Tune In - Week 2 - Damon Moore - February 1, 2026

How many of y'all are warm inside this building? How? How many of y'all, honestly, you'd be hon, you know, honest with me and say that you complained a little bit about the cold.

Come on.

Any, anybody that's like from a, a cold climate complained.

Oh, y'all, y'all been Florida ride? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I, I grew up in, uh, in Maryland and this was kind of like a seasonal thing.

And then I realized like, I'm like, man, it's cold.

And then I, I, I remember that, uh, the, the gentleman that's playing the base, he's from Michigan.

It reminded me, Lord.

I'm very grateful.

Yep.

Anybody else where you like, yo man, it is like, this is so bad and you're like, oh, wait a second, Michigan, it's zero.

What, what, what is the terms they use? Negative.

Yeah.

Negative something.

I'm like, yeah, I ain't got nothing to complain about.

Ty.

Ty and I, uh, ti from Green Bay.

Didn't know that everyone was against Green Bay.

Just that wasn't the point of me starting off that way.

There's a lot that the Lord is gonna work through with you.

All that was like, no, but we celebrated her grandfather's life.

Uh, during his funeral service.

Uh, he was military and so they had the military, uh, kind of honoring, and that day it was snowing and it was below.

And I remember thinking.

It's cold and so, uh, very grateful to be living in Florida and to have a day of 25 degrees.

Anybody else? Well, my name is Damon.

It's so good to see you this morning on a cold Sunday.

I actually had people, let me, let me finish on this thought real fast so I can just flush it all out.

I actually had somebody text me, are we still having church? No snow and I just wanna point them out to you right now.

I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding.

We would never do that, but yeah, I was like, are we having church? If you have your Bibles, let's get spiritual.

John chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

My name is Damon, my wife Taisha.

We have the privilege of being the senior pastors of City Place Church, and it's, it's an honor.

Uh, Sean mentioned a couple of things on your seat.

Uh, next Sunday, super Bowl Sunday.

We have a lot of fun.

Uh, we ask that you bring a side item to share.

The church will provide some, some additional things to, to make it special.

We'll have some fun activities for your.

For your kids, it's a great time that if you, uh, have friends that may not like the thought of coming into a, a Christian environment, the church, uh, it's a great way to just say, Hey, come, if you enjoy some form of sport or athletics, uh, we dress up in, uh, jerseys and, and make it a theme Sunday.

It's, it's great for someone to hear the gospel in a really fun way.

Uh, and so it, it'll, it'll be fun.

So there's some invite cards to just put it in your hands and it'll be a good time, I promise you that.

Uh, it'll be life-giving for you.

Last Sunday, we started a, um, a miniseries, uh, called, uh, tuning in because we want to be able to hear God's voice when he speaks to us.

Um, we never want to assume that just because we are in this room.

We can all hear God clearly.

I've been in church since I was five years old.

My mom met Jesus when she was in her early twenties.

And one of the things that, uh, I've learned over the years is that we are continually growing in who God has created us to be.

And he wants to speak to us just personally.

And if you're, if you've been like me, sometimes here are things as I was getting older, uh, they would be kind of like this churchy language.

Would be spoken.

And I remember going, what does that mean? And I'd have to ask my mom, well, what does it mean when they're talking about God spoke to them? Like is it like, Hey, hey John, this is God, right? Like, is this like very audible? Like what does that mean? Like make, make it simple for me.

What was really cool was that in kids' church, they would make those things really simple.

So right now, like our students are going to hear about Jesus and how Jesus speaks to them.

And so it starts at a young age, but sometimes we can be in this environment and God could be speaking to us, but we may not know the sound of his voice to us.

Yeah.

And what we didn't want to do was to spend 52 Sundays of you getting very.

Valuable life giving messages from the Lord, but feeling like he's not talking right? But then we wanted to make sure that the Sundays wasn't the only time you heard God speak, because he is speaking and he does want to have a dialogue with you.

God will speak very clear to us if we are intentional about hearing his sound in our ear and in our spirit.

And so we started this last week.

I'll go back to go forward because I made a promise last week.

That I would fill in all the blanks.

