My Response To God’s Voice Is A Really Big Deal

Thank you.

That was great.

Dead gummit.

That was great.

Bless y'all.

If I'm off my game this morning, uh, you can look behind me.

Um I was up till all I was out till all hours of the night.

9 20.

9 o'clock.

Where's my bed gum Bible?

I forgot my sword.

Um I was out till midnight in a honky tonk, and I haven't done that since I was 18.

So uh long time.

Um am I on?

Yeah, I'm on.

Okay.

Um watching a band.

Yeah, listening to those fellas play.

And they did great.

They did great.

They picked great songs that I actually knew, and so that was good.

That was real good.

Uh, it was wonderful.

Um, real quickly before we get into our study this morning, number one, welcome.

Welcome to Christ Community Church.

It is a joy to see your faces.

I love you, and I pray for you, and I'm praying in particular that you will have a glorious, glorious Christmas surrounded by people that love you and that you love.

Um, real quickly, this is our last Sunday at the Botanic Gardens, and so uh we're moving out of here, not because they got mad at us and kicked us out or anything, but we just anyway, I've told y'all all about that.

And the next two weekends, we will not have church on Sunday mornings.

We will have church on Saturday mornings because of the holidays.

So December 24 and December 31, we'll have our uh our gathering uh of Christ Community Church uh at 1015 uh at Kim and Jerry Bowden's house.

And so if you can come, we'll have breakfast, we'll have some wonderful uh special music uh that I think you will thoroughly enjoy.

And so we'll be at we'll be gathering next Saturday morning and then the following Saturday morning, 1015, at the Bowden's house.

And we'll have breakfast and we'll have some great music and um we'll have a little study.

It'll be an abbreviated service, it won't be as long as normal.

Um we will not have child care.

So uh you could please still come and bring your kids and just come.

We would we I would love to to celebrate the birth of my Savior with you next Saturday, and I would love to kick off the new year uh with y'all as well.

So you come if you can.

Um and then uh we will meet at our new church location, which is Shady Grove School, and we'll start there January 8th, Sunday, January 8th at 1015.

So I hope you can come and be a part of that.

Did I leave out anything?

I think that's it.

Okay.

Hello.

Hello.

You want to read for me, please, Matthew chapter.

I know we looked at Matthew chapter 2 last week, but we're gonna look at it again today.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 2, the first nine verses, please.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

I will do it.

I think it may be up there, I hope the translation's close.

Or close.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the reign of King Herod.

And about that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem asking, Where is the newborn king of the Jews?

We saw his stars at Rose, and we have come to worship him.

King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem.

He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of the religious law and asked, Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?

In Bethlehem, in Judea, they said, For this is what the prophet wrote.

And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities of Judah.

For a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people, Israel.

Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared.

Then he told them, Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child.

And when you find him, come back and tell me, so that I too can go and worship him.

After this interview, the wise men went their way, and the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem.

It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was.

All right, that last verse you read, and they the star went ahead of who?

Who did it go ahead of?

It seems as if the antecedent to that pronoun is wise men.

The wise men.

So they, the wise men, left Jerusalem and followed a star to Bethlehem.

Is that the way you interpret that?

Well, I will read it again for my own sake.

After this interview, the wise men went their way, and the star they had seen in the East guided them to Bethlehem.

Okay, so wise men went.

I find that very surprising and very amazing, and I think Matthew wants us to also find that.

I guess the word I'm looking for is I think Matthew would want us to find that shocking.

That they were just the wise men.

They just the wise men left Jerusalem, left Herod's palace, left the religious leaders, left the city of Jerusalem.

That was, what does it say?

They were the city of Jerusalem.

Herod and the whole city, they were they were shaken, they were disturbed, they were bothered.

What was the word you read?

I don't remember.

They all knew it is interesting.

That the whole of Jerusalem knew it.

This event deeply disturbed.

It says that Herod, the religious leaders, and the entire city was deeply disturbed.

And yet, go on down a couple of verses, and the only people that left to go find this little people that left to find the new Messiah were just the wise men.

People from another place entirely.

Well, let's use the right word, heathers.

The heathens went to find this new Messiah, but not the people of God.

Matthew wants us to see that and to be bothered by that.

Little background, just get us up to speed.

God has not spoken, as far as we know, God has not spoken for 400 years.

Malachi wrote his last sentence in his little book, scroll, and laid down his quill pen or whatever it was he used, and God didn't speak again to mankind for 400 years.

And now all of a sudden, that's what the Christmas story is about, is God begins again to speak to people.

In fact, he's speaking to all kinds of people.

