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Follow My Voice
Does knowing about God replace truly knowing Him? Many believers choose security or ritual over a vibrant relationship, mistaking religion for the voice of the Good Shepherd. The ache to recognize God's leading collides with the noise of our instincts, reason, and emotion.
Pastor Ronnie uses John 10 to question common beliefs about being saved. He explains that Jesus' death is more than just escaping hell; it allows us to be close to God. Distilled through vivid personal Through clear personal stories and honest thinking, a key truth comes out: we can't go where we haven't learned to listen, and hearing the Shepherd's voice brings lasting rewards and true peace.way from formulas and toward humble, obedient relationship.
Scriptures Referenced
1 Samuel 3:1-21; Psalm 119:10-11; Proverbs 14:12; Isaiah 55:8; Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 25:40 & 45; John 3:16, 10:4-5, 13:34; 17:3; 2 Corinthians 11:14-15
Key Insights
- Why avoiding hell is not the highest reason for salvation: Eternal life is defined by knowing God, not just by living forever or religious activity.
- How to actually discern God’s voice: Listening is a posture cultivated by doing what we already know, not by trusting feelings, instincts, or clever reasoning.
- The weight and joy of obedience: Responding to what God says carries responsibility and reward—hearing leads to following, and following leads to transformation.
Key Sections
00:00:00 | Welcome and Announcements
Barbie Loflin expresses deep gratitude for the spiritual leaders present and introduces the focus on discerning the voice of the Lord.
00:06:21 | What Does It Mean to Be Saved?
Ronnie Meek shares how salvation is not just being spared from hell but entering into a relationship where we truly know God.
00:12:23 | The Value of Hearing God’s Voice
Ronnie Meek explains that knowing and hearing God’s voice is more precious than gold and gives believers confidence and direction for life.
00:23:40 | How NOT to Discern God’s Voice
Ronnie Meek warns against relying on instinct, emotions, or human reasoning to discern God’s voice, reminding listeners these can lead astray.
00:27:31 | How TO Discern God’s Voice
Ronnie Meek encourages cultivating openness, attention, and personal relationship, drawing from biblical examples like Moses, Elijah, and Paul.
00:36:10 | Learning to Hear God’s Voice
Ronnie Meek emphasizes starting with simple obedience to God’s clear commands, especially loving others, in order to grow in recognizing and following His voice.
https://springhouse.captivate.fm/episode/follow-my-voice
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Gathering Times
- Sundays, 9:00 AM
- Sundays, 11:00 AM
- Wednesdays, 6:00 PM
Contact Info
Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167
CCLI License 2070006
Transcript
Speaking of grateful, guys, this is a momentous day. Do you
Speaker:realize that 3 of the pillars in my own life,
Speaker:Pastor Ronnie Meek, Pastor Bruce Coble, and Pastor Wayne Berry,
Speaker:are all in the house today?
Speaker:I don't know how that happened, but God does. I'm
Speaker:so grateful. I'm so grateful for their voices in my life,
Speaker:for their voices in this house and their influence, those pillars.
Speaker:We are in a series talking about discerning the voice of the
Speaker:Lord. And one of the ways that the Lord has spoken to me
Speaker:over the years has been through these 3 pastors for sure.
Speaker:But also one of the pivotal voices in my life that the Lord
Speaker:has used in moments of confusion or moments of just
Speaker:trying to hear him, because sometimes you need a human voice in a
Speaker:human situation, but you need that voice to be carrying the Spirit
Speaker:and the truth and the wisdom of the Lord. When I began to work with
Speaker:Pastor Ronnie, I remember so clearly,
Speaker:I was very formal and I would always call him Pastor
Speaker:Ronnie. And he would be like, you know what, Barbie, it's
Speaker:okay for you to call me Ronnie. And I'm like, you don't
Speaker:understand, I need a pastor. We all need a pastor. He was, he
Speaker:is, and he remains my pastor, Pastor Ronnie Meek.
Speaker:That's okay. I'll
Speaker:call
Speaker:Pastor Barbie sis
Speaker:because she's the sister I never had. And I think
Speaker:she sometimes thinks of me as the brother she never had.
Speaker:You know, brothers and sisters always get along.
Speaker:That's right. Yeah.
Speaker:Before I go into the teaching, I just— I want to say this. I have
Speaker:to say this. Friday night, Michelle and I went to see
Speaker:Hunchback of Notre Dame here.
Speaker:And those of you who've ever been to a play with me,
Speaker:or certainly in a play with me understand that I
Speaker:have this propensity to just kind of pick out everything
Speaker:that is wrong in a production and go, well, that was good,
Speaker:but, you know, they could have done this and they could have done that.
