“Hear My Voice”
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Gospel of John 10:22-30
Introduction: I want you to close your eyes for a moment. As you sit there with your eyes closed, I want you to try and see how many different sounds that you can hear…. (Pause for a few moments to let them take the sounds in). You probably hear the sounds of the cars passing by, maybe the hum of the sound system, somebody coughing or breathing, the pew creaking, and on it goes; the many different sounds.
This morning I want to talk about hearing God. Jesus tells us in John 10:27- “My sheep hear my voice and they listen.” This is a very important verse to not only understand, but to put into practice. To hear the sounds this morning, you had to concentrate and focus. This is true of our hearing God as well. We have to concentrate and focus on God’s voice, especially because it is not an audible sound. We have to learn how to hear God through the Bible, through our thoughts, through our feelings, through other people’s advice, through the different situations that come to us.
I. God’s Interacting with us- (Genesis 3:8-11; Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:24; John 10:15; Psalm 100:3; 2 Corinthians 11:28)a. From the beginning- From the beginning of time, when God created
the heavens and the earth, He designed it so that He would have interaction with us. That is why God created us in His image, with a spirit, so that we could connect spirit to Spirit. We see God’s interaction with Adam in Genesis 3:8-11, “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ 10 He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’ 11 And God said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?’”
Here we see that God is walking and talking with Adam and Eve; very interactive. God is having a discussion with them about why they are hiding, and how they know that they are naked. God is concerned with their state of being. And the open interaction that they had before with God has been damaged by the sin they committed. But the interaction is there.
If you were to follow the Old Testament, you would see God having interaction with His people in many forms; by dreams, visions, angels, a speaking donkey, nature, and on it goes. This interaction is a miracle between the human and the divine. God speaks to us! Dialogue is possible with God. And when you speak to God, you are not crazy. J
b. Through redemption- The interaction between God and humans
continues by God’s action of redemption. From that time when Adam and Eve sinned, and the interaction between God and His people was damaged, God designed a way for humans to be redeemed from their sin. God did not want to leave us in this state of sin, and knowing that we could not redeem ourselves, God sought to repair this damage.
Isaiah 53:6 lays it out for us, saying, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” There is no greater form of interaction than God coming to this earth, in human form, in Jesus Christ, to have all of our iniquity removed, and placed on Christ. The cross of Christ is the ultimate expression of God’s love and care for us; God’s desire to be in relationship with us; God keeping open the opportunity for us to dialogue together!
So Christ is the redeemer and we are the redeemed. This is God’s gift of love to us. As we are told in Romans 3:24, “They are now justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” It is because of the redemption that we are able to come to God freely and interact with Him. The Bible speaks a great deal about God taking on flesh in Jesus Christ so that God could redeem us from our sin.
And God’s concern extends not just to individuals, but to churches as well, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:28, “…I carry in my heart concern for all the churches.” Paul was a servant of God, and cared about the churches because he knew God cared about the churches. On so many levels, God seeks to interact with us!
c. By being His sheep- This miracle of interaction is seen in a third way,
and that is by the fact that we are considered by God to be His sheep. Here we have the analogy of God being our shepherd, and us being His sheep. We have already heard this mentioned in the Old Testament, when Isaiah talks about us being sheep that have strayed away. We also can see this in Psalm 100:3, “Know that the Lord is God. It is He that made us, and we are His; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”
And from the gospel of John, 10:15 we read, “Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.” Jesus is the Great Shepherd who cares for His flock. A shepherd gave constant care to His sheep, feeding them, guiding them, seeking them when they strayed away, and protecting them from wolves. To use this analogy for us, and God is a beautiful illustration of the closeness of relationship that exists. God is there for us every moment of every day.
As sheep, we are to take care to stay in close proximity with our Shepherd, God. We are to seek Him out for food, and entrust our lives to Him. There are so many things that can break that interaction with God, the biggest being Satan. Just as Satan sought to keep Adam and Eve from God through sin, so Satan tries to derail us in life and turn our focus to other things. That is how sheep went astray. They would lose their focus and start to wander, not paying attention to where they were going. In time, they would be away from the flock, away from the shepherd, away from the shepherd’s voice.