He's speaking to Elizabeth and Zechariah, he spoke to Mary and Joseph.

He spoke to the shepherds, he spoke to the wise men, but he also, and this is what I want us to think about today, he also spoke to Herod.

He also spoke to the religious leaders who were asked, now, where is this baby supposed to be born?

He also spoke to all the people of Jerusalem because they were all disturbed.

They all heard the same message.

God spoke to every one of these people.

God begins to speak again.

The Christmas story is about God speaking again.

But what I want to challenge you to consider with me today is that it's not just God speaking, it's that God was inviting people to join him.

When God spoke to these people, he was offering them an invitation.

Very important that we see that.

He was inviting Zechariah and Elizabeth.

He was inviting Mary and Joseph.

He was inviting the shepherds.

He was inviting the wise men.

He was inviting Herod.

He was inviting the city of Jerusalem.

He was inviting the religious leadership.

It was not just God giving people information.

He was offering them an invitation.

And I think that this story, by design, by Matthew's intent, he's wanting us to see what happens when God offers an invitation and it's accepted.

As you so wisely noticed, Matthew very intentionally contrasts how this invitation was responded to by the powerful and the religious, in contrast to the heathen, and the bottom of the rung, poor.

The uneducated, the lowest rung, you had prostitutes and you had shepherds.

Now, if we were closer to the Mediterranean Sea, you could have thrown in sailors.

That was the lowest rung on the Jewish society ladder.

And so you see Matthew making this contrast between the powerful Herod, the religious, those people that knew the Old Testament, the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

And how they responded to this invitation versus the Gentiles, the heathen, and the lowest in Jewish society.

He's contrasting.

If you were going to look ahead, let's say this happened, or this was going to happen 50 years from now.

Who do you think would respond well?

And who do you think wouldn't respond well?

Well, of course.

The powerful, the educated, the prominent, those that are the movers and the shakers, and those that are religious, they're the ones that will respond well.

They've got the knowledge, they've got the intelligence, they've got the opportunities.

Versus heathen wouldn't respond well.

And shepherd, they're out, you know, doing who knows what, okay?

And yet, the way Matthew designed this story, the people that were given an invitation and responded well, yes, thank you.

I participate.

Their lives were left full of joy, and their lives were left full of impact and value.

So much so that 2,000 years later we're still talking about them.

And those that said that were given an invitation, and they said, no, thank you.

Herod staying in that palace that night.

No thanks.

The religious people that had to go and look up.

Now, what oh yeah, yeah, here it is.

Here it is in Micah.

No thanks, God.

We'll stay here.

And the whole city of Jerusalem, no thanks, they were left in confusion and in fear.

If the Christmas story, at least in Matthew's account, teaches us anything, it should teach us that how we respond when God speaks to us is a really big deal.

How God speaks to us, or how we respond, I'm sorry, how we respond when God speaks to us is a really big deal.

It matters.

I have tried to study God's word.

Well, that's not true.

I have.

I just made up my, I'm a hard head and I am a uh compulsive.

I know that shocks you.

Uh, but I am a I, you know, I'm anyway.

For 43 years, I guess, 44 years.

Yeah, 40, I guess, yeah, close to that.

I've studied God's word every day.

You know, you study anything that long, you learn things, hopefully.

And one of the things that I've learned about God and his word and him speaking to people, and I would say to me experientially, me personally, I've learned about God that God does not speak to us to inform us.

I don't see that in Scripture, and I've not seen that experientially.

Who can win the, what is it, who was it when we were kids?

Sword drill, the Bible sword drill?

Who can the Bible who can find the God yawns?

Who can quote the most Bible verses?

Who cares?

Who knows all the, who's memorized all the kings in the in the southern kingdom versus the northern kingdom?

Who can who can recite the Ten Commandments or the Lord's Prayer?

My understanding of the Scripture and my experience with God and the Scripture has taught me that God does not speak to me to give me additional knowledge.

He does not speak to me to give me additional information.

He speaks to us, he speaks to me, and I'm trying to find the person that God just said, you know what?

I don't think you know enough.

I'd like to add some information to your brain.

Who is that?

Who is that person?

I've learned about God that when he speaks, and he does, he speaks to offer us invitations.

I think there's a real danger, and I fight it.

I'm not saying that I don't, because I do.

But I think there's a real danger that we read the Bible and we come to church and we we live our lives and we we recognize that God is sharing things with us.

Maybe it's something I sent you at four in the morning and you're cussing me because I sent it to you at 4 a.m.

Um I'm teaching you how to bear with the anointing.

