Sharing good news of great joy to all people.
Elation Church. Week number two in our series
that we've entitled, You Can Hear God. Look at
the person beside you and say, You can hear God.
You can hear God. Now, I can't tell you how many
times people have said, when we talk about hearing
God, they say, well, that's just not my experience.
I don't hear God. And a lot of people just want
the preacher to hear from God and then tell them
what God said. Well, that's what I want to do
too. I want to hear from God and I want to bring
a now word. Everybody say a now word. A now word
from God every week. But that doesn't mean that
you don't need to hear God too. We all need to
hear God. You need to hear God. After all, the
Bible is filled with stories, right? It's filled
with stories of people who heard God. So why
do we read these stories about people hearing
God and then sometimes we think, well, you know,
I don't necessarily hear God. Well, all these
people in the Bible, they heard God. They responded
to God. When God wrote a book, He did not quit
speaking. Jeffrey and I have written some books,
and when we wrote our books, we didn't go mute.
We didn't quit talking. Now, I'm not comparing
our books to the Bible, so don't get me wrong.
Don't say, how dare he, you know. I know that
our books are not perfect. You can find errors
in our books, even though we did the best that
we could do. But the Bible is perfect. There
are no errors in it. The only errors I found
while reading the Bible were errors within myself,
not in the Bible. Come on, somebody smile. Get
happy, something. Right? It exposed things in
me that needed to be changed. So, God did not
quit speaking when He wrote a book. We looked
at this last week. The Bible is God -breathed.
It's like God exhaling His truth. to the people
who penned it. He spoke to them, they wrote it
down, and it was spoken so it could be written
so that now we can speak it again. When an author
writes a book, he doesn't go mute. Now we're
going to talk about this in future weeks. I'm
glad we have the Word of God because God will
never speak to us and say to us anything that
will contradict what He has already said. So
it is our guidepost. It is the standard. But
everything that God has spoke to me in my life
hasn't been written in black and white in the
Bible. What about you? Has God spoke some things
to you that weren't in black and white? Things
about your personal future or personal direction
or personal situation? We don't find those things
in the Word, but... God wants to speak to us
concerning those things. Romans 8 .14 says this,
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are
children of God. All who are led by the Spirit
of God are children of God. What is this showing
us? When we are children of God, it's saying
that the Spirit of God is wanting to lead us.
God is wanting to lead us and guide us and direct
us in our lives. We're supposed to live Spirit
-led lives. Those all who are led by the Spirit
of God are children of God, and how can He lead
us if we never hear Him? Is that possible? Can
He lead us if we never hear Him? I think that'd
be difficult. Everyone needs to hear God. We
talked about this in week one. I can't re -priest
the whole thing, but it's on podcast. You can
look up the Galatian Church podcast and listen
to it if you want to, but everybody needs to
hear God because it's vital to our faith. The
Bible says without faith, it's impossible to
please God. Without faith. And then it tells
us where faith comes from. Faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. So we have to
hear before we can ever have faith, and we have
to have faith before we can ever please God.
So how many of you agree that hearing must be
important? How many of you agree that hearing
should be normal, should be the normal Christian
experience, should be hearing God? I just quoted
that verse. That's one of our focus verses from
last week. I might as well go ahead and throw
this out there. Faith comes by hearing. And the
thing that was like a wow moment for me last
weekend was I looked up the word and in the Greek.
I mean, who looks up the word and in Greek? I
did. It says, faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. I used to think faith comes
by hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing
and hearing. I thought that's what the and meant.
That we need to keep on hearing. Now, it's good
to keep on hearing. Look to the person beside
you and say, there's nothing wrong with keeping
on hearing. We need to keep hearing. But that
and, when there's two terms put together, I found
out in the concordance, when there's two words
put together with this word and between them,
the second or the following clause is giving
us information about the first one. It's explaining
the first one. So faith comes by hearing. Well,
what kind of hearing? Well, let me explain what
kind of hearing it's talking about. That's what
the and means in this sentence. Faith comes by
hearing. What kind of hearing? Well, hearing
the Word of God. And the Greek words here are
rhema christos. It means the spoken utterance
of God. Actually, the spoken utterance of the
anointed. So if we're going to have faith, we're
going to have to hear. Not necessarily with our
ears. Because I don't know if I've ever heard
God with my ears that are on the side of my head
like I normally hear in the natural realm. We
have to hear Him because He is a spirit. We have
to hear Him in the spiritual realm. And before
we can have faith, we've got to hear an anointed
utterance from God. What does anointed utterance
mean? It means that it needs to become now. It
needs to become personal. It needs to become
alive in us. Somebody smile. That was last week's
message. That was free. Part of last week's message.
