Sharing good news of great joy to all people.
Elation Church. This week we're starting a brand
new series. And that series title is, You Can
Hear God. Look at the person beside you and tell
them that. Say, you can hear God. You can hear
God. You know, we live in a culture that people
think the preacher is the only one that can hear
God. We want the preacher to hear God and then
tell us what God said. Kind of like the Old Testament
where the children of Israel on the way to the
promised land, they decided they didn't want
God to speak to them after the Mount Sinai experience.
They didn't want God speaking to them. We want
God to speak to Moses and then Moses tell us
what he said. But you can hear God. You can hear
God. And sometimes when we talk to people about
hearing God and what is God saying, multiple
people have said, well, that's just not the relationship
that I have with God. I don't really hear from
Him. I don't really understand what you're talking
about. That's not my experience is hearing from
God. Well, God spoke to me this morning. On the
way here, I can't tell you how tired I am. You
know, eight hours in the airport, flying into
MCO after midnight, going to bed, sleeping possibly
three hours, two hours and 45 minutes. And I
woke up, and my left calf was in a hard cramp.
I must have rocked too much in the rocking chair
at Buffalo. My back, the middle of my back was
in a hard cramp at 4 .20 this morning. And I
got up out of bed, and I'm trying to stretch
it out, and finally get it stretched out, go
lay back down in bed. I didn't even look and
see what time it is, and I'll tell you how I
know what time it was, because as soon as I lay
back down, my alarm went off and says, time to
get up and get ready for church. And out of my
mouth said, no! So I laid there another 10, 15
minutes, and then got up and got ready. Like
I said, God spoke to me on the way because I
needed something, right? Does anybody go through
times where you just need something? Let me tell
you how he spoke to me. As I left from picking
up the trailer and started getting closer and
closer to the school, all of a sudden there was
a thick fog. Jeffrey even said when he got here,
he said, what's up with the fog? And what did
I tell you? It was for me. God put a fog right
around this school just for me today. Because
I'll never forget being at Myrtle Beach in the
middle of the night walking out on that ramp
over the dune right beside the indoor pool and
it was so foggy I couldn't see my hand in front
of my face. Middle of the night. One of the most...
Devastating days of my life. Again, and I looked
at a map before we went to bed and said, are
we going to be missionaries in Canada or missionaries
in Mexico? And it's funny now, but it wasn't
funny then. I mean, we pulled out that big paper
atlas and we're like, we're done. You know, either
that or I'm going to be a prison minister. But
God met me. God told me to go out there. I walked
out there, and he asked me a question. He said,
where's the ocean? I said, it's right there.
I mean, I'm talking out loud. If people just
saw me, they'd think I'm, you know, a little
hoo -hoo. I said, it's right there. I'll never
forget it. God said, how do you know it's there?
I said, well, I can hear it. I can feel the breeze.
And the biggest reason I know it's there is because
I've stood here before. I've been here before.
And I know it's right there. And God said, in
a still small voice on the inside of me, I'm
not telling you I heard it with my ears, but
it was louder than hearing it with my ears. He
said, I am here. I went back to the motorhome,
fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
I'd been tossing and turning up until that time.
And I woke up to a telephone call. Here's what
the person on the other end of the phone said.
God told me to call you this morning and ask
you if you needed anything. I was like... This
was the first big God conference, right after
the first. And it's like, I was too embarrassed
to tell him what I needed. And here's what he
said, and I'm glad he said it. He said, well,
if you're not going to tell me what you need,
I'm going to hang up. And because I did what
God told me to do, he said, if you can't tell
me what you need, I can't help you. And then
I told him, it was more money than I borrowed
to build our first house. And within an hour,
it was wired to our account in Alabama at that
time. Plus another $1 ,000 so that we could eat
for the month of January. And it wasn't a loan.
It was a gift. Over $50 ,000. But God spoke to
me today. I was tired. I don't want to stand
up here and complain because I'm blessed. I really
thought I was going to spend the night in the
airport after the fourth cancellation in Buffalo.
I thought I was going to, not cancellation, delay.
After they announced the fourth time that they
keep pushing the time back, and then I get an
email saying, you better come through TSA before
nine because they close at nine. If you're waiting
to come for the flight and you're a local, you
better get here or you're going to miss the plane.
So I was like, maybe I'm going to sleep in this
rocking chair. I'd already drop boxed the PowerPoint
so that Jeffrey could open it up and preach today.
