Hearing From God

The series Knowing God.

How do you really get to know God?

Not just know about God, not facts about Him, but know Him personally.

Like you were made to know God.

Not just ideas or abstract things, like personally, relationally.

You are hardwired, built into the fabric of your DNA.

That's why the longing of your soul, the ache within, the things that don't fully satisfy, they were meant to be fulfilled in a personal relationship with your Creator.

And so we've been asking this.

We asked it last week.

How do you really get to know God?

And so we began last week with talking about talking to God.

Like, like how do we talk to Him?

Just as communication is the foundation of every relationship, so prayer is the foundation of our relationship with God.

And we talked about how do you pray to God in such a way that you really get to know Him?

Now, communication is a two-way sport, by the way.

There's a talking and then there is a what?

Listening.

Listening, yes.

We don't get that all the time.

How many of you have been in lots of conversations where they never ask a question back and they never listen?

You're like, is there ever going to be a question?

If you've never had that experience, maybe you're doing all the talking.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

But the reality is, is not only are we created to have this ability to talk to God, but how do we actually hear from God?

How do we discern what his voice is, that what we heard is actually him speaking to us?

I think many of us would say, yeah, we we we believe God speaks, but does he still speak today?

And if God does still speak, and if prayer is how we speak to God, how does God speak to us?

The incredible uh truth is that the God who created the universe is not silent.

He longs to speak to you personally, daily, and profoundly.

In a world filled with distractions, in a world filled with competing voices and noise, how do we learn to recognize the voice of God?

The sermon title is very simple, on the nose, if you will.

It's Hearing from God.

Would you say that to your neighbor?

Hearing from God.

Just really have two thoughts for us, and we'll unpack these two thoughts.

The first thought is simply this God is a speaking God.

He's a speaking God.

He's not silent.

And in fact, from the very foundation of creation, we find that God is speaking.

Genesis 1, 3 says, and God said.

God spoke.

Let there be light, and there was light.

Over and over in the days of creation, it was that God said, the first thing we learn about God in Genesis is not that he builds or creates or designs, but that God speaks.

John, the apostle of Jesus, the disciple, when he picks up this theme and he begins to unpack Jesus' life story, he actually weaves in this thread of creation.

John 1.1 says, in the beginning was the word, or in Greek it's the Lagos.

It's a technical term.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, speaking of Jesus.

That word Lagos in the in Greek thinking was the rational mind design behind the universe.

Not just a word.

This is this design and rational reasoning and structure of the universe.

And John says the structure of the universe is not a principle, but it is a person.

It is Jesus.

And so God is a speaking God.

Jesus is God speaking.

The author of Hebrews would say it this way: In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through prophets at many times in various ways, but in these days, he has spoken to us by his spirit, whom he has appointed heir of all things, and through whom he also made the universe.

When you read the words of Jesus, you get to know Jesus.

It is God speaking.

And so, listen, hearing God begins with knowing Jesus.

Do you know Jesus, friends?

Not things about him, not ideas, which is great to know about him, but you can have a personal relationship with Jesus.

You're invited into it.

If we want to hear from God, first it begins with knowing Jesus.

I like how Dallas Willard said it in his book, Hearing God, great book, by the way.

How hard it is for us to come to an adequate conception of the lowliness of God.

Of how his greatness is precisely what makes him able, available, and ready to hear and speak personally with his creatures.

Like how hard it is, like God's lowliness, his intimateness.

Like he longs to meet you exactly where you are and speak to you.

Well, God's a speaking God.

How does he speak?

He speaks in many ways.

Here's just a few.

First, he speaks through creation.

Psalm 19:1 says, and the heavens declare the glory of the Lord.

Psalms 19:1

He speaks through the Holy Spirit.

The minute you place your faith in Jesus, the Spirit of the living God comes and resides and dwells in you.

The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, lives in you and wants to speak to you.

Still a small voice of the Spirit leading and prompting.

He speaks through other people.

1 Corinthians 12, 7 talks about and gave some the gift of words of knowledge and discernment and prophecy.

And you've had those moments, and some even like after a sermon, you're like, right, I just was going through this, and then like what we talked about on Sunday was exactly what I was going through.

Or a friend or someone brings up something and God speaks to you through that.

He speaks through circumstances.

This is uh uh the Apostle Paul's experience.

