Whoever Has Ears to Hear

Last couple months been living with ringing in my ears.  Symptoms came on suddenly. Somewhat coincides with our current series.  Coincidence?

As I’ve researched my issue – and yes I have an appointment with an ENT – I’ve discovered there are many reasons for having ringing in your ears and loss of hearing.  One is old age.  Frowny face.  But it can also be caused by actual physical problems.  Too much ear wax.  Infections can cause it.  Leading with your head one too many times when making a tackle.

But dulled hearing can also be self-induced.  Shooting guns without hearing protection can lead to dulled hearing.  Or long-term exposure to loud noises – factory work, rock concerts, pastor yelling at you – can also cause hearing damage.

Dulled hearing can also be a psychological problem.  Your hearing is fine, but you’re not actually listening.  People who are distracted have this kind of hearing loss.  A spouse on the Facebook feed.  A teenager at their game console.  Their hearing is fine, yet they don’t hear you speak from 5 feet away.

Dulled hearing can also be our spiritual condition.  For the last several weeks we’ve been looking at all the different ways that we can expect God to speak to us.  I hope that at minimum you have seen that we have a communicating God – not just “back then and to those people” but to “right now and to us people”.

We’ve seen that God’s voice is heard most clearly by looking at Jesus.  He is God in the flesh, and what God wants to say.

But there are several secondary ways we can hear God’s voice: scripture, common sense (wisdom), community, circumstances, more supernatural…  All of these are ways that God continues to speak to those who are listening. 

My hope in this series is that I’ve given you a vision for a life where hearing and responding to God’s voice is the norm.  That you can live in a way where you don’t just have to figure it out for yourself, but you can have confidence that God will speak to you AND that you can know it is him by harmonizing all the different ways he speaks today.

Which brings us to the last message in this series.  God speaks, but we can become dull in our hearing.  We can be like the child who sticks their finger in their ears to keep from hearing their parent say something they don’t want to hear.

We will be looking at Matthew 13 this morning.  I want to start with something Jesus says in verse 9 as it will influence how we understand what follows.

Pray...

———————————————————————————-

Context: Jesus has just finished teaching the parable of the sower to a crowd of people.  He finishes the parable by saying “Let anyone with ears listen!” Matthew 13:9

This is actually one of Jesus’ favorite sayings.  Between the Gospels and the book of Revelation, he says this or something like it over 15 times.  What’s the implication for us when it comes to hearing God’s voice?

I think a big one is that implied in this statement is the possibility that you can have ears – but not really be listening.  He’s making a contrast between two separate things – Hearing vs. listening.  You can’t necessarily listen without first hearing, but you can definitely hear without listening, right?  Ever been a teenager?!  You were an expert at it!

I’ll give you a modern-day example of hearing vs. listening.  We live on the border of tornado alley.  When a tornado siren goes off, what we are supposed to be hearing is “It’s time to take shelter”.  But what many actually hear is, “It’s time to grab your cell phone and go stand on the porch”.  Tell me I’m wrong!

You can hear but not really listen.  In this context it means you can be spiritually dull of hearing.  And sadly, much of the time, we do this to ourselves.  So in contrasting hearing vs. listening, Jesus goes on to make 3 more contrasts based on this principle. Let anyone with ears listen!

———————————————————————————-

Matthew 13:10–12 “Then the disciples came and asked him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”

The next contrast Jesus makes is Open vs. closed.  At first glance it almost appears that these people are not getting it because God has made it impossible for them to.  Like it’s God’s fault they aren’t hearing.

But Jesus’ point is that they aren’t hearing, and what little they have is being taken away, because of a problem of attitude.  As we will see more clearly later, they have chosen to be hard of hearing, and so God has simply given them over to their choice.  Their problem is that they aren’t smart enough to get it.  They simply don’t want to get it. They have closed themselves.

Jesus’ followers, on the other hand, are those who remain open and listening. They live in a posture of being ready to receive the voice God whenever and however it comes.

Windmill illustration...

And so we must be on guard against a closed attitude of non-listening.  Of having an attitude or posture toward God where we become hardened to his voice in our life.  We manifest that attitude every time we think we already know the answer, every time we refuse to listen to the wise counsel of others, every time we would rather just figure it out on our own.  This attitude pattern slowly but surely makes us unable to truly listen to God’s voice.  Let anyone with ears listen! Then we get to the next contrast Jesus makes.

