Intro: There are so many things we hear at this time of year. Good sayings like “Merry Christmas,” Good songs like “Silent Night,” “I’m Dreaming of a white Christmas,” “Joy to the World,” “Jesus is born today,” Then you come across the not so good sayings, “Jerk,” “That was my parking place,”
The sounds of silver bells, Christmas carols, jolly folks, honking horns, yelling store shoppers, selfish children and adults. It makes you want to echo with
Charlie Brown, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?”
We are going to look at Mary and Joseph and see how the Lord spoke to them and that he desires us to listen to his voice especially in this busy crazy noisy season.
Luke 1:26-38 (Read)
The Son of God did not come to establish a nostalgic, family-oriented, commercially successful holiday. He came to rescue us from our rebellion and slavery to sin.
Mary’s life is interrupted by the voice of God’s messenger. This message that she would bear God’s child would bring a total disruption to her life. She had to know that life would be different. Life was no longer business as usual. She had heard the voice of God and everything was changing. Simeon even tells Mary that the joy she has in the soon coming baby will become pain for her. Luke 2:35 He was prophetically pointing to the death of Jesus.
Matthew 1:18-25 (Read)
Joseph was trying to do the right thing. He thought that his betrothed (fiancé) Mary had conceived out of wedlock. The scripture tells us that because he was a righteous man he was going to secretly divorce her. What we discover is that God spoke to Joseph and told him the divine plan. Just like Mary Joseph obeyed God’s voice.
God does not promise ease, comfort or simplicity in life. Daniel obeyed God and wound up in a lion’s den, Joseph obeyed God and ended up in a pit and a prison. God’s plan is not a roadmap it is a relationship. Do we have things that seem to be more important than hearing God’s voice?
I. What keeps us from hearing the voice of God?
A) Busyness (Psalm 4:4)
It is well known that a piano can go out of tune by hard use. The constant striking of the strings may loosen them & they need to be adjusted if they are to continue producing harmonious sounds. The same is true with our daily tasks. If we continue to go about our days constantly being struck by item after item, problem after problem, pressure after pressure, we will become like a piano with loose strings that have a hollow disharmonious sound.
Psalm 46:10 “be still and know that I am God.”
The message says it this way, “Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me, your High God, above politics, above everything.”
Sometimes we face trouble because we are disobedient and sometimes we face trouble because of our obedience like Mary and Joseph. What we must learn is to get out of the traffic of life for a rest stop with the Lord!
B) “Urgent”
Deer camp to get ready for, black Friday gotta get my game plan together, meals to cook, meetings to make. I have to do them because they are important.
C) Religious
Religion can be routine Christianity. This is where we go about our day, read our devotional books say a brief prayer yet never encounter the amazing life changing person and work of Jesus! A relationship with Jesus was never meant to be routine. Yes there should be disciplines and holy habits that form. Think about a relationship with your wife, husband, boyfriend, girlfriend etc that is just routine. It is dray and absent of life. You find yourself just going through the motions. No energy or joy just routine. Religion does not equal tradition. When we speak the gospel we are following the tradition of the apostles. When we worship how we tell the gospel that is a dangerous tradition. Rituals and routine are boring. The revelation of God in Jesus is amazing, gloriously beautiful, exciting, terrifying and downright good. If worship and serving God is boring to you I challenge you to ask God for a fresh glimpse of His glory before you come to corporate worship again.
II. What is Jesus trying to say to us?
A) He calls us to draw near to Him (relationship) (James 4:8) (John 15:7)
No one can do this for you. You can learn what others have learned about God through devotional books which I encourage. Before you pick up a devotional book pick up your Bible. God desires for you to draw near. Open a book of the Bible and ask God to speak to you. The Holy Spirit reveals all truth.
B) He challenges our way of thinking and living (Isaiah 1:18) (Isaiah 55:8-9) (Romans 12:1-2)
Jeremiah 33:3 So many today want their life and lifestyle encouraged and affirmed. Jesus did not encourage and certainly did not affirm the self-righteous lifestyle of the Pharisees. He didn’t accept the lifestyle of the woman at the well. He challenged the woman caught in adultery to go and sin no more. When we truly hear the voice of Jesus it will challenge what we think is important. If there is sin in our life he will reveal it and challenge us to repent.
C) He calls us to invest in His kingdom
Matthew 6:19-21
Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of Heaven”
III. How do I know it’s the voice of Jesus?
A) He will never contradict His written word
B) He will always call us to love Him and others
C) He will always call us to trust Him
IV. How do I begin to hear God’s voice?
A) Salvation – becoming a follower of the Good Shepherd opens our ears to His voice.
John 10:27 “My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me.”
B) Saturate yourself with God’s word
1) Learn about His character
Job 37:35 “God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things that we cannot comprehend.”
2) Learn about His commands
C) Set aside a time and a place to be alone with the Lord
Ravi Zacharias tells the amazing story of a young Christian in Vietnam. He writes, “I was ministering in Vietnam in 1971, and one of my interpreters was Hien Pham, an energetic young Christian. He had worked as a translator with the American forces, and was of immense help both to them and to missionaries such as myself. Hien and I traveled the length of the country and became very close friends before I returned home. We did not know if our paths would ever cross again. Seventeen years later, I received a telephone call. ‘Brother Ravi?’ the man asked. Immediately I recognized Hien’s voice, and he soon told me his story. Shortly after Vietnam fell, Hien was imprisoned on accusations of helping the Americans. His jailers tried to indoctrinate him against democratic ideals and the Christian faith. He was restricted to communist propaganda in French or Vietnamese, and the daily deluge of Marx and Engels began to take its toll. ‘Maybe,’ he thought, ‘I have been lied to. Maybe God does not exist. Maybe the West has deceived me.’ So Hien determined that when he awakened the next day, he would not pray anymore or think of his faith.
The next morning, he was assigned the dreaded chore of cleaning the prison latrines. As he cleaned out a tin can overflowing with toilet paper, his eye caught what seemed to be English printed on one piece of paper. He hurriedly grabbed it, washed it, and after his roommates had retired that night, he retrieved the paper and read the words, ‘Romans, Chapter 8.’ Trembling, he began to read, ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him. . . for I am convinced that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ Hien wept. He knew His Bible, and knew that there was not a more relevant passage for one on the verge of surrender. He cried out to God, asking forgiveness, for this was to have been the first day that he would not pray. . . . After finding the Scripture, Hien asked the commander if he could clean the latrines regularly, because he discovered that some official was using a Bible as toilet paper. Each day Hien picked up a portion of Scripture, cleaned it off, and added it to his collection of nightly reading. . . . What his tormentors were using for refuse — the Scriptures — could not be more treasured to Hien.” Eventually he was released from prison and fled to Tailand. Today he is a businessman in the United States, a radiant Christian and a living testimony to the power of God’s Word and its transforming power.
Conclusion: God will go to any length to speak to us. Are we willing to go to any length to hear from Him?
