Listen Up Sheep!

"Listen up sheep” part 1

John 10:22-30

https://youtu.be/6RfkCc5Tlyo

Something interesting happened:

? with my sermon this week

? I started off in one direction

? my introduction to that sermon became this sermon

Today’s sermon is not as organized as I like:

- I like to think the ideas came from God

- it seems to me that God directed this message

- in a different way than I had planned….

So, I wonder if:

- my messaged about listening to the voice of God

- was redirected by God.

- I hope so,

If we are NOT TRYING to listen to God what are we even doing??

I like what David said in Psalm 63…

“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.”

Psalm 63:1 (NIV)

Can you imagine:

- being in a desert with no water

- and you are thirsty

- and if you don’t get water soon, you will die!

David says…

? I want God like that,

? like if I don’t have God, I’ll die…

? if I came down to death or God, I’ll take God

Honestly though:

- God is not hard to find

- He’s not hiding from us

Of course, we want to hear from God:

? don’t we? Maybe.

? Sometimes?

? Always we would hope

Is it fair to assume??

o that every Christian wants to hear the voice of God.

o Do we desire to know

o His wisdom, guidance, and assurance.

Is it our purpose:

o Not only to know what God wants, but

o to do we deeply desire to do things that please Him

Do we really want to hear from God?

? or do we just want Him to approve of the plans

? we sometimes layout in front of Him?

We would all agree that we want to hear from God:

? But do we want to hear from Him when His plans are not ours?

? No one likes it when God shuts a door and says “NO” or “wait”.

We can agree with Isaiah 55:8-9 when God tells us:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your way and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Intellectually:

? We can agree God’s ways are higher and better

? But the question remains

? Do we really want to hear from God?

Have we been avoiding His voice?

? are there times and situations

? Where we play “hide and seek” with God

? In that God calls to us but we are not available.

Genesis 2 and 3 is a reminder to LISTEN UP when God speaks:

? Adam and Eve had everything

? perfect fellowship with God

? anything they needed at their fingertips

All they had to do was LISTEN and OBEY one rule…

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” - Genesis 2:15-17 (ESV)

Some of us would be fine not eating fruit:

? seriously though,

? Adam and Eve FAILED

? To trust and obey the voice of God

They believed:

- in the existence of God

- but they ignored His voice

- they doubted His word.

“(The serpent) said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die…..”

- Genesis 3:1b-4 (ESV)

You know what happened next:

- the ate the fruit

- they disobeyed God

- they listened to the voice of Satan instead

Rather than seeking God they hid from God:

“And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”

Genesis 3:8 (ESV)

That is exactly what is happening today:

? God’s creation has stopped listening to His voice