If I was still in Buffalo, I would have got another
plate of wings. If you saw those posts. Had a
lot of free time in the airport. Anyway. But
every time I see a dense fog while I'm driving
on Sunday morning, it's like, God's here. God's
here. He's going to help me. He's where my help
comes from. And he just wanted to show me on
the way here because I was like, am I going to
pass out while I'm preaching? Am I going to have
any energy? Am I going to be mumbling so much
that you can't even understand what I'm saying?
No. Am I going to crash and sleep all afternoon
until tomorrow morning? Yes. I'm full of energy
right now. The Bible is filled. I don't know
if you've ever looked at it this way, but the
Bible is filled with stories of people who heard
God. Just think about it. People who heard God.
From the Garden of Eden to Abraham to Noah. I
mean, it's a book filled with people. The stories
of people who heard God. 2 Timothy 3 .16 says
this. All Scripture. Somebody say all Scripture.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.
And if you look up the Greek word for inspiration,
I think that's what's coming up next. I'm not
even going to try to say it. I know, not because
I've studied Greek in depth, but I know that
theo means God. That's where we get theology,
right? Theo means God. And pneuma is wind or
breath or spirit. Okay? So it's like a compound
word. It has both of those words in this one
word. And instead of inspiration, the direct
translation is God -breathed. Everybody say God
-breathed. So, this is telling us that Scripture
originates directly from God as His spoken Word.
See, the Holy Spirit breathed the Word of God
to the writers of the Word of God. The Word of
God was spoken. So it could be written. So that
it could be spoken again. It's God breathed.
God breathed. And think of it this way. The text
comes from God exhaling his truth. It's not just
a creative human spark. It's God exhaling his
truth. The word of God. Everyone needs to hear
God. You might be sitting here and saying, I
don't hear God. I mean, I don't even know what
you're talking about. I hear God. Really? Well,
it's vital that you hear God. This is why we're
doing this series, because so many people think
that they don't hear God or can't hear God. I
mean, if you're sitting there saying, well, I
hear Him all the time. Well, you're the exception.
It's vital that we hear God. And it should be
normal. It should be normal for a Christian to
hear God. Now, we're going to talk about a lot
of different ways that God speaks in this series.
You know, we're going to help you out with that.
Because sometimes you might, you know, I could
drive into fog and I could miss it that it's
God speaking to me at a point when I really need
it. I'm telling you, with my hand up, God spoke
to me today when I hit that dense fog just right
before I got here. And it was for me. It was
for me. Because I needed it today. It should
be normal. That we hear God. Some people think
when God wrote the Bible, He quit speaking. It's
like, that's it. He spoke everything He wanted
to speak, and then He quit speaking. Well, Jeffrey
and I wrote a book. We didn't quit talking. Of
course, our book is nothing like His book, because
His book is perfect. It won't take you long to
probably find some errors in our book, not intentional.
I mean, we tried to write it as best as we could,
but we didn't quit speaking. And, you know, our
first book was Faith Act, and I'm going to talk
about faith today. And I'm going to tell you
some things that I learned yesterday in the rocking
chair that I really didn't even know. I keep
speaking. I keep speaking. And I keep learning.
How many of you know God doesn't need to learn
anything else? He's all -knowing. He got it perfectly
right the first time, but that doesn't mean He
quit speaking. Romans 8, 14. Let's you know how
vital one verse, I mean, there's a lot of verses
I could pick, but... One verse to let you know
how vital it is for you to hear God, and it needs
to be a normal thing. It says this, all who are
led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
Does anyone consider themselves a child of God
today? Well, because you are a child of God,
you can be, it's still up to you, you can be
led by the Spirit of God. And how are you going
to be led by the Spirit of God if you never hear
the Spirit of God? How could you be? Let's look
at a familiar text probably. John 10 verses 1
through 5. This is Jesus talking. He says, I
tell you the truth. Anyone who sneaks over the
wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through
the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber.
But the one who enters through the gate is the
shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the
gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice
and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name
and leads them out. After he has gathered his
own flock, he walks ahead of them. And they follow
him because they know his voice. Look at the
person beside you and remind them that you're
a sheep. And sheep know the voice of the shepherd.
It says they won't follow a stranger. They will
run from him. Because they don't know his voice.