II. God’s Quiet Voice- (John 10:3, 27; 1 Kings 19:9b-16)
a. Hearing God through the quiet- There is a wonderful story in the
book of 1 Kings, chapter 19 about the prophet Elijah listening to God’s voice. Let me read it for you… “…And the word of the LORD came to him: ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ 10 He replied, ‘I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.’ 11 The LORD said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.’ Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ 14 He replied, ‘I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.’ 15 The LORD said to him, ‘Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet…’”
God is speaking to Elijah, and wondering why Elijah, a prophet of God, is hiding himself away. A prophet’s job is to be out speaking to the people, not hiding away! But Elijah expresses His concern for His life. This is not unknown to God, but God listens, and then instructs Elijah to go stand on the mountain. And Elijah proceeds to experience a powerful wind, an earthquake, and a fire, but God was not in any of those forms of nature. After the fire there is a whisper that is heard by Elijah. God chose to speak quietly to Elijah. God showed His great power in the earthquake, wind, and fire, but also His gentleness in the whisper.
So Elijah listens to the instructions of the Lord. God desires for Elijah to go to Damascus where he will anoint a king over Aram, and a king over Israel, and a prophet to succeed him. And Elijah heeds the voice of the Lord and obeys God.
How often do we have expectations that God will speak to us in great sounds or events, and then miss that God has spoken through a whisper or seemingly unimportant event? Probably many times! And how often have we forsaken going to God in honest, sincere, and concentrated prayer because other things were more important or because we were too impatient? Probably many times!
In a booklet entitled “Rhythms of Life,” (page 11; by Christopher S. Webb) there is a great quote about prayer that says: “…our tendency is to see prayer as a tool or a duty, rather than a way of life. We might want to reflect whether these small groups of people (their Monastics), who turn their entire existence into one long act of devoted attention to the presence of God, might not in the end turn out to be the lynchpins of history.”
The Monastics were people who gave themselves over to prayer and solitude. They often would be disconnected from society with the purpose of seeking to be in God’s presence regularly. To them, prayer wasn’t optional, it was foundational. If we are going to hear God, then we need to treat prayer as a way of life; it needs to become part of who we are, not something we do when we have a need!!
I know that for me I have had many times when God speaks to me through my thoughts, my feelings, my journaling, helping me to understand who I am, and what I am to do; affirming me in how I am living out my call. EX. I have had many times when God has put a person in my thoughts, and I pray for them, or contact them, only to find out that they are going through great difficulty. I could have put this off as a silly thought, but if I had, then I would not have been there for them.
b. Hearing God through others- But God chooses to sometimes speak to
us through others as well. Since God isn’t physically present in our lives, sometimes it can be difficult to hear the voice of God. We might think we know what God is saying to us, through our thoughts, through the Bible, through open and closed doors, but sometimes what we might think is right, turns out not to be God’s voice. And then you wonder why things aren’t going right; how did you not hear God’s voice?
Usually this voice will not be the voice of a stranger. I can’t imagine God having a stranger walk up to you and tell you what you need to do in your life. Obviously there would be a trust issue here. So we have to find those trusted Christian people who God brings to us to speak His message.
For me it can be the elders on Session, a Catholic priest friend, other Christian friends, other minister friends, and Tami. But God can use less obvious ways as well.
FOR EXAMPLE- Last Sunday evening my daughter Tiffany was wanting to go outside to play. She went down to the neighbors house to see if they could play, but they were doing homework and they couldn’t come out to play. Tiffany still wanted to go out and ride her scooter, so I decided to go out and read the paper as she rode around. I had barely gotten the chair out and sat down when one of the neighbors walked by. I realized that she was walking around the complex for exercise. This made me think about how I used to do that, but hadn’t done any walking in a few months. At that moment, I felt that God was speaking to me to walk. So Tiffany and I decided to do what we used to do regularly; go around the block. It is probably about a little over ½ a mile, and so Tiffany got on her scooter, and off we went. After we were done it felt so good to have exercised in that way. When I said to Tiffany, “we should do that every Sunday night,” Tiffany responded: “Maybe we could do it more than that!”