See, I'm teaching you a Bible principle.

Um anyway, um, or maybe it's you reading the Bible, maybe it's you coming to church, maybe it's you listening to somebody on the radio or reading a book, but you know, God is speaking to me.

But I think so often there's a real danger that we look at that encounter, that experience of God speaking to us.

And we uh we we respond like we would to our doctor.

Hey Doc, how do I you did all the test?

How am I?

Well, you're good, but you know you could lose a little weight.

You need to eat more roughage.

You could use a little more exercise.

And we go, you're right.

And we walk out of the doctor's office, and we drive to Wendy's, and we get a number two, and we go home, and we sit down and we watch TV, and uh we we we yes, he's right, but it's just it's helpful information that would be good for me to do if I did it.

But that's where we leave it.

If you will only read the Bible next year, a perfect day to start?

I don't know when would that be?

January 1.

That would be a perfect day to start.

And read through the Bible with me.

One of the things that you would discover is that God does not speak to people to give them helpful information.

That is not what God does.

God only and God always, when he spoke to people in the scripture, and I would challenge you, uh, one of the reasons that spiritual community is so important.

I was I had this very rare, wonderful encounter uh uh conversation with somebody in our church Friday morning, and it was I'm still wrestling with it and benefiting from it and being blessed by it.

But God spoke to this this man.

And he came to talk to me and tell me about it and and to tell me about his he didn't know what I was teaching on today or what we were teaching on today, but he was telling me how he's responding to what God said, the result being that by his own testimony, his life is moving from darkness to light, and from death to life.

Not because God spoke, but because of his response to God speaking.

And that's what I want you to think about today.

God speaks to us to move us to light, to life, and to move us away from things that would cause us to experience darkness.

And death.

This idea of God speaking so that we would respond.

Let me just, I I had twice as many, but I.

Genesis 22.

God says, Yahweh says, I swear by myself, declares Yahweh, because you, Abraham, have obeyed me, I will bless you.

Moses in Deuteronomy 30.

I set, or God through Moses in Deuteronomy 30, I set before you today life and prosperity and death and destruction.

For I command you today to love the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him and keep his commands, and if you do, you will experience life and blessings.

Joshua 1, meditate every day on God's law so that you will do what it says and experience prosperity and success.

1 Samuel 15.

God says through Samuel, the Lord delights in obedience, not sacrifices, for obedience is better to God than sacrifice.

David in Psalms says, Blessed are all who walk according to God's laws and keep his statutes.

The wisest man that ever lived said, All who heed my words, the words of God, the words of Yahweh, will live in safety and be at ease and live without fear.

John 13, John said, or Jesus says through John, if you know these things that I'm telling you, you will be blessed if you do them.

Do you see the contrast?

If you know these things, woohoo! But if you do what you now know, you will be blessed.

Jesus in John 14 says, if you love me, you'll obey my teachings, and my father will love you, and we will dwell with you.

Paul says in Romans 6 that disobedience to God's laws leads to sin and death.

And obedience to God's laws leads to righteousness and life.

And Peter says in verse Peter 1, be obedient, children.

Don't live like you did before you knew Christ.

Be holy in all you do.

What are all those verses saying?

Same exact thing.

It is a really big deal.

How we respond when God speaks to us.

What we do next is a matter of life and death.

So you know, I've just um even today with the music, in particular the song Oh Holy Night, but all of the music today, um, I've been slightly overwhelmed in this season because I've been trying to um think about what that was really like for.

Well, more than that, the bigness of what happened on Christmas.

It I think by n by our human nature, we have a tendency to for things to diminish in in the storytelling of them.

You know, it's it's we tell the story and then it becomes familiar and and then we uh and this isn't an indictment, uh, but it's just a uh a commentary, I guess.

And then we familiarize it and then we commercialize it, and and then it just becomes, you know, less.

Um that's a way that's yeah.

The signing of the declaration, our the winning of our invit uh uh independence, the signing of the emancipation proclamation, the winning of World War II.

These things bec they become, if we'd have been there, can you imagine?

But they but not that we deny them or not even uh devalue them, but they just become more mental.

Regular.

Yeah, regular, regular.

You know, and and the thought of this story, what happened, how big that is.

It's everything in the history of the world.

It's everything.

It is a it is a a time marker.

We mark our time before and after.

It is um, it is a in our response to it, it's no wonder that the that the people in Israel, the people in Jerusalem and Herod were deeply disturbed.

At least they were deeply disturbed and not indifferent.

Yes.

And not blasé, because this story is everything.

You can't be blasé about it.

It either is or it isn't.

