Pray First – How to Hear God’s Voice

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason Burns and Access Church in Lakeland, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

Every Easter I do something interesting.

You know, on a lot of Sundays, lots of people show up that really thousands of people show up or connected to our church.

But what's interesting is on Easter Sunday, everybody shows up.

And I love Easter.

And because of Easter Sunday, um everybody showing up, I've started giving out a special card that I ask everyone to fill out.

And one of the questions I ask every year is what is a topic that you'd like to hear a message or a series of messages on?

Helps me as I plan and pray for the year.

And every year without fail, one of the top questions every single year is the simple question: how do I hear the voice of God?

Like, how do I hear God's voice?

And maybe some point in your life you've heard someone say, God told me this, and you're like, God?

Like he spoke to you?

Like how do you hear that?

How do you know that God is the one speaking to you?

Well, we're in a series called Pray First, and part of prayer is talking to God.

And we spent the last two weeks talking about how you talk to God.

But today, I want to take the next step.

This is important.

If all prayer is, is you talking to God, you're missing half of the beauty of prayer.

Prayer was never intended to stay as a monologue, it was always intended to be a dialogue.

You talk, but also you stop and you listen so that God can speak.

Some years ago, the famous CBS News reporter Dan Rather was sitting down with Mother Teresa.

And as I've read about this interview, it was said about him that he got a little confused because he was used to interviewing polished celebrities and politicians and world leaders, people who gave polished answers to all of his questions, and she would give very short, very direct, very soft answers to all of his questions.

And at one point towards the end, he was running out of questions, and he said, What do you say to God when you pray?

Mother Teresa calmly took her step back.

She goes, I don't say anything.

I listen.

This is the heart of prayer.

It's about connection with God.

And it happens when we speak, but it also happens when we take time and when we listen to Him.

This week I had something strange happen.

Now I gotta be honest with you.

Um, whenever I'm talking about something, it feels like that week, as I'm leading up to talking about it, I have a weird experience with it.

For example, if I'm gonna preach a message on marriage, it feels like that week, Liz and I have our worst week of marriage ever.

It's like the wheels come falling off of the thing, right?

If I ever talk about money, it feels like something happens financially in my life and it's always so weird.

I think I should do a series someday called How to Never Work Out, Eat Whatever You Want, and Still Have a Six Pack.

That's what I want to do.

Because it feels like it just happens in my life.

This week I'm talking about prayer and listening to God, and I got a text message out of the blue from a pastor friend who said, Um, can you do me a favor?

I've got a dear friend, a pastor friend, who's from Oslo, Norway.

He's gonna be in Lakeland on Friday.

Is there any chance you could meet with him?

I said, sure.

So I meet up with this guy at Starbucks.

Now, I need you to set the context of this.

I'm at Starbucks and it's full of people, and there are people from our church who are here in this Starbucks, and I say hi to them.

And I sit down, I order myself a frou-fru drink, a vanilla frappuccino, everybody.

I'm not much of a coffee guy.

Judge me if you want, but I've got my milkshake in my hand, and I'm sitting down talking to Mr.

Oslo Norway, and we're having this great conversation.

We talk about his ministry and what he's doing around the world, and at the end, we're about to leave, and he says to me, he goes, Um, is it okay if I pray for you?

Now I love that.

I'll take prayer.

If you want to pray for me, you can pray for me anytime you want.

I do this with people all the time.

I end my meetings by asking if I can pray for them.

And I said, Sure, I'd love it if you pray for me.

And then he he made this moment so awkward for me, okay?

He leans over the little table that's between us and he puts his hands like this, and he says, Let's hold hands.

I don't know what to do in this moment, so I'm like, whatever.

I reach across and put my hands.

I'm a grown man.

I am secure in my masculinity, but it's just two dudes holding hands at Starbucks.

It's fine.

Sitting there holding hands, like looking around at the people.

I'm like, this is gonna end up on Instagram, everybody.

People in our church, a bunch of jerks.

Sitting there holding hands with this dude, and he goes, All right, let's pray.

And he bows his head and he doesn't say anything.

