God's Master Control Volume Slider

God’s Master Volume Control Slider

PPT 1 Series Theme verse

Galatians 4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you

Intro: Did you know that there is a master volume control that affects how much and how clearly God speaks to us, and moves on our behalf? Stay tuned that is what we are going to be speaking about today.

We have been in a series on Following the Master, and Galatians 4;19 has been our overall theme verse. By way of reminder, I repeat what we have said from the beginning, there is a vast difference between Christ being in you, and Christ being formed in you. One represents salvation, and the other that you are becoming like Jesus.

Years ago, we used to sing a chorus, which went like this:

Oh, I love you in the love of the Lord,

Oh, I love you in the love of the Lord

I can see in you the glory of my king,

And I love you in the love of the Lord.

This series has been about challenging us that others can see the glory of the Lord expressed through our lives. His personality, His traits, His nature. In short people seeing Jesus in us. That is exactly what Paul is praying for in Galatians 4:19

If we are going to have Christ formed in us we are going to have to model Him. Today I want to key in on following Him as a listener. Here is an insight of how Jesus was a good listener in the OT, here it is in 2 different translations:

PPT 2 text

Isaiah 50:4 The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of disciples, That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple (NAS)

Isaiah 50:4 The Master, GOD, has given me a well-taught tongue, So I know how to encourage tired people. He wakes me up in the morning, Wakes me up, opens my ears to listen as one ready to take orders. (MSG)

Jesus had a well taught tongue. It was taught to encourage others, not to rip them. He also had well trained ears.

He listened as a disciple. What does that mean?

You need to understand the relationship between teachers and students in biblical times. They listened eagerly, with the greatest respect. Not every teacher took everyone who wanted to be his student. When a student connected with a teacher, he did so, with a sense of honor and respect, he would take the teachers words as very reliable, better than his own thoughts.

There is a humble submission that is required of those who follow Jesus. It is more than that, there is a trusting hearing that is required of disciples. Jesus would say we need to become as little children. Little Children believe everything their parents tell them, that is how we should be with the Lord and the bible.

Protestant reformation brought a lot of good things, we are all ministers, we don't need a priest to interpret the word for us.

But it also degraded the office of spiritual leaders that they don't have the respect they should have.

I almost died spiritually in Bible college because I was taught to critique everything and everyone.

Critics never get spiritually fed except that they feed their critical spirit. That is a recipe for ruin. You cannot be fed spiritually if all you are doing is looking for what is wrong.

I stopped listening as an eager and trusting disciple, and became a critic, and I was miserable.

I lost the joy; critics are not very happy people.

I can easily illustrate what I am talking about, do you judge the bible or does the bible judge you? One attitude is that of a critic the other is that of a disciple.

Here is what Jesus said about being a listener:

PPT 4 text

Luke 8:18 Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him."

Consider carefully how you listen! What does that mean? In part it means you have a tender heart before the Lord.

PT 5 today's secondary message title

A True Follower has a tender heart before the Lord

I want to talk briefly about what that means today. Basically, it means, hearing in a way that affects your heart and causes you to respond quickly to what the Lord is saying.

PPT 6 tender heart verse

2 Kings 22:19 “Because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you, ”says the LORD.