And if it is, then how are we gonna respond?

What do we do?

God came to earth and drew a line and said, I'm gonna force you to choose what you accept or you don't accept.

But indifference is lazy.

And I would even take issue, I'm not I'm not trying to be mean, I would take issue that with a statement though that I'm not even saying that you're not right.

Maybe you are right.

I'm just talking out of my own feelings right now.

But is it that God forces us to choose or he offers us a way from death to life?

And we either say, I'd like that or I don't.

Now, yes, it's a choice, but it's not like it's he's offered us this rescue from death.

And he says, Would you like it?

I want you to receive it.

So there is a choice, obviously, but it's it's it's not like curtain one or curtain two.

It's would you like it?

Thank you.

Um I want to leave us with one thought.

I ran through a lot of different people who were reminding us that when God speaks, he's not trying to inform, he's offering us an invitation.

And how we respond to that invitation really matters.

Bless you.

Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Solomon, Jesus, John, Paul, Peter, pretty influential, significant group of dudes.

Every one of them are declaring how you respond when you hear from God and his invitation to join him.

Really matters.

I left out one person.

James, the Lord's brother.

In James 1, here's what he says.

Don't merely listen to God's word, which leads to self-deception.

Rather, do what it says.

Same exact thing.

I had it in my list of all those other dudes, but I pulled it out because of a word that only James uses.

Did you hear it?

Self-deception.

When we hear God, whether it's through a hymn, through his word, through a brother or sister, through an experience, through a through whatever.

Again, I'm not limiting how God can speak to people.

I am declaring to you my strong belief that God's not just wanting you to go, oh, isn't that sweet?

That'll just brighten up my day today.

Yay.

That's not what God said.

God didn't speak to you to brighten your day.

He spoke to you because he's offering you an invitation.

Just like he did Mary and Joseph, just like he did the wise men, just like he did the shepherds, just like he did Herod and the religious leaders and all of the people of Jerusalem.

But what James adds to this story is the sober warning that when we just listen and we don't respond well, it leads to self-deception.

And we see this in the very three people that rejected, that said, no thanks.

Herod, if you just read the rest of chapter two, how did Herod, when he heard that the new Messiah had come, and he said, No thanks?

How does he eventually begin to see the new Messiah as a threat?

As bad, as evil.

The religious leaders, do you know who they were?

The Pharisees and the Sadducees.

How do they turn?

No thanks.

And we've got things going on.

We got animals to sacrifice, we got songs to do, and we got all kinds of stuff going on.

We cannot or don't want to go to Bethlehem and worship that little baby.

No thanks.

Thirty years later, thirty years of that.

How does it turn?

How do they see the growth that baby grows up?

And how do they see that baby?

As a threat, as bad.

They literally watch someone speaking truth, helping, hurting people, loving on the unloved, and they literally twist that from being good to being bad.

That's bad.

That little baby wasn't a threat to Herod, but Herod was deceived into thinking it was bad.

That man doing good, teaching truth, loving on people, helping people, he wasn't bothering the Sadducees and the Pharisees, but they saw him as bad.

They saw that which was good as bad.

In the city of Jerusalem.

John 1 says that Jesus came to his own, but he was not welcome.

And then you jump over 30 years later, and Jesus says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem.

How I wanted to draw you to me like a mother hen draws its baby chicks.

I love you.

I love you.

I came to you first.

You're my favorite.

I came to you of all the cities in the world.

I came to you.

But you would not have anything of it.

And a few days later, the city of Jerusalem, when Pilate said, What should I do with this man?

The city of Jerusalem said, Crucify him.

Crucify him.

Somehow they, that rejection of God's invitation, no thanks, God.

It's not I'm going to go out and do evil.

It's just no thanks.

It has a way that rejection to God's invitation.

It doesn't just stay like that.

It transitions, it transforms into deception.

They began to see good as bad, truth as false, light, our darkness as light.

They operated in a place of deception.

When we tell God no by our behavior or just by our, what was the word you used?

Our apathy, our indifference, we literally begin to walk in deceit and darkness and to believe that which is not true.

And I started thinking about the stories of the Bible and how often that picture is illustrated.

Lot's son-in-laws.

God wants us to flee.

This city's about to be destroyed.

Come with me.

And they laughed because they thought his words were just joking.

Samson, how many times did God speak offering Samson an invitation?

No thanks, God, no thanks, God.

And then one moment the Bible says, Samson heard the Philistines outside, and he got up thinking that he could live like he had before, defeat the Philistines like he had, but all of God's power was gone.

King Saul, no thanks, God, I will do it my way.