He just sits there with his eyes closed and his head bowed, and he's sitting quietly.

Just two dudes, eyes closed, sharing a romantic moment with God, holding hands.

It was so funny.

And we're sitting there and he doesn't say anything, and 30 seconds goes by, 45 seconds goes by, just still, just hand in hand, and and then he goes, Um, I feel like God is saying something to me to share with you.

I said, All right, let's hear it.

What's God saying?

And he said something to me from God that if I could be honest with you, was something that nobody, maybe outside of my wife, knows that I've been praying for.

I pray for some very specific stuff for our church, for you, and for the direction and future of our church.

And there's some things that I've been praying for that nobody knows about.

And certainly there's no way that a dude from the other side of the world living in a Scandinavian country could have any idea about.

And two dudes holding hands, and he says to me, God wants you to know he's going to do this for you.

All right.

He goes, Let's pray.

And then he closed his eyes and he sat in silence again.

And then he says that one more thing.

And he told me another thing specific that I have been praying for that God knew.

God was speaking to him.

There's no way he could have known because nobody knew this desire in my heart.

And then after he said it, then he prayed, and then we let go of hands.

And it was this holy sacred moment.

It was this moment that I was reminded of what I wanted to share with you today, which was this is that we serve a speaking God.

That God wants to speak to his children.

He wants to have a relationship where we talk to him, but also where he talks to us.

From the very beginning of the Bible, Genesis 1, verse 3, it says, And God said, Genesis 1, 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, 1-2, and the earth was formless and void.

Genesis 1:3

The Spirit of the Lord hovered over the deep.

Verse 3, and God said, Let there be light.

God speaks.

In the book of Revelation, the Bible ends with God speaking to the church.

God starts the Bible and he ends the Bible by speaking.

If God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, that means that if he did speak, I want you to hear this, he does speak.

We serve a speaking God.

The question is, are we attuned to what he's saying?

Do we make space to actually hear from him?

A problem with God speaking is that sometimes people will use God said to manipulate.

They'll use God said to be the final word or the trump card on any sort of argument or conversation.

But I want you to know how to hear the voice of God for yourself.

I want the voice of God to be so clear to you that you hear him speak all the time, so that you no longer have to make decisions on your own.

You never have to worry about your future on your own, because you don't have to make those decisions with your own abilities and your own wisdom, but you have the omniscient knowledge of God leading you and speaking to you every single day.

Jesus himself said it like this, John chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

He's talking about shepherds and sheep, something you probably talked about on the way to church today.

He said, uh, the gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his, their shepherd's voice.

The sheep listen to their shepherd's voice.

It says he calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out.

It says, when he has brought all of his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him.

Why?

Because they know his voice.

The sheep know the voice of their shepherd.

He says, but they will never follow a stranger.

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

Here's what I want you to understand.

Jesus gives this analogy about how sheep are so in tune, they live in lockstep and in cadence with their shepherds so much that they have discerned his voice and they can pick it out of a crowd of any number of voices.

I'm not much of a shepherd, I don't know much about sheep, but I read this week that if two shepherds were on opposite sides of a street with hundreds of their own sheep, they were to cross the street at the same point, all of their sheep intermingling with each other.

Some might get confused and get turned around, but if the shepherd is really close to his sheep, he can make a sound.

He can whistle or do aha or something, and all of his sheep, they will know to follow him because they are so attuned to his voice.

Now, can we be honest for a second?

Do you have any competing voices in your life?

You ever hear the voices of shame or condemnation or things that want to bring you down?

How amazing would it be if the voice that was the loudest and clearest, the one that rang above all of them, was the voice of God and you just decided to follow it.

What does it look like?

The book of Proverbs, Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, said, Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go.

He's the one who will keep you on track.

God's voice will never mislead you, it will never hurt you, it will never abuse you.

God is the perfect Father who loves you and who loves his children, and because he loves you, he's only going to lead you in the path of his namesake.

Psalm 23 says.

So Jesus tells this story in the book of Luke, chapter 8, and the story is called a parable.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

And the funny thing about parables is parables were stories that everybody would understand, but they always had kind of a secondary or an alternate meaning.

