The Voice | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

All right, all right.

Church, how you guys doing?

Are you guys doing good?

Man, it is it is so good to be in the house of God.

It's so good to see all of you today.

Um, however, you're joining us today, we're so, so glad that you're here.

Whether you're joining us in our our parent lounge, uh checking us out online in the facility with us, or maybe you're listening to this later on at some point.

We we wouldn't be the same without you.

We're so thankful that you're with us today.

Um, in addition to that, I I want to provide a quick update as to where we are as a church.

Before I jump into today's message, the first thing I want to jump off and say this straight off the top is this I want to thank you so much um for being the incredible community that you are.

I want to thank you so much for for being the family that you are.

And here's what I mean by that.

Um, you guys will sometimes hear me reference uh different um friends that I may have that are in ministry doing the exact same thing that I'm doing, doing the exact same thing that that we're doing together.

And and it can look differently depending on churches and cities and communities.

Um and what I gotta tell you guys is that what we have here isn't normal.

What we have here when you look around, the diversity from age to ethnicity to socioeconomic status, whatever bucket you want to put it in, it's all here.

And and that doesn't happen without the grace of God and the blessing of the community of God's people.

So I want to thank you guys so much for allowing us to serve a church that looks like heaven.

And one of the reasons why I want to emphasize that is because in this challenging season, as we're all trying to navigate through this this pandemic, trying to make the best decisions that we can, it's often in these moments that a lot of pressure can be placed upon the church.

What are we going to do?

What are we not going to do?

Are we going to gather?

Are we not going to gather?

These things can become um pressure from the outside while we're still trying to discern what God wants us to do.

And so again, I want to thank you so much for never placing that pressure on us.

And in light of that, I want you guys to be aware that we're very aware of all the spikes that we have seen in COVID cases here in our community, what we've seen in the state, what we've seen uh across the country, and we're gonna continue to be prayerful uh about what that looks like and resolving that.

But for us as a church, we know that God has called us to continue to move forward.

And so a couple of things you're gonna see for us as a church community is you're gonna notice that our staff is gonna start wearing our masks again.

Um, you're gonna see that we're gonna do our best to make sure that our high touch points have um hand sanitizers and things like that.

Our heart's desire from the very beginning has always been to keep you safe, to keep your family safe as well as keeping us safe.

And if there's anything that we can do to demonstrate our care for you, but also uh to demonstrate our desire to keep you safe, we want to do that.

So I want to thank you guys for giving us the margin to do that.

In addition to that, we also have a community that that is some are vaccinated, some are not.

So it's it's it's a broad range, and I'm grateful that this is a political free zone.

What I'm asking for us to do and continue to do is be graceful with wherever people are.

For people that have masks on, there's grace for that.

For folks who are vaccinated and don't, there's grace for that.

We we're not a church that gets into all the nuances of that.

We want to serve and be community with people in the way that the kingdom has called us to do it.

So, yes, we're gonna operate with wisdom, but we're also gonna walk by faith.

So, because of our great partnership um with this incredible facility, um, we're gonna be mindful of whatever um guidelines they might put in place for us.

We're gonna be mindful of whatever CDC guidelines are put into place.

But for us for a church right now, we're gonna continue to move forward, we're gonna continue to gather, we're gonna continue to see God, we're gonna walk by faith, but we're also gonna begin to put some things in place from a staff and team standpoint to make sure you guys know that we care about you and we want you to be safe.

Amen.

Amen.

Can we put our hands together for that?

Amen.

I think oddly enough, that that that kind of segues into um today's message.

If you have your Bible, I want you to join me in the Gospel of John chapter 10, because today we're we're gonna be talking about what I think is probably one of the most recurring things, whether it's things that are asked of us or things that we can all just take inventory and know that we've we stumbled through this question at some point or another.

John 10 · chapter mention

And that's really just recognizing the voice of God, discerning the voice of God.

How do we know when we've heard from God?

How do we how do we respond when God is speaking?

All those nuances.

And and while I don't believe that the next 29 minutes and 30 seconds, or probably more like 36 minutes in my case, um, is gonna be enough to exhaustively walk us through it.

I do hope that um I can give you some guidelines and some things that have helped me over the years with recognizing and discerning um the voice of God.

Starting at verse number one in chapter 10 of John's Gospel, Jesus says this truly I tell you, anyone who doesn't enter the sheep pen by the gate but clines in some other way is a thief and a robber.

The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

The gatekeepers open it for him, and the sheep hear his voice.

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

When he has brought out all that is his own outside, he goes ahead of them, the sheep follow him because they know his voice.

His sheep follow him because they know his voice.

Jesus continues in the rest of the Gospel of John in chapter 10 to unpack this this tension and this distinction between the voice of the enemy, the voice of robbers, the voice of thieves, in comparison to the voice of God, and making sure that we respond appropriately.

He concludes this concept at verse 27 where he reiterates what he said earlier and he simply says this my sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.

Jesus places great emphasis in this chapter with making sure that his sheep are knowing his voice and that they don't follow a liar or a thief.

That's what I want to talk to us about today is the importance of discerning what God is speaking to us and how to respond to that.

And I'll simply title today's message, The Voice.