John 10 verses 1 through 5. This is Jesus' parable.
He said, I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks
over the wall of the 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. They
won't follow a stranger. They will run from the
stranger. They run from him because they don't
know his voice. And Jesus has given us a parable
to let us know that his sheep hear his voice.
And they follow him. Now, back in this time,
there would be a large sheepfold where multiple
shepherds would come in and keep their sheep.
If they couldn't tend to them and take them out
to pasture, like maybe overnight or something
like that, they would bring them to a big sheepfold,
and there could be multiple herds of sheep in
the one sheepfold. And when the shepherd would
arrive, the gatekeeper would know that his sheep
were in there. he would go into the gate and
he would begin to talk. And then his sheep would
recognize his voice. And even though there might
be 300 sheep in the sheepfold, all of a sudden
his 50 or 60 sheep would hear his voice, recognize
his voice, and follow him out of the sheepfold.
The other sheep would not follow him because
he wasn't their shepherd. They would wait to
hear the voice of their shepherd. They didn't
have to separate them. They didn't have to brand
them. They didn't have to put marks on them,
like putting your initials on it, like you're
carrying a... Anybody play softball or baseball
growing up? Do you put your name on your glove?
My parents put my name on my glove like four
times. Because they didn't want anybody else
going home with my glove. Nobody would go home
with my glove because it was marked. Well, they
didn't have to mark the sheep. They didn't have
to, you know, put a certain color on them or
something to know whose sheep they were. They
knew the shepherd. And they followed the voice.
Every single one of us can hear God. If Jesus
said, my sheep hear and recognize and know and
follow my voice, then if we are his sheep, we
should know his voice. We should hear his voice.
We should recognize his voice. That's what this
series is about. We're wanting to help everyone
who comes to... to understand how important it
is, to take hold of how important it is to hear
God and to come to the point where you can recognize
His voice. Because there may be some people in
the room who say, well, I just don't hear God.
Maybe you are hearing Him and you don't recognize
that it's Him. We talked about that last week.
But we can hear God. And it's important that
we do. I want to run through this story again
real quick. As I was saying this story last week,
all of a sudden some things came out of my mouth
and I'm like, I've never thought that before.
I've never said that before. I've never recognized
that before. And it fits right in with what we're
going to talk about today. I went to Romania
a couple of times on a mission trip. And Ploiest
has an I on the end of it. I don't think you
pronounce the I, Ploiesti or whatever. It's okay.
I'm not good with foreign languages, as most
of you know when I try to read them. But I was
there on a mission trip, and we were going to
minister at a women's prison, and I was with
a group from my home church in Alabama. And we
were riding in a van, and we had no interpreter.
The guy driving the van was from the church.
He spoke no English. We spoke no Romanian. We
were just riding. All of a sudden, we're down
this two -lane road. All of a sudden, he puts
on the brakes really hard, and he starts blowing
the horn. I mean, I'd been busy talking with
the guy sitting beside me, and all of a sudden,
I look up, and this is not an actual picture
because it's so long ago, the picture would be
blurry. It wouldn't be 4K like this that you
can see. He rode up on a group of sheep that
were across the road. And he rode up right to
them. I mean, he was very close. I mean, you
could touch the front of the van and touch a
sheep. That's how close he was if you were in
front of the bumper. And he was blowing the horn
because he wanted those sheep to get out of his
way. And you know what the sheep did? They went...
They didn't get out of the road, but they got
all nervous. They were moving around. They didn't
want to be the sheep closest to the van anymore,
but they would not get out of the road. And then
I looked over to my right. There was a house.