Often these meanings were profoundly spiritual.

It was like a message from God Himself.

But often in parables, what's so frustrating is we read them and it's like, it doesn't make sense at all.

And Jesus is going to tell us a parable, but then one of the few times he's actually going to explain it to us.

Here is kind of the crescendo moment.

In the middle of the story, Jesus says, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

So let me say this to you from the beginning as we read this story.

God doesn't have a speaking problem.

We tend to have a listening problem.

God is fully able to speak to us.

The question is, are we attuned to what he's saying?

Jesus is going to tell a story about seeds and soil, and he's going to give four examples, and I want to tie these four examples to how we can prepare our hearts to hear the voice of God.

Here it is, Luke chapter 8.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

We're going to rewind three verses from what we just read.

He says, A farmer went out to sow his seed.

As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path.

It was trampled on, and the birds ate it up.

Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants were withered because they had no moisture.

Other seeds fell among the thorns which grew up with it and choked out the plants.

And then it says, Still other seed fell on good soil.

Here's the fourth one.

It came up and yielded a crop a hundred times more than was sown.

I want to pause here for just a moment.

Jesus is giving us an example of seeds, and look, I'm not much of a farmer either.

I'm more of a city boy.

I'm more of a get my plants at publics kind of a guy.

But he's telling a story about a farmer, and he says this, he says, There are seeds, and in each seed is the potential to grow.

What is the difference in what causes them to grow or to die?

It is the place in which they are sown or scattered.

And then Jesus says this, he says, next verse, when he said this, he called out, He who has ears to hear, we just read this, he says, Let him hear.

Now, for many people, this is a confusing idea.

Like this is like what does this story even mean?

We understand about seeds that the soil they're in matters.

If I were to take a handful of seeds and pour them out on this stage, and we were to come back next Sunday, guess what plants would have grown?

None.

If we waited six months, guess what plants would be littering the stage?

None.

We would have seeds all over the place and no plants.

It's because there is no soil for them to grow.

Jesus is gonna make this clear.

He's like, I don't want this one to be fuzzy for you.

He goes on, he says, the meaning of this parable seeds, the seeds is the word of God.

You need to understand that the word of God is God's word, the Bible, and it's also the words of God, God's voice.

So where you plant those things is gonna matter.

Let's talk about our hearts for just a moment.

Remember, there's four environments.

Here's the first one.

Jesus says this.

Those along the path, remember he said some scattered along the path, are the ones who hear.

And then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved.

The first heart that we need to pay attention to if we're gonna hear the voice of God is the polluted heart.

Polluted by what?

Well, if we're not careful, sin has a way of growing around our heart and causing a stranglehold on it.

It could be any sort of sin.

It could be sin we commit, it could be sins that were done to us, it could be pain that we carry, it could be abuse that we carry, it could be a betrayal that's caused bitterness to sprout in our hearts.

It could be envy or lust that has this way of polluting our hearts.

And here's the thing about God: God is so holy that he cannot and will not exist where sin abounds.

In the Old Testament, there was this interesting thing that would happen.

There were two different kinds of churches.

One was called the temple, that was a permanent church building.

Then there was what's called the tabernacle.

Tabernacle was a tent that became a portable church.

So as the Israelites would travel, they would have a place that they could set up and they could worship God.

The tabernacle was a huge tent.

Inside of the tabernacle was a smaller tent that was divided by a big curtain called the veil.

On the back side of that curtain, there was a place that was called the Holy of Holies.

It was this tent of meetings had this place called the Holy of Holies, and only the priest could enter, and only the priest could enter, and when he would enter, before he would go in, he would have to purify himself of all sins.

Because to be in God's presence, which was so prevalent in this place, I mean the Ark of the Covenant was there.

To walk into this place with sin in your life, God's presence would overwhelm you and cause you to fall over, immediately dying.

They would often tie a rope around the put the priest's foot in case he died in the presence of God, so they could pull him out, because there ain't nobody going up in there after him, right?

And so I'm so thankful that that's not how it is anymore.

The question is not, will you have sin?

