God's Secret Series

Mary Williamson, a pediatric nurse in Kirbyville, Texas, once neglected to tell her new patient, a little boy, how his hospital room intercom worked. Soon his light flashed. She called his name and asked what he wanted. There was complete silence. She repeated herself. After a long pause he said, “Jesus, I hear you, but I don't see you. Where are you?” Mary says she couldn't wait to get to his room and give him a hug (Mary Williamson, Kirbyville, TX, Today's Christian Woman, "Heart to Heart”).

How often does our Lord long to get to His children and give them a hug, but they don’t even hear him, much less see Him. God loves to reveal Himself, and He is constantly sharing His secrets, but many believers are oblivious.

They’re so busy listening to all the other voices in the world that they’ve lost the art of listening to God. In fact, many believers fail to recognize His voice even when he does speak. Maybe, that describes some of you.

So how can you learn to recognize God’s voice? How can you discover the art of listening to God? How can you get in on some of His secrets? If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians 2, 1 Corinthians 2, where the Apostle Paul tells us how.

1 Corinthians 2:1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God [literally, the mystery of God or the secret of God] with lofty speech or wisdom (ESV).

Paul says, “I didn’t use lofty speech or wisdom when I proclaimed God’s secret to you.”

1 Corinthians 2:2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified (ESV).

That’s God’s secret! Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, which a simple-minded person can understand. However, most people fail to recognize it because it is so simple. Paul used simple words to explain the simple message of the cross, but he stumbled over his own words.

1 Corinthians 2:3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling (ESV).

Paul had been persecuted, imprisoned, and/or run out of town in every other city he visited before he got to Corinth. He was a scared, simple preacher, but with a powerful message.

1 Corinthians 2:4-5 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God (ESV).

I like what Warren Wiersbe says about this. He says, “[Paul’s] preaching was a demonstration, not a performance.” Paul’s preaching demonstrated the power of God to change lives. It showed the power of God to bring human beings into a right relationship with God AND with each other.

So if you want to know God’s secret to repairing broken relationships, then overlook the complicated formulas and flashy presentations, and…

LOOK FOR GOD’S SECRET IN A SIMPLE PACKAGE.

Watch for it to come from simple people, who know and love Jesus.

In 1976, the year Jimmy Carter was elected president, the Southern Baptists invited him and two others to speak to the 17,000 delegates gathered at their annual convention. Each had a five-minute time limit.

Billy Graham spoke first. A truck driver spoke second. He had very little education, but he found himself sitting beside the next U.S. president as Billy Graham spoke. He told Carter that he had never given a speech in his life and nervously confessed, “I don't think I can live through it. I just can't do it.”

Well, after Billy Graham gave his powerful talk, the truck driver rose to speak and stood silently before the audience. He took a glass of water that was handed to him and mumbled into the microphone.

“I was always drunk and didn't have any friends. The only people I knew were men like me who hung around the bars in the town where I lived.”

The truck driver went on to describe how someone told him about Christ. He became a Christian and wanted to tell others about the Lord. He felt comfortable in barrooms, so he decided to talk to people there. The bartender told the new Christian he was a nuisance and bad for business, but 14 of his friends became Christians as a result.

Reflecting on the speech, Carter writes, “The truck driver's speech, of course, was the highlight of the convention. I don't believe anyone who was there will ever forget that five-minute fumbling statement—or remember what I or even Billy Graham had to say” (Jimmy Carter, Sources of Strength, Meditations on Scripture for a Living Faith, Times Books, 1997, pp.71–72).