Let's pray and see what it is that God wants to speak to us today.

God, we thank you so much, Lord, for your word.

We thank you for this incredible community.

We thank you for the opportunity that you give us to gather together in your name.

And Lord, as we talked earlier about us being aware and sensitive to what's happening in our community, what's happening in the world, God, we we trust you through it all.

Father, we pray that you give us discernment and wisdom on how to serve people in this challenging season with ever-changing information and us simply doing our best to steward the manifold grace of God.

So, Father, I just pray, in our time together, whether we're here in our facility or watching online, God, that you give us open eyes that we can see you.

Maybe in areas that we hadn't recognized you before, open ears to hear you, in areas where maybe we we just couldn't hear your voice because it's crowded out by so many different things.

And I pray for open hearts that we can receive and walk out what it is that you speak to us today.

We pray with an expectation that you're gonna speak to us in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen.

Do I have any uh reality TV fans in the building today?

You can go ahead and own it.

If you're gonna go watch it, then then own it.

Any any reality TV fans?

Megan, I don't see your hand up.

Um we we got we got a couple.

I know that there's some folks out there that's being a little bit shy.

I'm not gonna ask y'all what y'all watch.

So y'all don't gotta feel like I'm gonna do an altar call yet to get you delivered from that.

But but the reason why I say that is because we we know that there's all types of different reality shows out there.

And and as much as I do my best uh to avoid them, there are occasional moments where I may stumble into my room and it may be on a TV, and then I find myself saying, like, man, why are you watching this?

Then now I'm sitting down and I'm emotionally invested in the journey of the people that are there.

But I'm watching it through the lens of a pastor, I'm interceding in prayer.

Y'all just looking to be entertained by people's mess.

I'm I'm genuinely concerned about the well-being of some of these individuals that I that I see.

It's fascinating to me, it really is.

But but one of the reality TV types that I've grown to have a lot of margin for are the ones that are like giving people an opportunity to move forward.

Like the ones where you get a chance to hear somebody sing, and that's their that's their one opportunity that they can they can get their breakthrough because it has the ability to radically change their lives.

And so one of the ones that I really find myself engaging in is that show the voice.

Y'all familiar with the show The Voice?

Let me let me let me walk y'all through with the voices just a little bit.

It's one of those things you guys may be familiar with American Idol or or all those other ones that have like an individual contestant that gets up, they sing in hopes of getting their dreams met.

Well, the voice, they kind of took a different approach on this when this came out many years ago.

Historically, you would you would have to stand in front of the judges, they would look at you, they would evaluate every aspect of you, and then let you know if you were good or not.

And that was just something that you had to wrestle through.

But what the voice's premise was, is that the judges never got a chance to see you.

They wanted to remove the judge's biases from the voice.

They're saying, like, this competition is really about the talent, it's about the voice, so we don't even want to be able to look at them.

We don't want to like run through our minds, are they gonna be a good fit for the industry?

That's not our focal point.

It seems very noble on the surface.

And so if you watch the show, you get a chance to hear about the person, the individual, the journey that they went through in order to find themselves on a voice, and now they're in front of the judges, and the judges are sitting there with their backs turned.

They have these chairs and their backs are turned to it.

And so what ends up happening is the individual gets up, they start singing, and hopefully, if they sing good enough, the judges will turn around as a way of saying, like, hey, what you are saying and how you are singing is so good, I want to recruit you to be on my team.

It's a beautiful thing, and so you can see the joy in people's eyes as they're as they're auditioning and they're singing from their from their soul, and they're just hoping that the the judges turn around and accept them, and when they do, it's it's beautiful.

Specifically when you have those moments where multiple judges all turn around at the same time because now the the judges are competing against each other in order to get that person's voice on their team.

So you guys are all caught up.

People are like, Man, I need to watch that.

I'm not this is not an endorsement.

I promise you, I'm not getting paid or anything.

I'm just kind of setting up this whole idea of the power of the voice.

So I've seen many of these instances where people go up, they sing, and they're just hoping that the judges are going to turn around and accept them, that the judges are going to like what they hear based on their audition, and that they will be loved, accepted, and received.

If we if we really think about that premise, sometimes it can feel like we're auditioning for God, right?

Where we think that maybe if I can if I can get in front of the throne of grace, and maybe if I can sing good enough, that God will turn around and accept me.

Maybe if I maybe if I serve, serve good enough that that maybe God will turn around and accept me.

Maybe if I maybe if I give enough, maybe if I could do enough of the things that they tell me I need to do as a follower of Christ, it'll check the box off, God will finally turn around and accept me, and I can finally begin to experience the freedom and blessing that sometimes we know that we all are missing.

That's how it can feel sometimes.

But but in a in an odd plot twist, I want to inform you that you've already been accepted.

That you already have been accepted by God, that we don't have to audition for his grace or his blessing or favor, that Jesus is God's body language to us.

He communicated to us over 2,000 years ago that I love you so much, that I accept you so much just as you are.

I'm inviting you to be a part of my family.

I'm inviting you to be a part of my team.

So the truth of the matter is it's not us that's auditioning to God, but it's often us that has God auditioning to us.

We sit with our backs turned.

And God is on the other side and he's saying, I love you.

