Hearing God s Voice Jonathan Rue John 10:1-10, 27 How to Hear God Series 01/17/10

Transcription

1 Hearing God s Voice Jonathan Rue John 10:1-10, 27 How to Hear God Series 01/17/10 Have you ever had a moment in your life where you were wondering if God was speaking to you? Have you ever had something happen that was so odd and freakishly coincidental that you stopped and said God is this you speaking to me? God...is that you speaking? Now the notion that God can speak to us individually as people is not a wellaccepted idea in our culture today. It s very well accepted across the world, of course in other countries on other continents, but in Western modernized countries you re liable to be called crazy if you think God has spoken to you. The comedian Lily Tomlin said this Why is it that when we speak to God we are said to be praying, but when God speaks to us we are said to be schizophrenic? Lily Tomlin I think that s a very good question because a recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life showed that across the board 54% of Americans pray on a daily basis. That means 54% of people speak to God daily, but for those of us that would think that God might want to speak back, we re considered crazy. One of the reasons why we would be considered crazy is that there have been so many crazy people who have said that God told them to do crazy things. Jon Krakauer is one of my favorite authors and he wrote this book called, Under the Banner of Heaven. Image Banner of Heaven Book And in it he tells the story of two brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty. Image Ron Lafferty & Image Dan Lafferty 1

2 These two guys felt that they heard from God, they thought that they were prophets and that they had a revelation from God. And here is what Ron Lafferty said God told him. "Thus saith the Lord unto my servants the prophets: It is my will and commandment that ye remove the following individuals in order that my work might go forward. For they have truly become obstacles in my path and I will not allow my work to be stopped. First thy brother's wife Brenda and her baby, then Chloe Low and then Richard Stowe. And it is my will that they be removed in rapid succession." The Removal Revelation of Ron Lafferty This has come to be known as the removal revelation and the most disturbing part of this is that Ron and Dan acted on this revelation. They went into the apartment of one of their other brothers while he was not at home and they murdered their brother s wife Brenda and her baby, with a knife. Because they felt that God had told them to. They were later captured in Las Vegas and on their arrest they were completely remorseless. They claimed in a matter of fact manner that they were God s prophets and they had simply done what God told them to do. See one of the reasons why people think it is crazy to say that you have heard something from God is that so many people have missed it So Far and have used God as a way to authorize their own wickedness. But if you are a follower of Jesus or if you are investigating the Bible to see what following Jesus looks like you can t get away from the fact that Jesus talks about hearing from God constantly. And Jesus tells us that if we are going to be authentic followers of himself we must be listening to hear God s voice speak to us. This is not something that can be dismissed because some people get it wrong. But rather the witness of the Bible is not just that God does speak, but that it is incredibly important to listen for God to speak to us. The importance of knowing God s voice We re starting a new series tonight called How to Hear God s Voice Series Graphic Where we are going to investigate the ways that God speaks to us and how we can better listen and discern his voice in our lives. So that we don t go through life making every decision on our own, but that we are welcoming the wisdom, the direction and the desire of God for our lives into the way that we make decisions in our lives. I ve called tonight s talk, Hearing God s Voice, Let s pray 2

3 TITLE Hearing God s Voice Part 1 Jonathan Rue John 10:1-10, 27 How to Hear God Series 01/17/10 Well tonight I want to look at a passage of text where Jesus tells us about what it looks like to hear from God. And Jesus is going to draw upon the imagery and metaphors that were available to him in his day and time. And he was living in a culture where livestock was and essential part of their economic system. So he is going to compare himself to a shepherd and a gatekeeper and he compares us to sheep. So let s read this passage in John Chapter 10 verses 1-10 John 10:1-10 (TNIV) Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger s voice. 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them. 7 Therefore Jesus said again, Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. Now as we are trying to figure out how to discern what is the voice of God versus what is our own thoughts and ideas, what might be the voice of the enemy or other spiritual forces at work in the world? What is God s voice compared to any other voice it is very important that we ask two questions and the first is What does God speak to us? 3