And that rejection of God's invitation, it literally changed Saul's brain so that the two people on the planet that were his biggest fans, his own son Jonathan and David, he saw them as enemies.

That deception, that self-deception.

Judas walked with the Son of God for three years.

And at the end of the three years, he saw this person, unlike the other eleven.

The older brother in the parable.

How he saw this dad.

He saw this dad as an enemy.

This one that said, everything I have is yours, son.

I'm throwing a party.

Come join me.

I will not.

I no longer, I don't, I don't see you as you are.

I see you as my deception now betrays you.

And I could go on and on and on.

For those of those of you precious people that are reading with me through the Bible, Chuck sends me some email or text every morning, dude, this is hard.

Dude, this is hard.

Dude, this is hard.

And it is hard.

I'm not saying it's not, but I want to give you some help.

If you read the book of Revelation, it is hard.

But it's not that hard if you just step back to reading it at 30 feet is hard.

Reading it at 30,000 feet is not hard.

What does this book of Revelation teach at 30,000 feet?

It's nothing more than God finally coming to the earth in pretty amazing ways to take the kingdom of this earth that we've created and swap it for the kingdom that He's created.

That's all it is.

That's the book of Revelation.

How do you like the kingdom y'all created?

Raise your hand if you think that kingdom's really great.

It's full of violence and war and poverty and prejudice and hate and division and selfishness and meanness and on and on and on and on and on.

And God says, okay, enough's enough.

I'm gonna bring and establish, I'm getting rid of your kingdom, and I'm gonna establish my kingdom.

And how do the people of the world respond?

Not with, woo! Finally, we are tired of living in the mess that we've made.

That's not what the book of Revelation says.

The world responds, how they respond.

How the world responds according to the book of Revelation is they wail, they gnash their teeth, they run and hide, and they fight because they like the world that they've created.

They like this world.

They like the way we treat each other.

They like what we trust in.

They like it so much that they're mad at a God that would try to take this big mess, see how good I did, this big mess and turn it into something wonderful.

What is that?

Deception.

Deception.

Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2, disobedience to God's laws deceives people who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth.

We'll end there.

I've talked too long, I'm sorry.

I would just remind us all, start with Larry Ray, when God speaks to me.

Through a mate, through a friend, through a sunset, through his word, through a song, through an experience, and I know it's God.

What I do next is a really big deal.

I've got a real problem with Robin.

And God speaks to me about going and making that right.

What I do next is a really big deal.

God reveals to me that there are people in this community who need help.

And I've got an abundance.

What I do next is a really big deal.

Things that I've been enslaved to for years.

And God shows me I want you free.

I want you to live a life of freedom.

Let's go get some help.

I do next is really a big deal.

God is going to speak to you, I believe, during the holiday season.

God's going to speak to me during the holiday season.

What we do next is really a big deal.

I don't want to live a life of deception.

Every one of us know of people who they they call good, bad, and bad, good.

And true, false, and false, true.

I don't want to be like that.

I don't want to be like that.

I don't want you to be like that.

Anything you want to add, friend?

Just amen to that.

Okay.

Thank you.

You okay?

We're going to have new stools when we move into our new building.

Kathy Johnson shamed me into getting them, so we're going to get new and a new podium.

So we're going to be big ipes.

Don and Kathy, you come up and since you're all going to be the founders, or not the founders, but the responsible of these new stools and podium, y'all come up and help me.

Thank you for the donuts.

Remember, next week we'll be at Kim and Jerry's house on Saturday at 10.15 on the 24th.

And we will do it again on Saturday, December the 31st.

You come and celebrate Christmas and New Year's with us if you can.

We're going to stop now and we're going to eat and we're going to drink that which the Bible declares are symbols of the body and the blood of Jesus.

That which God didn't just declare that we now can have relationship with Him.

Those are just words.

And God couldn't even, at least through verbal words, undo the damage that our sin had done.

So he sent somebody whose name is Word to do that for him.

And we eat and we drink to remember his life, his death, his resurrection, and our faith in that.

We eat and we drink to declare that God's love is greater than our hate and our selfishness.

God's truth is greater than our lies and our deception.

God's light is greater than our darkness and our evil.

God's life is greater than our death and destruction.

That's why we eat this, because we believe that God is greater.

And that He has shared that greatness with us.

And so if that is your hope, your belief, your confidence, then you come.

There's elements that are covered that you can open if you'd like that.

But there's also just little cups of wine, and you can take some of this bread.

But you come and eat and drink with me and rejoice in the great love that God showed us by sending his son to this earth.