He wanted to preach the gospel in Asia, but circumstances prevented him from doing that.

Sometimes closed doors in different directions help, you know, shape God speaking to us, how he works and moves.

He also speaks in dreams.

Did you know that?

I mean, we studied the life of Joseph and where God spoke to, we see dreams all throughout the story of Joseph.

Um, Acts 10, when Peter was being called to extend the good news of Jesus, not just to Jewish people, but to all people, God spoke to him in a dream.

The same with Paul.

He still does that today.

You know, um the the war in Iran's been in the news a lot as it should be, and I know we as a church are really praying uh for God to work and move and bring uh peace and um just deliverance over the people for the people of Iran.

One of the things that you may not know is that uh Iran has one of the fastest growing churches in the world.

And it is one of the most dangerous places to be a Christian in the world.

How does one become a Christian in a country where it's dangerous to be a Christian?

Uh, the stories that are coming, they're so consistent and happening all the time is uh people are having dreams where Jesus shows up to them and meets them.

They wake up wanting to know more and search for someone to share and explain who this Jesus is, and the church is exploding.

God works and speaks in many ways.

Now, the primary way that God speaks to us, and the way we discern all these other ways, if it's God speaking, is through his word.

God speaks through his word.

Whether circumstances or people or dreams, what we need to do is evaluate all of that through his word that he has already revealed to us.

Uh 2 Timothy 3.16 says this all scripture is God-breathing, useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Now, is it some scripture?

No.

Is it all scripture?

Okay, we'll try it again.

Is it some scripture?

Is it certain scriptures?

No, it's all scriptures.

God breathed.

That God worked in partnership with humans, that what we have here has that been carried along so that we have exactly what He intended for us to have.

Doss Willard again says it this way: the primary manner of communication from God to humankind is the word of God or God speaking.

The Bible itself is God speaking, preserved and written form.

Now, um, years ago I remember preaching, and someone came up afterwards and said, Ryan, um I'm new to this whole Jesus thing, Christian thing.

You talked about the Bible, you talked about Scripture, and then you said talked about the Word of God.

What are those?

Are those three different books?

Like, oh my goodness, thank you for bringing that up.

What a great question.

No, they're all the same way of talking about God's word, one book.

Scripture, scriptura, is in Latin, it just means sacred writings.

The Bible literally means the books plural because this is 66 books that all tell one compelling, incredible uh love story of God.

Um, and so the Bible is not just a good book, it is God's word.

And God wants to speak to you, and he went out of his way to write it down.

And so, let's talk about this.

How do you read the Bible and actually hear from God?

Because if you're sitting here for a little bit and you're like, Ryan, I've tried this, I've opened it up.

Nothing.

Let's get practical.

How do you read the Bible and actually hear from God?

Uh, first thing is read the Bible as God's word.

Read the Bible as the very words of God.

Now, um, when my wife and I were dating, this is like in the year 2000, uh, so a little bit ago, she went on a um stint with crew, Campus Crusade for Christ back then, and she served for a year in Sweden on staff with them.

I was in Chicago, so we dated for a year internationally.

Uh there was no Instagram, no Snapchat, um, no FaceTime.

In fact, Jenny's first cell phone was in Sweden.

I didn't have a cell phone.

Uh, to be able to send emails, she would go to like an internet cafe, like like even emails didn't, you didn't have it just 24-7 in your pocket.

I know I'm s this is a strange world.

It used to exist, right?

There's two ways that we communicated.

One was by this little the phones had cords connected to them, and we would call each other over these corded phones.

So weird.

I would actually take my phone that was in my dorm room and go and sit in the hallway to try to get some privacy as the cord went out there.

And then the other thing we'd do is we'd write letters, we would send packages.

I have every single letter that she wrote me.

No, it's I don't know, no.

But why?

Why?

Because the woman of my dreams that I love with my whole heart took time to write me a note, and it mattered.

When I get it in, you know, the mail, I was so excited.

I would take that letter, I'd read it, I'd go through it, I'd reread it, I'd just keep going back.

I'm like, this is amazing.

And I saved it because it's precious to me.

I didn't just kind of throw it on the desk, I'm like, I'll get to it when I get to it.

You know?

God took time to write a book and he wants to like speak to you, and it's his love letter to you, and he longs to meet you and speak to life into you, and it's like we're like, ah, yeah, yeah, that's gonna get to it when I get to it.