Because if we were to take a poll, 100% of us have sin.

The question is not, will you sin?

The question is what do you do with your sin?

You see, all of us have sin.

According to the book of Romans, we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory or the standard of God.

We all have sin.

The question is, what do you do with your sin?

If you have sin, the question is, are you willing to repent and turn from your sin, to receive God's forgiveness and his grace?

Here's what the book of James says.

James says, get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives and humbly accept the message God has planted in your hearts, for it is strong enough to save your soul.

What are we to do?

All right, there's a word that's the old churchy word.

And the truth is, if you grew up in church, especially if you grew up in a hellfire and brimstone kind of church, you've probably heard this word said many times.

Probably the preacher was pointing out at the audience and it felt like he was pointing directly at you.

The word is the word repent.

And this word is a strong word.

Many of us have kind of a negative connotation because we've heard a preacher yell it or a street preacher with a bullhorn screaming it at people, turn and burn, repent or go to hell.

And it that's true, but here's what repent means it means to turn around.

It's a really beautiful word.

It means if you are going one direction, if you're on the pathway of sin, to repent is to stop and it is to turn and it is to return the way you were supposed to go.

What do we do when our hearts are polluted by sin?

We just turn, we repent, we say, God, forgive me of this, and I'm gonna go the direction you have for me, not the way of sin.

First thing is we have this polluted heart.

The second heart is found in the next verse.

It says this Jesus said, the rocky soil represents those who hear the message with joy, but like young plants in such soil, their roots don't go very deep.

I don't know if you've ever had this moment before where you were so inspired by a message or a sermon.

You had a time of prayer and you you just felt the presence of God in such a beautiful way, or maybe you were worshiping and you just sensed God calling you into a deeper place of worship, but then all of a sudden you walked back into your job, or you left the doors of the church, and as soon as you left, you were distracted by something else, and that message never got buried deep in your heart.

You had inspiration without implementation, and it led to frustration because you just were distracted.

The second heart we have to deal with is the heart that's a distracted heart.

The verses go on that we just read.

Jesus was talking about those seeds and those people, and he said they believe for a while, but they wilt when the hot winds of testing blow.

Maybe this is you.

Maybe you get inspired in a moment, but the moment you get distracted, the moment things happen, the moment life doesn't pan out the way you want, you find your heart and your life wilting to the heat and pressure of this world.

I don't know about you, but if we could just be honest, I struggle with distractions.

I don't have ADD or ADHD, but I feel like I do.

I I feel like I'm so like torn, it's it's so easy for me to be in a conversation with someone and for my phone to be buzzing and to get my attention.

Have you had this before?

Can I show you one of my greatest frustrations in life?

I'm just gonna be honest, this is the moment of transparency and vulnerability.

I hate these red dots.

Anyone else understand this?

I hate them so much.

And I don't understand people who live like this.

Like if you have 367 unread messages, messages, you got a problem.

Okay.

Have you ever looked over someone's shoulder and their email app, it'll say 11,257 unread messages?

At that point, just step on your phone and throw it in the pool.

It's over for you.

You're never coming back from that, ever.

I hate notifications because I feel like when I'm notified of something, it means someone or something needs me.

So when I wake up in the morning, can I tell you what I have to do?

I have to make a decision that before I go digital, I go vertical.

Before I go digital, I have to connect with God.

Just for a couple minutes, just time connecting with God.

Why?

Because the moment I open my phone, even if my intention is to go to my Bible app, I see the red dots.

I get this Batman syndrome.

What if they need me?

Like, I need, I need me, I need help.

Like, what would it look like if all of us just made this decision?

Like, I have to clear out the distractions that are stepping me away or keeping me away from the things of God.

Sometimes distractions are bad.

Sometimes distractions can even be good things.

There's a moment when Jesus had been teaching, we find it in the book of Luke.

Jesus was teaching and he comes to the house of these two ladies, these two sisters, Mary and Martha.

It says this about them.

And she, Martha, had a sister named Mary who seated herself at the Lord's feet and was listening to his teaching.

Pause here for just a moment.

Jesus comes over.

