Learning to listen

Intro

Have you ever talked with someone and you knew they could hear you but you weren’t sure if they were listening? This happens to me all the time with my children. Usually when I am asking them to do something.

Of course I also can remember back to when I was a child sitting in my grandparents tv room watching cartoons as my grandmother called my name repeatedly without response. I’m pretty sure she thought I had a hearing problem for a while.

However the truth is I did not have a hearing problem. What I had was a listening problem! As far as my ears were concerned, they worked just fine. Sound waves entered the cone, traveled through the canal vibrated the drum which shook the tiny bones which relayed the information to my brain, but it was here where there was a breakdown.

I don’t know maybe (by that I mean definitely) I was too wrapped up in my tv shows, or maybe I didn’t want to hear her tell me to go outside for the 500th time that morning. What ever it was I could tune her out and with a few timely u-huns and yups and what’s I could sit and watch tv.

Now I would like to say since I’ve grown up I have learned to do better at this whole listening thing, but I have to confess, sometimes I still find myself hearing but not listening, u-hunning without processing. Again my hearing is fine but as the mind wanders I fear it is the listening that is the problem.

But I am sure I am the only one here who has this problem right? Surly no one else here has ever yupped their way through a conversation knowing full well you weren’t actually listening even though physically you could hear them. Is there anyone else?

Oh good now I feel as if I am among friends. So let me get this meeting started off right. My name is Jacob and I have a listening problem. Ok so I don’t intend on starting a new support group for selective hearing anonymous, so why bring it up.

Because as a Pastor there are things I hear over and over again. Things people don’t understand or struggle with in their faith. Often they are looking for answers. And one of the questions that you hear a lot either directly or indirectly is the question....

How come we don’t hear from God like we used to?

or

How come God doesn’t speak to us like He did in the Bible?

Or

I feel like I haven’t heard from God in a really long time.

Has anyone here ever heard these types of things? Has anyone ever felt that way?

Sometimes it does feel like God has gone silent doesn’t it? Sometimes it feels like we have gone spiritually deaf.

As I was getting ready for this sermon for tonight I read this passage.

Hebrews

Hebrews 3:7–11 NLT

That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness. There your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years. So I was angry with them, and I said, ‘Their hearts always turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’ So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’ ”

Now this passage is a part of a much fuller book. The book of Hebrews and this part of the passage is really about faith and remaining faithful to God, and I would encourage you to read it all in it’s full context, but as my eyes read these words something dawned on me...

What if God is still speaking and what we have isn’t a hearing problem, but actually a listening problem?

What if while we are grumbling why doesn’t God speak anymore, God is wondering why don’t my people listen anymore.

Thus the title of this sermon Learning to listen in just 3 easy steps.

We can find these steps in one of the most famous passages about God speaking to someone.

1 Samuel 3

1 Samuel 3 NLT

Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon. One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle near the Ark of God. Suddenly the Lord called out, “Samuel!” “Yes?” Samuel replied. “What is it?” He got up and ran to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?” “I didn’t call you,” Eli replied. “Go back to bed.” So he did. Then the Lord called out again, “Samuel!” Again Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?” “I didn’t call you, my son,” Eli said. “Go back to bed.” Samuel did not yet know the Lord because he had never had a message from the Lord before. So the Lord called a third time, and once more Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?” Then Eli realized it was the Lord who was calling the boy. So he said to Samuel, “Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went back to bed. And the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel replied, “Speak, your servant is listening.” Then the Lord said to Samuel, “I am about to do a shocking thing in Israel. I am going to carry out all my threats against Eli and his family, from beginning to end. I have warned him that judgment is coming upon his family forever, because his sons are blaspheming God and he hasn’t disciplined them. So I have vowed that the sins of Eli and his sons will never be forgiven by sacrifices or offerings.” Samuel stayed in bed until morning, then got up and opened the doors of the Tabernacle as usual. He was afraid to tell Eli what the Lord had said to him. But Eli called out to him, “Samuel, my son.” “Here I am,” Samuel replied. “What did the Lord say to you? Tell me everything. And may God strike you and even kill you if you hide anything from me!” So Samuel told Eli everything; he didn’t hold anything back. “It is the Lord’s will,” Eli replied. “Let him do what he thinks best.” As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him, and everything Samuel said proved to be reliable. And all Israel, from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh and gave messages to Samuel there at the Tabernacle.

Who better to teach us the steps of learning to listen to God than Samuel.

From what I see the fist step to learning to Listen is learning to

Recognize

His voice.

Me: Phone

We: If we are going to listen to God we need to be able to recognize His voice

God: Samuel did not at first but the more time He spent listening to God the easier it was to recognize His voice.

The second step is to

Acknowledge

He is speaking

Me: Nothing drives me nuts more than when I call a child and I know they heard my but they won’t acknowledge me.

We: If God is going to speak to us, whether through His word, a speaker or teacher like Samuel, In our Spirit or even out loud like Samuel the least we can do is acknowledge His when He speaks.

God: That is what Eli told Sam to do.

The third and final step is to ...

Obey

Me: When I ask my kids to do something, I do not consider myself listened to until The job is done.

We: When God speaks like it said in Hebrews we best do it.

God: I bet it was hard for Samuel to tell His mentor what God said, but that is what it was for him to obey

You: So how good are you at listening. Do you recognize God’s voice. If not spend more time in the word so you can learn what He sounds like. When He speaks to you say Yes Lord I am listening. If not you need to learn to stop everything and focus on God for that is what it means to acknowledge someone. And finally when asked by God to do something do you obey.

We: Without obedience we are not truly listening.

God is still speaking, and what we have is not a hearing problem. It is a listening problem. so let us learn to

Recognize, Acknowledge and Obey.