Now, to understand what's taking place here,
there were times when shepherds would take their
sheep and put them in a sheep fold. Now, this
sheep fold could be for a lot of different shepherds
and a lot of different flocks. But they would
put them in this big gated area. And what Jesus
is saying is, you know, when the shepherd comes,
the gatekeeper opens it up. And he just starts
talking to his sheep. And even though they might
be three or four different flocks in the sheepfold,
his sheep are going to follow him because they
know his voice. And God gave me a beautiful picture
of this in Romania. I think it's been a while
since I've shared this story. This is not my
picture, but it reminds me of my picture. because
my camera would be very blurry, because this
had been a long time ago. All right? So, we were
in Romania. We were in a church van going to
the women's prison to speak. And on the way,
I mean, I was just talking with someone who was
on the mission trip with me, and the driver,
we couldn't communicate with him at all anyway.
I mean, he knew no English. and there was no
translator. We're just in the van. We're headed
to the women's prison. All of a sudden, he brakes
really hard, and he starts blowing the horn because
across the road was more sheep than this. He's
up on them. I mean, just right on them, blowing
the horn. And guess what the sheep were doing?
That's what the sheep were doing. They weren't
going to move out of the road. They were frightened.
They didn't know what to do. They were just moving
around and trying not to be the closest one to
the van. But they weren't getting out of the
road. I looked over. Let's see what side I was
on. I looked over to my right at the side window
of the van. And there were more sheep, and they
were in a lady's front yard. Now, most people
in Romania don't cut grass. They don't plant
flowers. You know, coming out of communism and
everything, they're just happy to not be in a
concrete block or a concrete, poured concrete,
you know, four -story, five -story apartment
building. So she had her own little place, and
she had flowers. Those sheep were all in her
yard. She had a broom. She's swinging the broom
at the sheep that are in her yard. Guess what
the sheep are doing? They weren't leaving her
yard. They were just trying to not be the closest
one to the broom. We sat there a while. broom
swinging, horn blowing. Sheep aren't going anywhere.
All of a sudden, a man walked from the side of
the house. He wasn't whistling. He wasn't screaming.
He just walked beside the house. I could see
his mouth moving. He wasn't talking loud enough.
I mean, we had the windows open. He wasn't talking
loud enough for me to even hear him. He's just
calmly talking and walking. And as he walked
through the yard and into the street and across
the street, every one of those sheep followed
him. Isn't that what Jesus just said? And I was
just blessed to have sheep blocking the road
one day. Because I knew nothing about sheep.
But I learned a lot that day. Because when trouble
came, When danger came, they didn't know what
to do. Hello? Come on, somebody. Does anybody
ever have trouble coming your way? Or danger
coming your way? That's when you need to hear
the voice of the shepherd. You need to hear him.
And you need to quit doing this. What if, what
if, what if? Oh my, oh my, oh my. What am I going
to do? What am I going to do? What am I going
to do? Need to be still. Don't go to God last
when it seems like there's no hope. Run to God
first. Hear from Him. Follow Him. He's going
to take you to still water and green pasture.
Woo, this ain't even in my notes. I'm preaching
myself happy right now. It's important to hear
him. It's vital to hear him. It should be very
normal that we hear. Everyone can hear God. Listen,
if Jesus said, my sheep, hear my voice, my sheep,
recognize my voice, my sheep. Know my voice,
my sheep. Follow my voice. If we're sheep, we
can hear him. If we're not hearing him, listen,
it's not his fault because he's speaking, leading,
guiding, directing. He's speaking. It's just
that it might be. That we don't value our need
for hearing Him in every situation. It might
be that we run everywhere except to Him to try
to figure out a way out, a way of escape. We
run everywhere else. Consult everybody else.
And then we get to the point where, well... I've
tried everything. I guess all I got now is to
pray. Why? Look to the person beside you and
say, why? Why? Why would we do that? He knows
everything about everything. You might think
He only knows spiritual things, but He knows
everything about everything. Somebody smile.