I know that this wasn’t an urgent matter. I do get exercise in others ways. I would have been fine had I not done the exercise. But I believe that God used my neighbor to speak a message to me, and I was glad that I chose to listen, even though the message wasn’t in words.
Example- Every other month I meet with a spiritual director for a couple of hours. I have found this to be an important and spiritually productive time. When we meet we don’t have a set objective. My director lets me speak about what is going on in my mind, my emotions, my experiences. And as I talk, she lets the Holy Spirit speak to her so that she might speak to me. I am glad that I have this avenue of seeking to hear God’s voice. I am glad that I have been led to this spiritual opportunity. And in a similar manner, I have been blessed to have the opportunity to mentor many of you. I am willing and available to mentor anyone who wants a clearer leading of God’s will in their lives, and the opportunity to hear God better.
Who might God use in your life to speak to you? How attentive are you to listening to the people God puts in your life? What about the more subtle ways that God speaks to you through people, are you aware of those? God will speak to us through others! As Jesus said, “my sheep hear my voice and they listen.”
Conclusion: How wonderful it is to know that God speaks to us. This is indeed a miracle, that we can dialogue with the God of the creation; that we can communicate without having to have God physically present in our lives. As a shepherd communicates with his sheep, even though they don’t speak, so God can communicate and interact with us. Whether it be in grand gestures, or a quiet whisper, God finds a way to make His will known to us. The question is, are we listening. “My sheep hear my voice, and they listen.”
Someone once said: “The greatest pain creates the best questions.” Meaning that God can speak to us and guide us even in our pain. Sometimes it is our pain that wakes us up and leads us to seek God, and listen to God. Sometimes it is our pain that causes us to ask the important questions of our life. Sometimes it is our pain that causes us to slow down, and be quiet long enough so that we might listen to God, or listen to those whom God puts in our life.
So I encourage you to not look at prayer as a tool to get what you want, but a lifestyle that helps you to interact with and communicate with your creator, redeemer, and Lord. Let us hear the voice of God, and listen. Amen.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Gospel of John 10:22-30
Introduction: I want you to close your eyes for a moment. As you sit there with your eyes closed, I want you to try and see how many different sounds that you can hear…. (Pause for a few moments to let them take the sounds in). You probably hear the sounds of the cars passing by, maybe the hum of the sound system, somebody coughing or breathing, the pew creaking, and on it goes; the many different sounds.
This morning I want to talk about hearing God. Jesus tells us in John 10:27- “My sheep hear my voice and they listen.” This is a very important verse to not only understand, but to put into practice. To hear the sounds this morning, you had to concentrate and focus. This is true of our hearing God as well. We have to concentrate and focus on God’s voice, especially because it is not an audible sound. We have to learn how to hear God through the Bible, through our thoughts, through our feelings, through other people’s advice, through the different situations that come to us.
I. God’s Interacting with us- (Genesis 3:8-11; Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:24; John 10:15; Psalm 100:3; 2 Corinthians 11:28)a. From the beginning- From the beginning of time, when God created
the heavens and the earth, He designed it so that He would have interaction with us. That is why God created us in His image, with a spirit, so that we could connect spirit to Spirit. We see God’s interaction with Adam in Genesis 3:8-11, “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ 10 He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’ 11 And God said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?’”
Here we see that God is walking and talking with Adam and Eve; very interactive. God is having a discussion with them about why they are hiding, and how they know that they are naked. God is concerned with their state of being. And the open interaction that they had before with God has been damaged by the sin they committed. But the interaction is there.
If you were to follow the Old Testament, you would see God having interaction with His people in many forms; by dreams, visions, angels, a speaking donkey, nature, and on it goes. This interaction is a miracle between the human and the divine. God speaks to us! Dialogue is possible with God. And when you speak to God, you are not crazy. J
b. Through redemption- The interaction between God and humans
continues by God’s action of redemption. From that time when Adam and Eve sinned, and the interaction between God and His people was damaged, God designed a way for humans to be redeemed from their sin. God did not want to leave us in this state of sin, and knowing that we could not redeem ourselves, God sought to repair this damage.