This week on your seat, you have some message notes to follow along, and there's this running joke that really, I need the Lord to deal with your conviction.

People don't feel like the Lord finishes his messages that the Lord keeps leaving you on red.

Did y'all see how I use one of them? Ah, I'm trying to work in that young verbiage, man.

I'm trying to work it in, trying to stay relevant with this young generation.

And so what are we gonna do today? We're gonna fill in these blanks, uh, but I promise you the Lord wants to speak.

So John chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

John chapter 10 says this, the gatekeeper opens the gate for him.

John 10 · chapter mention

This is Jesus speaking, and the sheep watch.

Now listen to his voice.

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

When he has brought all, when he, when he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them and his sheep follow him because they know his voice, but they will never follow a stranger.

In fact, they will run away because they do not recognize a stranger's voice.

So this morning we're gonna spend time practically.

There's gonna be a, a number of scriptures that we're gonna read and follow along in this morning because we wanna simply tune in to how God speaks.

So let me pray.

Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you for this opportunity to stand and declare what you want to say to us today.

I pray that we won't just listen to it, but we will hear spiritually what you want to say.

I pray that for some this may be the start.

Of hearing your voice clear and for others, it's a ignition to the voice that sounded so familiar in times past.

Pray, Lord, that it's your desire for us to know you in ways that we could have never imagined, but you make possible.

So speak to us now as your word is coming forth and let us know the reality of who you are.

In Jesus name we pray, and if you ready, say amen.

Are y'all ready to go? Yes.

John chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

So here's our focus.

Jesus is having a conversation and he's saying that the sheep knows the shepherd's voice and that they're willing to follow, but they don't just hear his voice.

The shepherd actually goes ahead of them and begins to lead the way, and as he calls them, as he's leading the way they go because they know his voice.

Jesus makes it clear that because they know the shepherd's voice so clearly when someone else speaks, they don't even give attention to the stranger's voice.

Like when Jesus speaks to us so clearly and we know the sound of his voice, a counterfeit doesn't even have a chance to distract us.

That's how strong and how powerful Jesus' voice is when we embrace what he's saying.

Here's our goal.

Our goal is that we want to be able to listen for and to God's voice in everything.

That's our goal, no matter how small, no matter how grand, we wanna be able to hear him speak clearly.

Proverbs chapter three, verse six, in the message says, listen for God's voice.

Everything.

Somebody say everything.

Everything in everything you do, everywhere you go, he's the one that will keep you on track, everything everywhere.

He is the one that will keep you on track.

It's similar to what Jesus was saying.

Listen to me.

You'll know my voice.

I'll go ahead of you, then you follow after me.

Don't listen to the stranger.

My voice is clear when I speak.

So our goal is we wanna be able to listen to God in everything that we do and everything and every place where we go.

In Luke chapter eight, Jesus gives a parable, a parable over sower.

And in verses five through eight, he starts kind of searing where the seed goes.

He says that a farmer begins to scatter seed, and in verse five he says that it falls on a footpath.

It stepped on and then the birds come and eat it.

And in verse six he says that it falls abo among the rocks.

It begins to grow, but then it withers and dies because it doesn't have moisture.

In verse seven, he says, that seed fell on, uh, it fell on thorns, and then it began to grow up, but it was choked out because it was just tender.

Verse eight it says, but there is some seed that fell on fertile soil and it produced a harvest a hundred times more.

And he finishes by saying, anyone who has ears to hear, let them hear.

In verse 11, he makes it clear.

He says, now listen, the seed that's being sown is the word of God.

So God is looking at you and he's saying, this is for your workplace environment.

This is for your family.

I wanna speak to you about your finances.

I wanna speak to you about your relationships.

I wanna speak to you about how I created you.

And sometimes in our life, if we aren't focused on the fact that he's given us valuable instruction, valuable information, valuable wisdom from heaven, we'll look at it and say, means nothing to me.

And he, the scripture just says, the birds come snatch it away.

It may grow for a little bit, but because we aren't paying attention to it and caring for it and ing it fades away.

It'll grow a little bit, but the cares of life will suck it dry.