He's reclining at the table, having a meal, and one of the sisters, Mary, is just sitting there, soaking up everything he says.

She's listening to every word.

She's hanging on to every syllable he says.

She's fully attentive to Jesus.

And then the next verse goes on.

But Martha, the other sister, overly occupied and too busy, was distracted with too much serving.

You've got Mary who could be up serving people, who could be up getting refills or cleaning up trash.

But she's sitting at Jesus' feet, and then there's Martha, and she's too busy doing something good.

Let me say this to you.

You can even so flood your life with good things and they distract you from the greatest thing.

It is possible to serve, serve, serve, serve, serve, but to never be close to the one you're serving for.

It is possible to give, give, give, give, give.

And is giving a good thing?

Absolutely, it's a good thing.

But when you give at the expense of closeness to God, you've missed the point altogether.

We talked about distractions.

One more moment of vulnerability.

I don't like silence.

I don't.

When I'm in my car, I like to listen to ESPN radio or a podcast or I like to be on a phone call with somebody.

Why is it that we run from silence?

Why is it we fill our minds and our hearts with distractions?

Why is it?

I want to show you something.

If you're gonna hear God's voice, you have to turn down the world's volume.

What would it look like if any distraction, bad distractions, good distractions?

We just said, no, no, God, you have my full attention.

I want to talk to you, but I also want a clear space to listen to you.

The verses go on.

Jesus said there's a third place.

It said, the seeds that fell among the weeds stand for those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by life's worries, riches, and pleasures, and they don't mature.

Pause here for just a moment.

You ever driven by a house that was so overrun by weeds?

There's like literally weeds everywhere.

What is the picture that comes to mind when you think of that house?

The thing about weeds is you don't have to try to grow them.

They just grow.

They grow up in my sidewalk, they grow up in my yard.

A house that's overrun by them, it shows a picture of someone who stopped caring and who stopped trying somewhere along the way.

And then Jesus compares that to the people who are they're so busy and consumed by the pleasures of this life that they never take the time to go deeper in their relationship with God.

So they live these immature kinds of lives.

The third heart is the immature heart.

I wonder if this is you.

Um, my youngest brother Aaron, he and his wife just had a new baby.

I love her so much.

Her name is Sammy, and it looked like she had red hair.

I don't know if she still does or not, but when she was little, she was so cute.

And so a couple days ago, my daughter Ella was gonna go hang out with these girls.

And so I dropped her off, but I was like, I gotta hold Sammy for a minute.

And I held Sammy and I put her head in my hands, and I had her like this, and I was like, oh, who's the cutest little baby in the whole world?

You are so sweet.

I love you.

I was talking to her like that, and then she babbled back at me, so I babbled back at her.

And then I did that thing where I'd like to be silly, I'd like bump my head into her belly just to be cute, just to make her laugh.

And it was funny and it was cute for just a moment.

But imagine this.

Imagine if on a Sunday I got up and you told your friend, you got to hear this guy.

Oh, he's he's so smart.

I think he has a doctorate.

He's wise beyond his years.

I'm making up stuff for you to say about me if you want.

And they come to church and I stand up here and I'm like, how's my favorite church in the whole world?

Oh, look at you, look cute.

You're so cute today.

And I walk around headbutting you in the belly.

Be like, how much Nyquel did he take?

You know, like, what is wrong with this guy?

Because there's a place for fun, but that's immature.

A lot of Christians, hear me on this.

A lot of Christians never get to a place of their own depth and spiritual maturity with God.

So we keep everything shallow and we keep everything simple.

I want you to look with Solomon here.

Check this out.

The wisest man to ever live.

Solomon said this in Proverbs 12.

He said, the way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.

There's two different people, and you don't want to be in one category.

He says, the fools, they just do what's right in their own eyes.

They listen to their own thoughts and their own words.

They elevate their thoughts to the highest thoughts.

You're missing it there.

But he said, the wise listen to advice.

Okay.

Let me tell you something.

As a church, the reason we have something called access groups is because we want people of all different levels of spiritual maturity to be in environments where they can grow spiritually.

Access groups are a big deal at our church.