Speaker:And
Speaker:I wasn't really excited about coming because Victor Hugo doesn't really
Speaker:have a lot of laughs. And he doesn't exactly
Speaker:leave you with warm feelings. Fuzzy feelings.
Speaker:But after it was over, all I could say
Speaker:was magnificent.
Speaker:And truly, it is a magnificent
Speaker:production. And, you know, you might wipe away a tear or two, but
Speaker:also you just kind of leave feeling like, wow, I just saw
Speaker:something. So just, just letting you know that there's 4 more
Speaker:performances. this afternoon and then Friday and Saturday
Speaker:night and next Sunday afternoon. So
Speaker:let's get on to the spiritual stuff, shall we?
Speaker:Actually, that's pretty spiritual.
Speaker:Back in 1978, Wayne Berry and
Speaker:Randy Thompson and I were doing a— actually, it's
Speaker:probably '79. We're doing a concert
Speaker:at Koinonia Bookstore up in Nashville. And Wayne made
Speaker:an announcement that just kind of went through the room like
Speaker:a, like a shock. And
Speaker:people were like, oh. And the announcement was, he said,
Speaker:Bob Dylan got saved. And, you know, you have to be a certain
Speaker:age and you have to be a certain, a certain cultural
Speaker:position even in that age to understand why,
Speaker:how that impacted that room. But it impacted it
Speaker:big time. And one of the things that you think when you think about some
Speaker:celebrity, someone who's well-known getting saved is kind
Speaker:of like, yeah, really? You know, there's this
Speaker:incredulity that sort of is in the back of your mind.
Speaker:But it turns out that, yeah, I mean, he
Speaker:definitely got saved. And his testimony was that in
Speaker:late '78, Jesus Christ came and
Speaker:he had an encounter with him and he physically touched him.
Speaker:And he said, he touched me and I fell to the
Speaker:ground. And then he picked me back up
Speaker:and he started writing songs, started writing
Speaker:songs about that. And one of the songs we
Speaker:sing here occasionally, I was hoping we were going to be able to do it
Speaker:today, but it kind of Things just didn't work out.
Speaker:It says, I was blinded by the devil, born already ruined,
Speaker:stone cold dead when I walked out of the womb.
Speaker:By his grace, I have been touched.
Speaker:By his word, I have been healed. By his mercy, been
Speaker:delivered. By his Spirit, I've been sealed. And now
Speaker:I'm saved. By the blood of
Speaker:the Lamb. Saved by
Speaker:the blood of the Lamb. And I'm so glad.
Speaker:I'm so glad. I'm so glad.
Speaker:I'm so glad. I want to thank you, Lord.
Speaker:Thank you, Lord. I just want to thank you, Lord.
Speaker:Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. I mean, if you've heard that song, you
Speaker:know that you cannot hear it without Just this
Speaker:burst of joy exploding inside of you.
Speaker:And I suspect that most people here would
Speaker:also say, I've been saved by the blood of the
Speaker:Lamb. What does that mean?
Speaker:Michelle and I drive down through Alabama fairly frequently.
Speaker:We've got some family that lives down there. And there's a
Speaker:roadside sign that maybe some of you have
Speaker:seen it. There's a guy with a pitchfork and
Speaker:horns, and the sign says, go to church or the devil will
Speaker:get you. And every time I see that
Speaker:sign, I have this— I have a
Speaker:conflicting thing that comes over
Speaker:me because I appreciate the sincerity
Speaker:of the sign. I appreciate the
Speaker:economy and simplicity with which the message is
Speaker:expressed. On the other hand, I also go,
Speaker:go to church, the devil might still get you. Come on.
Speaker:In fact, well, I'm not going to say it because
Speaker:not here, but you go, never mind.
Speaker:And I kind of go, but I would suspect that most of us,
Speaker:if you were asked, or most people in our In our
Speaker:culture, American church culture, if you were to ask them,
Speaker:well, what does that mean, I've been saved? Well, I'm not going to hell.
Speaker:I've— I'm not going to burn. He has saved
Speaker:me from the pit full of emptiness and wrath and the fire that burns
Speaker:in it. Praise God. And that's not wrong.
Speaker:But that's also not why Jesus came.
Speaker:That's not why Jesus died for us. It's an asterisk.
Speaker:By why Jesus died for us. It is collateral
Speaker:to why Jesus died for us. For God so loved the world
Speaker:that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes on Him should not
Speaker:perish but have eternal
Speaker:life. Oh,
Speaker:eternal life. Yeah, what does that mean?
Speaker:Because there's a tendency to think, Well, that just means you
Speaker:never, you know, that you just go on living and living. Look,
Speaker:I'm not the oldest one in here because I know at least 2 people who
Speaker:are older than me who are in this room. Yes.