Everyone needs to hear God. We need it. We need
to realize that. And we need to hear Him. He's
not going to just, like a parent, if a child's
doing something wrong, sometimes a parent will
come up and just like slap you on the back of
the head and say, hey. He's not wanting to slap
you on the back of the head. You've got to want
to hear from Him, to hear Him. But He's not going
to hold back. And it might not be on your microwave
drive -through timeline. Okay, God, I'll give
you 37 seconds. Speak to me. If we really value,
you know, time's not going to matter. Because
the most important thing is to hear Him. A lot
of times we ask Him and we don't expect Him to
answer because we're already figuring out how
we're going to figure it out even while we're
asking Him. Come on, somebody. We need to hear
God. And this is what we're going to focus on
today, on the first lesson out of the gate, the
first message. If you are a Christian, you have
heard God. So it shouldn't be foreign to you,
because you've heard Him. Maybe you didn't recognize
that it was Him that was speaking to you. Maybe
you thought it was the preacher or a teacher
at church. Maybe you thought that it was somebody
else. But if you're a Christian, you've heard
God. You've heard Him. If you're just a religious
church person and you're not a Christian, you
might not have ever heard Him. Ephesians 2, 8,
9. Very familiar verses. For it is by grace.
Everybody say grace. You know, people say that
grace is the unmerited favor of God. I've expanded
that definition to call grace this. Grace is
God's acts and activity of kindness and favor
towards us. Jesus did so much. He has completed
so much. Made so much available to us. Grace
is His acts of kindness and favor towards us.
Not that we earned it. Not that we deserved it.
Even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. I mean, He acted in grace for us. Even though
we were just totally... Unaware. We weren't even
born. And he did acts of kindness and favor towards
you before you were ever born. So it's by God's
grace that you have been saved. But it says this,
through faith. So God did everything necessary
for you to be saved. But only people who respond
in faith to His grace invitation and His grace
gift of eternal life and forgiveness, only people
who come to Him in faith receive it. Because
we're saved by grace through faith. And this
is not from yourselves. It's a gift of God. So
that's even telling us that God has something
to do with this faith that we can receive His
grace gift with. He has something to do with
it. It's not just you. It's a gift of God. Not
by works. You can't be good enough. You can't
keep enough rules to be born again, to be saved.
Because if you could, it says, you might boast
about it. Boy, I'm such a good person. God's
so proud of me because look what I did. And look
what I didn't do. I'm a good person. Good people
don't go to heaven. Because none of us are good
enough. None of us are perfect. Good people do
not go to heaven. If that's in the back of your
mind, just erase it. Because it's not by anyone's
works so that they could boast about it. Is that
what the Bible says or not? Thank you. One person.
So if God has something to do with our faith,
For us to be able to receive His grace gift,
we're talking about salvation, but hey, every
one of His promises are grace gifts. So what
does God have to do with it? This is what I learned
at the rocking chair yesterday. I've been so
excited to share this with anybody, somebody.
I mean, you know, it just wasn't a roach crawling
by. I couldn't tell. At the airport, I never
saw. And if you've been around the Galatian church,
you've heard this verse before. If you've been
around me, you've heard this verse before. Romans
10, 17 says this. So then faith, faith comes
by hearing. So you're not going to have any faith,
the God kind of faith, unless you hear something.
So that means something has to be spoken so that
you can hear. Are you with me? Boy, some of you
are looking like that. Faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God. That little word
and, I don't know if you can tell, it's white.
It's a little bit brighter than all the other
words. Who in their right mind would sit down
in a rocking chair in Buffalo and look up and
in the Greek. I guess me. See, I've heard it
like this. Faith comes by hearing and hearing.
That just means that we've got to hear it and
not only hear it once, but we've got to hear
it again and we've got to hear it again and we've
got to hear it again and we've got to hear it
again and faith is coming because we're hearing
it again and again and again and I'm cool with
that. I'm cool with that. But that little word
and, the Greek word is only D -E. It's like D
-E -H is how you pronounce it. And listen what
I found in Thayer's Greek lexicon. This word,
when it's joined, to terms which are repeated.
Are you with me? Hearing and hearing. So you
got the same term twice with this little word
right between it. Hearing and hearing. When it's
between two terms which are repeated, it brings
emphasis and I'll just go ahead and read what
Thayer said, even though it's not the way I talk.
It is joined to terms which are repeated with
a certain emphasis and with such additions as
tend to explain and establish them more exactly.
I'm going to put it in Dean's words. It's like
faith comes by hearing, but just in case you
don't know what I'm talking about. I'm going
to explain for you. I'm just thinking. Let me
explain to you. Lucille Ball is from Jamestown,
New York, which is where I was. I did not go
to the Lucy Museum. Let me explain to you. This
word between hearing and hearing is saying, wait
a minute, I don't want you to just interpret
the word hearing however you want to interpret
it. I want to give you some explanation and I
want to establish what I'm talking about more
exactly. I don't want to leave it open to just
whatever, whoo, hearing. I don't want to just
leave it open. And all that's just in that little
word, and. It's like, how have I missed that?