But when you begin to read the Bible, it's God's word.

By God actually speaking to you.

See, the Bible is God's self-revelation telling the rescue story of his love for you.

The Bible's not just a good book, it's not a textbook, it's not a history book, it's not a rule book, or even just a sacred book.

It's like God's love letter to you.

This just changes how we read it.

I wish that we could start to look at this as not like something you check off the box, and if I do this, then I'm a good little boy and girl, and God will be good to me.

And instead, God's like, no, I just want to know you.

And I just want to meet you.

It's about relationship.

I don't read the Bible to learn more about the Bible.

I read the Bible to know more about the God I love.

And I want to get to know Him more.

2 Peter 1.20 says this above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things.

For prophecy never had its origin in human will, but prophets carried through humans spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

It's like this is exactly what he intended for us to have.

Now, we in our life's biggest series, uh, life's biggest question series coming up.

You've asked incredible questions.

Some of them are around uh God's word, around the Bible, around um reliability, historicity.

We're gonna address all those in that series.

But let's just, for the sake of argument, say, yeah, it is reliable, which I believe a hundred percent that it is.

One of the things that we do with God's word is we treat it, um we treat it a little bit like good affr good advice that a friend gives.

I'll take or leave it.

Pick and choose the parts we like.

You know, there's some really great Jesus parts, by the way.

I mean, like when he says, you know, love your neighbor, um, that's awesome.

But when he says, love your enemy, that's awful.

I don't want to do that.

Pray for those who persecute you.

No.

All of a sudden we start picking and choosing.

So if it's God's word, we can have a personal relationship.

He wants to speak to you.

It is not only relational, it's formational.

The way it becomes formational is we go, it's actually God's word, and so I'm gonna bring my life under it.

It's authoritative for life.

So I'm gonna go with what God says, even if it's not popular, even if it's going against the grain of culture.

Hebrews 4.12 says, For the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even the dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

That this book has the power to form us deeply.

So we read the Bible as God's word.

We read the Bible with the Holy Spirit.

You're not intended to read the Bible alone.

Read the Bible with the Holy Spirit, John 16, 13.

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.

He will not speak on his own, he will speak only what he hears, and he'll tell you what is yet to come.

Again, the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said, it's better that I leave to his disciples.

They're like, what?

Why?

How?

Because I'm gonna send my spirit.

See, I'm just here and you gotta come to me, but my spirit is gonna indwell every single one of you.

What does the spirit do?

Well, the spirit convicts us, the spirit comforts us.

The spirit, Jesus would say, illuminates the word of God or lights it up, reveals it.

Uh full confession here, by the way.

Um if we go out to dinner or lunch, chances are as the menu comes out, I'm gonna pull my phone out.

And it's not because I'm on my phone, it's because it has a flashlight.

And I'm the most, I'm that person, okay?

I got my flashlight out, and it's like so embarrassing.

Come on.

And I'm like, oh my goodness, I'm I got my flashlight, and it's like, please, can you just not bring the flashlight out?

I would love to not bring the flashlight out.

But even though the words are there, I just can't really read it, I can't see it.

But the minute I get the light on, I'm like, oh.

That's what the Spirit of God does with the Bible when we read it with the Spirit of God.

He illuminates his truth in our lives.

It all of a sudden shines a light, and there's gonna be some things that you've been reading, but when you begin to invite the Holy Spirit with his leg, it starts to jump off the page.

What does that look like?

Well, first you gotta settle your soul because we live in such a noisy, distracted time.

Create space.

But then would you invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you?

Holy Spirit, would you, as I get into your word, would you show me what you want to say to me?

Would you give me eyes to see what you're speaking as I'm reading?

We read the Bible as the Word of God, we read the Bible with the Holy Spirit, we read the Bible in community.

We read the Bible in community.

This is so powerful.

Colossians 3.16 says, let the message of Christ dwell among you richly.

Like let the message of God, the message of Christ dwell, like live in it, uh breathe in it, sit in it, dwell among you richly, as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

Now, that's part of what we're doing here together, isn't it?

But it doesn't just happen here.

That's why small groups are so powerful.

Our studies are so important.

Being in community with other believers, talking about what you're learning.

Years ago in a small group, we were studying uh John chapter 13, and that's where Jesus washes the disciples' feet.