I want you to be involved in community, I want you to get involved in, and if we like what God is saying, then we'll turn around and accept it.

Don't mess with me today.

Don't y'all mess with me today.

But if we don't like what God is saying, God, I got some other voices in my head that got other ideas about this thing that you're talking about.

I'm gonna let this thing slow cook.

God, I got some other things that I'm that I'm working towards, and what you're speaking to me right now is not convenient.

And God is simply saying, Can you can you turn around?

Can you accept?

Can you receive what I'm trying to do in your life?

But many times we're we're sitting there with our backs turned, and God is saying, Will you accept my word?

Will you accept my love?

Will you accept my grace?

Will you turn and receive what it is that I have for you because you're looking at other voices, you're you're listening to other things, and you'll never accomplish the thing that you believe that it's going to do.

God is, we're not auditioning for God, but sometimes we put God in a position where He's auditioning for us.

And the thing is, sometimes it's so hard to recognize when it's God and when it's not.

One of the most recurring things that I get as a as a pastor when it comes to people wanting to connect with us and talk with me specifically, a lot of times it comes down to a decision, something that people are walking through.

And it comes down to like, I'm trying to get some wisdom.

I'm trying to recognize what God's thoughts are on this given subject.

How how do I hear from God as a common one?

How do I know that I've heard from God as a common one?

What happens if I can't hear from God?

What happens if I don't get any clarity?

I got big decisions that are coming up and I and I can't move forward without it.

We've all been at that place where there's been crucial decisions, things that we need to move forward on, and we're doing our best to listen and to hear what God is saying.

But have you ever felt that you haven't been able to hear what God's word says about it, what God's view is on it?

What do you do when you've prayed about it, when you've talked about it, when you've processed through it, but you still don't feel like you have any answers on how to adequately move forward?

I believe that there's something that we can see here that we can learn from our Jewish brothers and sisters.

They have this process that they call Kavanaugh.

And what Kavanaugh is, is this part where they actually intentionally engage God in every area of their lives.

That sounds like such a simple description.

But what that means is there is no compartmentalization when it comes to God.

So that means that when they are at work, it's as unto the Lord.

When they're with their family, it's as unto the Lord.

That everything that they do, they recognize that God is present and they're constantly finding ways to engage Him.

And oddly enough, it's because of that.

It's because they're this God conscious, this God awareness in every area of their lives, that there's this sense of clarity when it comes to them really being able to discern what God is trying to speak.

Because we all know that that voice recognition isn't easy.

Here's here's case in point.

I I'm not sure what anybody's relationship in here is with Siri.

Mine is masterful.

It's it's great.

It hasn't always been that way.

Admittedly, it hasn't always been that way.

When I first began to engage Siri, she never understood what I was saying.

She would always mess up my text messages, she would always get things confused.

I would find myself getting so frustrated, but I was patient with her.

I was kind with her.

I needed to spend more time because as she's learning my voice, she was learning how to respond and react to it.

That's not the case that I would say for my wife and my daughter.

They they they got to a point where, like, man, we can't use her, she's helpless.

I'm like, no, you just you gotta be patient with her.

And so now we got a good rhythm going.

Me, me and Siri, we're good.

Like when I wake up in the morning, she tells me, good morning.

Real talk.

When when I wake up in the morning, I pick up my phone.

She already tells me my schedule for the day.

She lets me know where my meetings are located, she even advises me on when I need to leave my house if I want to get there on time.

Siri and I have a phenomenal relationship.

We have a good thing going, but it took some time for her to recognize my voice.

We had to spend time together so that she could adequately learn how to evaluate my life.

And now she speaks into every area of my life because she's recognized it.

I even began to kind of shift into this space now where I'm evolving into getting like smart devices in our house.

And of course, I have Siri integrated in it.

It's amazing.

So we have this smart speaker, and so I'm able to listen to music through it.

And the beautiful thing is that she only responds to my voice.

It's it's there's there's it's it's awesome.

So there's times where the music may be playing, and there was a time a couple of weeks ago where my daughter was trying to tell Siri to turn it down.

I don't want to say it too loud because she's listening.

I don't want her to interrupt the message.

But but I but I but I was like, she was like, hey Siri, turn the turn the music down.

She didn't respond.

Hey Siri, turn her music down.

Didn't respond.

So my daughter's like, man, she she don't listen.

Siri must have heard her.

So she said, I'm sorry.

I am not programmed to recognize your voice.

It was awesome.

She has spent so much time with me that she was programmed not to just react to varying commands, but she only recognized my voice.

What would it look like if our faith was geared the same way that series is?

That we spend so much time with God that when the lies of the enemy come up, we don't react to what he's saying.

We're saying, I'm sorry, I only respond to what God says about me.

I'm sorry, I only know what God is speaking over my family.

I'm sorry, I'm I'm not gonna engage that foolishness because I know what it is that God says about me and minds as we're moving forward.

It's all about spending time so that this idea of recognizing mind and heart and voice can somehow create a result that we know is gonna be incredibly helpful.

When you spend time, you begin to discern and recognize the voice.

See, for for me, you guys may know my original claim to fame.

When I was before I got saved, y'all know that I I had the dreams of becoming the next mega rap star.

