Look at…
(1) John 10:27, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
(2) I Samuel 3:9, 1 Samuel 3:9 Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
Notice especially the phrase “Speak Lord, thy servant heareth”
The phrase “SPEAK MY LORD” means thy servant is ready to listen.
Today we have a lot of good talkers but not many good listeners.
Some will say, “If God spoke to me, I would listen.”
In a few minutes I want to show you how God speaks to us each day, and many are not listening to Him.
One of the problems among people is that we hear but we do not really hear.
Franklin Roosevelt was very much aware of this problem.
Illus: The story is told of Franklin Roosevelt, who often endured long receiving lines at the White House. He complained that no one really paid any attention to what was said. One day, during a reception, he decided to try an experiment.
To each person who passed down the line and shook his hand, he murmured, "I murdered my grandmother this morning."
The guests responded with phrases like,
• "Marvelous! Keep up the good work.”
• “We are proud of you!
• “God bless you, sir."
It was not until the end of the line, while greeting the ambassador from Bolivia, that his words were actually heard. The ambassador leaned over and whispered, "I’m sure she had it coming."
God is speaking today but many are not listening.
Illus: There was once a television program on one of the networks called, “The Practice”.
It ran for eight seasons, ending its run in 2004 as one of television's most critically acclaimed and award-winning series, receiving Emmys, a Golden Globe, and even a coveted Peabody Award.
One of the stars on the program is Sharon Stone, who was a lawyer.
But she is different from all the other lawyers in the firm in which she worked because she occasionally talks about God talking to her.
• When she did this, everyone looked at her as if she is some kind of a nut that should be institutionalized.
• But at the risk of sounding like a nut myself, I want to align myself with her by saying I also believe God speaks to us.
There are many today who do not believe God still speaks to people today.
They believe this is something that took place in the Old Testament but not in the New Testament age.
Illus: In the book of Acts that talk about the New Testament age it has no closing at the end of this book. The reason it does not have a closing is because the New Testament age continues to our age.
God still speaks to us today in this New Testament age.
For example, the Word of God teaches us that God speaks to us at different times in different ways in this New Testament age.
For example:
God spoke to Saul on the road to Damascus.
• Look at Acts 9:3-4, we read, “And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"
• God spoke to Peter: "And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter; slay and eat. But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth. But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. And this was done three times: and all were drawn up again into heaven.”
The Lord Jesus is still SPEAKING to His children!
I personally have never had the Lord to speak to me in an audible voice but I can assure He speaks to me each day.
Illus: Now I have had:
• Former President Ronald Reagan spoke to me in an audible voice!
• Actor Chuck Connors (Rifle man) spoke to me in an audible voice!
• Former Senator Ted Kennedy to spoke to me in an audible voice!
• Senator Ernest Hollings spoke to me in an audible voice!
• Governor Henry McMaster spoke to me in an audible voice!
But I have never had the Lord Jesus to speak to me in an audible voice! If I did it would be the high light of my life!!!
But I can say the Lord has spoken to me many times in many ways.
Look at Hebrews 1:1-2 says, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, (But notice) Hath in these last days (We live in the last days) spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.”
We all need to be ready to say each day, “Speak Lord, thy servant heareth.”
HOW DOES GOD SPEAK TO US?
I.HE SPEAKS TO US EACH DAY THROUGH NATURE.
Psalms 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
In His handywork He speaks to us daily and tells us a lot of things about this wonderful God we serve.
For example:
Nature tells us that God’s favorite colors seem to be blue and green.
• The blue sky reveals God must love blue.
• The green grass and trees reveal God must love green
• The beautiful flowers reveal God love flowers.
Illus: Have you noticed you can walk into a field that humans do not normally travel, and you will find all kinds of flowers that NO MAN OR WOMAN has ever seen before.
WHY WOULD GOD PLANT THOSE FLOWERS IF NO ONE CAN SEE THEM?
God SEES THEM!
God loves flowers!!!
• The regularity of the seasons reminds us of God’s sovereignty and faithfulness.
The Bible states that the seasons are fixed and managed by God. Psalms 74:17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter.
The patterns of weather, governed by God, also supply crops for physical nourishment:
Psalms 147:18 He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.
Let me give you another translation of that verse that is clearer, “He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills. He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call”.
Nature reveals to us God’s beauty, glory, power, wisdom, presence, creativity, and, most of all, his loving care.
Jesus reassures us that our Father in the heavens cares for the little sparrows and he cares for us.
Our natural environment doesn’t just teach us about Creation in an academic sense, although it can. It leads us towards an appreciation of God’s glory
God speaks to us through NATURE.
As we enjoy nature each day we need to have the attitude, “Speak, for thy servant hearth”
He speaks to us daily through nature.