For, I don't know how long I've been preaching,
since 92? How have I missed it? Because I didn't
think that little word, and, was important enough
to look up in the Greek and study it out and
say, wow! It's like. Let me explain to you. Faith
comes by hearing. And this is the kind of hearing
that faith is going to come from. The faith that
pleases God. Because without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Without the God kind of faith,
right? So the God kind of faith that comes by
hearing is by hearing by the Word of God. So
do you see how important it is to hear God? Come
on. Because if you don't hear God, if your relationship
with God isn't like that, then you're not pleasing
God. You've got to hear Him. You might say, wait
a minute, that just means reading your Bible.
Well, the first time I read this verse, that's
what I thought. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by reading your Bible. Let me explain to you.
Word. There are different words in English, in
our English Bibles that are translated. Word
in English. But you got logos. I can't remember
the third one right now, but one of them is rhema.
Everybody say rhema. So it's a specific kind
of word. A lot of times we just read our Bible
and we are not listening for God to speak because
we want to intellectually, with our human intellect,
figure out what God is saying. And wouldn't it
make a whole lot more sense while we're reading
the Bible to say, hey God, you wrote this, so
why don't... Why don't you interpret it for me
and let me hear what you said? I had this thought
this week. And it's like, wait a minute. If everyone...
wanted to hear God on what a Bible verse said,
we would all be in unity. Now we're all going
to fight. Well, my translation is from God. Yours
is not. I mean, just think about all the denominations,
all the different denominations. Listen, if we
all had the Holy Spirit interpreting the Word
of God correctly, rightly dividing the truth,
there wouldn't be a bunch of denominations. That
was just like... How much does God talk about
unity? God's not bringing up division. He's bringing
unity. So if we've got His Word on His Word,
then we've got unity. I spent a lot of years
of my life never even having that thought occur
to me. Faith comes by hearing. And hearing by
the spoken word. Utterance. Hearing by the spoken
word. And there, I found this in Helps Word Studies.
Thayer said, rhema is a spoken word made by the
living voice. I love that. Spoken word made by
the living voice. And when you just read this
verse, you would think, okay, the living voice
of God. So it must be theos, like I talked about
a minute ago, because it's translated God. Guess
what? It's not. The Greek word here is Christos.
Christ is not Jesus' name. It's not his proper
name. It's not like his name is, his first name
is Lord and his second name is Jesus and his
third name is Christ. Like Elisha, James, Forrest.
I mean, he's going to have three. My grandbaby's
going to have three names. But the first one
and the last one are titles. Jesus is his name.
Lord is his relationship with his followers.
He is Lord. He is master. He is boss. He's the
one in charge. It's a title. Lord. Jesus. Christ
is a title. It means the anointed one. The empowered
one. He's anointed with God. He's empowered by
God. He is God, but he's empowered by God. So
the literal translation here is by hearing the
spoken word or utterance, We could say that is
empowered or anointed by God. It's transliterated
Christ. Christ, we also take that to mean Messiah.
But the literal translation is the empowered
one, the anointed one. So let's get this straight.
All faith. All faiths. Including saving faith.
Because I know if you're a Christian, you have
heard Him. So, the faith to become a Christian,
to receive God's grace gift, it came from hearing
an utterance, a spoken, anointed, empowered word
from the living voice of God. Can I get three
people to smile? Can I get one person to say
hallelujah? All right. I'll read this again.
All faith. And this is how we please God every
day. Without faith, it's impossible to please
God, the Bible says. Believing. Well, hearing.
Hearing the spoken, anointed, empowered word
from the living voice of God. Hearing it. Then
wholeheartedly believing what he said and then
acting on it. Because faith without works, faith
without action is not even real faith. It's dead.
Are you with me? Because y 'all are just locked
in hard today. Take another fight or a flight.
See, we need to hear God. We need to have a word
that becomes alive in us. A word that becomes
now in us. A word that is personal to us. A word
that brings clarity and direction. And it has
an invitation to respond in faith. Does anyone
read your Bible? I'll pause there to see if anyone's
reading their Bible. But does anyone read their
Bible? And you might be reading something that
you've read before, something that you might
be familiar with, and then all of a sudden, it's
like, boom! It's like, I've never seen this before.
