How Is Your Hearing?

Illus: One woman’s three year old daughter, Beverly, was playing with her toys. Her mother, who was folding laundry across the room, noticed Beverly's shirt was dirty and needed to be changed. After calling two times with no response, her mother gave her the full three name call: "Beverly Elizabeth Provost, did you hear me?" Beverly answered, "Yes, Mama. My ears did, but my legs didn't."

Many parents are thrilled to send their child off to join the Army, Navy, Marines or the Air Force. WHY? Because they have an ulterior motive. They know that when they join one of these branches of service, they are going to learn what obedience is.

Illus: A friend often told me about the problems he had getting his son to clean his room. The son would always agree to tidy up, but then wouldn’t follow through. After high school, the young man joined the Marine Corps. When he came home for leave after basic training, his father asked him what he had learned in the service. “Dad,” he said. “I learned what ‘now’ means.” (Contributed by Jan King, Humor in Uniform, Readers Digest, May, 1996, p. 174.)

Illus: Oswald Chambers said that the root of all sin is the suspicion that God is not good.

This is so true! The reason that children and adults disobey the Lord, is because the devil has brainwashed them to believe that the SINFUL LIFE IS FUN, and the CHRSTIAN LIFE IS FILLED WITH MISERY!

But reality shows us this is not true. Look around at all the lost people and observe the misery surrounding their lives.

The reason God tells us not to do something is for our good. He is not trying to make us miserable!

Illus: In Josh McDowell’s book called the “New man,” he illustrates how obeying God’s Word is for our good. He tells how a High School guy wanted to go swimming with his girlfriend at midnight. The neighbors down the block had a pool, and he knew it. So they ran down there, scaled the fence even though there were “No Trespassing” and “Do Not Enter” signs. Just as he hit the diving board, the girl yelled, but it was too late. There was only a foot of water in the pool. He broke his neck, and he’s in therapy to this day. He didn’t realize that the signs on the fence - the precepts - would have protected him. (Josh McDowell, New Man, March/April 1995, p. 55)

We tell our children to do certain things because we want the best for them, and certainly do not want to see them hurt in any way! But as parents, we get frustrated because they seem to have a hearing problem.

The problem of people not hearing what is said is not limited to children alone. Just think how much it must grieve our Heavenly Father, when He has given us the Bible, His Word, and we choose to not listen to His instructions.

I want to quickly look at some different types of hearers in the Bible. First there are the...

I. FAKE HEARERS

Jer. 5:21 “Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; WHICH HAVE EARS, AND HEAR NOT:”

What a blessing that God gave us ears with which to hear the sounds around us.

When we are young, we take for granted our eye sight and hearing. As we grow older, and eyes and ears are not as good as they once were, WE THEN START TO RECOGNIZE HOW BLESSED WE WERE WHEN THEY WERE FUNCTIONING AS THEY SHOULD!

HEARING LOSS IS A TERRIBLE THING! But while we all recognize it is a terrible thing PHYSICALLY, we do not recognize how terrible it is when someone has a SPIRITUAL HEARING PROBLEM!

Some people go to church each Sunday and appear to listen to the Word of God as it is preached and taught. But the fact is, they HEARD the message, BUT THEY DIDN’T HEAR!

Illus: President Franklin D. Roosevelt got tired of smiling that big smile, and saying the usual things at all those White House receptions. So, one evening he decided to find out whether anybody was paying attention to what he was saying.

As each person came up to him with extended hand, he flashed that big smile and said, "I murdered my grandmother this morning."

People would automatically respond with comments such as "How lovely!" or "Just continue with your great work!"

Nobody listened to what he was saying, except one foreign diplomat. When the president said, "I murdered my grandmother this morning," the diplomat responded softly, "I'm sure she had it coming to her."

Listen, many have FAKE HEARING PROBLEMS, this is why many of the folks can sit under some of these television preachers that preach things that this Bible does not teach, and no one will ever confront them about it. Why? Because they are not really listening to what is being said. If they did, they would know what they are preaching is not in the Scriptures.