Called to Listen

We are currently in a sermon series entitled “Called.” We have been having the book of Genesis show us the various ways that God calls those of us that choose to follow him. We have seen so far that we were created by God to be in a relationship with him.

The last two weeks we were reminded that we are called to go and that in order for us to be willing to go we have to believe that God will be with us. You can find our previous sermons on our You Tube channel.

This week we see that we are “Called to Listen.” Our scripture comes from Genesis 21:8-21. The words will be on the screen.

8 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. 9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, 10 and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”

11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. 12 But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. 13 I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”

14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.

15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she began to sob.

17 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. 18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

20 God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. 21 While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.

Please pray with me…

We have a God who desires to speak to us and to help us in our lives. He wants us to be willing to allow him to speak into our lives and to also pass on to us the ways that he desires for us to serve him. We spoke of this two weeks ago during our sermon on being “Called to Go.”

We were able to recognize the steps that it can take for us to be willing to go. The first step was that we needed to be willing to hear from God. The second was for us to listen for God. That is our focus for today.

Our scripture offers us two of the reasons why God might speak to us. He may speak to us in order to enlighten us on what he needs for us to do. He will often include a promise or benefit in order to get us to be willing to follow through.

The other reason our scripture offers for us today is that God may speak to us in our pain. It is through him letting us know that despite the negative situation we may find ourselves in God is ready to intervene for us. He has not abandoned us.

(Transition)

Our scripture is in need of some context, it occurs after the birth of Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah. You may remember from last week that God promised that a child would be born within a year. What we had missed in our readings up to this point was that a child had already been born.

Sarah believed she was unable to have children. Abraham was promised that those through his lineage would be able to enter into the promise land. This led Sarah to give her Egyptian servant to Abraham in order to create that offspring.

(Transition)

They were successful and we have the birth of Abraham’s first-born son, Ishmael. Today’s scripture has Sarah now ordering Abraham to cast out her servant, Hagar, and Hagar’s son. This understandably upset Abraham. This is when we have God speak to him.

There maybe times in our lives when we doubt if we are doing the right thing. We may face times when there is no correct answer. It is at those times that we need to listen to God. We may need to ask God to help us discern what is the best path for us to take.

(Transition)

With all of that being said let me offer a couple quick sidenotes. It is possible that we will end up in this type of situation because of a lack of faith or because we failed to do what God asked the first time. Sarah, and I would believe also Abraham, were unwilling to believe that God could provide an heir through their relationship.

They were unwilling to believe as what was said last week that “nothing is too hard for the Lord.” We may have times when we try to decide for God how a situation is going to play out instead of waiting for God to provide.

The second note is that in no way am I condoning what Abraham did through forcing Hagar to take Ishmael away. This is a horrible circumstance that offers no redeeming value to our understanding of the way we should treat others.

Our scripture is only offering to us how Abraham was willing to listen to God. He was willing to trust that God would provide a safe effective outcome for Hagar and Ishmael. That is why this scripture can help us focus on listening and trusting God.

(Transition)

The great thing about our God is that when we trust him and are willing to listen to him, he will not abandon us. God will give us a way for us to know where to go after we doubt and react instead of waiting for God to act. We need to listen and respond to what God tells us to do.

In this case, God makes a new promise to Abraham. This one involves his first-born son. God will make him into his own nation. We may not like having to do what we have to do, but we should be willing to listen and respond to what God tells us to do.

Abraham listens to God, provides some food and water to Hagar and Ishmael, he then removes them from the only people that they knew. This seems harsh. It is unfair as Hagar first had no choice in bearing a son for Abraham and now is removed from those she knows because Sarah is upset with her.

(Transition)

Most likely God will not make us put people into harm’s way in order to have us do what he desires for us to do. But it is possible that he will have us leave a situation we find ourselves in. He may call us to leave those around us and go to a place he has prepared for us.

This will often not be easy. Most humans love to be comfortable and not have to leave what we know. But part of listening to God is to be willing to take a step out in faith and go where he needs for us to go.

This will often include a promise. He wants us to go, and he will often tell us the ways that ourselves or others will benefit from us being willing to listen and do what he has called for us to do.

(Transition)

There may also be times when we don’t know if we can go any farther. We wonder if the end is near and if we should give up. We may end up doubting if God is with us. We may wonder if choosing to believe in him is even worth it.

After Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmael away the food and the water only last so long for them. Things reach a point where Hagar believes it is the end for her and her son. It is when she reaches this breaking point that she hears from God.

