires you to prepare to listen.

In other words, lord, I'm trying to hear you today.

I know you're speaking to me, but I'm not hearing you like I ought to.

Let me clear some time out to actively listen, not me, not just go on through my day and say, lord, whenever you want to speak, no God saying can you get quiet for a minute, sit still and open up your Bible.

I'll show you a scripture.

If you take some time to prepare to hear me, can you stop for five minutes and keep praying and let me get me and then not just hurry up and move on, but give me time to speak.

Active listening Tell somebody active listening.

Active listening requires you to come out to midweek Bible study.

You're missing what God is saying.

Active listening requires you to engage yourself in the study of what's being talked to you, what God is trying to tell you.

You just hear in the surface of it, but God got more to say, but you didn't go back in there.

Active listening means I heard that on Sunday, but maybe I need to go back in there and see what else God is saying.

God don't want to talk to you for 30 minutes.

He want to talk to you throughout your day, all of your life.

He want to be in communication with you.

You giving God 30 minutes a week and thinking, wondering why you can't hear God.

When you try to pray, you still don't know His voice.

When you actually try to make time to say, lord, I'm listening, you don't hear Him.

Because if you did hear Him, you would know he been talking and you didn't hear him then.

And you ain't gonna hear him when you actually say, lord, I'm listening, cuz he been talking the whole time.

Man saw somebody active listening.

All right, the next one, right, let's.

I would use the scripture, john, chapter 8, verse 47.

John 8:47

And John John is a little rough, but I like John John to look direct by.

Like John John, keep it all way to all the way.

100.

John, don't sugarcoat it for you.

John 8, chapter 4.

John chapter 8, verse 47, says he that is of God.

John 8:47

Here is God's words.

Yee, therefore, hear them, not because you are not of God.

Sorry, I didn't say that.

John said it.

I don't hear God.

You.

Have you made sure that you are of God, pastor.

I can't hear God.

I hear sinners talking all the time.

I don't believe in God because when I cried out to him he didn't answer.

Are you of God?

He that come to the father must believe that he is.

You're trying to hear from somebody you don't even believe him, trying to hear from somebody you don't know and then got a nerve to get mad and say that's why I don't believe in him.

Here the first requirement is that you have an ear.

You got to be of God to hear God.

John said it.

Maybe you'll start to hear him.

Or if you draw closer to him, maybe you'll draw near more if you actually believe what you've been taught, instead of just saying that's a cute message and being so religious and saying I just like to go to church because this tradition.

Maybe, if you actually allow him to be your Lord and Savior, you would hear him.

Some people are religious and cute and that's why they never hear God.

John says you have to be of God To hear him.

What is this talking about?

This is the third point, right, this damn established connection.

And established connection is the only way to hear God.

You haven't even connected and you think you can hear him and established connection.

What does this talk about?

This is talking about relationship.

This is talking about familiarity.

You're trying to know the voice of somebody when you don't know their voice.

You trying to hear somebody when you don't know their voice.

What is this?

We all understand this.

If, unstanding a room, if I'm standing room, I've been married 16 years with my beautiful wife she's in our absent.

She probably watch it online.

If I'm standing in the room and the room is crowded, hundreds of people call in my name, you think I could not pick out my wife's voice in the crowd.

I Know her voice.

The problem is you can't hear God because you don't know his voice and you hearing a whole lot of voices and trying to figure out which one is God.

Maybe if you establish the connection God, a relationship with him, you would actually know what he sounds like.

This is important because John said this.

But this is what people think they can do.

They think they can come to the altar one time, say the sinner's prayer and and announce that they are saved and think that they're gonna know God's voice when they leave there.

I Make it plain for you.

Well, me and my wife went on our first date.

We met up, we ordered date.

I got home later on this only one date later on, when she called, I didn't know her voice.

I didn't reckon.

I said to say who is this?

Oh, I met her, oh, I had lunch with her or I had a counter, but I still didn't know her voice when I picked up the phone.

Who is this?

Oh, hey, how you doing, you know, I don't know your voice just because I had an encounter with you.

They think they know God's voice cuz they gotta think counter.

No, it takes relationship, but, pastor, I got say what you trying to say.

Ain't say no, I'm trying to say you don't have a relationship with God.

You went out on one date and now you mad cuz you can't under.

You don't hear what.

I go with all them praying I don't hear you.

One day and you want to hear from God.

He's talking, but you don't know his voice.

He called you but you didn't know it was him.

Usually you're trying to figure out who the people, who is it who that called me must been a wrong number.

I don't know who that was.

Am I making it plain?

I'm trying to help us because it's so many people, christian Believers, walking around living life and they don't even know God's voice.

They trying to hear, they can't even hear God.

And we serve a speaking God who loves to talk.

He had a Bible says that Jesus is the word.

That in beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was gone.

That means God was talking before there was nobody else, he was talking to his own self.

That's how much he loved to talk.

Y'all not fit.

Y'all not hearing me.

This way we serve a God that love to talk and you're not talking to him, You're not hearing him.

Tell somebody you got to establish a connection Be the relationship.