And let me say this to you.

I love preaching to people in rows.

It makes me so happy.

I love talking to you.

I love it so much.

But I actually know that the greatest place where you can grow spiritually is not listening to me talk to you in rows.

It's when you sit around with other believers and you talk about what you're learning and how you're growing spiritually.

Scripture teaches as iron sharpens iron.

We need to understand that as we grow in our faith, we need to be surrounded by other people at different levels of maturity who can call us to higher levels.

So let me say this to you as bluntly as I can.

I want you to listen.

Our access groups start on February 11th.

I'm really excited about it.

I want every single person in our church connected in an access group.

Can I tell you one of my dreams?

I would love for there to be a day when more people in our city are connected to each other through access groups than even come on a Sunday morning.

Like that's my hope for our church.

But can I tell you something else?

That's my you need to be in a group.

Hear me.

Last Sunday, we had, with the exception of like Christmas and Easter, we had the single largest attended Sunday in the history of our church.

Like, I keep telling you, stop bringing your friends and you won't listen to me.

You keep bringing people, right?

It's so fun.

But here's what I want you to know.

We don't have close to enough groups to support the growth of our church.

So some people are like, well, Jason, you know, I love being in a group.

Oh, I just love it so much.

I love it so much.

And can I tell you what I hear when I hear a person tell me how much they love their group?

I love that you love it, but if you're not willing to ever step out of that and to lead, you are a spiritual consumer, not a spiritual contributor.

Some of you are like, well, Jason, look, I'll lead a group when God shows up and speaks to me and says, You should lead a group as your pastor on behalf of God.

Looking you right in the eyes right now.

Lead a group.

Thus saith the Lord.

You know, you need to.

And then we're like, we have all the excuses and all the reasons not to.

Let me tell you this.

Maturity comes when we stop making excuses and we start making changes.

Let me say this to you.

You will grow more spiritually by leading a group than ever attending a group.

You will stop fighting with your spouse more when you lead a group.

Why?

Because you're gonna have people coming over every week, and you can't be tense with your spouse when you're leading a group.

Like, you need this.

And listen to me, other people are counting on you.

There's people in our church that are literally swimming in the kiddie pool of their spiritual depth and maturity.

And they need someone like you who's been a believer and a follower of Jesus for a long time to call them out of that shallow depth and into the deep things of God.

What would it look like if all of us did this together?

Some people are like, Jason, what is Axis' plan for discipleship?

That means to grow people in their faith.

Ready?

Our plan is you.

That's the whole thing.

Our plan is you.

You open your homes, you show up to Chick-fil-A or Starbucks, you get a group of people together and you lead them to know more about Jesus.

If you have questions about it, if you want to know more about it, here's my challenge to you.

Next Sunday, come back at 10:30, go to our group leader training.

They'll train you.

If you're like, I don't know about it, I have questions.

Just go get your questions answered.

We're not signing you up, we're just asking you to go get your questions answered.

And then my prayer, we need hundreds of groups.

Honestly, we need over 200 groups right now to have enough groups for everybody in our church to attend.

Will you be the one who will be a mature believer and who will answer the call and make the change to help someone else grow?

There's four different types of soil that produce the different types of hearts that we have.

For some of us, it's a polluted heart or a distracted heart.

But there's one more that's so important.

Here's what Jesus ends with Luke chapter 8, verse 15.

Luke 8:15

But he says, the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart who hear the word, then they retain it, and they and by persevering they produce a crop.

It's like their life is fruitful because they've made the decision to have a heart that is ultimately what I call the prepared heart.

How do we prepare our hearts to hear from God?

Remember, God is gonna speak in a whisper.

I think for a lot of us, we're expecting God to shout, no, no.

God is gonna speak in a whisper.

Why does God speak in a whisper?

Because he's close.

What happens in a loud, crowded, chaotic environment and someone whispers to you?

You say, What?

I can't hear you.

God comes and shows up and speaks to a heart that's prepared, a heart that's gotten rid of all the noise, a heart that's prepared space for him.

God speaks in a whisper because he's near, and so to the person who feels alone, why do you need to hear the voice of God?