4 What does God speak to us? What are the kinds of things that God speaks into our lives? And I want to point out two things in this text, the first thing that God speaks to us, is that God s voice speaks rescue to us. God s voice speaks rescue to us This is a part of how we can know it s God s voice is because it is a voice that speaks rescue. We see it in verses 1-3 John 10:1-3 (TNIV) Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And then Jesus makes it clear that the Pharisees didn t understand what he was saying he and so he clarifies further in verse 7. John 10:7-10 (TNIV) I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. So notice what Jesus is doing here, he s comparing himself to a couple of things. He says: you all are sheep in a sheep pen, caged in, constrained by a fence, and I lead you out of the sheep pen, out of captivity, out of slavery, out of bondage. I lead you out by my voice because I am the shepherd. But he also says, I m not just the shepherd, but I am the gate. And when he says I am the gate and that anybody else that tries to break into the sheep pen is a thief and a liar, he s saying that, I am the only person that can lead the sheep out of the sheep pen. I m the only way to rescue, the only way to freedom, the only way to get to the wide open expanses of the grazing fields is through me. If you want to know life and you want to know freedom, you have to come through me. This is one of those exclusive claims of Jesus that irritate people so much today. It s place like this that people want to correct Jesus, to tell him that you just can t say stuff like that. You can tell people to love one another, you can tell 4

5 be to be compassionate and help each other. But you can t tell people that you are the only way to freedom. That s offensive. But the problem is that this is exactly what Jesus is saying, and you can believe him and accept what he s saying, or you can reject it. But what you can t do is censor him, and cut out this part of his message, which is what many people try to do. They want parts of Jesus, but dismiss other parts that they don t find appealing. And when you treat Jesus that way, when you treat God that way, you are not just cutting out the parts you don t like, your cutting out all of him. Imagine if I told my wife, I love you, I want to be with you, but I don t like it when you talk. Could you please just not talk? Do you think that I would have a partial marriage? No way. I wouldn t have any marriage. So what God says to us, is first of all, always a message of rescue. This is the dominant theme that runs from the beginning of the Bible all the way to the end, that God is in the business of rescuing us. From sin, from slavery and bondage, from ourselves. God is rescuing us. But God doesn t stop there. The second thing that God speaks to us about, is life direction. God s voice speaks direction to us. God s voice speaks direction to us And this is where many Christians would say, no I don t think so. Jesus is the gate, he leads us into salvation, but he s not a shepherd he doesn t lead us on in life. But look at verses 4 and 5, where Jesus says this John 10:4-5 (TNIV) When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger s voice. And so Jesus is saying, I m not only the gate, I m also the shepherd that leads you out into the open fields of life and you follow me because you know my voice. Jesus not only rescues us into salvation, he then leads us through life by speaking to us. He doesn t just leave us on our own to try to figure everything out on our own. You guys are good for the afterlife, so peace out. But unfortunately many people have that conception of Jesus, that he s only the gate, he s only the way in to heaven, but the rest of life here on earth I m going to figure out myself. So I m going to figure out how to direct my life toward a meaningful career, I m going to figure out how to do marriage and relationships, I m going to figure out how I should spend my money. I m going to figure out how 5

6 I m going to handle difficulty and hard times, I m going to figure out how I m going to find meaning and fulfillment in my life. But that s not the way Jesus intended it and that s not the way Jesus tells us that it works. He says not only am I the gate I am also the shepherd and I lead you out of the captivity that you ve been in and into the unknown; the wilds of the fields, but you re going be safe because you listen to my voice. Think about Haiti for just a minute. If you ve been following the news at all, you ve heard people talking alot the fact that Haiti needs rescue, now. They need water, food, medical supplies, and search and rescue professionals to rescue people that are trapped. But that s not all they need. Haiti also needs long term help in rebuilding and lifting their country out of crushing poverty. To there is an immediate rescue needed, and a long-term training and development project that is needed. The same is needed for you and for me. We need immediate rescue from our sin, and we need long term guidance on how to rebuild our lives so that we are heading toward health, strength and stability. And that doesn t happen from a gate, it happens from a shepherd. In verse 14 Jesus says John 10:14 (TNIV) I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me. And so we can know that God s voice speaks rescue to us and God s voice speaks direction to us. That is the what of God s voice. But the second question that we have to ask is: how do we know the sound of God s voice? How do we know the sound of God s voice? How do we know the timbre, the cadence, the texture of God s voice speaking to us? In John 10 verse 27 Jesus lays out a 3-step process for discerning his voice. He says, John 10:27 (TNIV) My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. What Jesus is doing here is laying out 3 essential components that have to be in place for us to be able to know his voice to recognize what his voice sounds like. To be able to distinguish it and differentiate it off from other voices. The first thing is that we have to listen to him. 6