Speaker:But I'm 76 and I can see
Speaker:100 out there. I mean, you know, well,
Speaker:that's 24 years away. Yeah, 24 years doesn't seem like all that much
Speaker:to me anymore. Well, I can see 100 out there,
Speaker:but I don't know if I want to go there because
Speaker:I've got a great life. But as blessed as my life is,
Speaker:I live in a fallen world that stinks.
Speaker:And I don't know if I want 24 more years of this.
Speaker:Seriously. Eternal life
Speaker:is defined by Jesus this way. In
Speaker:John 17, verse 3, now this is
Speaker:eternal life. It's about as clear as you can get. This is
Speaker:eternal life, to know You,
Speaker:the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
Speaker:You have sent. And so Jesus came and
Speaker:died on the cross as a sacrifice for us so that we can know
Speaker:God. Yeah.
Speaker:Kind of say, some people might say, well, if God wants
Speaker:us to know him all that bad, why don't he just invite me over? Well,
Speaker:the problem is, you see, we're sinful and he is holy. And I don't
Speaker:mean, you know, we don't even— we have every now and
Speaker:then we'll touch a little splinter of holiness in this world,
Speaker:but we have no idea what it is to stand
Speaker:in the presence of a holy
Speaker:God. The only thing I can think of that might be
Speaker:equivalent to it is kind of standing in the
Speaker:epicenter of a 40-megaton nuclear explosion.
Speaker:Totally destroys. We're totally unprepared for that. But Jesus
Speaker:came so that we could— our sins could be covered
Speaker:and we could stand in the presence of a holy God and know Him.
Speaker:Amen. know Him. And one of the
Speaker:greatest privileges of being saved,
Speaker:in fact, possibly the greatest privilege of being saved,
Speaker:isn't that we're not going to hell. It's that we
Speaker:have a Good Shepherd and we can hear His voice
Speaker:and we can follow Him. See, to know someone, you have to hear them. You
Speaker:have to, you have to hear what they're saying. And
Speaker:so I know you've gotten settled in and comfortable, but would you stand with me
Speaker:and let's read a quick verse of Scripture
Speaker:that Jesus said about the Good
Speaker:Shepherd? When He has
Speaker:brought out all His own, He goes on
Speaker:ahead of them, and His sheep follow Him
Speaker:because they know His voice. But they will never
Speaker:follow a stranger. In fact, they will run away
Speaker:from him because they do not recognize a
Speaker:stranger's voice. Father, I thank You for Your
Speaker:Word. We invite the Holy Spirit. We invite the presence of the Holy
Speaker:Spirit here. May everything that I say
Speaker:that is the voice of a stranger be fallen away, but
Speaker:may everything that I say that is from You Pierce our
Speaker:hearts. In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker:You may be seated.
Speaker:I used to hear the question all the time, how can I hear God?
Speaker:How can I know God is speaking to me? What—
Speaker:how do you do that?
Speaker:And I'm going to kind of— I'm going to go there. I'm going to tell
Speaker:you that. But What I want to start with is I don't hear that
Speaker:question that much anymore. Right. I really don't.
Speaker:And I— largely I believe people either don't think it's
Speaker:possible to actually hear from God or it's not necessary
Speaker:to actually hear from God or it's not worth the
Speaker:trouble or something. But I'm here to tell you that hearing the voice of
Speaker:God is something valuable. It is
Speaker:extremely valuable. The psalmist over
Speaker:in Psalm 19 talking about hearing God's
Speaker:Word says, they're more precious than gold and much purer
Speaker:gold. They're sweeter than honey, than honey from the
Speaker:honeycomb. By them Your servant is warned, and keeping
Speaker:them there is great reward. And so having a
Speaker:Word from God Is more
Speaker:precious than gold, than having a
Speaker:hunk of gold in your hand. It's more precious than— it's
Speaker:sweeter than honey from the honeycomb. And in keeping them, there's great
Speaker:reward. And when we say great reward, I
Speaker:don't— we have no clue, no idea how
Speaker:great the rewards are for hearing and having a
Speaker:Word, a Word from God. Amen. I've never
Speaker:heard the audible voice of God, but I have heard Him.
Speaker:And I guess you could say I discerned His voice.
Speaker:And I want to tell you a story. Many of you know
Speaker:that in the mid-'80s, our family moved to Zimbabwe
Speaker:for 3 years. I taught in a Bible school over there. And
Speaker:some of you know the story I'm getting ready to relate.
Speaker:That's just too bad.
Speaker:But those of you who don't know the story,
Speaker:I'll tell you about how we ended up going. See, I
Speaker:had met this man named Ezekiel Goody. I believe it was in
Speaker:'73 at a conference.