Because you're reminded that you're never alone.

To the person in the room who's struggling with the major decision, why do you need to hear the voice of God?

Because you can't make it in your own wisdom.

You're not smart enough.

To the person who's struggling with one decision or another, you don't have to live your life one more moment not hearing the voice of God.

So the question is, how do we prepare our hearts?

Three simple things.

Number one, we have to repent.

Remember, repent means to turn.

If you have sin in your life, this is the moment for you where you say, God, would you clean and purify my heart?

I want nothing between you and me.

Speak to me.

Second thing we do is we refocus.

What does this mean?

Have you ever given up on a New Year's resolution?

Like, I'm gonna exercise every day, 2024, day four, you're like, well, I'll get them next year.

You know, that's how we live.

A lot of Christians make these declarations.

This is my year of prayer.

I'm gonna pray every single day.

God, 15 minutes every single day.

And we do it for a while, then we have a bad day or two, and then it turns into two or three weeks.

God, this is the year I'm gonna read through the whole Bible in one year, and we make it through Genesis, struggle through Exodus, and we get to Leviticus, and we're like, I don't understand what you're talking about.

Then we fall off, and then we wake up and it's May or June or July.

Wherever you are, today's the day to restart.

Pick it back up again.

Make the decision that Jesus, from this day forward, creating space so I can hear from you, making time to get in your word, I'm making time to talk to you, and I'm making time to be quiet so you can speak.

The final thing is this it's to revive.

This is the root of revival.

It is to say, God, would you do something so profound in me that it spills out in my life, that everywhere I go, people are like, there's something different about you, there's something changed about you, what makes you different?

And you say, because God has changed me from the inside out, you're the person who's hearing from God.

Let me end with this thought.

2 Corinthians Paul says, Let's make a clean break with everything that defiles or distracts us, both within and without.

Let's make our entire lives fit and holy temples for the worship of God.

If we're going to be the kinds of people that God shows up to and he speaks to, if we're gonna be the kind of people whose hearts are so attuned to the voice of God, we're gonna have to be people who do it intentionally.

God's voice is clearest in a prepared environment.

The picture that came to mind as I was thinking about this is if you're older than about 35 years old, you remember when radios weren't digital.

Now you get in your car and you can push a button and it'll skip from channel to channel to channel.

In the old days, we had these knobs, you need to turn them very slightly.

And you need to get close to a channel, and when you get close, you would hear it go from staticky to clear.

And if you kept turning it, you'd hear it go staticky again.

Sometimes as you would drive further away from wherever the radio was being broadcast, you'd have to adjust it.

This is the life of a believer, constantly adjusting my life.

God, where is there sin in my life that I need to adjust?

God, where is there chaos in my life that I need to still?

God, where is there too many voices calling for my attention?

And we adjust and we adjust and we adjust.

And over time, what will happen to you is what happens to the sheep that Jesus was talking about in John 10.

You will be so attuned to the voice of God that when you're challenged with the voice of others, when you're challenged to hear the voice of condemnation, guilt, and shame, you will reject the voices of strangers because there is only one voice worthy of you listening to.

The voice of the one who spoke at the beginning of the Bible, spoke at the end of the Bible, and is speaking to you today.

So in a moment, we're gonna pray.

And as we pray, I'll pray for you in a moment, but let's start with a moment of just inviting God to speak to us.

Would you bow your head and close your eyes all across this place?

Would you change our hearts?

Would you help us to prepare a place for you to speak?

God, I thank you that scripture is so clear that you whisper to us.

Why do you whisper?

It's because you're so close.

God, my prayer is that in all the busyness and chaos that is normal in our lives, that we will be a people who hit pause.

Turn down the noise, to still and silence the chaos so you can speak.

God, forgive us for being distracted.

Forgive us of our sins, forgive us of things that cause us to tune out of your voice.

And may we be the kinds of people who are constantly refining and tuning our hearts so we can hear from you.

God, I thank you that one word from heaven can forever change our lives.

So we tune our hearts to you and we invite you to speak to us.

Thank you for it, God.