I got a scripture for it.

I got a scripture for a revelation Three and twenty, because some people think they came to say is not, unless you can find Bible for it, because y'all feel y'all you the devil, quickly try to get you to reject something.

So revelations three and twenty said behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me.

Tell somebody God want to have a relationship Until you let him come in your house and eat with you.

You ain't building a relationship.

Oh, our Sunday morning goes until he come in your house and eat with you.

You don't know him.

Oh, I go to church every Sunday.

Until you go he come into your house.

Yes, you, you talking about his house.

He's trying to tow it, your house and eat at your dinner table.

God, have never been to some some of our houses.

He a stranger to there.

He came through the door many times and knocked, but nobody let him in.

You.

You said I see you on Sunday.

God, you would never let him in your house and that's why you at home calling out to him, but you don't hear him.

He's never been in your house.

He's never said at your dinner table.

You don't have a relationship with God, hallelujah.

My fourth and last point is this good, this good?

How many feel like they're gonna start hearing God better now?

How many really feel like they're gonna start walking with God closely and actually listening to what God has to say?

Hallelujah.

Many times people ask and say uh, how do the preachers and how does pastor and bishop and be talking about?

And the Lord told me and God said to me and God gave word.

How did he do it all that?

Uh, I don't know.

Maybe this is maybe you got to be a pastor to be like that you got.

If you would, you would never be a pastor.

You would never be a preacher.

You'll never be a leader until you learn how to hear God.

This is something you already have to learn how to do.

You gotta be able to hear God before God can ever use you.

If you're doing something without God, then I guess what You're not working for God.

I don't know whose team you own, but it ain't God.

That's why God said they gonna prophesy my name, they gonna do healing my name, they doing a lot of stuff with my name on it, but I don't know them.

I ain't never said that to them.

They got online and saw preaching as a profession and went to school and got a certificate and now they're a pastor.

They get on YouTube and get their messages Y'all bein' food by fake followers.

They have never heard God.

Why?

Because they don't know him.

I'm just keepin' it real.

Let's get one more scripture.

Well, for the sake of time, I'm not gonna go into this scripture, but y'all remember this story.

It's found.

Y'all can write down the scripture.

It's found in Exodus 18.

Exodus 18.

And around the verse 23 and 24.

This is dealing with Moses, moses and his father-in-law.

In this scripture, moses' father-in-law comes to Moses and he says to Moses Moses, I see a problem that's gonna really gonna be a real.

It's gonna mess you up.

I see something's gonna get real happen.

I see that you're gonna if you don't do something.

I came here I gotta tell you this because everything gonna fall apart.

You carrying a lot of weight and it's weighing heavily on you.

You carrying weight, you trying to be the people's all in all, you trying to manage all of these people.

And his father-in-law said if you don't start distributing this responsibility, it's gonna be to your detriment.

If you don't take some time and take some of your responsibilities and find you 12 people to distribute some of these responsibilities to the people, it's gonna kill you.

And the Bible says Moses listened to his father-in-law, but somebody said hold on, this is somebody.

I ain't gotta listen to my father-in-law.

I hear it from God.

I listen to God.

Back down to the fourth point receive Godly counsel.

That's the easiest way to hear God and people getting that wrong.

The easiest way to hear God is actually to listen to Godly counsel Listen to your pastor, listen to your bishop, listen to your elder, listen to your mother, listen to your father, listen to your boss at work.

God, you don't know.

Let me teach you something I've learned.

One of the ways of God is he put people around you to give you counsel.

Sometimes you won't hear him until he put his word in somebody else's mouth so they can tell you oh, y'all think y'all still waiting on God.

You're ignoring everybody else.

And God said I done told you through that one.

I done told you through that one.

I done told you through that one.

I done told you that.

Now, what do you want?

You want a chip to wreck, like Jonah?

You want to be in a wet belly of a well for three days?

What do you want from me?

I've been giving you that's my word.

I've been speaking to you all the time.

This is what you know, what Moses listened to his father because he knew that what he was saying came from God.

He had enough discernment to understand what God is trying to tell you something.

Some of us, we, we even this is how much we, how important this is, even though Moses would often go himself and personally hear from God.

He understood when his father, like, spoke, that that was yet instilled the voice of God.

If you can't recognize God's voice in other people, then why would God speak to you from the heavens?

You won't even listen to the people he put around you.

Come on somebody.

This is the basic, the easiest one.

Children obey your parents.

You won't even listen to your mama, but you wait no God to speak from the heavens.

You won't even obey your father, but you wait for God to go and do some miraculous.

And you go and hear him.

And God had been speaking to your mother for your whole life, told you the things of God.

God had bled them to say stuff to you.

God disturbed them when they got in the midnight hour and called you up and gave you that long talk.

But you don't want to hear them.

You see us talking about praying.

I'm waiting on God.

Tell somebody Godly cancel, godly cancel.

That's the easiest one.

That's the easiest one, in fact.

I'll tell you something.

Until you know God's for yourself, you better listen to Godly cancel.