That's no surprise.

They didn't have any voice competitions for me.

I would have won all of them joints if they had them back then when I was coming up, but they didn't have them, so I had to do it the hard way.

And and I remember going on this journey, and then God said, Keith, respectfully retire.

And I did so.

I did so.

But every now and then, every now and then, I feel a little bit nostalgic, and and I'll listen to one of my old CDs and I'll relive the heydays with me hanging out with my friends.

Just a couple of years ago, I remember half driving in the car.

I'm like, you know what?

I think it's time for me to let my son listen to some of my old stuff so he knows what real music sounds like.

I put the CD on, we're riding down the street, and we get a couple of bars in, and he kind of is sitting there looking at his phone and he lifts his head up and he looks over at me and he's like, Dad, that's you.

I was like, How do you know?

His response was so beautiful, he says, You're my dad, I recognize your voice.

I was younger, my cadence was different, but he spent enough time with me that he was able to recognize my voice, even if the words were things that he wasn't familiar with.

I believe what God wants for all of us is for us to get to a place where we can say the same thing.

God is my father.

I recognize his voice.

I I know exactly what it is that he's trying to say.

See, this is the context of what Jesus is communicating to his people.

Up until this point, there may have been this loose theory that only the only the Pharisees, only the only the priests, only the people that were in certain positions could really, really hear from God.

Everybody else did their best to obey, but the priests were the ones who could truly hear from God.

But then Jesus begins to shift the paradigm a little bit, and he begins to use this language of him being a shepherd, and that all of the people of God were his sheep.

He begins to to weave in this nuance of saying that that we have this relationship and it's it's really beautiful.

In fact, all throughout scripture we see this this symbiotic connection between God being viewed as a shepherd and and his people being viewed as sheep.

And when you do a little bit of research about the relationship between a shepherd and his sheep, you see that as something that's that's deeply profound and and and almost kinetic.

And what I mean by that is that when they spend enough time with each other that the shepherd literally names the sheep individually.

He would know them each by name, which is why when Jesus says, I know my sheep by name.

That should be encouraging for some of us right now, for those of us who feel like your boss don't know your name, who feel like there's people in your lives that don't know how to respond to you.

You have a shepherd who knows your name.

He knows your calling, he sees exactly where you are.

He says, I know my sheep by name.

I understand what they're facing, I understand what they're walking through, and I know how to lead them forward.

He even goes on to say that I am the great shepherd.

This is so significant because what he begins to paint this picture of is that what a shepherd would do is they would literally lay down their lives for their sheep.

That means that when when predators would come, they would they would fight off the predators.

That that meant that when thieves would try to come, that they would fight off the thieves.

In fact, they would go as far as they would lay at the front of the door.

This is why we see later that Jesus says, I am the door.

All this is connected because what that was meant to communicate is that if the sheep want to make it to their destination, they need to go through me.

But it was also meant to communicate to the predators and to the enemy that if you want to get to my sheep, you have to go through me.

How comforting is it to know that if we are willing to be in a position that God has placed us in, that if the enemy wants to get to you, he has to go through Jesus.

That if the enemy wants to get to your family, he has to go through Jesus.

And I want to let You know that Jesus plus you, it's it's not a fair fight for anything that you may be facing.

Jesus says, I lay my life down as a barrier to prevent the enemy from getting in, but also to protect you from getting into places that are not the best for you.

See, I've I've learned that as he begins to create this nuance of the understanding of the relationship between a shepherd and his sheep, it would get to a place where the shepherd wouldn't even have to speak in full sentences anymore.

He could simply grunt and the sheep knew what direction to go into.

He didn't have to speak clearly, just and they would just say, okay, it's time to stop.

Time for us to go right.

Like they just got to a point where they didn't even have to say a whole lot.

All they had to do is just be around him enough to discern and recognize his body language and be sensitive to the different tones, and they knew how to respond to it.

This is the image tree, the imagery that God is trying to create and help us to understand what it looks like.

But here's the question we have to ask.

If the Lord is our shepherd, if if if Jesus is the one that we are following, if there's so many benefits to being connected to this great shepherd, the question we have to ask is Am I being a sheep?

Because a lot of times we read scripture, we come to church, we we listen to messages, we we engage in worship and the things that God will do for us.

But it's predicated in us being in the sheep pen and being the sheep.

We live in a culture that is so obsessed with leadership, books, and podcasts all over the place.

You see nothing about followership though, do you?

You see nothing about what does it mean to be a true follower?

Jesus says it this way if the blind lead the blind, they all end up in a ditch.

But if you can be an adequate follower of Jesus, you can then lead people.

This is why Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ.

You have to ask yourself, if you're following people, where are we going?

Who are you following?

In order for us to truly get to the place that God has intended us to be, it's not about us leading the way, it's about following the one who is.

What I want to do over the next few moments is I want to share with you a couple of things that has helped me through the years.

This is not an exhaustive list.

You can you can find books and and all types of things on discerning the voice of God, but I want to make this very, very personal and practical with you in regards to some things that has helped me over the years with understanding and discerning the voice of God and how to move when God tells me to move.

I want you to write these things down.

Here's the first thing that has helped me over the years.