It was just surrounded by... I guess farms or
whatever, but there was one house. And I looked
over there, and there's a lady. I shared this
last week. Not many houses in Romania, people
don't keep their yards. They don't cut the grass
and have flowers and all that kind of stuff.
They just let it grow. This lady, however, she
was taking care of her yard. It might have been
the only yard I saw the whole time I was there
that looked like somebody cared about it. Well,
all the sheep weren't just in the road. They
were completely filling her front yard too. Some
of them were even eating. Which was not good
since she had some flowers around the house.
So, I see this lady. She has a broom in her hand.
And she's coming off the front porch, just swinging
that broom at those sheep, trying to get those
sheep out of her yard. What were the sheep doing?
They didn't want to be the sheep closest to the
broom. But they weren't moving out of the yard.
They weren't moving out of the road. We had to
sit there more than five minutes. Horn blowing,
lady swinging a broom, sheep just... They don't
want to get hit, but they're not going anywhere.
All of a sudden, a man appears from the side
of the house. And he walks out. He's not screaming
now. He's not the loudest voice. Everybody say
that. He's not the loudest voice. The horn is
way louder than he is. The lady's screaming,
swinging the broom. She's way louder than he
is. I can hear her. I can hear the horn. I cannot
hear this guy. He's just walking out, but I can
see his mouth moving. And as he walks out, he
walks through the sheep. He walks into the road,
walks across the road, and every single one of
those sheep follow him. He wasn't the loudest
voice, but listen to me. His voice was doing
something that those other voices were not doing.
Oh, don't miss this. His voice was doing something
that the other voices were not. I want to say
it again. His voice was doing something that
the other voices were not. The sheep were no
longer in a panic mode. All of a sudden, the
sheep were flooded with peace. The sheep were
giving clarity. They were giving clarity. They're
like, oh, there's my shepherd. I think I'm going
to follow him. All of a sudden, they began to
ignore the horn and ignore the lady. The horn
was still blowing. The lady was still screaming.
But the sheep, all of a sudden, lost all that
turmoil, everything going on around them that
was scaring them, overwhelming them. All that
stuff just lost its... when they heard the voice
of the shepherd and they followed him. They just
followed him. And they were all out of the road
and we proceeded to go. Lady went back in her
house. It was all over. Because the sheep heard
the voice of the shepherd. His voice wasn't the
loudest voice. We need to hear God. Jesus says
that he's the good shepherd. The Bible tells
us that Jesus is the good shepherd. Jesus says
that his sheep hear his voice. They know his
voice. They follow him. Hearing God is something
that's now and personal. We talked about that
last week. His words bring peace. His words bring
clarity. His words bring direction. So if we're
ever at a point... Hello, somebody. If anybody
in this room, including myself, if we're ever
at a point where we need peace, where we need
clarity, where we need direction, we need to
hear the voice of God. That didn't happen in
Romania just by happenstance. God continues to
use that to speak to me. Last week we talked
about this. Every Christian has already heard
God. If you're a Christian, you had to hear God.
Because you're saved by grace. It's a gift of
God. It's God's goodness and favor. His acts
of goodness and favor towards us that we don't
deserve. But we receive it by faith. So the good
news about Jesus had to become personal, had
to become alive in our hearts. It had to call
us to repentance and call us to confess Jesus
as Lord. We had to hear that. Now we may think
that that was just the preacher. Now, how many
of you can look back over your life and say,
well, I've heard the preacher a lot, but I only
heard that the way that I heard it that one time.
Hey, my dad was a preacher. I heard the gospel
a thousand times probably before I heard it.
Before it was a rhema Christos, a now word for
me. And that's when I received Christ. And I've
never been the same since. But it all began with
hearing God's voice. Now, I didn't understand
that at that time. But I understand it now, looking
back on it. Have you ever been in a service where
you're like, God spoke to me today? And the funny
thing is, somebody right beside you could say,
I didn't get nothing. I think the preacher needs
to pray more or study more or something. Because
I didn't get nothing except a good nap time out
of this. But somebody else sitting right beside
you could say, I heard God today. I heard Him
speak to my heart. The Word came alive. That's
the difference. That's the difference. Today
we're going to look at a story in Luke chapter
10, verses 38 through 42. And I want you to keep
the sheep in mind. Keep that story in mind as
we look at this story. Now it happened as they
went that he entered a certain village. And a
certain woman named Martha, everybody say Martha.