———————————————————————————-

Matthew 13:13–15 “The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says: ‘You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn— and I would heal them.’”

The next contrast is between Intellect vs. heart.  Here we see more clearly that God has not withheld his voice from these people.  It’s not a matter of not being smart enough - they know the scriptures forward and backward. Instead, they have made themselves dull by their hardened heart.  It’s not a matter of having the ability to hear God’s voice; they don’t have a heart for it.

We have to be on guard against any idea they we lack ability to hear God’s voice.  Being physically deaf does not keep you from hearing him if you want to.  Hearing God speak is way more about what’s in your heart than about any technique. Let anyone with ears listen!  Which leads to the last contrast Jesus makes.

———————————————————————————-

Matthew 13:16–17 “But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

This last contrast Jesus makes I want to frame as what is Possible vs. impossible. He says “how blessed are your eyes and ears to see and hear what you have”.  Many good and righteous people in times past have looked but not been able to see God as clearly as you can see him now.  I think Jesus is opening their eyes and ears to the rich possibility that is before them – this tremendous opportunity that wasn’t available to previous generations.

And that same possibility and opportunity is available to us now.  As wonderful and righteous as some of the OT people were, they did not have the revelation available to them than we have today.  They perceived Messiah was coming but couldn’t only make out glimpses.  We can see him fully in Jesus of Nazareth.  We can hear him clearly because he has poured out the Holy Spirit in our lives.

And what I want to leave you with in this series is to have faith and hope in the possible.  That hearing God’s voice isn’t for the intellectually smart or those with great ability.  They are often they ones who miss God altogether.  Hearing God’s voice is reserved for those who have the right attitude and heart and who walk in God’s possible, not man’s impossible.

YOU can hear God’s voice.  You can train yourself to distinguish his voice from all the competing voices in your life.  You can learn to harmonize the various ways he speaks so that you can be confident that it is God you are hearing.  I want you to be faith-filled that this kind of life is possible – even for you. Let anyone with ears listen!

———————————————————————————-

I’ll close with a modern day parable of the danger of stopping our ears and becoming deaf to the voice of God.

On April 14, 1912, the wireless radio operators aboard an ocean cruise ship began receiving multiple warnings about icebergs that were directly in the ship’s path.  The most critical warning came from a ship called the California what was very near and who had been trying to warn the ocean liner.  They sent a very direct message: “Say, old man, we are stopped and surrounded by ice.”

However, the wireless operator aboard the ocean liner was overwhelmed with sending telegrams for passengers – which was very profitable for the ship.  Having received multiple warning from the California, he abruptly cut him off and said “Shut up!  I’m busy!”

The radio operator on the ocean liner was named Jack Phillips.  He clearly heard the message being sent to him.  The sound waves reached his ears.  But he was not listening.  He was distracted by his task, and so he dismissed the warnings as an annoyance rather than something to act on.

The operator from the California, feeling dismissed, turned off his radio and went to bed.  Five minutes after telling the California to “Shut up!” the ocean liner struck an iceberg.  The California was near enough to render aid but was unaware because their radio was off.

You likely know this story.  The ocean liner was the Titanic, and because of a message that was heard but not listened to, over 1,500 people lost their lives.

Let anyone with ears listen!

Hearing God's voice isn’t just for your benefit…

———————————————————————————-

How?

We must learn to harmonize the ways God speaks. One way to remember them is what we called the 5 CS’s in Alpha:

Commanding Scripture - reading

Compelling Spirit - listening

Common Sense - thinking

Communion of the Saints - talking

Circumstantial Signs - watching

Over time you WILL develop ears that hear - and you’ll unlock a whole new dimension in your life with God.

———————————————————————————-

Communion

Have them stand… Invite the worship team forward…

Let’s rejoice with all Gods’ people in the promise of God’s loving guidance found in Psalm 23:

Psalm 23 NRSV

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.

Thank God for his loving guidance...

Thank him that speaks beyond the limits we put on him…

Thank him that he was spoken most clearly in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus...

Through the blood of the cross he has washed our sins away. Through his victorious resurrection he has guaranteed us eternal life. Through his ascension and the outpouring of the Spirit he has made us one with you.

We remember Him who for us and for our salvation, on the night that he was betrayed...

Come Holy Spirit and overshadow these elements. Let them be for us your body and blood so that we can participate in your redemptive work for us. May we find mercy, healing and salvation through the finished work of the cross. Amen.