John 13 · chapter mention

It's the Lord's Supper, he's about to betray, uh, be betrayed, and he gets up from the table, takes his outer cloak off, wraps a towel around his waist, and washes his disciples' feet, and I'll never forget it.

I've taught that passage um probably over a dozen times.

I'll never forget someone said something I never realized in the text.

They're like, Jesus did for the disciples what the disciples were unwilling to do for Jesus.

Oh.

I've never seen that before.

Here's what's amazing about God's word.

It's like a diamond.

You can read the same thing and see something new every single time.

So don't ever approach it like, oh, I know that, been there, done that, arrived there.

God wants to meet you in new and fresh ways, and you can take one text, you can live in that all year long, and I promise you, God will speak to you in fresh ways.

In fact, I dare you try it.

But then in community, it is so powerful because then we get to hear how God's working and speaking through other people.

And we get to hear some things like, oh, I was thinking about this.

And like, well, actually, and we even get some of that good, healthy correction and direction there.

One of the things that would encourage you a question to ask friends.

Like, how is God speaking to you?

What are you learning?

It's such a great question.

Like, like, where do you feel like God's speaking to you lately?

How do you think he's working?

What are you learning lately?

It just becomes part of the conversation and helps us as we grow.

Read the Bible as God's word.

Read it with the Holy Spirit.

Read it in community, and then read the Bible to apply.

It's not just about information, it's about an application.

The world does not need smarter Christians.

The world needs more Christ-like Christians.

James one, twenty-two says, and do not merely listen to the word and so what?

Deceive yourself.

You mean I can come to church and hear a sermon and walk out deceived?

Absolutely.

Do not miss listen to the word and so deceive yourself.

What?

Do what it says.

Obedience is the key that opens every door.

C.S.

Lewis said that.

When I begin to apply God's word, put it into practice.

Jesus at the end of the Sermon on the Mountain would say, the wise person builds his life upon the rock.

Who is the person that builds his life upon the rock?

Is the one who obeys and does what I teach.

Read the Bible to apply.

Let me tell you how it looks, at least in my life.

And I'm not saying this is how you're like supposed to do it.

I'm just telling you how I do it.

So when I was in college, and I made this commitment, not because I'm a pastor, I just wanted to follow Jesus.

When I was in college, I made a decision before I do any schoolwork, I'm going to spend time with God.

So I'd go out to a coffee shop, and before I got into my textbooks, I would begin to get into God's word.

That decision followed me to work instead of in the afternoons as I was doing my schoolwork.

It started in the mornings before work.

So I get up before work.

I did it this morning.

Like preparing for the sermon is not my time with God.

That's my job with you.

I spent time with my Savior.

So here's how it looks get up in the morning, make coffee.

I need that.

I start with my journal.

And you don't have to journal, this is just what I do.

And I begin with this line, this prayer, every morning.

Good morning, Heavenly Father.

The reason why is I want to remind my soul, one, of the exact same way I would greet my wife as the way I'm going to greet God.

Good morning.

Like I'm going to, good morning, and I'm reminding that I'm coming to my Heavenly Father.

This is fundamentally relational.

I begin a lot with the things that I pray about.

I write my prayers down because my mind gets distracted and it helps me stay focused.

So I often start with thanking God, move into areas maybe of confession or areas of need.

And after a time of that, then I just get into God's Word.

I'm reading through the Old Testament right now.

So I'm in Jeremiah.

And for me, I just actually just take a page, like this page and this page.

I read it.

That's it.

When I'm done with that, I'm done.

And as I read it, and you might go, like, well, that's too much.

I'm going to just read a chapter, or I'm just going to read it.

Great.

But when I read, I underline.

So as I'm reading it and like something stands out to me, I underline that.

This morning it was in Jeremiah 2, 13.

It said, My people have committed two sins.

They have forsaken me, the springs of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

And I'm like, oh my goodness, I underlined that.

What does it look mean to apply that?

Sometimes application is simply responding to the areas where the Holy Spirit's convicting.

It's like, God, where am I seeking other things to bring satisfaction?

I've built my own sisters that are broken.

They can't hold water, and you are the living water.

Sometimes application is reminding yourselves of what true what is true about you, your identity.

Sometimes it is the obedience of stepping out of like, I need to go and ask for forgiveness from somebody or restore that relationship.

And where you just spend time.

Did you know you can write in your Bible?