And sometimes we go, God, why can't I hear you? It's because we aren't being intentional with the value of his word, or we simply just don't wanna follow.

All right, let's play a little game.

I'm gonna take you back to your childhood, okay? We're gonna play a game.

You may know it as Simon says, but today we'll call it pd.

Says, all right, here we go.

Here we go.

Let's see.

Now let, let's just do a little, and, and I know you probably like, we don't need to do all this in church.

No, no.

Let's distract it, right? Let's have a little fun.

The kids are having fun.

Let's do it too.

Ready? PD says, clap your hands.

Pd Hedi says, stomp your feet.

Throw your hands up.

See that right there? PD didn't say it.

Now, now, now, now.

Now that's a fun game.

That's a fun game.

But where we got lost was the cadence.

The cadence is PD says, PD says, throw your hands up.

You listen to a stranger.

Same sounding voice, but that wasn't the instruction.

So God says, God says.

God says, culture says, your friend who ain't locked in with God says, and next thing you know, you're throwing up your hands.

You think you're still playing the game, but the game's moved on without you.

So if we can listen to what God wants to say in everything in everywhere, I can't just assume that the cadence remains the same.

When I'm going shopping, even though I know he already told me, clap your hands, stomp your feet.

Well, I'm in a different environment now.

I need to go, God, are you involved with this car purchase? I know it seems like it because we need a car, but what if I invite him into everything and everywhere? I know it seems so small, but I wanna know his voice in everything and everywhere.

Come on.

My mom used to teach me that.

It's in the little small things.

I'm tuning into his voice, Damon, clean that room.

By the time I get home, I'm about to go through my own thing and I hear, I, I hear my heart.

You know that if your mama and your daddy get home, that there are scripture verses that they will quote before they execute scripture, but no.

I'm gonna play first because I feel like I still got time.

Well, if I would've just listened to the voice that says, Damon, you better obey your parents right now, or else armageddons gonna happen and you won't be able to sit down.

Right? Like it's a small thing sometimes where God says, Hey, just, just wait on that.

And we go, well, that that's not, no, because I need that.

No, it's like God's speaking to us and we want to be able to listen in everything that we do.

So the word of God is, is, is sewn into our lives, but are we valuing it for the way God is releasing it? Everything that he would ever say is a value to him and a value to you.

So we wanna make it as such.

So think about this one of the way, one of the main ways that God's gonna speak to us practically is gonna be through his word.

He gives us the life giving aspect of scripture.

I know sometimes when you're in debate people, like always it was written by man's hands.

They were just co-authoring what the ultimate author had them dialogue about.

Don't, don't elaborate.

Don't, don't get in some sort of debate about this, the, the who wrote the scriptures and, no, no, no, no, no.

The scripture says that it's inspired by the Holy Spirit, and so since it's inspired by the Holy Spirit, I have to add value to his word.

Heaven and Earth.

The Bible says will pass away, but my word will last forever.

So there's value.

And so he will speak to us through his word.

God doesn't have a speaking problem.

We have a hearing problem, and in order for us to hear God's voice, we've gotta turn down the world's volume.

Last week we said sometimes it's not just the secular culture that's trying to make the noise.

It's our busyness too.

It's the things that we chase that distract us from the ability to be able to hear God.

It's the stress of our life that begins to, to allow our mental capacity to be, we start listening to, to the lies of the enemy.

And we don't know who's saying what y'all.

Okay? And so the goal is we wanna listen to God and everything and everywhere.

And so last week.

We said, well, let's talk about the why, the how, and the what God would speak.

And so we said this last week, and this is on your notes this week.

I gave you blanks instead of just a big blank.

And I'm gonna go through it quick 'cause this is just a little bit of review.

You can watch last week's message on, uh, on YouTube and those places like that.

But this is our why we're gonna, the reason why God would speak to us first is he wants to be in a close relationship with you.

That's his desire.

He wants to be close to you.

He wants you to know him at the rate that he already knows you.

The Bible says that God knows how many hares you have on your head, and if you don't have any, he knows that too.

He knows the intricacies of you.

He knows every aspect of your life.

Nothing surprises him.