The voice of God moves you forward.

If you're trying to discern, am I hearing from God?

Is is this is this God that I'm hearing from?

Is this really Him?

You have to ask yourself, is this moving me forward?

Now let me unpack this for a second.

Because in the fourth verse, it says this, after he has gathered his own flocks, he walks ahead of them and they follow him because they know his voice.

It's giving us this image that that our shepherd, that Jesus goes before us, and the sheep are following him and they are moving forward.

All of us have placed and find ourselves in places where we need help in moving forward.

We need to make a decision.

We we need some direction.

Ultimately, what it means is that we just want some clarity.

But but let me help you with something.

Whenever God is speaking to you, it will be to move you forward.

It is never for you to go backwards in life.

This is what Jeremiah 29, 11 says.

For I know the plans that I have for you that the Lord declares.

Plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Ultimately, what he is saying is that the plan and the things that I'm going to speak into your life are so that you can move forward.

It's not for you to go into a place of destruction.

It is not for you to go into an area that's not going to help you to thrive and be successful.

If you want to discern, if God is speaking to you, ask yourself, is this helping me to move forward?

But let me but let me contextualize that a little bit.

Because if you notice, I didn't say it moves you in the direction of your comfort.

If you notice, I didn't say that he moves you in the direction of your preference.

But he moves you forward in connection to your calling and your purpose.

And here's the thing about that: sometimes it is uncomfortable.

Sometimes it is contrary to your preference, sometimes it will be in a direction that you don't anticipate.

The beautiful thing about this idea of following God is that it's not meant to be this formula that you can copy and paste in every area of your life.

Different seasons call for different things.

So, what that means is there are times that when we're following God and He's moving us forward in ways that doesn't make sense.

We know what Isaiah 55 says, right?

He says, My ways are not your ways, your thoughts are not my thoughts.

Let me let me translate that for us in a way that makes a little bit more sense.

The way that God does things and the way that we want him to do things can sometimes be vastly different.

Can I get an amen on that?

Have you ever been in a place where you're saying, God, you know, if you were to put me in charge, I probably would have executed this whole vision a lot differently than the way that you just did.

But God says that my ways are not your ways.

That means that sometimes me moving you forward may not make sense.

Case in point, sometimes going forward may mean leaving a place that you're actually comfortable.

Sometimes going forward may actually mean going into a direction that is completely uncomfortable.

There are even times that going forward could also mean that you need to go back.

It doesn't make sense.

Let me let me accentuate that thought a little bit.

We we all are familiar with the with the narrative of Moses, right?

Moses was was born with a calling to rescue and serve his people.

Moses was raised with Egyptian royalty.

He he actually ends up killing a man and then he runs and he's fleeing.

He leaves and he's gone for about 40 years.

Moses has a good life.

He's living in obscurity, probably somewhere in O'Cala somewhere.

Like just out there in obscurity, minding his business, just a shepherd and everything.

But then God begins to speak to him, and when God speaks to him, he says, Hey, I have a calling on your life.

And the way that you need to move forward is I actually need you to go back to the very environment you've been running from.

What if moving forward for us meant going back to face the thing that we've been running from?

What if going forward for us actually meant going face to face with the things that make us feel very uncomfortable?

Unfortunately, there's a lot of times that we're seeking God and God is putting it upon our parts to go back to environments that we tried to run away from, and we're wondering why God's not speaking, but he's like, But I am.

I just need you to go in a direction that's not the most comfortable for you.

I need you to engage some things that may not be the things that you had in mind, because my ways are not your ways.

Going forward may mean changing directions when you're content on where you're going.

Going forward may mean facing the giants, even though they're much bigger and more strong than you.

Going forward may mean standing still like the children of Israel were at the Red Sea and trusting that God is going to work it all out.

Going forward may mean accepting forgiveness in your own life, just like the woman who was caught in the act of adultery.

Nothing will paralyze the call of God on our lives more than unforgiveness.

Because if I if I don't forgive others and if I don't forgive myself, it is very difficult for us ever to truly move forward.

So going forward may mean extending forgiveness and receiving forgiveness.

However, you want to slice it, going forward will always require faith.

So when I'm asking myself, is this God?

I often say to myself, is this moving me forward and is it going to require me to walk by faith?

More often than not, I have found in my own life when I'm trying to discern what God is speaking, is it moving me forward?

And where do I have to walk by faith in this?

If faith isn't required that I want to submit to you that it's probably not God's voice that's speaking.

Because without faith, it is impossible to please him.

But here's the other thing that I want us to look at.

Because it's not only is it going to move me forward, even if it's uncomfortable, but even when it's in the face of something that's uncomfortable, I have to ask this question is there peace?

Here's my second thought.

When the voice of God speaks, he brings peace.

When the voice of God speaks, there's peace.

And I want you to understand that peace is not the absence of conflict or challenges.

Peace is the presence and power of God that rests on you in spite of them.

Peace is not the absence of conflict or challenges, but it's the presence and power of God that rests upon you even in spite of them.

We all have been in places where there's conflict, there's chaos, there's questions, but yet the peace of God was with us.

Even in this crazy pandemic season when it first started, everyone's trying to figure it all out, and we all are navigating through it.