Speaker:And I was just really drawn. I went,
Speaker:I'm supposed to go work with this guy. We're supposed to. We're supposed to
Speaker:go there. But it wasn't the
Speaker:Lord's timing. He actually ended up sending
Speaker:my friend Bruce Coble at the time. And so Bruce, I
Speaker:got— I didn't make the cast, okay? I got cut at the
Speaker:audition. But he took Bruce and Jill and they went
Speaker:over. I think it was January of '84 was when they
Speaker:went over. And Bruce became the director of the
Speaker:Bible school over there and taught classes and
Speaker:stuff. So fortunately, about 9 or 10 months
Speaker:later, our church sent one of the elders, Wade
Speaker:Hutchison, who's also an elder here, and myself
Speaker:to go visit the Cobles. And so we went to visit the
Speaker:Cobles. And make a long story short, while we were
Speaker:there, the Lord just kept confirming things to my
Speaker:heart. And I knew we're supposed to go.
Speaker:Well, we get back. And we missed some connections
Speaker:on flights and stuff. And so we arrive, but our
Speaker:luggage doesn't arrive with us. And I get home and I
Speaker:tell Margaret, tell my wife, I said, we're going to
Speaker:Zimbabwe. We're going to move over there. I know
Speaker:you've always wanted to go to mission field. We're
Speaker:going there. It's going to be so great.
Speaker:And, you know, and I could see as I was telling her
Speaker:this, Fear that just sort of
Speaker:began to fill her face because she knew that look in
Speaker:my eye. And I have been known to be,
Speaker:I don't know, impetuous at times to just kind
Speaker:of do stuff. I mean, Michelle will tell you now, if she says, oh, I
Speaker:would like— well, she's learned to not say that because I'm going to get the
Speaker:ladder and go do it. And she's going to say, get off that ladder.
Speaker:But so, you know, that was what was happening.
Speaker:Well, the next morning I get up and I go out to run. I'm in
Speaker:my mid-30s and I'm running. And that was my prayer time as well. And
Speaker:as I'm running and praying, this prayer just kind of
Speaker:comes up out of me. It says, God, if you really want us to go,
Speaker:if this is really you, then that luggage that didn't make it,
Speaker:bring it to our house today. And as soon as that prayer
Speaker:went out of my mouth, I went, oh,
Speaker:why did I say that? I just
Speaker:felt sick. And I got home and I told
Speaker:Margaret what I prayed, and she just went, oh,
Speaker:why did you pray that? She just
Speaker:kind of felt sick as well. Well, I'd not
Speaker:done that much traveling, So I didn't know what would happen with the
Speaker:luggage. And quite frankly, nobody we knew knew what would
Speaker:happen with the luggage, what would happen when it got here. And
Speaker:somebody said, well, they'll put it— they'll send it to you on a taxi.
Speaker:They don't send it to you on a taxi, but that was what we were
Speaker:told. Well, they'll send it to you UPS. And that
Speaker:kind of made sense. They didn't mention Amazon.
Speaker:Amazon didn't exist in those days.
Speaker:But the day goes on and on, and there's no taxi,
Speaker:and there's no UPS. And in fact,
Speaker:by late afternoon, I'm just devastated.
Speaker:And I'm driving around the neighborhood looking for UPS trucks.
Speaker:And there aren't any. And
Speaker:our church was going to— was doing the
Speaker:concessions at a I believe it was a horse show at the Ellington
Speaker:Agricultural Center that night. And we were all going to go.
Speaker:But I get home and Margaret says, well, Arwin
Speaker:has misbehaved. In her defense, she was too.
Speaker:Arwin has misbehaved. And so we're not going. You and Isaac go.
Speaker:And I remember on the drive to the horse
Speaker:show, Isaac sitting beside me. I
Speaker:think he was 5 at the time. I just remember
Speaker:going, God,
Speaker:if that luggage doesn't come,
Speaker:I don't know how to hear from you. I don't
Speaker:know your voice. I don't know what it sounds like.
Speaker:What am I going to do? Well,
Speaker:we stayed at the horse show for about an hour and came back home. And
Speaker:when we got back home, I knew something had happened. And
Speaker:this is what had happened. Not long after we had
Speaker:left, Margaret had gone,
Speaker:if this luggage doesn't come, I don't know what we're going to do.
Speaker:I'll call the airport. So she picks up the phone to call the
Speaker:airport and the Holy Ghost goes,
Speaker:No. She hung it back up. About 5 minutes later,
Speaker:it rings. It's the airport.