Wow! Let me go tell somebody about it. That's
what kind of word that faith comes from, that
faith is built on, that it's established from.
It's like, yes, I hear you. All of a sudden,
the written word becomes a living word, and it's
like, I'm just, yes. That's God speaking to you.
That's the Holy Spirit bringing, breathing life
into the written word where it becomes a living
word. It becomes a now word. It becomes a personal
word. Hallelujah. So let's talk about it. So
if we take hold of God's grace gift of salvation
and all of His other grace gifts, if we take
hold of them by faith, let's apply what I've
been talking about to the gospel. Because in
one form or another, you heard that everybody
has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
We've all missed it. Look at the person beside
you and tell them, you missed it. I've only met
one person that told me they were perfect, but
when they told me that, they lied so they weren't
perfect anymore. Because I believe the Bible
is true, and I believe that woman was a liar
that told me that she was perfect. She never
sinned. She's in her 80s. She's like, I've never
sinned my whole life. I said, you just did. I
wasn't putting up with that junk. You just sin
in multiple ways. There's pride. There's lying.
You just committed more than one. I'm backing
up. Might be a lightning coming. I've lived a
perfect life. I've never sinned. Right. The Bible
says all have sinned and fallen short of the
glory of God. Can you remember a time in your
life where you came to the realization that you
were guilty in the presence of a holy God? That
you were a sinner? We don't ever need to get
completely away from that point. Put it in a
rear view mirror so far that we don't even think
about it anymore. We all have sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God. And I remember that
Friday morning at Vacation Bible School in Buffalo,
South Carolina. I remember feeling and experiencing
the weight of my sin. Now, my dad was talking
because he was the preacher. I didn't fully understand.
That it was God speaking to me. But all of a
sudden, it became personal and real. See, I'd
grown up listening to my dad. This wasn't the
first time he said that all have sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God. I mean, I'd heard
it with my ears so many times, but it had never
become personal to Dean. A now word for Dean.
Are you with me? I'm a sinner. I messed up. I'm
guilty. Romans 6 .23 says this, the wages of
sin is death. The wages of sin is death. I didn't
understand what a wage was, but I understood
what a paycheck was, even though I never had
one at that age. But I knew what a paycheck was.
You work for something, and you get paid. I'd
had a few agreements, even though I didn't get
paid to do my chores. But every once in a while,
if I could hold a paintbrush and help my dad
and my brother paint, all of a sudden, even though
I was nine years old, I got a little piece of
a paycheck. It wasn't much. I obviously did way
more work than I got paid for at nine years old.
But I understood that. Somebody says, if you
do this, then I will pay you this. Well, I'll
never forget. I'm a sinner, and not only have
I messed up, I deserve. Stay focused. She's fine.
She's fine. I'm not asking you to take her out.
She's fine. We just have to learn how to be focused.
Because if we're going to hear from God, we're
going to have to learn to be focused. Because
there's always going to be something to try to
distract you to keep you from hearing God. Always.
Hello? But I'm like, I deserve death. I deserve
spiritual death. I mean, I'm guilty. And there's
a paycheck that I have worked for in my failure
to live perfectly. I deserve a paycheck, and
that paycheck... is spiritual death, and that's
being separated from God. That's like not being
able to go to heaven. I will be eternally separated
from God. I'm like... I had... I had been scared
of that before. I don't know if I've shared it
with everybody, but we had this drama team come
to our church. And the choir loft became heaven.
And the vestibule in the back became hell. And
it was a play. And it was like people were living
their lives. And it's like, you know, somebody
dressed up like a demon would come grab them
and drag them into hell while they're screaming.
And then we'd find out about somebody else's
life. And then they would take them to the choir
loft and put them on a white robe. And I'm sitting
there and I'm not a Christian. I sure was scared.
I was scared of hell and I was scared of that
devil. And to top it all off, at the end of it,
They came and grabbed my dad, took him to heaven.
Came and grabbed my mom, took her to heaven.
Came and grabbed my sisters. Both my sisters
took them to heaven. Came and grabbed my brother,
even though he was lost as a goose, lost as a
ball in high weeds at this point in his life.