We may have times in our lives when it seems like things can’t get any worse. What will often be the case is that we have tried for too long to live our lives the way we want instead of asking God how he wants for us to live our lives.

Unlike in Hagar’s case, we have led ourselves to this place of losing hope and patience with God. We have allowed ourselves to move away from God instead of towards God. The Jewish people did this over and over again.

Eventually they would reach a point that they would cry out to God and God would save them once again. It may seem like in our times of trouble and pain that God has left us, but what is often the case we have walked away from God. We need to be willing to turn towards God again and listen for his voice.

(Transition)

God had spoken to Hagar before. He had spoken to her shortly before Ishmael was born and now he is speaking to her once again. God gives her hope--during her time of despair. God promises her deliverance--from her time of misery.

No matter the circumstances we need to be open to listening to God. We have two unique circumstances in today’s text. We havethe first where a tough decision needs to be made and God offers assurance and assistance. We have the second where Hagar was at the end of her rope and God offered help in her time of pain.

(Transition)

There may also be times when God speaks into our hearts because he wants to change our understanding of him and what we should believe about him. Jesus did this during his time on earth. He spoke to his disciples and those that would listen and told them that what they had been told for generations was wrong.

God didn’t want them to focus on their individual faith. God didn’t want them to attempt to only keep the law and ignore those around them. God wanted them to be a people of love and compassion instead of guilt and shame. We have God doing this again for Peter in our first reading.

(Transition)

The Jewish people had a strict diet of items that they were able to eat or not to eat. This would have been shocking to Peter for God to tell him to change his way of looking at food. As God told him “What God has made clean do not call common.” God can turn all things into good.

Our God is good and therefore when we let him be a part of what we are doing he is able to use what happens for good. The ultimate example of this would be the life of Jesus. Jesus was considered to be a troublemaker by the religious authorities.

They had reached the decision that they had to get rid of him, so they had him arrested and eventually beaten, humiliated and hung on a cross. All bad things, but we know that God used them for good.

We know that it is through what took place on that cross allowed each of us to be saved from the power of sin. We know that God used the evil decisions of some, to do good for everyone in the world.

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In the case of Peter, the message he was receiving was not only about food. It was also about those that would qualify to be saved by this Jewish God. It would open Peter up to the understanding that all people were children of God that were able to be adopted by God.

It is through listening to God that we can also be reminded that we do not know all the answers. It is through allowing God to speak into our hearts that we can receive a greater understanding of the ways that God desires for us to know him and serve him.

(Transition)

This leads us to what may be the big question for you. How doI hear from God? This can be a tough one. We can find ourselves wanting to hear from God, but we still are unable to discern when what we hear is from him.

There are various ways that God communicates with us. We need to do our best to listen and decipher which of these ways is the easiest way for us to be able to hear from God. We are going to look at five ways today. They are scripture, dreams, gifts, promptings, and people.

(Transition)

Scripture is one of the ways that God attempts to communicate with us. You will sometimes hear someone say that a scripture said something different to them than it had before. In these cases, we need to pay attention and ask God what he is trying to say to us. The word of God is one of the main ways that God speaks to us.

Dreams are another way that some people hear from God. It is while I am sleeping that I will many times personally get a message from God. It may be that you may have to be quiet and at rest in order for you to hear from God. One way to help this happen is to ask God to speak to you just before you go to sleep.

(Transition)

A third way that God can speak to us is through our gift or talents. God has created each one of in a unique way with unique gifts for us to use for him. We may find times in which we feel led to do something because it is in our area of giftedness. We hear from God through the gift that he has given to us.

We also may hear from God through what we are calling promptings. Pastor and author Mark Batterson in his book “Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God” says it this way:

“Discerning the voice of God requires an internal clock that perceives his promptings. And it’s our reaction time to those promptings that leads to supernatural synchronicities: Being in the right place at the right time with the right people.”

God will sometimes have us in just the right place at the right time in order for us to be able to do what he desires for us to do. We need to be open to always hearing from God so that we can recognize when we are receiving a prompting from him and respond.

The last way we will focus on today is through other people. God may have placed people in your life to speak into you the desires that he has for you. We have to be open that during our conversations we can receive a message from God on what he desires from us next.

We are called to listen to God. We are called to pay attention to what God is trying to say to us. We then need to be willing to take that message and go in order for us to fulfill the mission that God has for you.

Please pray with me…