Speaker:Your luggage is here. Oh, that's great! Yeah. She
Speaker:hangs it up and then she remembers, I asked for it to be
Speaker:brought to our house. What am I going to do?
Speaker:I'll call Wade Hutcherson. So she goes to the phone, picks
Speaker:up the phone to call Wade, and the Holy Spirit says, no.
Speaker:And she says, huh? What? I'm dialing a number.
Speaker:Yeah. She dials a number and she gets a busy signal.
Speaker:That is a thing that used to happen.
Speaker:And she gets this busy signal and the Holy Spirit goes,
Speaker:Uh-uh, uh-uh. And she goes, all right. She hangs up.
Speaker:A couple of minutes later, the phone rings and it's
Speaker:Wade. Have you heard about the— have you heard anything about the
Speaker:luggage? Yeah, the airport just called. It's there. I'm on my way.
Speaker:That's where things were when I got home.
Speaker:And about 10 minutes later,
Speaker:Wade is at the door And he picks up the
Speaker:luggage, brings it in the house, sets it in the living room
Speaker:floor. And we're, we're in the— we're just
Speaker:going crazy. We're in the kitchen going, we're going to move to Africa.
Speaker:This is, this is it. Yes. Now,
Speaker:that's not usually the way God speaks to me.
Speaker:But, and he doesn't always confirm
Speaker:himself that clearly. But He
Speaker:knew that we needed that because He knew
Speaker:what lay ahead. Over the next, I guess, 7 or 8
Speaker:months before we left, Arwen got
Speaker:spinal meningitis and spent 10 days in the hospital.
Speaker:And the first 5, she didn't know she was in the world.
Speaker:And we were told that we needed to raise
Speaker:$1,700 a month to be able to live over there. And then we got a
Speaker:call right before we left going, we might want to make that $1,900
Speaker:Thanks, Bruce.
Speaker:And we had raised 13. Amen. And you
Speaker:don't get all that you raised. But you know
Speaker:what? There was never a moment, there was
Speaker:never a moment that there was any anxiety,
Speaker:that there was any fear, that there was any
Speaker:doubt, because it is more precious than gold
Speaker:to know that you are standing in exactly the
Speaker:place that God wants you to be because you have
Speaker:received a word. from Him. It is an incredible
Speaker:thing to have that experience. We also heard
Speaker:Him regarding coming to Smyrna, and I'm not
Speaker:going to tell you about that, but we needed
Speaker:some— we needed a word for that. And basically
Speaker:knowing that we had a word is what kept me in the
Speaker:ministry. for 33 years here and 39 years all
Speaker:along. Because, you know, and once you know
Speaker:you've got a Word from God, what are you going
Speaker:to say? No, I don't want to do that.
Speaker:Well, you can say that, but
Speaker:it's never going to work out. Amen. A Word from God is
Speaker:a wonderful thing. And I don't regret any of it because
Speaker:the grace of knowing That you're in His will
Speaker:regardless of what things look like, regardless of what's going on around you, is
Speaker:priceless. Absolutely priceless.
Speaker:Well, so, okay, how do we— all right, you've
Speaker:sold me, or at least I hope I have. Maybe the Holy Spirit has.
Speaker:I want to hear a word from God. A word from God is a very
Speaker:valuable thing to have, an important thing to have. So how do you go about
Speaker:doing this? Well, first of all, let me quickly cover 3 ways that you do
Speaker:not go about Doing this.
Speaker:Because there are ways we're tempted to do— how to not discern God's voice.
Speaker:Follow your heart.
Speaker:And you know, that's advice that we hear all the time. Man, follow your heart.
Speaker:Go after your dreams. You know, you'll be—
Speaker:you won't be happy until you do this. There's a problem with that.
Speaker:Your heart's a liar and he's stupid. Amen.
Speaker:Jeremiah. Jeremiah. Jeremiah says, the heart is deceitful above all
Speaker:things and beyond cure. Who
Speaker:can understand it?
Speaker:Well, doesn't He give us the desires of our heart? Well, the psalmist does say
Speaker:that, but that's predicated on us taking delight in the Lord.
Speaker:And then He gives us new desires. I don't walk like I
Speaker:used to. I don't talk like I used to. Those
Speaker:things that I used to want Are not the things that I have a
Speaker:taste for anymore. It's been
Speaker:changed. Instead of wanting to
Speaker:go where the money is or go where the ease is, we
Speaker:want to go where He is.
Speaker:So that's one way to not discern the
Speaker:voice of God. Another way to not discern the voice of God is to trust
Speaker:your instincts. How many of you have good
Speaker:instincts? Am I the only? No, there's—
Speaker:yeah, okay. Yeah. Yeah, come on. Good sense of direction?
Speaker:Oh yeah. Y'all came by it honestly.
