Listen Up F.R.O.G

The Way  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Welcome Back Y’all
I am excited for the new year! We are going to pick up right where we left off before Christmas. We talked about the birth of Jesus and how all of creation had been longing for a Savior and when baby Jesus was born, the Savior was born. Jesus had come to earth in the flesh as a baby to go through and grow up in the broken world we all find ourselves in, and Hebrews 2:17-18 puts it like this:
Hebrews 2:17–18 NLT
Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.
So the next couple weeks we are going look at Jesus’ early life and ministry to see what He did that made Him so great, and what we can learn from Him.
So look at Mark 1:1-13 with me:
Mark 1:1–13 (ESV)
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,
“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way,
the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’ ”
John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.
John the baptist listened to the Lord and proclaimed that the Savior, the Messiah, the King of Kings was coming soon and that we should prepare, we should repent of our sins and be baptized.
Why is it important to repent of our sins?
Jesus then comes to John to be baptized, which is interesting because He has never sinned, He has never done wrong, so why would He be baptized. God told Jesus to be baptized by John. So Jesus listened to God the Father and was baptized. Why? Jesus tells John in Matthew’s account. John is trying to get Jesus to baptize him, but Jesus said allow this for now so that all righteousness may be fulfill. So John listens again to the Lord and baptizes him. When Jesus was baptized the Spirit of God descended on Him like a dove. And the voice of the Father in heaven said, this is my beloved Son; with whom I am well pleased. Then Jesus would listen and follow the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan where Jesus will be victorious over the temptations. because again He listened to God.
Why was Jesus’ Baptized? Should it be important to us?
So have you recognized the theme? What was so great about John the baptist, this man of faith, what was so great about Jesus, our Savior.
They listened to God’s voice. That is true for us today,
We can listen to God’s voice.
You say Justin I have never heard His voice audibly. What do you mean? Well lets look at this for a moment and learn from Scripture.
Yes, God speaks audibly to different people in the bible.
He has used angels, one time He used a donkey to actually speak, He has spoken directly, and obviously Jesus speaking to people when He was on this earth was God speaking audibly, but after Jesus’ resurrection there are only a few stories where we see God audibly speaking to individuals. Why is that?
Well, one for believers He has given us His Spirit who is the Helper that leads us into all truth. I do not believe there is one instance when the Spirit of God speaks audibly in scripture and I could be wrong about that but the way the Spirit of God works is by giving us thoughts, leading our minds, directing our passions tor pursue God and His truth. I mean think about the the books of the bible, I can only think of one book that being Revelation, where you could argue that Jesus is audibly speaking through his angel he sent to to John to write, there may be a few more but out of 66 books there are not many were is audibly saying write this down, but all the writers were inspired, given desire, led to write down what they had seen with their eyes, or what the Holy Spirit led them to write, or what what God had spoken to them through His word.
Here is the point, God does speak audibly, but compared to all the ways that He speaks through the Holy Spirit, through His word, through people that have His Spirit and are in His word, His audile voice is not how He speaks mostly.
For you and I He speaks mostly through His word.
How can we listen to God?
So getting back to His word,
John says, behold, look, listen Up. God is coming, the Savior is coming, and you need to come listen and repent.
What we see form Jesus is that He only does what the Father says, He listens to God, because He knows God will lead Him in truth. He is confident in what God says, because God knows best. When God speaks it will always be aligned or fulfill His word! SO if God speaks to you whether that is through His word, or His Spirit giving you thoughts and desires or someone speaking into you, you can know it is God’s voice if it is aligned, if it matches, what God has said in His word. God will not contradict Himself, God will not confuse you. Which leads to this and we will go to group.
Why is it helpful to listen to God?

Here is what we can learn about listening to God in this passage:

If we have sin in our life, it will make it hard to hear and listen to God.
That is why John is preaches and that is why Jesus preaches repent from your sin. Sin separates or divides us from God.
If your honest is there sin in your life that is keeping you from hearing God.
He will direct us, if we listen.
Both John the baptist and Jesus listened to the directions the God had given.
Listening to God will help us escape temptation.
Jesus is led by the Spirit of God in the wilderness, where He would be tempted by Satan. Jesus escapes the temptation, and defeats the enemy by using God’s word.
Listening to God will lead us to the truth.
Satan tries using he word of God, twisting it, taking it out of context, to confuse and trip Jesus up, but that is why it is important to know the truth and know God’s voice.
Counterfeit!
Have you ever been confused about something in the bible? What did you do about it?
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