But somehow I still had a sense of peace.

I've shared with you guys before that that in the middle of all that stuff, our family in DC, the pastor stepped down, we're dealing with all this chaos, and so God had placed it on Megan's heart to go back and get involved and to help bring stability and serve that church simultaneously while we're here.

It doesn't make sense because we had enough to deal with, but we had a sense of peace.

You'd be amazed at the confidence that you can have even in the face of storms when you know that the peace of God is with you, the power and presence of God to give you the strength to endure whatever it is you're facing.

See, I've I've lived a life enough that I can recognize when the peace of God is present.

I remember over 20 years ago, prior to us really radically walking with Jesus, I would consider myself to be at this kind of like proverbial fork in the road, where I was really trying to figure out what is my life going to look like going forward?

Fairly young, had a young family, and trying to navigate, am I really supposed to invest in this thriving but yet very silent rap pursuit?

Am I supposed to go back to college?

What am I supposed to do with all that stuff?

Had a lot of questions and I didn't have any answers.

I found myself at a church service one Sunday.

Megan and I were together, and I can't remember what the pastor was preaching.

Unlike this amazing congregation, because y'all remember every word that I say.

But I couldn't remember what the pastor was preaching.

But but but I do remember there was this moment where there was this true, genuine altar call.

And in my mind, I'm thinking to myself, like, man, I I know that, I know that my girlfriend at the time and I, like, we're we're on our own journey, and and and we've been together for five years up to now, and and and and if I'm if I really make this decision to follow God, I'm I'm I'm not gonna turn back.

But but what does that mean for my family?

What does that mean for my friends?

I still had all these questions, but I still had this peace with pursuing God.

I I found myself standing at this altar, and as I was standing there, I just remember just having this overwhelming sense of love and grace and peace that showered me.

I I couldn't I couldn't describe it.

I didn't have immediate clarity on what my career was going to be.

I didn't have immediate clarity on so many different things, but there was this overwhelming sense of peace.

I felt the presence of God on me.

We we got filled with the Spirit, and I remember looking over to my right, and I remember seeing on the other side of the altar, there was my then girlfriend slash baby mama, now wife.

Um, she was having the exact same experience.

That was when I had felt and heard the voice of God for the first time.

Not audibly, but in my soul.

And the thing that God spoke to me is said, This is the woman that I've called you to.

Your responsibility is to steward this relationship.

As your relationship goes, so will you.

It became very clear to me that even in the face of so many questions and so many things that wasn't clear to me, that when God spoke, there was this overwhelming sense of peace.

When I left that service, there were a lot of things that I had to navigate through.

I've committed an entire life of being very functional and affluent with speaking the language of sin, that I now had to figure out how to speak the language of faith, but I had peace.

I had to I had to disconnect from friendships that just weren't the best for me in a way that didn't seem like I was judging them, but was also one that knew that I was trying to follow what God had for me, but there was peace.

I had to reevaluate the direction of my career and really begin to invest in my calling.

It wasn't easy, but there was peace.

What I want you to understand is that when God is speaking to you, it may not be the absence of conflict or questions, but there will be this overwhelming sense of peace that'll give you the strength to navigate through whatever it is that he's instructing you to do.

The Gospel of Mark, chapter four, I believe, beautifully illustrates this because Jesus starts with talking to his disciples and he says to them, Let's go to the other side.

I have a destination that I want to take you to.

In other words, I want to move you forward.

And while they're on this journey, the Bible says that a storm arose, and the disciples are understandably concerned, they're understandably afraid.

They begin to react in their emotions and they confront Jesus and say, Don't you even care what we're dealing with right now?

Don't you even care what's happening right now?

And Jesus gets up and he says, Peace be still.

The wind and the waves calm down, and he turns to his disciples and he says to them, Why are y'all tripping?

That's my translation of the Bible.

Why why are y'all tripping?

I spoke a word to you that we are going to the other side.

I was moving you forward.

Just because you're facing storms doesn't mean that peace isn't still present.

I don't know who needs to hear that right now.

But God has spoken a word to some of us to move forward.

And now we're wondering if God is still with us because it's a little uncomfortable, because the road has gotten a little bit choppy.

And I want to say the same thing to you that Jesus said to his disciples that just because you're facing some storms, it doesn't mean that peace isn't present.

Just because you're facing some opposition doesn't mean that he still didn't call you to it.

He has called you to it, he's moving you forward.

It may not be comfortable, but peace is still available if we're willing to engage him.

The peace and presence of God was with his disciples, and I believe that he's with us, and we'll find more often than not that whenever God is speaking to us, that there's this tangible sense of the power and presence of God that will lead us through our next step.

Here's my third and final thought.

I want to ask the worship team to come back out and to join me.

The voice of God speaks life.

He always speaks life.

That he's not gonna speak words of of condemnation and destruction, but but when God speaks, he speaks life.

So if we're keeping, if we're keeping track, that when God speaks to us, he's gonna speak to us in a way that helps us to understand his voice.

He's gonna speak to us in a way that moves us forward.

He's gonna speak to us in a way that provides peace, but it's also gonna be a way that always produces some form of life.

Jesus says this in the 10th verse.