Speaker:These are my grandsons. They got their hands up. Came by it
Speaker:honestly. Good sense of direction. I have a good sense of direction. That
Speaker:doesn't mean that I haven't ended up in some really strange
Speaker:places where I wasn't supposed to be.
Speaker:Because— well, Proverbs says it this way, there's a way
Speaker:that seems right to a man, but its end is the
Speaker:way of death. And so, you know, you're in—
Speaker:you can feel it in your gut and go, yeah.
Speaker:But in the end, that's the way of death.
Speaker:And then one other one to not discern the voice of
Speaker:God is human reasoning.
Speaker:Got this figured out. This makes sense.
Speaker:Do you know there is so much in the way
Speaker:God does things that doesn't make sense
Speaker:that that's really the norm rather than it making
Speaker:sense? Paul says this, he
Speaker:says, to the world it's foolishness. God's
Speaker:wisdom is foolishness to the world. So when you're trying
Speaker:to figure out, well, you know, what should I
Speaker:do here? What it's all about? You're very unlikely to stumble
Speaker:across the voice of God. Isaiah says it this way, my
Speaker:thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways,
Speaker:declares the Lord. So when I'm using my thoughts to figure out the right ways,
Speaker:I don't really stand a chance doing it that way. The
Speaker:main reason why the religious leaders of the day did not
Speaker:recognize Jesus was because they thought they had
Speaker:figured out God's thoughts. Yes. They thought they,
Speaker:they had figured out His ways and they understood His
Speaker:ways. And so
Speaker:They weren't able to hear Him speak when He was right in front of them.
Speaker:Okay, well, let's look at some people who did hear God's voice and
Speaker:whip right through this. Moses, probably the first one that comes to mind
Speaker:at the burning bush. A
Speaker:couple of things to point out, pull from that story. First of all, he was
Speaker:at work. He wasn't at church. He wasn't in
Speaker:the synagogue. He wasn't sitting in the deer
Speaker:stand among the beautiful nature of
Speaker:God, you know, as you're getting ready to kill one of them.
Speaker:We got a bunch of deer hunters here, and they all love me, and I'm
Speaker:retired anyway.
Speaker:So— He was at work. He was
Speaker:doing his job. And
Speaker:He wasn't at worship. I don't
Speaker:think he had worship music playing in the background.
Speaker:He had sheep bleating— bleating—
Speaker:bleating in the background is
Speaker:what he had. And it was hot,
Speaker:hot enough to set a bush on fire, you know, and it might have been
Speaker:a little boring. You know, sheep are lovely
Speaker:little creatures, but I bet they're boring.
Speaker:Yes. They don't— they're not very good conversationalists.
Speaker:But he was paying attention. He was paying
Speaker:attention and he was open to the possibility that God
Speaker:might say something to him. He'd been
Speaker:doing this job for 40 years and God hadn't said anything to him. But he
Speaker:was open to the possibility that God might might want to say something
Speaker:to him. And he did. And
Speaker:God will speak in the most ordinary circumstances, but we, we have to be looking.
Speaker:We have to be open to the possibility. You know, I was saying, I feel
Speaker:like I don't hear that question that much anymore because some people may think
Speaker:that doesn't happen. That can't happen. Well, if you
Speaker:think that doesn't happen and that can't happen, then it's probably not going to
Speaker:happen. Amen. But if you're paying attention and
Speaker:you're open to the possibility— the
Speaker:disciples heard Him say, follow me, and they
Speaker:were at work. They were cleaning their nets when they heard that.
Speaker:And you may think, oh yeah, if Jesus comes by and says, follow me,
Speaker:I'm going. Yeah, but that was not— they didn't know who— they didn't
Speaker:really know who He was. They just— it resonated with them. I mean, it was—
Speaker:this is a— Unknown itinerant
Speaker:preacher from Shelbyville, you know, who comes by and says
Speaker:something. Can anything good come out of Shelbyville?
Speaker:How many of you are from Shelbyville?
Speaker:And oh, and we actually have one who admits it. 2 that admit
Speaker:it. So— oh no, you weren't admitting
Speaker:anything. You were just drinking. Okay.
Speaker:Yes! Yes, I see that hand. But something
Speaker:resonated inside of them. Elijah
Speaker:heard God speak. He had just called
Speaker:fire down out of heaven. He had killed
Speaker:the 450 prophets of Baal. He had broken
Speaker:the drought that was in the land. He
Speaker:prayed and the rains came and
Speaker:everything. But then the queen hears
Speaker:about all this and goes, well, I'm
Speaker:going to kill him. And he just falls
Speaker:off the cliff spiritually. I mean, he is
Speaker:rock bottom. Lord, I want to die. Take me home right now.
