29.5.11
THE IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING INTENTLY TO GOD
INTRO
What do you hope for when you come to Church on a Sunday? I expect for most of us who come we hope to hear from God. We want to be able come away at the end of a service having heard something that changes the way we see things or feel about things. We want to know the impact of what it means to hear from God.
There are, of course, two sides to this: the speaking and the listening. And in the same way as a bridge must rest on both sides of a crossing, the listening is as essential to hearing from God as is the speaking. It was for this reason that Jesus often Jesus finished his parables with the words, 'He who has ears to hear let him hear'.
How good are we at listening for the still small voice of God? How able are we to recognise his voice when he speaks?
ILLUSTR
Some of you hear are bird watchers. I imagine that when you are out walking away from the traffic others will be oblivious to what you can both hear and recognise. You will know the difference between the call of a blackbird and a chaffinch, or a robin and a blue tit. You might hear the sound of a bird far off and know what it is. Others of us may not even be tuning in to their voices.
APPLIC
I expect we all miss what God is saying at times because we either haven't learned to listen well, or we filter out what God may be saying to us because it doesn't suit us.
What might God be saying to us today?
READING Luke 8:1-18
POINT
Jesus knew the value of listening well. On this particular day Jesus did not only say, 'Consider carefully how you listen', he also taught this in the parable also.
APPLIC
We are all inclined to filter what we listen to. We bin some of it, tune out others and select that which suits us. If we were to analyse what we were doing it would reveal a great deal about who we really are as people.
Thesis: We need to listen well to what God is saying if we are to know the truth and be strong in faith.
We do not listen well when:
i. What is being said does not suit us
ANECDOTE
Here is a transcript of a conversation between my three year old grandson and I this week:
Help put away the toys please
No
Come on Aaron please help to put away the toys.
No
Tell you what, you help put away the toys and you'll get a treat afterwards.
I'm tired.
Your stubborn
No I'm not stubborn
Oh yes you are
No I'm not stubborn
Do you know what stubborn means?
No
Stubborn is when you won't do what someone asks and you won't change your mind about it.
I am stubborn then.
APPLIC
This is the most straightforward application of the seed that fell on the path = the hard ground.
People, including the likes of ourselves, hear the Gospel, or a call to some new act of obedience in the Christian life and do nothing in response because 'it doesn't suit us'.
We can speculate as to why,
We do not listen well when:
ii. We want to believe something other than the truth is the truth
The filters: Experience good or bad, theology and shades of interpretation.
ANECDOTE
Whenever I book a hotel I check reviews first on internet sites. Liz and I booked a hotel Winchester so that we could attend my brother's wedding -- I read the reviews and the cheapest hotel we could find had reviews that didn't seem all that bad.
The stay was both awful and incredibly funny. I nearly got scalded in the shower. The one next to it had an 'out of order sign on it'. I complained to the staff and they simply moved the sign from the one door to other door! I tried the other shower and it was just as bad. The following morning at breakfast someone walked through the breakfast room with just a towel around his waist. He too had had the same experience and was given the privilege of using the staff shower on the other side of the breakfast room! There were numerous other incidents that took place that left us in fits of laughter.
I added to the reviews!
POINT
I was motivated by my budget and I chose to believe that it couldn't be that bad. The accommodation was poor, but the experience was hilarious.
POINT
The same can be said of cars:
One person can buy a car on the basis of a recommendation and regret the decision because their experience is different.
Another can avoid buying a car, based on one person's bad experience but miss a perfectly happy experience.
APPLIC
The same can be said of faith and practice.
We make our choices only after filtering the options through our experiences, or through anecdotes we hear from others, OR BY WHAT WE WANT TO BELIEVE.
Sometimes this makes us extremely enthusiastic when our experience is good or extremely cautious if our experience is not so good.
APPLIC
The questions we should be asking are:
'What is God saying? 'What is the truth?' 'What does God want me to do with this?
If we become too rigid and fixed in our point of view we can fail to listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to us about what is being said, and fail to understand each other well.
Proverbs 18:13
He who answers before listening--
that is his folly and his shame.
Why? Because we have already made up our minds about something and we will not be dissuaded. We are unteachable.
Instead: James 1:19-20
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak
We do not listen well when:
iii. When we hear what God is saying but make wrong assumptions about it
READ Acts 20:22-24
Paul is being compelled by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem.
READ Acts 21:10-14
Agabus prophecy confirms this, but see how the people respond.
It reminds me of Peter attempting to stop Jesus from going to Jerusalem and the cross.
(Paul's desire 'that I may share in his suffering, becoming like him in his death')
APPLIC
When we hear God speaking to we need to think deeply and prayerfully about it so that our response is an appropriate response, whether in a sermon or a prophetic word.
LISTENING TO PROPHETIC WORDS
In addition to the people who heard what Agabus said I'm not sure that Agabus himself interpreted rightly what God had revealed.
APPLIC
Those of us who have some experience of God speaking either through us or through others with prophetic words should be discerning.
There is a time to speak and a time not to speak when God reveals something.
* We should ask what God wants us to do with what God has revealed.
* We should also weigh what is said -- i.e. understand what God would have us do in response to it.
POINT
Most of us do not have much experience with the New Testament gift of prophecy.
It is basically something that God reveals to one person for another.
It is a sign gift that alerts someone to the fact that God knows them.
Its primary aim in the Church is to encourage:
I Cor 14:3 'But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort'
Prophesying and Prophets
In the New Testament there was a distinction between the ministry of the Prophet and the gift of prophecy.
1 Cor 14:31 'For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged.
Clearly, not all who prophesied could be called prophets.
(Any more than a person who can change a tap washer could be called a plumber)
APPLIC: So, when listening to either preaching or prophesy, be discerning. Listen well!
LISTENING WELL INVOLVES LISTENING TO OURSELVES AS WELL AS TO GOD
The heart at any given time:
Resistant, impulsive, preoccupied.
We do not listen well when:
iv. We are so preoccupied with other matters that we can hardly focus on what God is saying
We should not underestimate how difficult it is to shift the strongholds of our thinking that prevent us from being impacted by hearing from God.
Our sense of security is very high on our list of needs. And our tendency to be anxious as a result of this can dominate our lives.
What might be amongst those thorns and thistles that occupy the ground of our hearts where God's word should be planted, growing and bearing fruit?
Legitimate: Employment and income issues; health issues; needs of the family or close friends.
Not legitimate: Driven by envy so that we must have what the neighbour has got, or even better. (It's better to have prayer ministry or counselling to reveal where it comes from)
Challenge
How well are you listening this morning?
CLOSING -- THE GOAL IS THAT WE RECEIVE GOOD SEED INTO GOOD SOIL -- GOD'S WORD INTO OUR LIVES
POINT
Having a heart that is like the good soil that produces a harvest is not to do with our nature. It is to do with our choices.
Good soil is no good for farming if it is hard and untilled
We need to be receptive
Good soil is no good for farming if it is too shallow
We need to be thoughtful and discerning
Good soil is no good for farming if it is full of weeds
We need to deal with those matters we are preoccupied with that sap our energies
WHAT HAS GOD BEEN SAYING TO YOU THIS MORNING?
HOW WELL HAVE YOU LISTENED?