You can underline?

You can do all those?

Yeah, mark it up.

And I just spend time with God in the morning.

Now, I don't hit it every single morning.

Most mornings.

And by the way, I don't feel bad or guilty when I miss.

God's not down on me.

See, if it's relational, it's less about rules and check boxes that you're trying to do.

It's like connection.

It's like, oh, I just missed on a moment to connect with God.

And I gotta be honest, not every morning is this like Ryan?

In fact, most mornings aren't.

I had those moments.

I had those moments where God speaks personally and powerfully, and it's like, oh wow.

But a lot of it is the way I connect with my wife.

We have these moments.

Over 23 plus years of marriage, we had these moments that are like deep, beautiful, like soul-level connections.

They're awesome.

It's amazing.

But you know what most of our connections are?

Daily.

Just daily.

There's something about the dailyness of connecting that develops those you for those deep moments.

We want those deep moments, we want those moments, but we haven't been daily connecting that gets our hearts in a space where we're actually ready for them.

There's a daily name.

There's like, there's just a connection of like, hey, I'm just staying connected.

Hey, we're just talking about our day.

Uh hey, you know what?

It wasn't like anything deep or profound, but we just had this moment of connection.

And then in those processes of times, you have these moments where God moves in such significant and powerful ways.

And so if you want to hear the voice of God, open the word of God.

And I want to encourage you.

Would you get into it as try daily?

Don't feel guilty when you don't make it.

Remember it's relational.

So let me give us just two practices as we close.

The first is one that we're doing as a church this year.

It's memorizing God's word.

It's powerful.

Memorization is for preparation.

Okay?

I hide God's word, the psalmist says, so that I might not sin against you.

Memorization is to get God's word into our heart and mind so that the Spirit of God can bring it to our mind when we need it most.

When you're under a spiritual attack, when temptation is facing, when anxiety is coming, when you have that thing that's ahead of you, and God can activate and bring the word of God to your mind.

Ephesians 6.17 says this take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.

He's talking about the spiritual armor that we have as believers, the sword of the Spirit, the only offensive weapon that you have, which is the Word of God.

Would you memorize God's word?

We're doing this as a church.

Every week I'm giving a memory verse.

This week is the memory verse on what I'll have for our meditation.

But memorization is for preparation.

Get God's word into your heart and mind.

Meditation is for transformation.

I meditate upon God's word.

That idea of meditation is thinking, rethinking, sitting with.

We're talking about it here as beginning our day with God's word and ending our day with God's word.

Want the scripture to be on our hearts and minds, revisiting it, going back to it.

Romans 12, 2 says this: do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.

Don't be molded, squeezed into the form of this world.

Instead, be transformed.

That's the Greek word, metanoia.

How do you be transformed?

How do you see that life change, that butterfly, you know, metamorphosis, that butterfly transformation?

How do we become more like Christ?

It's not by trying harder, it's by renewing our mind.

Do not be conformed to the past and the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, where we just get God's word as what we think about changes our lives and we allow Him to change us.

And here's the beautiful part.

Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is.

Then you'll experience and demonstrate God's will, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

You want to experience God's good, pleasing, and perfect will, begin to renew your mind on his word.

Memorization is for preparation.

Meditation is for transformation.

I want to lead us not in a time where we just begin to meditate on God's Word.

I'll explain it as we close, but I'm asking inviting us into a practice that's ancient called Lectio Divina, of a way of meditating on God's Word that we're doing through this Knowing God series.

And so I thought we would close that way, this way, together.

So just take a moment, settle your soul, take a breath, quiet the distractions.

And I'm just gonna read Romans 12, 1 through 2, three times.

I'll give some prompts for you to pray or to think about.

Take a deep breath in.

Invite the Holy Spirit right now to speak to you.

To show you what He wants to say in His Word.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true and proper worship.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is good, pleasing, and perfect.

As I read it a second time, pay attention to word or phrase that highlights to you.

Look, begin to think of how the Spirit is speaking to you through that word or phrase.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true and proper worship.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is.

Pleasing, perfect.

So read it one last time.

Would you show me what to do with what I deserve?

How to respond?

What are you inviting me into?

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.

Holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true and proper worship.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you'll be able to test and approach what God's will do.

It's good, pleasing, and perfect.

As Josh continues to play, just take a moment to talk to God.

Responding to what he just said.