Listening To God Series

Can You Hear Me Now?

Listening To God

Luke 10.38-42

Intro: New series about listening to God. Many times, people will ask questions like…”How can I know the will of God?” They are looking for an answer to a challenge, direction at a fork in the road, or whether or not to take an opportunity. What they are really asking is ‘How can I hear God speak?’

Illust:; A man who had been married to his wife for about 30 years begin to get frustrated at her not answering him. He suspected that her hearing was going, but she would not admit it, so he decided to do a test. When she did not know he was in the room, he stood behind her chair across the room and gently said, “Can you hear me?” She did not respond, so he moved a little closer and asked again. She did not respond, so he moved even closer. A fourth time, when he was now right behind her, he asked.

Suddenly she spun around in her chair and said with slight aggravation in her voice. “For the fourth time, Yes, I can hear you!”

Appl: I think that sometimes we don’t think God hears our prayers, when the truth is, we don’t hear His answers.

He who has ears, let him hear. (Matt. 13:9)

Jesus is fully engaged in His teaching ministry and his fame is growing. People are gathering to hear Him speak.

Earlier in this chapter He preached the parable of the good Samaritan, and sent out the 70 disciples to proclaim the kingdom of God. Now we drop in on Him on His road trip.

Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. (Luke 10:38)

She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. (Luke 10:39)

But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.’ (Luke 10:40)

But the Lord answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; (Luke 10:41)

but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her’. (Luke 10:42)

1. I Must Turn On My Heart.

but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her’. (Luke 10:42)

There were a lot of things that she could have been doing, but she wanted to do one of them far more than any of the others. She wanted to hear what Jesus had to say. This is the first secret. Do you want to know what God has to say to you? I mean do you really want to?

Jesus said that Mary had chosen the one thing that was necessary. Look at another place where this terminology is used.

One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD and to meditate in His temple. (Psalms 27.4)

Do you want to know what God says about you, your relationships, roles and responsibilities? If you do not want to hear him, you won’t. I have discovered that most of the time, I want to hear from God when I know what I want Him to say. I want God to be my puppet, not my Master. I don’t want to hear from Him, I simply want His approval on what I am doing. That isn’t going to cut it.

2. I Must Tune Out Interference.

I will come back to this a lot in this series. Our problem isn’t that God isn’t speaking, it is that we are not able to hear His voice over all the noise in our lives.

Illust:; The other day I was talking to Denise in the living room. All ten of our kids were in the room with us. The baby was crying, the one year old was whining, and two of the preschoolers were playing chase around the couch. One of my kids was playing “Bop It Extreme”, and the other was telling a blonde joke. I can tell you what all of the people in the room were doing, but I cannot tell you what Denise was saying. Finally, I had everyone leave the room. I was sitting right next to her on the couch, but could not hear what she was saying.

But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.’ (Luke 10:40)