Isaiah 53:6 lays it out for us, saying, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” There is no greater form of interaction than God coming to this earth, in human form, in Jesus Christ, to have all of our iniquity removed, and placed on Christ. The cross of Christ is the ultimate expression of God’s love and care for us; God’s desire to be in relationship with us; God keeping open the opportunity for us to dialogue together!
So Christ is the redeemer and we are the redeemed. This is God’s gift of love to us. As we are told in Romans 3:24, “They are now justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” It is because of the redemption that we are able to come to God freely and interact with Him. The Bible speaks a great deal about God taking on flesh in Jesus Christ so that God could redeem us from our sin.
And God’s concern extends not just to individuals, but to churches as well, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:28, “…I carry in my heart concern for all the churches.” Paul was a servant of God, and cared about the churches because he knew God cared about the churches. On so many levels, God seeks to interact with us!
c. By being His sheep- This miracle of interaction is seen in a third way,
and that is by the fact that we are considered by God to be His sheep. Here we have the analogy of God being our shepherd, and us being His sheep. We have already heard this mentioned in the Old Testament, when Isaiah talks about us being sheep that have strayed away. We also can see this in Psalm 100:3, “Know that the Lord is God. It is He that made us, and we are His; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”
And from the gospel of John, 10:15 we read, “Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.” Jesus is the Great Shepherd who cares for His flock. A shepherd gave constant care to His sheep, feeding them, guiding them, seeking them when they strayed away, and protecting them from wolves. To use this analogy for us, and God is a beautiful illustration of the closeness of relationship that exists. God is there for us every moment of every day.
As sheep, we are to take care to stay in close proximity with our Shepherd, God. We are to seek Him out for food, and entrust our lives to Him. There are so many things that can break that interaction with God, the biggest being Satan. Just as Satan sought to keep Adam and Eve from God through sin, so Satan tries to derail us in life and turn our focus to other things. That is how sheep went astray. They would lose their focus and start to wander, not paying attention to where they were going. In time, they would be away from the flock, away from the shepherd, away from the shepherd’s voice.
II. God’s Quiet Voice- (John 10:3, 27; 1 Kings 19:9b-16)
a. Hearing God through the quiet- There is a wonderful story in the
book of 1 Kings, chapter 19 about the prophet Elijah listening to God’s voice. Let me read it for you… “…And the word of the LORD came to him: ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ 10 He replied, ‘I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.’ 11 The LORD said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.’ Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ 14 He replied, ‘I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.’ 15 The LORD said to him, ‘Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet…’”
God is speaking to Elijah, and wondering why Elijah, a prophet of God, is hiding himself away. A prophet’s job is to be out speaking to the people, not hiding away! But Elijah expresses His concern for His life. This is not unknown to God, but God listens, and then instructs Elijah to go stand on the mountain. And Elijah proceeds to experience a powerful wind, an earthquake, and a fire, but God was not in any of those forms of nature. After the fire there is a whisper that is heard by Elijah. God chose to speak quietly to Elijah. God showed His great power in the earthquake, wind, and fire, but also His gentleness in the whisper.
So Elijah listens to the instructions of the Lord. God desires for Elijah to go to Damascus where he will anoint a king over Aram, and a king over Israel, and a prophet to succeed him. And Elijah heeds the voice of the Lord and obeys God.
How often do we have expectations that God will speak to us in great sounds or events, and then miss that God has spoken through a whisper or seemingly unimportant event? Probably many times! And how often have we forsaken going to God in honest, sincere, and concentrated prayer because other things were more important or because we were too impatient? Probably many times!
In a booklet entitled “Rhythms of Life,” (page 11; by Christopher S. Webb) there is a great quote about prayer that says: “…our tendency is to see prayer as a tool or a duty, rather than a way of life. We might want to reflect whether these small groups of people (their Monastics), who turn their entire existence into one long act of devoted attention to the presence of God, might not in the end turn out to be the lynchpins of history.”
The Monastics were people who gave themselves over to prayer and solitude. They often would be disconnected from society with the purpose of seeking to be in God’s presence regularly. To them, prayer wasn’t optional, it was foundational. If we are going to hear God, then we need to treat prayer as a way of life; it needs to become part of who we are, not something we do when we have a need!!