Martha welcomed him into her house. And she also,
and she had a sister called Mary. Everybody say
Mary. Who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his
word. But Martha was distracted with much serving.
And she approached him, Jesus, and said, that's
what she said, Lord. Do you not care that my
sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore,
tell her to help me. Make her get up and come
into the kitchen and help me. Can't believe she's
not helping me. And Jesus answered and said to
her, Martha, Martha. I'm going to calm you down
here. I need to bring it down a notch. Martha,
Martha. Martha, Martha. You are worried and troubled
about many things. But one thing, everybody say
one thing. One thing is needed. And Mary has
chosen that good part which will not be taken
away from her. In the story we see that Martha
invites Jesus. And there were other people too.
I think some of the other disciples were there.
She invited Jesus over to her house. With the
intention of spending time. Getting to know him
better. Isn't that a good way to get to know
somebody? Is to go eat with them. Go hang out.
Spend some time together. Share a meal together.
So that was Martha's intention. Something happened
along the way. Martha comes to the point where
she confuses proximity with intimacy. She wanted
Jesus in her house. But she was so busy, she
wasn't spending any time with him. And there's
a difference between proximity and intimacy.
Just like there's a difference between reading
your Bible and hearing God, or praying and hearing
God, or coming to church and hearing God. All
those things are good things. Let's not confuse
proximity, just getting around the things of
God. Hello? Because so many times we think if
we can just get around the things of God, then
that's the goal. But that's not the goal. Don't
confuse proximity with intimacy. Jesus was in
her house. But she wasn't spending any time with
him. The Bible tells us three things about Martha.
Everybody say three things. Just because I want
you to stay engaged and not wander off into a
daydream. This text tells us three things about
Martha. Martha was distracted. Everybody say
distracted. There's the Greek word. I'm not going
to try to pronounce it. It means to be distracted,
to be pulled away. or to be over -occupied. We
need to think about these things. Because these
things that Martha is described by these things,
these are the things that will keep us from hearing
God. Don't need to say that again. These are
the things that will keep us from hearing God.
Being distracted. Being pulled away. Being over
-occupied. They kept Martha from hearing Jesus.
Jesus also lets us know a couple of more things
about Martha. Martha was worried. Everybody say
worried. There's the Greek word. And here's the
definition. She was anxious. She was worried.
She had cares that seemed more important. These
things, just like they kept Martha from hearing
God, they will keep us from hearing God. And
then, Jesus also said that she was troubled.
Here's the Greek word. Here's the definition.
To disturb. To make an uproar. To trouble. So
she was troubled. And her trouble and her worry
and her distraction had ramped her up to an uproar.
Has anyone ever been ramped up to an uproar before?
Come on, somebody. Smile. Take ownership. We
all have. She was disturbed. Now her inward uproar
becomes an outward uproar. Her inward trouble
becomes an outward trouble. Don't shout me down
while I'm preaching good. She was distracted,
she was worried, and she was troubled. And those
things were keeping her from hearing God. Who
wants to hear God? These are some things that
will keep us from hearing Him. I mean, just get
in Martha's mind for a moment. Everybody's here.
Oh no, did I sweep under the couch? What if Jesus'
foot pulls out some lint from somewhere? What
if Jesus gets dog hair on His robe? I mean, I'm
not ready. They got here ten minutes before I
thought they were going to get here, and I'm
just, I'm freaking out. I hope we have enough
room. How many disciples did He bring with Him?
Hope I have enough knives and forks for everybody.
I sure hope everybody likes Brussels sprouts.
I see the faces of some of you. I have so much
to do. I am overwhelmed. Where is my sister?