He says that a thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

But I have come that you may have life in abundance.

That word life is a word zoe.

It means living with substance.

The will of God for all of us is not to just exist, but he wants us to live vibrant lives.

It's lives of substance.

And when God speaks to us, he's moving us forward and giving us peace so that it can produce something that will allow us to have substance, that will allow us to have life.

Let me try to explain it to us this way.

God exists outside of time.

I know that that is so fundamentally complicated to understand.

Even as I say those words, we're like, I get it from a dictionary standpoint, but what does that mean practically?

Logically, can I fully understand the magnitude, the enormity of the God that we serve?

He's the creator of all things, inclusive of time, which means that he can be in time with us, but he transcends times, which means that he sees everything in one single moment.

So hold on to that thought for a second.

That means that wherever we may find ourselves, that God is speaking life because he sees how it's all gonna end.

We're in it in real time.

We're in it and we're we're wrestling through it, it's confusing.

But God is speaking from his perspective, not from ours.

This is why the writers are able to say that he works all things together for the good because God is looking at how it all comes together at the end.

Have you ever sat with a person that has that has watched a movie or a television show before you?

Have you ever sat with a person and and and as you're sitting there and you're sitting on the edge of your seat and you're seeing that this episode is coming to an end and you're so anxious about the next one, and you look over at them and they seem to be so calm and surreal, and you're like, well, what's gonna happen?

You just gotta wait and see.

You gotta wait this thing out.

But but but how how how are they gonna get out of this and and all that?

I I just on Friday I had an opportunity to watch um the Falcon and Winter Soldier series.

Me and my sons, we binge watched the whole thing all together.

I didn't realize that my oldest son, Keith Jr.

had already watched it, so I'm about halfway through when there's like this moment where there's like this plot twist, and I'm looking around like, yo, are are you kidding me?

And my son was sitting next to me, he just had this smirk on his face.

I'm like, have you have you seen this?

He's like, Yeah.

I'm like, bro, you didn't tell me you saw this.

What's gonna happen?

He's like, You gotta wait.

Remember that Caleb?

He was like, You just gotta wait, you gotta wait and see.

I'm just asking questions, like, but what about this?

And what about that?

And I'm just trying to prophesy stuff, it's just not making any sense.

He's like, You you just gotta wait and see.

My son had such a different reaction to my real-time observation because he already seen how it was going to end.

The God that we serve, he has a different perspective of the things that we're walking through.

So he speaks from his perspective and not from ours.

So when we're in the middle of the mess and we're wondering how it's all gonna work out, he's sitting there patiently and calmly saying, If you can just hold on and get to the next episode, if you can just hold on and get to the next season, you're gonna see how I work all this thing together and you're gonna find yourself out of this mess.

God is speaking life.

This is why when he was in the process of creating everything in Genesis, he was already seeing revelation.

Let me let me show you this.

In Genesis chapter three, the Bible talks about how Adam and Eve had fallen into sin, right?

And what the Bible says is that when God is dealing with the consequences of sin, I want to have a side note here that speaking life is not condoning sin, that there was consequence for it.

But here's the thing there's a difference between conviction and condemnation.

God was speaking in a way that was saying, we have to acknowledge the mistake that you made, and there is a consequence for it.

But even in that consequence, it's going to produce life.

He he deals with he deals with the serpent, and then he's speaking to Adam and Eve, and he says that listen, Eve, childbearing is gonna get a little uncomfortable, but you're gonna give birth to a son that is gonna ultimately defeat the enemy.

Think about that for a moment.

That in the face of brokenness, that in the face of death and sin, that God was already seeing how Jesus was gonna make this all better.

See, when we are fixated on the brokenness in the real time of sin, Jesus God was looking at it this way.

I see that from Eve.

She's gonna have a son named Seth.

Seth is gonna have a son named Noah.

Noah's gonna have sons that are gonna be Abraham.

Abraham's gonna have Isaac, and then there's gonna be Jacob.

Jacob is gonna have a son named Joseph that's gonna save the entire bloodline, and then Jacob is also gonna have another son named Judah.

Judah, through his bloodline, is gonna have David, and then David is going to, from his bloodline, give birth to Jesus.

God was speaking to Jesus even in the midst of dealing with the messiest of sins.

When God is speaking to us, even if he's dealing with the brokenness of the situation, even based on our own decisions, he is always speaking life.

From this, it's going to produce life.

There is nothing that we have done that God then says, I am done with you.

What he does is he sees it, he deals with it, and then he begins to speak life from it.

Think about Ezekiel 37, where the Bible says that they're standing in the middle of death and destruction.

And God poses this question Can these bones live?

What do you see?

Ezekiel's like, Lord, only you know.

Because what I see is a bunch of dry bones, but what God saw was an exceeding great army.

What are the dry bones that we're standing in right now?

And God is posing the question Can you see things the way that I see them?

Because I'm about to speak life to this dead situation that even Even though they didn't win this war, even though they didn't win this battle, I am fighting their battles for them.

I'm about to pull all this together.

He's speaking life.

Many of us are trying to discern if God is speaking to us right now.

Many of us are wondering if we're if we're sensing and hearing the voice of God right now.

I gotta ask you, can you see Jesus in it?