Speaker:But he was— so it's fair to say he was in a bad place spiritually.
Speaker:But he decided, I'm going to Horeb. Horeb.
Speaker:That's— God speaks to people there. So he actually
Speaker:made an effort. I want to— I've got to go talk to
Speaker:him because of what's going on in my
Speaker:life. And sometimes that's how God— sometimes that's how
Speaker:God comes to us. And
Speaker:how he's going to speak, though, we really don't know. I mean, he
Speaker:had called fire down out of heaven and there was a big fire, but God
Speaker:wasn't in the fire. There was a
Speaker:great wind that came through
Speaker:Horeb, through the area. And on the Day of Pentecost when God
Speaker:came, He came with a rushing mighty wind. And this rushing
Speaker:mighty wind— God wasn't in that wind.
Speaker:God didn't have anything to say to him in the wind.
Speaker:Then he heard a still small voice. A still small voice. And that was
Speaker:God. Most of the time in my life,
Speaker:the signs, if you will, by which God has
Speaker:confirmed himself have been
Speaker:signs that if I told you about them, you would go,
Speaker:huh? But they meant something to me. They were
Speaker:very personal. They were for me.
Speaker:And I knew he was speaking. Amen. to me.
Speaker:He can speak to us in our most despondent moments
Speaker:and in ways that we do not expect. Paul,
Speaker:Saint Paul, Saul wasn't
Speaker:expecting to hear from Jesus at all,
Speaker:but on the Damascus Road, he had a Damascus Road
Speaker:experience. And he was struck to the ground. It was
Speaker:kind of like this Bob Dylan thing. It was kind of like, he touched me
Speaker:and I just fell out. And then he raised me back up
Speaker:and I was changed. And I think that's what
Speaker:most of us have in mind when we think about
Speaker:God speaking to us.
Speaker:We think if God is going to speak to us, it's going to
Speaker:be Bam! Right there.
Speaker:Steven Curtis Chapman wrote a song many years ago
Speaker:called Waiting for Lightning. Standing on the edge of the truth, looking
Speaker:back at the view of what you used to believe, and from where you are,
Speaker:you can see you are far away from home.
Speaker:But you're waiting for lightning, a sign that it's
Speaker:time for a change. You're listening for thunder
Speaker:while He quietly whispers your name.
Speaker:And that's the way He's often going to speak to us. Now, if you get
Speaker:the lightning and you get the thunder, then you better get
Speaker:ready because
Speaker:there'll be an extreme awakening that'll come along
Speaker:with it and probably a very radical assignment. Amen.
Speaker:So you may not want to have lightning and thunder,
Speaker:but you still want to work.
Speaker:And He'll speak it to you. One more.
Speaker:Jonah. We don't know how he heard.
Speaker:We don't know how God spoke to him. We just know that God did speak
Speaker:to him, and he decided not to follow.
Speaker:And that's possible too. It's a dangerous thing.
Speaker:Just because we have heard doesn't mean we're going to
Speaker:follow. That's our responsibility. Hearing
Speaker:His voice carries a weight of responsibility
Speaker:with it. It's a wonderful thing. It's sweeter than honey.
Speaker:It's more valuable than gold. There's
Speaker:great reward in it. Amen.
Speaker:But it's heavy.
Speaker:I've had over the years many times,
Speaker:a number of times when people have come and said to me, God
Speaker:told me. And I said, okay, that's the end of the
Speaker:conversation. Now the only question is, are you going to do
Speaker:it? Yeah. If you
Speaker:believe God has said something to you,
Speaker:then everything else
Speaker:is irrelevant. That's the only question on
Speaker:the table. Am I going to do it? Well, how do
Speaker:His sheep learn to hear His voice?
Speaker:The same way you do with anyone. You just have to hear it again and
Speaker:again and again and again. and you begin to recognize it.
Speaker:You begin to know this is who this person
Speaker:is. Samuel didn't
Speaker:know God's voice when God first spoke to him. Samuel, I
Speaker:mean, God came directly and said, Samuel, and he went, oh, that must be
Speaker:Eli. Yeah. Until eventually it says
Speaker:he did not yet recognize the voice of God. But he
Speaker:got— he grew to where he did recognize the voice
Speaker:of God because he heard it over and over again.
Speaker:Reading the Bible is the proper place to start.
Speaker:There's no question about that. And if you want
Speaker:to say, well, where do I read? Well, read the
Speaker:Psalms. If you want to learn how to pray, read the
Speaker:Psalms. If you want to learn how to worship, read
Speaker:the Psalms. If you want to learn how to complain, read the
Speaker:Psalms. It's all in there. And it'll
Speaker:teach you a godly way of doing it and what it sounds like
Speaker:to talk with God and converse with God.
