Listening To God

So I will let you all in on a little secret, there exist books in the world that are nothing but “sermon Illustrations” that Pastors have written to help other pastors with pictures and examples and sermon starters. Usually I read them and think: no way, too cheesy, not me. But this week I read one that I thought was really helpful. It was a simple Question: Why do we have ears on the outside of our heads? With this being the point: we so often have our hearing clouded by the noise that is going on in between our ears. one of Desiree’s Greatest struggles in life is that she married a man who often struggles with not actually hearing because I am distracted or not paying attention or whatever. SO why would we have ears on the outside of our heads? because that might be the only place where they could be situated as to ever have the hope of working correctly, and even then we still don’t listen... this is why We read over and over again in Scripture “he who has an ear, let him hear” because we have to move past just “having” ears to using them. We need to actually LISTEN to God, what he has said, what he has decreed. yet we struggle so much in ever doing this.

If we think of the context that we find ourselves in we see a people, the people of Isreal, who have not been listening to God. They have rebelled, they have served God in word only not in action. they have heard his commands and not listened, trading a heart that is given to God for empty rote going through the motions. They claimed the name of God, but not in truth. Fear of God was something they read, but they didn’t actually fear God. It was a travesty of not actually listening to God, so off to exile they were going to be sent. And it was in this situation that we see the Servant of God prophesied about. Today we are looking to that servant’ sent to people who struggled listening to God.

Our passage today is Isaiah 50:4-51:8

lets READ

These are the words of the Lord for us today. LETS PRAY!

The question before us today then is fairly simple to ask, but extraordinarily hard to answer: HOW DO WE LISTEN TO GOD? and the true starting answer is probably for almost all of us, NOT VERY WELL. which is why it is so important for us that God sent us an example, here given the name: THE SERVANT

Our Example of Listening: THE SERVANT

of all the things that the servant is and does, one of the ones that we see here is that he is an example for us. Those of us who were in Grace Groups this week talked about how he is the representative, the new and better Isreal. he is the one who lived the life that was supposed to be manifest in God’s people, and here that thought still rings true. He is the perfect example of following the directives of God he is the perfect example of a life devoted to God and here we see the perfect example for people who struggle to listen to God as to what that listening should look like.

the song, in case you missed it is written in the first person, it is the “I” of the servant. So it is interesting to think about, if you were to have a bible with Red letters, and they were going to be thoroughly theologically correct, this section, this song in particular would have to be in Red letters, these are the words of the Servant to us! he was our example and how he will speak is illuminating. And beautifully in doing so we see that the servant speaking “lets us into some of the most deeply personal areas of his life” - Webb

So In the Servant Song I would like to look at four things that he does to show how what Listening to God does for us, and how we should do it.

and we start by seeing that to listen to God is to be TAUGHT by God.

TAUGHT

To listen to God is more than just a surface level hearing, it is a deep and lasting and impactful way that we are to hang on each and every word and APPLY it to our lives. we are to be shaped and moulded by the words of god, not just hollowly listen and go about with our day. we are to be taught by God. Here this is an active listening wherein we listen SO THAT we may learn. and the deep meaning here is that we LEARN so that we are changed.

Isaiah 50:4 ESV

The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

twice in this first verse in the servant Song he mentions being Taught. Instructed by God. First he is taught how to be a bearer of the message of God. Specifically instructed by God so that he would be the upholder of the weary. To listen to God is to be instructed, taught by God importantly in HOW TO CARE for others. but to do that is not some washy washy care. It is to speak to them the very words of God. Words of life, words that sting, words of TRUTH. one of the ways that we sustain the weary is NOT just letting them wallow in the sin that so easily entangles them, but part of this is speaking to them the truth that they should cast off the sin that so easily entangles and run with perseverance the race that is marked out for us - HEBREWS 12.1

and morning by morning he meets with God, he actively listens with an awakened ear so that he can hear the words of God. To be taught by God is importantly being taught HOW TO LISTEN. here is the great mystery, we need God to teach us how to listen so that we can listen and then be taught how to better listen. How does this work? it is a bit of a mystery, but this we know, this is a major role of the Holy Spirit in our lives, he awakens us to hear and know God.

But then what happens when we are being taught and we learn something difficult. Something that God may want from us or for us that we might want to shy away from?

well, the truth is to listen to God is to be WILLING

WILLING

to be willing to do what he has asked, whatever that may be.

Isaiah 50:5–6 ESV

The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

here the servant begins to explore the though brought up in the last song and brought to beautiful fruition in the final song. God teaches him, opens his ear so that what? lets read it again

Isaiah 50:6 ESV

I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

to listen to God is to listen to a point where WHATEVER god says we will willingly go where he has called us, endure what he has set before us, realizing that whatever it may be it is not worth comparing to the weight of glory that is in store for us when we listen to God.

and here our perfect example is the servant. a man who last servant song we read was abhorred by the nations, a man who, again last week, would mister not seeing the direct success but instead who would have to trust that Go would be his upholder, and ultimately what we will see in a few weeks in the last servant song, he willingly was “struck, smitten by God and afflicted (Isaiah 53:4).