I know that for me I have had many times when God speaks to me through my thoughts, my feelings, my journaling, helping me to understand who I am, and what I am to do; affirming me in how I am living out my call. EX. I have had many times when God has put a person in my thoughts, and I pray for them, or contact them, only to find out that they are going through great difficulty. I could have put this off as a silly thought, but if I had, then I would not have been there for them.
b. Hearing God through others- But God chooses to sometimes speak to
us through others as well. Since God isn’t physically present in our lives, sometimes it can be difficult to hear the voice of God. We might think we know what God is saying to us, through our thoughts, through the Bible, through open and closed doors, but sometimes what we might think is right, turns out not to be God’s voice. And then you wonder why things aren’t going right; how did you not hear God’s voice?
Usually this voice will not be the voice of a stranger. I can’t imagine God having a stranger walk up to you and tell you what you need to do in your life. Obviously there would be a trust issue here. So we have to find those trusted Christian people who God brings to us to speak His message.
For me it can be the elders on Session, a Catholic priest friend, other Christian friends, other minister friends, and Tami. But God can use less obvious ways as well.
FOR EXAMPLE- Last Sunday evening my daughter Tiffany was wanting to go outside to play. She went down to the neighbors house to see if they could play, but they were doing homework and they couldn’t come out to play. Tiffany still wanted to go out and ride her scooter, so I decided to go out and read the paper as she rode around. I had barely gotten the chair out and sat down when one of the neighbors walked by. I realized that she was walking around the complex for exercise. This made me think about how I used to do that, but hadn’t done any walking in a few months. At that moment, I felt that God was speaking to me to walk. So Tiffany and I decided to do what we used to do regularly; go around the block. It is probably about a little over ½ a mile, and so Tiffany got on her scooter, and off we went. After we were done it felt so good to have exercised in that way. When I said to Tiffany, “we should do that every Sunday night,” Tiffany responded: “Maybe we could do it more than that!”
I know that this wasn’t an urgent matter. I do get exercise in others ways. I would have been fine had I not done the exercise. But I believe that God used my neighbor to speak a message to me, and I was glad that I chose to listen, even though the message wasn’t in words.
Example- Every other month I meet with a spiritual director for a couple of hours. I have found this to be an important and spiritually productive time. When we meet we don’t have a set objective. My director lets me speak about what is going on in my mind, my emotions, my experiences. And as I talk, she lets the Holy Spirit speak to her so that she might speak to me. I am glad that I have this avenue of seeking to hear God’s voice. I am glad that I have been led to this spiritual opportunity. And in a similar manner, I have been blessed to have the opportunity to mentor many of you. I am willing and available to mentor anyone who wants a clearer leading of God’s will in their lives, and the opportunity to hear God better.
Who might God use in your life to speak to you? How attentive are you to listening to the people God puts in your life? What about the more subtle ways that God speaks to you through people, are you aware of those? God will speak to us through others! As Jesus said, “my sheep hear my voice and they listen.”
Conclusion: How wonderful it is to know that God speaks to us. This is indeed a miracle, that we can dialogue with the God of the creation; that we can communicate without having to have God physically present in our lives. As a shepherd communicates with his sheep, even though they don’t speak, so God can communicate and interact with us. Whether it be in grand gestures, or a quiet whisper, God finds a way to make His will known to us. The question is, are we listening. “My sheep hear my voice, and they listen.”
Someone once said: “The greatest pain creates the best questions.” Meaning that God can speak to us and guide us even in our pain. Sometimes it is our pain that wakes us up and leads us to seek God, and listen to God. Sometimes it is our pain that causes us to ask the important questions of our life. Sometimes it is our pain that causes us to slow down, and be quiet long enough so that we might listen to God, or listen to those whom God puts in our life.
So I encourage you to not look at prayer as a tool to get what you want, but a lifestyle that helps you to interact with and communicate with your creator, redeemer, and Lord. Let us hear the voice of God, and listen. Amen.
posted by Logan's Blog at 3:18 PM
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