For crying out loud, where is my sister? Why
is she not helping me? Why am I doing all this
by myself and nobody's helping me? My sister
Mary, she is such a deadbeat. I'll tell you what
I'm going to do. I'm going to barge in the room
and I'm going to tell Jesus to make her get up
right now and come help me. Is that what happened
or not? Am I reading too much into the story?
Is that the story? Now, I just got in her brain
with my glorified imagination, but that's the
story. I don't know if they had Brussels sprouts
or not, but that's the story. That's the story.
Jesus' words were filling Martha's home. I have
no doubt that she could hear the sound. Of his
voice. But there's a problem. Because her thoughts.
Were louder. And took priority. Over. The voice
of God. I'm just sitting here. Just laying it
here. Is that alright? Does this apply to anyone
in the room? Anyone in the room? Do we allow
the thoughts about what's going on, what's around
us? Now listen, just like those sheep. What am
I going to do? What am I going to do? Somebody's
springing a broom at me. There's a big van. It's
blowing a horn at me. What am I going to do?
I don't know what I'm going to do. I might die.
I'm really scared right now. I don't know what
to do. Don't know what to do. Don't know what
to do. Does anybody let their thoughts get louder
than the voice of God? This should make your
nerves good. It can be better. I'm here today
to tell you it can be better than what you're
experiencing today. It can be better. You just
need to hear His voice. Because when the shepherd
walked through the sheep, all of a sudden, there's
direction. There was peace. There was no longer
chaos. Bye chair. See you later. of God. Wait
a minute. There's a chair being moved. Can't
hear God. I'm distracted. There's a chair. Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. Wait a minute. Can't hear the preacher.
There's a chair. Somebody's getting a chair.
There's Buffy. She's getting a chair. And we
wonder why we don't hear God. We've got to hear
God. Because we're all going through situations
and circumstances right now where it's vital
that we hear God. But we're always distracted.
We're always worried. We're always troubled.
Look at the person beside you and say, be merry.
See, Martha became so focused and overwhelmed
with the natural things around her that she lost
sight of the spiritual. And she didn't realize
that the spiritual can transform the natural.
Right in the middle of the chaos, when she comes
in there and says, Jesus, make my sister get
up and come help me. Because she had blown her
top. Jesus looks at her and says, Martha, Martha.
There's only one thing. Really, when it comes
down to it, only one thing is needed. Only one
thing is necessary. And that's what your sister
chose to do. And no, I'm not going to make her
get up and come help you right now. Because she
chose the best thing. And I'm going to ad -lib
a little bit here too. Jesus said, look, I don't
care if you just run down the street and go to
Taco Bell, the meal's not what's most important.
What's most important. is that we can spend time
together. And you know what? He's still saying
that today to every single one of us in this
room. What's most important in your life, what's
most important today, what's most important right
now isn't the lady swinging the broom. It isn't
the van blowing the horn. What's most important
right now is not the food. What's most important
right now, spend a little bit of time with me.
Because if you spend a little bit of time with
me, and you hear me, I'm going to be just like
that shepherd in Romania. I'm going to bring
peace in the middle of chaos. I'm going to bring
clarity. I'm going to bring direction. I know
you don't know where to go or what to do, and
you're spinning out of control right now, but
I'm going to bring some clarity and direction
into your life if you will just spend some time
with me. Undistracted. Putting aside all the
distractions, putting aside all the worry, putting
aside all the trouble, just come spend some time
with me. And if you do, your life is going to
be so much better. So much better. What did Mary
do? From verse 39, we see that she chose to sit
at Jesus' feet and hear His words. There's a
difference. Between hearing and listening. Martha
could hear. But she wasn't listening. And the
Greek word that describes the way that Mary heard
carries with it the idea of listening. Here's
a Greek word. Here's a translation. To hear.
So hearing, right? But it also means to listen.
I got a friend in Texas who preached at a lot
of our events and stuff, and he would always
say, I know you can hear me, but if you're listening,
say I am. And he would make everybody say I am.
He would just keep saying it until everybody
in the room said I am. I'm listening. I'm focused.
I'm intentional. I'm not just hearing. Like when
we go to church so many times, we're just hearing,
but we're not listening. Because we're distracted.