And lets be perfectly and possibly painfully clear here the servant willing suffered and endured. cruel and humiliating in view here is the cross, that most wretched of devices the sinful human heart has invented, he suffered, willingly. Why? often when we suffer it is because, quite frankly, it is the result of our sin. there are consequences, and we might be able to justify suffering, I will take my lumps because I deserve it. Not, in view here is something much more powerful. this is not suffering because of some wrongdoing on the part of the servant., here he is beaten, has his beard pulled out disgraces as COSTLY OBEDIENCE

as we listen to God what do we do with the difficult things he might say? if we follow the example of the servant we will be willing, because we know the next point as well. that those who listen to God will be VINDICATED!

VINDICATED

the reason that we are able to be willing to endure is because we know and understand that It is God who will vindicate. But I want to be careful how we apply this one to ourselves really quickly. Up to now we might have a thought: OK. i can listen to God in this way. The temptation for a self righteousness might start to creep in. We begin to think, I will study God’s word harder, I will be taught more, I can do this. then we think, I will endure, I can get myself through this (which is a wrong understanding of How we are willing, but this is what we do...) but truly this one is given to the Servant alone THEN we understand that our access to this truth is not through me, but through the servant. so lets look at this one through the servant first, then how we can understand it for us.

Isaiah 50:7–8 ESV

But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.

when the servant says “he who vindicates me is near, what does this mean? For many of us we think of vindication as a sort of revenge. I was wrong, but you’ll see. I will be vindicated. you will see that i was right all along . but the term here for vindicate is more of a legal term. it is not a feeling or an after the fact sort of thing. It literally translates “to bring a verdict of innocence.”

this is why we have to first think of this one as for and through the servant. Only he was truly innocent. so in one sense only the servant can truly say with any sort of truth or weight that he will be vindicated.

But then, the servant, who listened to God perfectly, who followed God perfectly who was innocent, because he was willing not gives to those that follow him this same vindication. the same cry of INNOCENT is given us, not because of who we are, but because of who the servant is.

then, being in the servant we can say: God will vindicate me. as one commentator said: God is not some name given to the abstract unmoved mover of philosophy or the lifeless and powerless idols of the pagans. When God’s servants are in trouble, God is there to ‘justify, declare just, acquit,vindicate me’. But note this is God’s work FOR ME.

and finally because of listening to God, in hearing what he has said, in seeing his work in us and more specifically in the servant we can then end by saying that we are CONFIDENT

CONFIDENT

the end result in listening to God is confidence. Confidence because we have seen God, seen what he has done, knowing what he has promised to do, listened to his call, known his love, to listen to God is to be supremely confident that he is God and that he will do all that he has said he will do. We have heard a bit of that confidence in the claim that “he who vindicated me is near” but it gets better:

Isaiah 50:8–9 ESV

He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.

this is the ultimate confidence. it is an outright challenge to all who would come against. why? HOW can he do this, because he is confident, sure that God is the one who helps him. God will be the lifter of his head, his adversaries will quickly fade and wear out. wear out like garments.

THE GREATEST TRAGEDY, OUR FAVORITE CLOTHES ARE OFTEN THE MOST RAGGEDY…

when we listen we can proclaim like Paul:

Romans 8:31 ESV

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

I want to give us quickly the reward of listening, given after the servant song in the form of THREE CALLS

The Reward of Listening: THREE CALLS

if we look to the passages after the song we see three times where God calls to his people. verse 1 of 51: LISTEN TO ME; verse 4: “GIVE ATTENTION; verse 7 once again: LISTEN TO ME.

and if the teaching, vindication and confidence we have in the servant are not enough, we are given 3 more reasons that we ought to listen to God.

in the first we see that it is because GOD’S COMFORT IS LIFE-GIVING!

God’s COMFORT is LIFE-GIVING

Isaiah 51:1–3 ESV

“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him. For the Lord comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.

- Two ways life giving is seen - in giving descendants to Abraham and Sarah and in making the wilderness like eden/deserts into a garden!

- God’s Live giving power:

Romans 4:17 ESV

as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

secondly, GOD’S POWER IS WORLD-CHANGING

God’s POWER is WORLD-CHANGING

One of the

God’s RIGHTEOUSNESS is COURAGE-INSPIRING

-At the end COME BACK to Isaiah 50.10-11 this becomes the call to repentance, to see the Lord, to understand our need for him and not our own way, he is not just our example of listening, he is the only hope we ever have to be able to listen, it is n him that we find our hope and find God’s righteousness, and his power and therefore the blessings are only available to us through him!

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