Hearing the Voice of God

Opening

Story of my call to ministry:

Driving on Route 66 and hearing the song “You Can Have Me” by the Sidewalk Prophets

Give context of my life. Finally was taking my relationship with God seriously. I was heading to work. I still remember exactly where I was when the song came on. Train bridge

“If I saw you on the street and you said come and follow me, but I had to give up everything, all I once held dear and all of my dreams. Would I love you enough to let go, or would my love run dry when you asked for my life. When did love become unmoving, when did love become unconsuming? Forgetting what the world has told me, Father of love, You can have me.”

THEN…Desperation Conference where a missionary called for 12 people to follow him and learn about planting churches in Mexico. I remember having this pull on my heart that I needed to sign up but it kind of freaked me out but I remembered this song that had just spoken to me weeks before.

Transition

Why do I tell you this story? Well, though this is a standalone message in the middle of Daniel, the next couple of weeks, we will be hearing about how God spoke to Nebuchadnezzar in a dream and then used Daniel to interpret the dream.

I thought it would be fitting to talk about hearing the voice of God. As a youth pastor, I have heard that question multiple times, “How do I hear from God?” or “how do I recognize His voice?”

Interesting thing is that I normally hate doing standalone messages because it means that Jason doesn’t tell me what to preach so I have to figure it out on own. Which means spending time in prayer and trying to discern the voice of God and His direction. So, as I was praying over this sermon, God brought to my mind a conversation I had just had a few days earlier with Lauren about my call to ministry and that thought was almost immediately preceded by thinking about the Daniel 2 passage of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and Daniel’s interpretation.

fitting then to talk about hearing the voice of God.

First passage | First Step (Knowing His Voice) John 10:27

when it comes to the hearing the voice of God, the first and most important step is you have to know the voice of God.

Jesus says that if we are his sheep, that we will know his voice and follow him.

May ask, “Well Pastor Jacob, how do I know the voice of God if I am not sure whether I am hearing His voice or what His voice sounds like.”

My answer: what is this? (hold up a Bible)

it is the living word of God, not just some book.

You wanna know his voice, get in it.

The Problem: we may be his sheep and believe in him but we are also sheep of other things and we respond to those voices, we follow those voices first or we are more used to those voices.

So often, we also don’t give Him time to respond.

If you went out with friends or went on a first date with someone who wouldn’t give you a second to respond or talk yourself, what would you do?

So why do we treat God that way?

We also want or expect God’s voice to show up like it did for Moses.

Something incredibly supernatural like a bush on fire or some booming voice that is just unmistakingly God’s

But so often in scripture, we see that it is the opposite.

1 Samuel 3:3–10

Samuel didn’t realize at first that it was the voice of God calling out, he thought it was Eli’s.

1 Kings 19:12–13

God wasn’t in the powerful but in the soft, in the quiet.

While there are different translations of the original Hebrew - “A gentle whisper” “a still small voice” etc… the Hebrew really says “the sound of calm” or as the NSRV writes it “sheer silence”

That’s pretty quiet which means you have to be listening, you have to be tuned in.

Story of how I even came up with this sermon.

In the car, turned off everything to just be in quiet.

Second Step (Allowing Yourself to be Interrupted)

Story about buying milk, being interrupted on the way home.

Introduce Second step - allowing to be interrupted

Samuel could have disregarded the voice and gone to sleep.

Peter and other disciples were fishing when they were called.

That man could have disregarded that nudge he felt.

Last week, Tik Tok video | Harris Creek church

Never heard of it but yet this video comes across my fyp

Tell the story (similar to Milk story)

I could have scrolled right past it, but there was something in me that allowed myself to stop the doom scrolling.

We spend so much time saying yes to everything else that we don’t allow time for God to use us, to speak to us.

Third Step (Just Do It | Obedience)

Hebrews 3:7-19

Quoting Psalm 95:7–8 “For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,”

Can I be honest for a second and possibly offend some of you?

Some of you may be sitting here and saying that you are not sure that you have heard His voice but in actuality, you have, you just don’t listen to it. You disobey.

Let me ask this, and you don’t need to raise your hand but… give group prayer example

I’m guilty of this, I make up excuses

Just like Moses

And sometimes the disobedience is doing something that you shouldn’t do.

Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume Hebrews 3:7–19

What he cautions them against—hardening their hearts, turning the deaf ear to the calls and counsels of Christ: “When he tells you of the evil of sin, the excellency of holiness, the necessity of receiving him by faith as your Saviour, do not shut your ear and heart against such a voice as this.” Observe, The hardening of our hearts is the spring of all our other sins.

But Hebrews promises something that I think is amazing.

In a world that we just keep moving, we are distracted.

Promised rest from obedience.

The Challenge

The voice of God can be a thought, or a feeling, a pull on your heart but we do have His word in front of us. Get in it. Follow it, not out of a sense of legalism or that it will save you but because he loves you and you love him.

Think about that Pastor’s question: what is God doing in your life?

I tell the students, God is working all the time, you just have to pay attention.

What is God saying? What is He telling you to do? Go do it

He may be asking you to forgive someone who wronged you but you are holding on to it.

Might bring Matthew 16 to mind about forgiving others or when Peter asks how much we should forgive

May be asking you to share the Gospel with a co-worker or pray for them.

Great Commission

He may be asking you to remove distractions; an app, a game, etc…

Have no idols, Luke 10 Martha was distracted with serving.