Are you listening?
How well do you listen? For me, listening can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a little scatterbrained. I have the attention span of a squirrel or a gold fish, so paying attention isn’t one of my strong points.
God’s word tells us that if we are one of His children, then whatever we do, we are to do as if we were doing it for Him. Whatever we do, we are to do it to the best of our abilities.
God’s word teaches that we are to be and do the best we can in every aspect of our life for His glory.
Today, I want to talk about how well we listen.
I read that President Roosevelt hated greeting dignitaries in the receiving line at White House events. He felt that no matter what he said, people weren’t listening.
So on one such occasion, rather than saying hello or welcome, he started saying “I murdered my grandmother this morning.” Just as he figured, people responded by saying, great, wonderful, keep up the good work…
…however, the ambassador from Bolivia stopped after hearing President Roosevelt’s strange greeting and said, “I’m sure she had it coming.”
We have all experienced both sides of this situation as the one not listening or the one not being listened to.
I would submit to you that it is impossible to have a meaningful relationship with anyone without good communication.
Many of us lack good communication skills, especially listening skills.
I’ve heard it said, “what you say isn’t necessarily what they hear.”
How many times have you had a conversation with someone and a week later they say that you said “X” and you know that you said “Y”.
When I was a member of a military flight crew, there were rules about intercom communications when you were prosecuting a target. The pilot, tactical officer, and sensor operators had to work as a team in order to be successful.
Thus, when you spoke on the intercom you would identify who you were talking to, who you were, and then your information. For example, I would say, “Tac, sensor 1, I have a sonar contact on buoy 1 bearing 349 degrees.”
His response would be, “Sensor 1, Tac, roger contact buoy 1 bearing 349 degrees.”
Did you see how that works, I identified myself and who I was talking to and then gave the information. He, in turn, identified me and himself, and repeated the information, thus confirming that he had heard me.
If he had repeated it back to me incorrectly, I would have the opportunity to correct the error immediately.
Our ability to effectively communicate with each other within the body of Christ is of great importance. If we don’t understand each other, then Satan can exploit our misunderstandings to cause strife within the Church.
Have you ever been talking to someone who didn’t seem interested in anything you had to say, they are just waiting for you to stop talking so they can say what they want to say.
I don’t know about you, but that drives me nuts and that kind of conversation is not communication.
The key to any good relationship, man to man or God to man, is listening. As the old saying goes, “that’s why God gave us one mouth and two ears.”
(Expand on need for unity in the Church and how poor communications leads to strife)
Look at Acts 7:51-54, 51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.
52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, 53 who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”
There are basically two reasons a person doesn’t hear.
1. They are distracted or preoccupied with their own thoughts or problems.
2. The second reason is found here in Acts 7, we don’t like hearing something that causes us to have conviction.
As Christians, we must listen to God effectively. If we are going to have peace and joy in our walk with Christ, we must be able to hear Him.
I heard a preacher once refer to the three “C’s” of communication with God.
1. We must Comprehend and understand what God is saying.
2. We must have Confidence and trust what He says is true.
3. We must allow what He says to Change us.
Change in our lives can only come through conviction. The word conviction comes from two Latin words that literally mean “cause to see.”
Look again at Acts 7:51, 51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.
Resisting the Holy Spirit is refusing to see and hear God’s instructions for your life.
These men refused to see the truth and yield to the conviction that God was giving them.
We, as individuals and as a Body of Christ, need to hear exactly what God is revealing to us in His Word and then we must be obedient to the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
The men in Acts 7 had never allowed the conviction of the Holy Spirit to lead them to salvation.
But what about those of us who have been saved, what are the reasons we do not listen?
Mark 4:18-19 says, 18 Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, 19 and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
We Christians can fall prey to the same problem listed here, we allow the cares of the world to control us. We can allow people and things to have more influence on us than God.
If we fail to act on the things we believe about God, then the things of this world will eventually choke us until we become unfruitful.
The last garden I planted had a great start, but somewhere along the way the weeds and grass got ahead of me so that even if I wanted, I couldn’t separate the weeds and grass from my beans and squash.
If we aren’t careful, the same can happen to our spiritual lives.
Turn to Proverbs 22:17-19 17 Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, And apply your heart to my knowledge; 18 For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you; Let them all be fixed upon your lips, 19 So that your trust may be in the LORD; I have instructed you today, even you.
All of our life and focus should be on God and understanding His knowledge. You will only gain His knowledge when you start listening and stop: Quenching the Spirit when He is speaking to you.
1 Thes. 5:19 says, “do not quench the Spirit.” When metal is heated red hot it can be hammered and formed into a useful tool.
But once it is quenched it becomes hard and even brittle. When we quench the Spirit, we too can become hard and brittle toward the things of God.
When we quench the Spirit and fail to listen to God, we are saying, “I will do it my way.” If you think your way is superior or better than God’s way, then you are in for great disappointment.
Whatever you are doing in life, if you can’t support it with scripture, then it is contrary to His Word.
Jer. 10:23-24 says, 23 O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself;
It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. 24 O LORD, correct me, but with justice; Not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing.
We each need God directing our steps. That is the reason He sent the Holy Spirit. My heart’s desire this morning is that you begin to listen to God with both ears!
Our biggest problem in listening to God as individuals and as a nation is that we have given weight to our own opinion.
Leonardo da Vinci said, “The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.”
We need to remove all opinions and just listen to God.
Turn to John 16:7-14 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. 8 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
God specifically sent the Holy Spirit to guide us in “All” truth.
This morning, God is calling each of us to follow Him, guiding us to where we “need” to be, not necessarily where we “want” to be.
The Spirit is here to guide us, teach us, and rebuke us so that we can have His peace and Joy!
You will never arrive at His peace and joy if you do not listen and heed His word.
Who do you listen to? Some of us are better than others, but the truth is, we all listen.
The problem is our selective hearing, we choose who we listen to because we like what we hear.
Proverbs 12:15 says, 15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
But he who heeds counsel is wise.
We need to listen to “wise counsel.” The only true and wise counsel to stake your life on is found in God’s Holy Word.
Proverbs 14:12 says, There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.
The world today is replete with all manner of ideas of man, but they all end in destruction. This is why it is critical to listen to God’s word.
We must comprehend it, we must have confidence in it, and we must allow it to change us.
II Cor. 5:17 says, 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Listen to God, receive His counsel and allow the Holy Spirit to change you.
If you are saved, don’t fight the changes He is trying to make in your life. Listen and heed the conviction.
God’s changes are for your help, not hurt. We make our lives ship wrecked when we refuse to follow Him or hear His counsel.
Jesus died for us because he loves us and wants the very best for us.
The best life we can have is available to each of us, but only by hearing Him and following Him.
If you are convicted about anything this morning, understand one thing…
It is not my words that caused the conviction; it is the power of the Holy Spirit. Don’t let anyone or anything hinder your response.
Conviction is God’s way of helping you avoid disaster and destruction in your life.
Gal. 5:16 says, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
When we walk and live in the Spirit of God, we will not fall victim to the lusts of the flesh. God, through the power of conviction, has made it possible to walk in the Spirit.
But we must be obedient to the conviction. We must stop “acting” like we do not hear, we must stop ignoring and refusing to hear.
We must stop allowing ourselves or others to quench that conviction.
Will you hear God today? Can you hear Him calling you with love?
Jesus died for us and God raised Him up, thus accepting His sacrifice for our sins, the least we can do is listen and follow.