Speaker:I want to go somewhere.
Speaker:Yeah. Come on, sir. It's not just—
Speaker:yeah, let me go here.
Speaker:It's not just the sound of His voice.
Speaker:I mean, you know, if you're talking about a person,
Speaker:there's a distinctiveness to virtually everyone's voice.
Speaker:But with God, it's not just the sound of His voice because, like I say,
Speaker:it could be in the fire, it could be in the wind, it could be
Speaker:in the whisper, it could be in the lightning, it could be in the thunder.
Speaker:Yeah. So it's not so much
Speaker:the sound, and it's
Speaker:not just the information. Because yeah, one of the
Speaker:reasons to read the Word is if something comes to you and it clearly
Speaker:contradicts what's in the Word, then you know that's not the
Speaker:voice of God. But it's not just the sound. It's not just the information.
Speaker:There's a feel to His voice. There is
Speaker:a quality to His voice. There's a
Speaker:texture that resonates in your
Speaker:spirit when you hear it.
Speaker:And you say, well, how do you get to the place where you
Speaker:recognize that? How do you get to the place, you know, where you do
Speaker:know His voice? Well, you just start by
Speaker:doing what you know. That's right. You
Speaker:start by doing what you know He said. See, there's 2
Speaker:components here. There's Him speaking and us obeying.
Speaker:And you start— well, what has He said?
Speaker:Don't do anything complicated. Take the
Speaker:theological issues and put them over here and
Speaker:take the debates and put them over here.
Speaker:Start by what you know.
Speaker:And there is no debate about this. A new
Speaker:command I give you: Love one another as I have
Speaker:loved you, so you must love one another. Start there.
Speaker:Start there.
Speaker:And the more you do it— because let's just face it, there are—
Speaker:we don't like everybody. No.
Speaker:Oh, I love them, but I don't like them.
Speaker:Well, that's true, but it may also be that
Speaker:you don't love them.
Speaker:Don't understand them.
Speaker:Aren't willing to push through. You know, well, you know, they sit on that side
Speaker:and I sit on this side because they sit on that side.
Speaker:Or they don't agree with me or whatever. Start by what you
Speaker:know. I mean, it is a radical, life-changing
Speaker:experience to encounter someone
Speaker:that you don't like, you don't love, you'd
Speaker:just really rather have them out of your life. And
Speaker:God commands you, love them. You kind of go, well, all right, I'm going to
Speaker:give it a shot. And you've— something
Speaker:happens. You get face to face.
Speaker:You get real. And the next thing you know,
Speaker:you begin to find out what love is. You really do.
Speaker:Start there. Start there. God
Speaker:doesn't care so much about how much
Speaker:Scripture you know or how much theology you know as He does about how
Speaker:you treat people. Amen. He
Speaker:doesn't care about what your heritage is or your race or
Speaker:your ethnicity or which— in which country you hold
Speaker:citizenship. He cares about how you treat people.
Speaker:He doesn't care where you stand on the issues
Speaker:or what positions you may occupy before men.
Speaker:He cares about how you treat people.
Speaker:Yeah. Because, well, He said it over in Matthew,
Speaker:whatever you did for one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters,
Speaker:you've done for me. And whatever
Speaker:you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do
Speaker:for me. And it's about knowing Him.
Speaker:It's about getting to know Him. And the
Speaker:quality, the feel of His voice. Worship team, you
Speaker:guys can come on out.
Speaker:If you'll do what you know to do, just
Speaker:do what you know, as simple as it may seem,
Speaker:you'll learn to hear His voice. You'll learn to recognize His voice.
Speaker:He'll say more. Jesus said, whoever is faithful
Speaker:in a little, Can be trusted with much.
Speaker:And so when he finds you faithful to hear what you know
Speaker:to do, then he'll start giving you some— start
Speaker:opening some mysteries. He'll start giving some direction.
Speaker:He'll begin to open up more because you can be
Speaker:trusted with it.
Speaker:If you do not do what you know to do,
Speaker:You will follow the voice of a stranger.
Speaker:Would those who are going to pray with people come forward this morning? This hasn't
Speaker:obviously been a, uh,
Speaker:come down here and
Speaker:get saved type of sermon or anything like that, uh,
Speaker:but this is— we live in the kind of world where
Speaker:Almost everybody who came in here came in here with some need. And if the
Speaker:Holy Spirit is prompting you to come for prayer, these
Speaker:brothers and sisters would love to pray with you and
Speaker:help you hear God's voice. We're going to worship for a few
Speaker:minutes, give you the opportunity to do that. Would you stand, please?