But he had been baptized and he was a member
of the church, but he was lost as lost could
be. They grabbed him and took him to heaven and
left me sitting there. I was scared. But we're
not saved by grace through fear. God was not
speaking to me, but I was afraid. One night I
took JT to a church. What was it called? Do you
remember? Judgment House. And all the students
had to fill out a card. And at this point, J
.T. was not a Christian, so he didn't put that
he was. And then we're standing at the judgment
seat of Christ, and God's on the throne, and
he's like, he calls out J .T. I'm like, that
ain't right. Filled out that card before it started.
And he's like, JT. I apologized to him on the
way home. Because you're not saved by grace through
fear. I apologized. Kind of the same thing I
went through. Except maybe even a little more
dramatic for me. You punched a demon the next
time you went? That's good. Demons deserve to
be hit. The wages of sin is death. Boy, I realized
that I was a sinner and I deserved to be separated
from God forever. But this time, instead of fear,
I was hearing God. It was real to me. Why? Because
it was the voice of God. Sometimes you might
think it's me talking to you, but it could be
the voice of God talking to you. But then that
verse goes on. I love this. The wages of sin
is death. Now that left me in a low place. I
was a sinner. I deserved to be separated from
God. Left me in a low place. That was some bad
news. Everybody say bad news. But then I heard
some good news. But the gift of God is eternal
life. In Jesus Christ our Lord. Or in Christ
Jesus our Lord. It became real. I deserve to
be separated from God. I'm a sinner, but hey,
God has a gift for me. He's offering me a gift.
He's offering me eternal life, not eternal death.
He's offering me eternal life. He's offering
me forgiveness. And it all, comes through Jesus.
I'll never forget how alive that came to me.
This word just, it was personal. It was for me.
It was for now. Romans 10, 8 and 10. 8 through
10, and I think we're looking at another verse.
It says this, the word is near you. The word
is near you. It's in your mouth, and it's in
your heart. That is the word of faith we preach.
So it... It's not only what you hear. It moves
into your heart and then it moves out of your
mouth. In agreement. In action. In corresponding
action to the faith that comes. That's the word
of faith we preach. Listen, that if you confess.
Everybody say speak. If you confess with your
mouth the Lord Jesus. and believe in your heart
that God has raised Him from the dead, you will
be saved. This word comes alive. Comes alive.
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness.
Just like Abraham, righteousness comes by faith,
through believing. Not by doing, but by believing.
We are clothed in the righteousness of God in
Christ Jesus when we are Christians. You can't
ever grow in righteousness. You are clothed in
Jesus' righteousness, and there's nothing you
are able to add to that. If so, you would be
God. With the heart one believes unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall
be saved. That was a word for me for now. It's
like, if I call on the name of the Lord, If I
surrender my life to Jesus as Lord and Master,
if I give myself to Him, all that I am, all that
I have, and tell Him I want to live for Him and
follow Him, that's what I have to do. That's
what the Rhema Christos says, the anointed, empowered
Word from God, but it has to become that. It's
not just hearing it with your ears, because I
heard it with my ears so many times. Who heard
it with their ears so many times before it became
a living word in your heart that you responded
to? Am I the only one? So it rose up in my heart.
If I believe in Jesus, that He is God, that He
died for my sins, that He rose from the grave,
and if I confess Him as my Lord, I'll be saved.
I'll be right with God. I'll be righteous. Somebody
smile. Church ought to be the happiest place
in America today. Happiest place. Hey, they say
that the happiest place on earth is down the
road, but it should be right here on Sunday morning.
I need to go on three hours of sleep again. So
listen. If you were born again, you heard God.
And He came alive on the inside of you. It wasn't
like reading a textbook and saying, oh, okay,
yeah. It wasn't like the preacher coming over
to your house and saying, well, I'm going to
read these verses and now I need you to repeat
after me. And now, right after tonight, you're
going to get baptized and join the church because
you're about the age that you need to do that.
That happens. Everybody that hits a certain age
goes to this class and they tell them these verses
and everybody repeats some prayer and everybody
comes out saved and joins the church. Not unless
they've heard the Rhema Christos they didn't.
Faith comes by hearing. And hearing the voice
of God. Speaking to your spirit. Salvation is
not an intellectual exercise. Neither is receiving
any other grace gift from God. It's not just
a human intellectual exercise that I'm just going
to... Put these Bible verses together and that's
it. I heard each point of the Gospel. There was
revelation. There's a revelation of sin. There's
a revelation of the cross. There's a revelation
of His resurrection. It became personal to me.