We're thinking about, well, what am I going to
have for lunch today? Hope the preacher don't
go quite as long as he did last week. Has she
colored her hair? That's about the brightest
shirt I've ever seen. We're so distracted. We're
worried. I got this going on in my life and I
just don't know how it's going to work out. I'm
just so upset and I'm so worried. I just don't
know. Sitting here right now, listening to the
Word of God, you're just like, that preacher
really don't know what I'm going through. He
don't know the trouble that I'm facing right
now. He don't know. And I mean, he's up there
talking and I can't really listen because, You
know, what's happening to me has never happened
to him before. It might apply. It might preach
a good message, but it really don't apply. I'm
telling you, it applies. There is no situation
that you face that the Word of God does not speak
to and does not apply. Every single one of them.
Hallelujah. To hear, to listen, to understand.
So it's not just hearing some noise, it's listening
and then it's understanding. It's both a physical
act of hearing, but it's also the deeper understanding
of what is heard. See, Mary wasn't just sitting
there thinking about everything else going on
in her world. No, she's listening to understand.
And that takes intention. The kind of listening
she was doing was beyond just hearing noise.
But it was attentive. And it even includes this.
An attentive and obedient response to what is
heard. She was listening to understand and she
was listening to follow the shepherd who was
speaking to her. It wasn't just hearing for more
intellectual experience. It was hearing with
the anticipation for it to be applied to her
life. Hallelujah. I want to tell you, God is
speaking to you. Whether you've heard Him or
not, He's speaking to you. I believe He's speaking
to you every day. I believe every time you face
any situation in life, I believe He starts speaking
to you. Because He's a speaking God. He's a faith
God. And He knows you can't reply in faith unless
you hear Him speaking. So He's speaking. He begins
to speak to you. Listen. Only those who are positioned
to hear are going to hear. I'm going to say that
again because most of you are looking at me with
a really, like, how dare you tell me that kind
of face. God is speaking, but the only way we're
going to hear Him is if we're positioned to hear
Him. He's not going to smack us upside the head
and say, listen. He's not going to grab us by
the shoulder and say, listen to me. Mary was
positioned to hear. She was at his feet. She
was focused. And because of that, we don't know
what words she heard, what words she applied,
but we know how she was listening. And listen,
if we would have heard the words that Jesus was
saying that day, maybe our focus would be on
what he said instead of what we need to do to
hear. Just a thought. But the purpose of the
story is not what Jesus was teaching that day.
It was how important it is to position yourself
to hear from God. I'm glad y 'all are having
fun because I'm having a blast. Jesus said one
thing is necessary. One thing is necessary. And
my question for you today is what is necessary
in your life today? What is the most necessary
thing? Jesus said one thing is necessary. That
doesn't mean we never do anything. It doesn't
mean that we all move off to some monastery and
sit in a dark room with candles and go... What
it does mean is it's necessary for each one of
us to seek first the kingdom of God. Most important.
One thing. Seek God. Every day. Every situation.
One thing is necessary. Hear God. Spend some
focused, intentional, intimate time with God.
Receive a word from Him. And since He is your
good shepherd, His word is going to bring you
the peace that you desire. His word is going
to bring the joy that will give you strength.
His word is going to bring you direction. His
word is going to bring clarity to the situation
that you're facing. His word is going to give
you spiritual wisdom and insight that cannot
be obtained by human reasoning. His word is going
to give you revelation Does anybody in the room
realize that's what we really need? That's what
we really need. Because when we have that, that's
going to take care of every other thing. If we
only believe God is big enough. Listen, we can
go through the religious mechanical activities.
of praying. All right, I've got to pray five
minutes, ten minutes every day. I've got to pray
before every meal. So I've got to go through
this series of vain repetition things that I've
memorized, and I've got to go through that, or
God's not going to be happy with me. So we go
through this spiritual mechanical activity of
praying, of reading our Bible. Hey, we're even
sending you, read a chapter a day in the New
Testament, so we see how fast we can read it,
so that we can check that off. I finally caught
up. You know, I was three weeks behind, but I
finally sped red as fast as I can to catch up.