If what you are hearing doesn't in some way point you to Jesus and produce life, then that might be the voice of the enemy.

Who's trying to steal your hope?

Who's trying to steal your joy?

Who's trying to rob you of your peace?

You know the thing about thieves and robbers, the best ones, they do it in a way when you don't even know that you've been hit.

You ever you ever had like your wallet stolen?

Somebody's like, yeah, it just happened to me yesterday.

Somebody knows.

Watch this.

You ever had something taken from you and you didn't know it.

But when you reach for it, it's not there.

Where did I put it?

Not knowing that an enemy snuck in, stole it.

And now that you need it, you don't have it.

I'm of the mindset that we listen to so many voices that we confuse or don't recognize they aren't God's, that when we need our identity, we don't realize that because we've been listening to those voices, the enemy took it.

That when we need our confidence, we're looking for it and we can't even, we can't even find it because the enemy has took it, because we're listening to voices that are robbing us of joy, that's robbing us of boldness, that's robbing us of being able to walk by faith.

But when Jesus says, My sheep know me, and they only follow my voice, that means that even when the adversary shows up, you have the same response that Siri does to my daughter.

I'm sorry, I don't recognize your voice, I only respond to Jesus.

With every head bowed and with every eye closed, I want to I want to ask you this question.

If you're with us today and you know that you need to hear from God, I I need I need I need to hear from God.

I I need clarity.

I need perspective, I need direction.

I need God to make it clear that He's moving me forward.

I I just I need peace.

I know that God is speaking, but I I just need I need to have the peace so I can have the confidence to to proceed with boldness and pivot with grace.

Or or maybe maybe you're in this place where you're saying, I just I just need to be so anchored and secured in knowing that I am hearing from God, that my resolve is unshaken, and I can see the life that's gonna come from where he's leading me to.

If you're in here and you know that you need to hear from God, I want to pray for you.

Would you be bold enough to lift your hand up on the count of three?

One, two, three.

Just I just want to hear from God.

I just I want to hear from him.

Amen.

You can put those hands down.

We're we're gonna go into a time of worship, and I believe that God is gonna speak to us.

Let me get us all to stand on our feet as we prepare to go into a time of of worship and and really seal this in.

The best things that I have ever done with positioning myself to really, really hear from God is to consistently be in God's word.

Because I I want you to understand that God will never speak to you that's in a way that's contrary to what his word says.

He will never speak to you in a way that's contrary to what his word says, he will never speak to you in a way that is contrary to what his word says.

I believe this is why the enemy of our soul likes to make sure that we're not engaging the word of God so that when God is speaking, we don't recognize it.

And when the enemy is speaking, we can't discern the difference.

But when we have an active, thriving Bible engagement for ourselves, you begin to discern what God is speaking.

Prayer, community, these are all things that contribute to our ability to discern and recognize what God is speaking.

Being able to confirm and have conversation with folks and saying, I'm sensing that God is saying this for my life.

Can you pray with me on it?

This is how we hone our ability to hear from God.

But here's the thing that I want to encourage us: what is the last thing that God has told you to do?

That you're aware of, that you know, okay, I know I've heard from God.

Because a lot of times we're looking for God to speak, but He's speaking in the place where He last asked you to be obedient.

Our obedience amplifies the voice of God.

And many times we've moved from the sheep pen and we're wondering why we no longer hear the shepherd.

What I want us to do is to reposition ourselves to get in proximity so that we can hear the shepherd's voice, so that we can walk in obedience to what it is that he's asking us to do.

Let me pray for us and then we're gonna go into worship.

Heavenly Father God, we all are in desperate need of hearing from you.

Aside from you, we we can't do this on our own.

Lord, we we need clarity.

We need direction, Lord.

I sense that there's there's many among us that that are that are in left or right decisions.

They're at a fork in the road, God, and they just need to hear from you.

Father, I pray that you begin to reveal to them that you're moving them forward, even if it's uncomfortable.

Father, I pray that you give them an overwhelming sense of peace.

That's not the absence of clarity, it's not the absence of conflict, it's not even the absence of storms, but it's the overwhelming presence and power of God that gives them the strength and stability that they need as they are moving forward.

Father, I pray in the name of Jesus that you give us the strength and the boldness to walk in what it is you're calling us to do, God, and we can recognize the life that you're producing from this, that even in moments of sacrifice, there's life, that even in moments where there's conviction, there's life, that even in moments where we're being challenged, there's life that's going to be produced from it.

Lord, I pray a blessing over your people that in this season, where we're all navigating through what is the best thing for us to do, that we position ourselves in such a way that we can hear you with clarity, we can proceed with boldness, we can pivot with grace, God, but we know that we've heard from you because you're moving us forward, you've given us peace, and we can see the life that is going to be blessed as a result of this.

So, Father, as we go into this time of worship, we're singing peace, be still.

I believe prophetically that is what many of us need right now.

Just a sense of peace.

God, I pray that we can have peace, stand still, hear your voice, and recognize Jesus and whatever it is you're leading us to do.

We declare and submit this all to you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Church, let's let's worship God, standing still, expecting his peace to meet us so that we can have the confidence to do what he's calling us to do.

Thanks again for listening.

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