7 To know his voice, we must: Listen to him This may sound basic, but the fact is I bet there s many of us here in this room that don t take 10 minutes a week to listen to God. We might pray; we send prayers up to God, but we re doing all the talking. We re chatterboxes to God. We take every opportunity to turn the conversation in our own direction. Have you ever known someone like this? Have you ever had a friend that loves to hear the sound of their own voice and the only topic of conversation that they find interesting is the topic of themselves. So somehow a conversation about the earthquake in Haiti immediately becomes about how they were in an earthquake once. 35 minutes goes by and you finally get a chance to change the subject only to have them turn that toward themselves. Well, that s exactly what we do to God when all we ever do is talk, talk, talk. We re telling him all about our day and all that we want from him, but we never take time to listen to him. We need to stop talking and listen. We need to let God speak. There is something intimate about hearing someone s voice, just think about the difference between talking to somebody on the telephone and sending them an . You get no tone of voice in an , you get no warmth or a sense of their mood in an . But you do in their voice. Jesus tells us again and again, when he s speaking in parables, he say in Mark 4:9, whoever has ears to hear let them hear Mark 4:9 (TNIV) Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear And he s not just saying in a cryptic way, try harder to understand my riddles. He is saying listen to what I m telling you, in such a way where you are opening your life up to this truth. Secondly, to know his voice we must be known by God. To know his voice, we must: Be known by him Jesus says my sheep listen to me and I know them. What s he saying? Do you know the quickest way to close relationships with people? You say, I wich that I had close Christian friends, but nobody cares about me, nobody reaches out to me, how do I make close friends? Well, what I have found the best way to develop close friendship is through self-disclosure, opening myself up to someone and allowing them to know me. Not throwing up a wall of distance, and acting too cool for school, and wearing a facial expression that has back off written on my forehead. But opening up and sharing myself with a friend. 7

8 That s what Jesus is getting at here. If you want to know God s voice, you ve got to allow him into your life so that he can know you and what I don t mean is God knowing you because he knows everything. There are two ways to be known by God. King David points this out to us in Psalm 139, he opens that Psalm by saying Psalm 139:1-3 (TNIV) You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. This is the God you are omniscient, of course you know everything about me kind of being known by God. But David ends Psalm 139 in a different way, he says Psalm 139:23-24 (TNIV) Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. What David is doing at the end is opening himself up, it is not just an admission that God you know me, you know everything about me, it is an invitation to be known. God search me, know me I want to open my heart up to you. And that is what Jesus is getting at when he says my sheep listen to my voice and I know them. So Jesus tells us that to know God s voice, we ve got to listen to him, open our hearts to be known by him. And thirdly he says is that we must follow him. To know his voice, we must: Follow him We can t know God s voice if we don t intend to follow him. We can t know God s voice for our own personal benefit and gain. We re not going to hear his voice if we re asking because we ve gotten ourselves into trouble and we want God to save us in order that we could go our own way again. We aren t going to hear his voice tell us who is going to win the Super Bowl, so that we could place a massive bet on the right team and win lots of money. That is not the way that 8

9 God is going to speak to us. We have to be willing to follow Jesus. Jesus tells us in Mark 8:34 Mark 8:34 (TNIV) Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. And he says it again in the negative sense in Luke 4:27 Luke 14:27 (TNIV) Whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. See there s no way to be a disciple of Jesus and not to follow him, not commit your life to head after him. The only way to listen and know God s voice is if you re following after the shepherd who is calling. You can t hear God s voice in order to get personal benefit for yourself. You hear God s voice and know God s voice in order to know him more closely. Let s pray 9

10 Hearing God s Voice Jonathan Rue John 10:1-10, 27 How to Hear God Series 01/17/10 God...is that you speaking? The importance of knowing God s voice What does God speak to us? God s voice speaks rescue to us (v. 1-3) God s voice speaks direction to us (v. 4) How do we know the sound of God s voice? (v. 27) To know his voice, we must: 1. Listen to him 2. Be known by him 3. Follow him 10