So, you know, God's happy now. The preacher's
going to be happy now because I've read my Bible
reading plan. This is a thing of the past. We
go through the spiritual mechanical activity
of going to church every week. Somebody say every
week. Hallelujah. Every week. all those things
and still not experience God's presence or hear
His voice. Because it's more than just spiritual
mechanical activity. It's more than that. What's
it going to take? What's it going to take for
us to position ourself to hear the voice of God?
What's it going to take? Well, first of all,
we have to believe that He's speaking to us.
We have to believe that He's concerned about
us. We have to believe that He cares. And we
have to believe that He's big enough. To lead
us and guide us. We've got to believe that. Because
if you don't believe that He wants to speak to
you and help you, and that He's big enough to
help you, if you don't believe that, well then
you're just wasting your time. You've got to
believe it. You've got to believe that it's possible.
But you can sit back and believe that it's possible
all day long and nothing really ever come of
it because you've got a desire to hear the voice
of God. You've got to want to. You've got to
come to the point where you realize just how
important it is and then that becomes your desire.
And then after you believe it and after you desire
it, Then you've got to expect it. Expectation
is a big part. God, I believe that you want to
speak to me. God, I desire for you to speak to
me. And we can get locked up right there and
never have any expectation. God, I expect you
to speak to me. God's not a vending machine.
You can't put in 37 seconds and pull the trigger
and all of a sudden in a speaker coming out of
the vending machine, this is God. I have a word
for you. I think Jeffrey put some low end in
my microphone. Hello. Normally it's so thin I
can't. It could still take some more low end
for the explosion moments, but anyway. You have
to expect. Expect to hear from God. And then
you've got to do something about your priorities.
You have to prioritize some time with God. How
many people in the room are busy? Am I the only
busy person in the room? I've had things on my
to -do list that have been there over 10 years.
We're busy. And some people might be sitting
there saying, I don't have any time for God.
What do you think? Follow me around and see how
much free time I have to get together with God
today. You're not the only busy one. It has to
become a priority. It has to be the one thing
that's non -negotiable and most important to
you. You've got to prioritize for it to happen.
Just like everything else in your life. Hello?
We prioritize a lot of things. But the Bible
says there's something that we need to seek before
everything else. And Jesus said that there's
one thing that's most necessary above every other
thing. And listen. This time with God will make
a difference in all the rest. It'll make a difference
in all the rest. So we have to prioritize. And
we've got to acknowledge. That word just keeps
burning in my heart. We've got to acknowledge.
That God is not way out somewhere beyond the
Milky Way in some heaven that, boy, if it takes
light, you know, thousands of years to get here.
Where is God? You're the temple. He's in you.
God is in you. God the Holy Spirit is in you
and with you all the time. He's closer than the
person sitting beside you right now because He's
in you. And He's saying, I want to be your comforter.
I want to be your helper. He's actually saying,
I am your comforter. I am your helper. I am your
peace. I am your victory. I am your life. I am.
And you keep searching for all those other things
from the external. You keep searching for those
things just in your human intellect and reasoning.
I am those things. Spend some time with me. Spend
some time with me. And I'll show you how you
can have it all. Then you have to act. Because
it's one thing to believe, desire, expect, prioritize,
and acknowledge, but if you never spend time
with God, You can do all those things and never
spend time with him. Because you can, there's
always, always, always an opportunity to be distracted,
to be worried, to be troubled. You're not the
only one in this room. Every single one of us
have that opportunity constantly. We've got to
come to it. Be with him. That has to rise to
the top of our list on a daily basis. that has
to rise to the top of our list of first response.
Hallelujah. Ultimately. If you want to hear God's
voice, you've got to put your hand on the volume
button. That'll put your soul on the volume button.
That'll put your spirit on the volume button.
Because if you're going to hear Him, you're going
to have to turn down the importance of all the
other external voices and internal voices. You've
got to turn down the importance of those and
turn up the importance of God's voice. And it's
all a decision that we're individually going
to have to make. I can't make that decision for
you. You can't make it for me. But I'm telling
you, I promise you, I guarantee it, that if you
will, your life will be different. Life will
be different. This online worship experience
was brought to you by the friends and partners
of Elation Church. 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