A now word. An hour. And here's what this series
is about. Salvation is not the end of hearing.
It's not the end of hearing. It's not, oh, I'm
glad I heard God that one time, and, you know,
I'm just on my own until I get to heaven one
day, and then maybe I'll hear Him talk again.
Salvation is just the beginning of a relationship.
And when you're in relationship with someone,
you communicate with them. If there's no communication,
there's no relationship. So salvation is the
beginning. And it should continue. It must continue.
We've got to hear Him. Got to hear Him. You can
hear God. And if you're a Christian today, you
have heard God. And like I said, you might not
have realized that it was God. Becoming a Christian
doesn't happen by osmosis. It's not like you
do enough time in church and then all of a sudden
Jesus just kind of slowly soaks in until you
become a Christian. That's not the way it works.
There has to be a moment and a time of faith
that comes from hearing the anointed utterance
of God and then you respond to that. That's when
you're born again. If that hasn't happened, you're
just religious. And you might say, well, I prayed
with somebody. I repeated some words after somebody.
I got dipped Dr. Sprinkle. I joined the church.
I love you too much to not tell you that. I don't
want anybody to look at me and say, why didn't
you tell me? Why didn't you tell me? I told you.
I want everybody back here, I'm going to close
your eyes real quick. If you're here today and
you would say, you know what, Dean? As you were
talking, I experienced hearing the voice of God
for the very first time. I know that you were
reading Bible verses and you were talking about
Greek words and all that kind of stuff. But all
of a sudden on the inside of me, this rose up
in a way that it never has before. And I look
back over my life and I might have went through
some motions at one point, but you know, I've
never heard God. And you're telling me that if
I'm saved, I've heard God. I've never heard Him.
It's never come alive to me. I've never experienced
conviction. I've never been compelled by God
to say yes to His gift of eternal life. I can't
look back and see that. I've just had some church
experience and I thought that was enough. If
that's you today, I want to tell you, and I pray
that this would become a now word for you. Today
is the day of salvation. It's always today. When
God is speaking to you, it's always today. Today's
the day of salvation. So if you're hearing, you'd
say, Dean, you know, I look back over my life.
Before today, I didn't understand what you were
talking about, about the Word of God coming alive
on the inside of me and it being mine and personal
for me. But I experienced that. I experienced
God speaking to my heart. If that's you and you
would like to say yes and receive His grace gift
of salvation, while nobody's looking around,
would you raise your hand? Is that anybody in
the room? Okay? Alright? Here's what I'm going
to do. I'm going to lead you in a prayer. But
please listen to me. Believing in Jesus, confessing
Him as Lord is not about repeating words after
somebody. Because we can teach birds to repeat
words after somebody. But if you've heard the
Word of God and you've heard the voice of God
speaking to you, all I'm going to do is put what
I've said into words and I want you to listen
to those words and I don't even want you to pray
it unless you say, yeah, that's what I want to
say to God from my heart. So listen to the words
of this prayer, and if it's what you want to
say to God, say these words or something like
them to God. Jesus, I believe you are the Son
of God. I believe you died on the cross for me,
in my place, for my sin. I believe you rose again
from the grave. And I realize something today.
I realize that I'm a sinner. I've messed up.
I'm guilty. I stand before you, a holy God, I
am guilty. And you spoke to my heart today, telling
me that the paycheck that I deserve for my sin
is to be separated from you. You've made that
real in my heart. I don't want to be separated
from you. I ask you to forgive me. I put my faith
in you. I put my trust in you as my salvation.
And Jesus, today, I confess you as my Lord. I
surrender my life to you. I want to live for
you. I want to know you. I want to follow you.
I want you to lead me. I want to hear your voice.
Jesus, thank you for giving me your gift of eternal
life. Thank you for welcoming me into your family.
Thank you for sending your Holy Spirit. To come
and dwell and live on the inside of me. To comfort
me. To guide me. To lead me. Thank you for your
gift of eternal life. Over the years, Jeffrey
and I have learned that the greatest battles
we face are usually fought in our minds, but
won with our mouths. When we've chosen to speak
God's promises in the face of our fears, failures,
and problems, we've seen God do what only He
can do. This truth has changed our lives, and
it's why we wrote Talk to Your Giants, to show
you how to fight the good fight of faith, speak
in agreement with God's Word, and discover the
victory that comes when you stop talking about
your giants and start talking to them order your
copy of talk to your giants today on Amazon