The thing is, is that he draws us close.

In those moments so that we can know him more.

So think about this for a moment.

Your biggest stress point should not be figured out with you and just your friend.

It should be brought to God.

God, this is a load to carry because in his word he says, literally exchange your burden for mine.

Mine is easy and light you carrying too much.

There's also scriptures that says that you should bear one another's burdens.

So all throughout the life-giving scriptures, he's talking to us.

But do we pause enough to hear what he's really saying? Everything and everywhere we want to place value there.

So he, he wants to know you and I close.

God wants to speak to us so that we can grow, so that he can grow us and lead us.

He wants to grow us and lead us.

I'm not gonna read the scripture, but a great place to study is First Samuel chapter three.

God begins to speak to young Samuel.

He begins to pull him close so that he can know him.

It actually says that Samuel didn't know God yet, even though he was in God's house in God's presence.

He hadn't reached that point to where now God's dialoguing with me and I'm not having to hear it through the prophet Eli.

So there's this place where God wants to move you from just relying on the pastor or the YouTube podcast to being able to read scripture and him speak to you.

It's a special place to be when you know God's speaking you.

So he grows us and he leads us.

Going back to Jesus saying, when you know my voice, I'll go ahead of you and then you'll follow y'all trending.

All right? Yeah.

And then the last one is, God speaks to change our view.

God speaks to change our view.

There is a kingdom view that God has for all of us.

There's a perspective that God has that he wants to change us, to think, to live, to move like, and that only comes through spending time with him.

So what will God speak? That's the why, but what will God speak to you and I when he's dialoguing with us and we are growing in relationship with him? And this is where we left off last week.

When God speaks to you and I, he is going to confirm and he's going to encourage, there's gonna be quite a bit.

You're gonna write a aloud, I'm gonna tell you.

He's going to confirm and he's going to encourage, look at Matthew.

Actually, it's not on the screen, but I wanna read it to you, Matthew chapter three, and write this down because this is phenomenal.

Matthew chapter three.

Jesus is baptized by his cousin and literally watch what happens after he's baptized.

It says this in verse 16, not on the screens, says.

When he was baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold the heavens were open to him and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and a lighting upon him and watch now, and suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased Jesus hadn't done anything that was worthwhile yet.

Like he didn't flip over tables in a tabernacle yet or in the temple yet.

Like in this moment, Jesus isn't Jesus saying like, this is the father making public.

You are my son.

And just so you know, I love you and I am so pleased with you.

Does the savior of the world really need to hear that? Doesn't he already know? But imagine the confirmation and the encouragement that the savior of the world would hear.

Son, I love you.

Can I tell you that this morning you walked in here and if I could just steal from what Jesus heard, the father would tell you, I am so in love with you.

When I see you, I'm so in love with you.

He may not be pleased with your behavior, but boy does he love you.

So he speaks to confirm and encourage that you are a son and a daughter created for purpose.

The other thing that he will do is he will lead and direct you.

So when God speaks, he will lead and direct.

Jesus made that clear.

You'll know my voice.

I'll go ahead of you and you'll follow.

Stranger won't distract you.

Isaiah chapter 30, verse 21.

Isaiah 30:21

I stole this verse from Taisha, years and years ago.

She quoted and I was like, Ooh, child, that's stolen.

And trust me, every time I read it, she goes, mm-hmm.

You got that from me.

Like, no lie, it's been like 10 years since I've been quoting it and, and so I'm just giving her credit now before, before we get in the car, she be like, mm.

Still using verse 30, huh? You know it's true, girl.

You know it's true.

I just wanna encourage you because you are woman after the Lord.

Do you see? I won that back.

Hey, hey.

23 years in the game.

Honesty and then love.

Right? No, here we go.

I'm so sorry.

You may leave with empty blanks.

No.

Isaiah 30 21 in the Living Bible says, watch.

And if you leave God's past path and go astray, you will hear a voice behind you saying, no, this is the way.

Walk here.

Have you ever worried about making that wrong decision? Because you and I would be in such a close relationship with the Lord and we make space and we trust the value of his voice.