Until you develop a relationship with God close enough to you can hear him for yourself, you better rely on Godly cancel, because you're going to miss too much of what God is saying, trying to figure out how to underhear his voice.

And he's speaking all the time.

So, first thing, you just listen to people around you.

That's speaking Godly cancel to you.

That's so simple, but so good, so profound.

Let's put around us tools and resources.

The Bible talks about the fivefold ministry.

They are gifts to the people.

Some teachers, some prophets, some pastors all of these people God put around you to get to be Godly cancel for you and you out there to sit at home and say I don't need church.

Church is a scam.

Do you know God's voice?

So you ain't hearing nothing, then, and that's why your life is messed up.

You ain't even got enough sense to at least go to a place where there's people, that who hear from God and can give you Godly cancel.

That's what I'm giving you right now.

Do you hear God?

Anybody got enough sense to know it's God?

Oh, you think it's me.

You think it's me.

Up here I'm trying to exercise how smart I am and how much I know scripture.

You better look past me.

This ain't my knowledge.

This ain't my understanding.

This is God.

You got to take heed to Godly cancel, because what's going to happen is every time you hear the word of the Lord, you're going to be tested and challenged by the word and God is going to be looking at you Monday to see if you repeat the same cycle.

Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen.

I'm done, I'm finished.

Tell somebody can you hear me now?

This is God speaking.

Can you speak for God?

Till somebody tells you?

God said can you hear me now?

I've been talking to you all week long, but can you find it?

Can you hear me now?

I want you to keep this connection.

Don't lose it, because I'm still want to talk to you.

I'm not done talking.

Y'all realize God is not done.

When I close this Bible and I finish and I sit there, god is not finished talking to you.

He just got me up here to get your attention and say, hey, I'm talking to you and when we get home, tell somebody.

When I get home, I'm gonna finish this conversation with God.

When I get home, I'm gonna finish this conversation because God is talking to me and Monday he got some instructions for me.

I keep on staying up late trying to figure out what to do and God is already telling me what to do if I can just listen.

So this time I'm gonna correct my mistakes and prepare and I'm gonna wake up and I'm gonna try to remember that dream that I couldn't remember.

I'm gonna pray and see if I can remember what God has said and then I'm gonna ask the Lord I know you're dead, god, can you talk to me?

Show me what you want to say to me?

What I loved about active listening is said that every time somebody is speaking to you, it's not words, it says pick up on thing unverbal, nonverbal messages.

God is a master of nonverbal.

One of the biggest things to help my walk with God is to learn how to pick up on the nonverbal, to learn how to see something and say to myself Lord, what are you trying to say to me?

In this moment I don't hear you speaking audibly, but I can tell you trying to show me something.

It's nonverbal.

That requires active listening so you can pick up on the nonverbal.

So much of my hearing from God has been nonverbal because I've been learning how to be active in my listening.

I'm gonna repeat these notes in case you didn't write them down.

Write them down, don't forget it.

Conscious hearing.

Conscious hearing is to be present, means to look to Jesus.

This is how we pray without ceasing.

We live our life like Jesus is right there with us all the time and we look to Him.

That means we're not doing it by ourselves.

We have a partner.

We have a partner in this.

He's right there, we look to Him.

Conscious listening, active listening.

Active listening requires you to prepare to hear what he has to say.

Active listening requires you to read your word.

It requires you to pray.

It requires you to make time to hear God and hear His instructions and pick up on the verbal and nonverbal messaging of God Amen.

The next one Establish connection.

Establish connection.

You are never here for God until you actually, until you actually belong to God and become in covenant in relationship with God.

You gotta get to know Him, to hear His voice Amen.

The last one is godly counsel.

You gotta make it up in yourself.

Until I learn these other ones, I'm gonna listen to godly counsel, all the godly counsel I can get.

That means I'm gonna show up in midweek, I'm gonna show up on Sunday, I'm gonna show up in the morning, because I need all the godly counsel I can get.

Amen, hallelujah, stand on your feet, let's pray.

Can you hear me now, lord, we thank you for this word, god.

We thank you, lord, because nobody knows us like you know us.

You only.

You know how much you've been trying to say to us that we have been ignoring.

You know, lord, god, you see us on Monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday and Saturday.

You see us doing the week, making mistakes and doing things, falling to every trap of the enemy, simply because we're not, we're not listening to you.

Lord, we don't want to keep repeating this cycle.

Lord God, we want to hear your voice and know your voice.

We don't want to miss it no more, because your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our pan, hallelujah.

We have to admit to ourselves and be honest.

90% of our troubles could be avoided.

90% of our problems we cause on ourselves.

It's not that we won't have tests, it's not that we won't have trials, but some of us are going through much more than we got put on us because we're not hearing your voice.

Lord, we need your help.

We need your help.

Knock on the door one more time.

I'm gonna answer this time.

Come on, in, god, and eat with me.

I'm gonna sit with you this time.

I want to hear your voice.

I want to know you.

I want us to be close.

I want to look to you all the time and recognize that you're there with me and that I'm not by myself.

Lord, clean out my ears.

Give me a year to hear your voice.

Hallelujah.