That if we mistepped, we would give him room to say wrong direction or keep going like he wants to lead us and he wants to direct us.

And guess what? If we step out, God will speak to us and go wrong direction.

The thing is, is that we don't wanna ignore him 50 steps down the road while he was telling us the first step we took was wrong.

So often we get 50 steps, but he was told, he told us at one.

Again, if we value the fact that we have the life giving word of God, he's constantly speaking to us, and now I realize that if I step this way, oh, he might nudge me back.

I embrace that because he's going ahead, but thank God that if I get ahead of him, he doesn't go, let me just watch and see what happens.

No, he's like, Hey, hey, come back.

Come back.

So he'll lead us and he'll guide us.

The next thing that he'll do, and this is one of the ones that we have to embrace, but sometimes we don't like it, he will caution us and convict us.

He will caution us and convict us.

We love the blessings of God.

We love the pep rally messages, but we struggle with God convicting us.

Disciplining us because then we start going, well, how come a God who loves us would, would, would put me back in my place? Well, I just told y'all about my mama.

My mom would say things like this, and maybe you've heard this.

It hurts me to discipline you.

I'm like, and I'm thinking to myself, put the belt down, mama.

We can cry together because it's hurting me.

Just watching you hold it in your hand.

So let's both just leave this situation.

We will both do better, right? Like, like the discipline in the moment.

Y'all are laughing.

She can't say nothing.

What you got, mom? Right? No, no.

Look.

Listen, the heart of a parent is to make sure that the heart, the son or daughter, is shaped Well, the first reaction is to not reach for the discipline.

It's to display love.

But should we continue? Paul says.

That he would chasing those that he loves.

So when God warns us and convict us, it's not because he's trying to withhold, he's actually going.

If you would just listen and let me lead, then guess what? You'll avoid the stranger distracting you like he's doing so much as he's communicating with us.

And who would've known that Jesus had all of this in John 10? When he's speaking, he's caution.

Look, look at Acts Chapter 16, y'all.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

This was, this was amazing to me.

The apostles, they're like, they're going crazy, ministering all over the place, like here and there and everywhere.

Look at verse five.

I don't even know if it's in this.

Oh, it is up there.

Good.

Look at this.

They're about to go preach.

It says this.

So the churches were strengthened in faith and increased in number daily.

Now, when they had gone through, uh, Faya, GIA, uh, and the region of Galatia watch, now they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.

Huh? Wait a second.

A good thing forbidden to do.

A good motive and a good reason.

The Holy Spirit says no.

Like we could be meaning to do well and the Holy Spirit will say We go not the time.

If we trust him enough to go, even the thing that I know will impact people, and you tell me to pause, I'm good.

That right there is growing in Christ because they locked and loaded.

Alright, everybody got you.

Got the Bibles.

You got the, you got the supplies, you got the pens and the pencils, you got whatever it is we're bringing.

Let's go.

Hold on.

I know you did all the work and you were loaded and ready to go.

Don't go right now.

Like the fact that he would say, don't do that right now is a good thing.

Don't enter into the covenant relationship with that person.

Wait, just, just, just it's, now's not the time.

Just wait a little bit longer.

Like if we put our full assurance, he's not just saying one thing.

Sometimes we may feel like the only thing God's talking about is his standard.

The standard is there.

He's not going to change that, but he's talking about pulling us in close relationship and growing us and leading us, and he's doing so much more.

Here's write this down.

Write this down.

What God will speak, God will speak to us and he will whisper visions and dreams.

Oh, I love this one.

He will whisper visions and dreams man.

I am a dreamer, in fact, city place.

We exist to be a life-giving, multi-ethnic, multi-generational church that builds dreams.

And when you take next steps class, which is happening today at the end of service, one of the things that you'll learn about that vision statement that says Build dreams is what it literally means is that we unlock the prophetic voice of God.

Because if God begins to speak, then what we'll start dreaming about is the thing from his heart.

Psalms 37, if you delight yourself and the Lord, he will give you the desires of your heart.

Sometimes we think we're asking for us.

No, we're actually asking him for the thing that he gives us.

God will whisper dreams and he will give us visions.

Let me prove it to you.

Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

There's a guy by the name of Abraham and God speaks to Abraham and he says, watch now.

Get out of your country from your family, from your father's house to a land.

Now watch now.

Then I will show you.

I will make you a great nation.

I will bless you.

I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you and all families of the earth will be blessed.

Hello.

I just wanted something for me and my family, but you have so much vision and so big of a dream for me that this thing is global.

Like.

When God is dreaming for us is not just the impact us, it's to last far beyond you and I.

God's got unlimited capacity when he's speaking to you and I in chapter 15.

Abraham was trying to figure it all out on his own.

We don't have a kid.

We may never have a kid.

God, are you ever gonna give us a.

You know what? We'll just strategize.

Maybe the kid and the thing that God was talking about will come through a family member and God has to repeat himself to, in, in verse uh, chapter 15, look at what God says.

He says, after these things, the word of the Lord came.

The word of the Lord.

Remember, the farmer throws out seed.

What? It's the word of God.

It says, after these things, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision saying, do not be afraid.

For I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward, and he goes on to say, listen, you will not go childless.

That's what Abraham said.

I'm going childless.

And Abraham said, then Abraham said, look, you have given me no offspring.

Indeed, one born in my house is my heir.

And behold the word of the Lord came to him again saying, this should not be your heir, but one will come from your own body.

That will be your heir.

Then he brought Abram outside and said, look now to heaven and count the stars if you are able to count them.

He said to him, so shall your descendants be.

And look at Abraham's response.

And he believed in the Lord and it counted unto him as righteousness.

Like didn't realize that verse wasn't update.

You have to check it out.

Genesis chapter 15, read it.

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

But no, Abraham believed because God gave him a glimpse.

But God had put a dream in his heart that he was already dreaming about God will whisper visions and dreams to you.

And I write this next one down.

Y'all trending.

Okay.

Good, good.

God's gonna speak to us, and what he's gonna speak is gonna express his love and his care for us.

God is going to express his love and his care.

One John chapter three, verse one says, behold what manner of love.

Watch now.

The father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God.

Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him.

Leave that verse up there if you don't mind.

Sometimes you'll hear people say, we are all God's children.

We were all created by God.

No doubt about it, but we come back into the family of God when we say yes to Jesus and the sacrifice of him.

We all want a security blanket.

We all want a security blanket.

We were all created by God.

He loves every single person.

But listen, all of us have to confess Jesus as personal Lord and Savior, to come back under the grace that salvation gives us, which then gives us that eternal life that John three 16 talks about.

So literally one John says, wow, behold, what manner of love the father's given us that we could be called the children of God.

The love of God was very costly for the Father.

He paid.

He paid a price by watching his son die.

For you and I, who his love on display can't even be measured, I love this.

Romans 8 31 says, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? God is for you.

The stranger's voice is just a counterfeit.

Ephesians chapter three, not in, not in your notes.

Paul is literally praying.

He's like, I'm praying that you'll be grounded in love.

I'm praying that you could know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all fullness.

Listen, when we grasp the fact that we are loved by the Father.

Then you and I will be able to slow down enough at times to let him speak.

There is nothing the Bible says that will separate us from his love team.

You can come on up.

I'll just keep preaching until they come, so, right.

Just think about this.

I, I was asking myself this and I, and I knew I was supposed to ask you could the void of our life.

Be filled and it's not on the screen.

Could the void of our life be filled with a simple embrace that God is madly in love with us? Could the void of our life be filled by a simple embrace that God is madly in love with us? Could that be enough to position us as a Christ follower to go, I want to hear what you have to say, knowing that he's madly.

In love with us, so write these things down.

How can we prepare to hear God's voice as we wrap this thing up? How can I prepare to hear God's voice? First thing, make room.

Make room.

We have to.

We have to make space be intentional.

Psalm 63 says, oh God, you are my God, early will I seek you.

My soul, thirst for you.

My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land.

Where there is no water.

So I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory.

It says early in the morning, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm coming.

My soul's longing for you, so I gotta find you.

I need some water spiritually.

And then I'm gonna find you in God's house.

I'm coming for you where you are.

I'm waking up early in the morning.

You'll meet me where I am, but I'm going to your house and I'm gonna find you there.

But I'm going to find you, you and I have to make room.

To encounter him, we have to make room.

We cannot be busy.

We cannot give him the end part.

We have to give him some of the best parts.

Be intentional.

Be intentional to be able to hear him.

We said this, and you should have a blank.

God's voice is gonna be clearest in a prepared environment.

Let's be intentional.

God's voice is clearest in a prepared environment.

Number two.

Number two.

So we, we've made room.

And then the second thing that we wanna do is we wanna focus.

We wanna focus, we wanna focus.

We can do a lot on the run, but will we be able to hear, so I make room and then I wanna focus.

I wanna encourage you, I don't know if you have a physical bible and I, I, I'm not being legalistic.

Okay.

Because I love technology.

But if you have a physical Bible, I wanna encourage you to do some of your quiet times with the physical Bible and set, set the phone and the technology aside.

I'm not saying don't do that, but what I'm saying is, is open up your physical Bible a little bit and set the technology aside so that you can just focus.

And then as God begins to speak, write, write those things in your scripture passages because you begin the journey when he is speaking.

Now if you do that on your technology, don't just read your verse.

If you use the Bible app, there's a note section already.

Have it open as you're reading.

Should God begin to speak.

So then that way you're capturing these moments because the things that pop off the page, you then can go back, well, God did you just speak to me about joy? And so you start dialoguing about the things that you read because God begins to tune your ear.

Y'all chin in with me.

Okay? Not giving you a seminar.

I'm just giving you some tools we wanna be focused.

Hebrews chapter 12 says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

So my focus and every bit of growing is on Jesus.

Jesus, you're the reason why.

Number three.

Number three, how do I prepare to hear God's voice? Number three is, is I'm going to repent.

I'm going to repent.

I'm gonna repent.

Repent.

It literally means to change the direction and put it back on where it should be going spiritually.

I could be very busy, but man, I could go, God, my heart has been distracted, and so what happens is I turn it back to you and I say, God, you have my attention.

Remember, we could be doing a good thing, and the Holy Spirit's like, no, don't do that.

No, don't do that.

Well, what if we're 50 yards away and God was speaking to us at yard number one? What do we do? We go, God, I'm so sorry I got distracted.

I'm 50 yards away from you and you're still at yard number one.

So what do we do? We turn back, we say, God, I'm coming back to you.

I'm giving you my attention again.

And so repent.

Here's what it says in Acts chapter three, verse 19.

It says, repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.

So times watch now.

So that times of refreshing may come.

From the presence of the Lord.

And so when I turn back and I make him my priority, guess what scripture says that he refreshes us in his presence.

The word of God is so alive.

God's constantly speaking.

So I just turn back.

And then last one is, we commit.

We commit.

So I make room, I repent, and then I commit.

I commit.

I'm all in and I'm not going anywhere.

Situations won't push me aside.

I'm not giving God an ultimatum.

I'm not.

I'm not, not making it seem like I'm in one day and then I'm out the other.

It won't be situational.

No, I'm committed.

Here's what Psalms 37 and I read it to you.

It says, trust in the Lord and do good.

Dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

Sounds like a little shepherd leading us.

Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

We talked about God speaking whispers of visions and dreams, and then verse five says, watch now.

It says, now commit your way to the Lord.

Commit your way to the Lord How you would want to do things? No.

Commit your way to the Lord.

Trust in him and he will do the rest.

Commit.

I'm committed.

Psalms 23.

One of my favorite passages says the Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside the steel waters.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in passive righteousness for his name sake.

You know what? Good shepherd, if you speak, I'm gonna listen.

If you go ahead, I'm gonna follow.

You have my full commit.

Here's my big, bold challenge to everybody.

I'm gonna ask all of us in this room to give God all of 2026.

All of 2026.

Be committed in your personal prayer time.

Be committed to God's house.

Be present when it's 25 degrees outside.

Be present in seeing God.

Show up in your personal time, your family time.

God, I'm committed and I'm not coming out because I'm tuning in.

Can we do it? Amen.