But also…
II. HE SPEAKS TO US THROUGH PRAYER
God speaks to us through prayer daily, but the reason He does not speak to some folks through prayer is because they DO ALL THE TALKING and never give Him a chance to SPEAK.
Illus: Have you ever talked with someone, and you could not get a word in edgewise?
Isn’t that frustrating?
They use ten thousand words for what could be said in 150 words. They start to talk and do not know when to stop talking!
That is exactly what many do with the Lord Jesus. The only kind of praying they know anything about is where they do all the talking and the Lord does all the listening.
Good relationships are based on TALKING and LISTENING!
Illus: Good relationships cannot survive with only one doing all the talking.
For example:
• The best marriages are where both people sit down and talk and listen to each other
• The best parents are parents that sit down and talk and also listen to their children
• The best friends are the ones that sit down and talk with their friends and listen to their friends.
• The best Christians are Christians who sat down and talked with the Lord about their problems, but they sit at His feet and give Him a chance to talk to them
Those, whose prayer life consists of TALKING but not LISTENING, do not know a thing about God SPEAKING TO THEM because they never give Him a chance to talk to them.
Illus: The story is told of a company that wanted to hire someone that could communicate through Morse code.
A half dozen people showed up for the job, but as they sat in the waiting room talking and laughing with each other waiting to be interviewed, you could hear someone typing Morse code in the background. It was a noisy place, but you could hear it if you listened.
After they sat there for about a half hour, another man came into the waiting room to apply for the job. He sat down in this noisy room and in a few minutes got up and went into the personnel manager’s office.
In a few minutes the personnel manager thanked everyone for coming but announced that the last man that came to apply for the job had been hired, and they could leave and go home.
This caused a lot of ruckus among the other six that came to apply for the job, since they never had a chance to be interviewed.
The personnel manager said, “I am sorry if you think this was unfair, but the whole time you were waiting in the outer office we have been sending a message using Morse code that said, ‘If anyone can hear this message, come into the office, the job is yours.’ He heard the message and he got the job.”
We live in a noisy world, and if you are not willing to spend some time with the Lord in quietness, you are never going to be able to hear the Lord.
Before television, radio, computers and the telephone, people spent a lot more time waiting at the feet of Jesus.
But today, the first thing many people do when they get home each evening is…
• Get on the telephone and talk to their family and friends.
• Get on the computer and chat with their friends.
• Listen to the radio and television.
Until it is time for them to go to bed.
They do not know anything about a QUIET TIME WITH THE LORD.
No wonder that many do not believe the Lord SPEAKS TO US TODAY BECAUSE THEY NEVER GIVE HIM A CHANCE!
As we pray each day we should pray with the attitude, “Speak, for thy servant hearth”
He will speak to us daily through prayer.
I. He speaks to us through NATURE
II. He speaks to us through PRAYER
And also…
III. HE SPEAKS TO US THROUGH HIS WORD
The Bible is an amazing book!!!
You can read WORD OF GOD all your life and God will continue to speak to you about things you never knew were there.
Illus: A preacher, ending his sermon, announced that he would preach on Noah and the Ark on the following Sunday and gave the scriptural reference for the congregation to read ahead of time.
A couple of mean-streaked boys noticed something interesting about the placement of the story of the Flood in the Bible.
They slipped into the church and glued two pages of the pulpit Bible together.
On the next Sunday, the preacher got up to read his text. "Noah took unto himself a wife." he began, "and she was" – he turned the page to continue -- "three hundred cubits long, fifty wide and thirty high."
He paused, scratched his head, turned the page back and read it silently. Then he looked up at his congregation and said. "I've been reading this Bible for fifty years, but there are some things it seems like I never read before." (Loyal Jones -The Preacher Joke Book, edited by Loyal Jones, p. 72.)
Many folks’ time spent in the Word of God is like their prayer life. They only spend a short time in studying God’s Word.
You would be surprise the Christians who do not practice daily reading of the scriptures.
Illus: Unfortunately, many American homes, yes even so-called Christian homes, are like the one in which the little girl pointed to the Bible on the mantle that was never opened, and said to her mother:
• "Whose book is that?"
• Her mother quite startled by her daughter’s question replied, "Why honey, don't you know? That is God's book!"
• The child, demonstrating that she had a very practical mind, said, "Don't you think that we had better give it back to him? No one around here ever reads it."
Because people today are not spending time in the Word of God and allowing the Word of God to speak to them, we have an ignorance problem when it comes to what this Bible teaches.
Illus: A Sunday school teacher was giving a little quiz, and said to a little boy in her class…
• "Can you give me the geographical location of Dan and Beersheba?"
• He said, "You mean they are cities?"
• She said, "They certainly are."
• He replied, "Well, I thought they were husband and wife, like Sodom and Gomorrah."(Rev. George Goldtrap, Madison, TN - The Preacher Joke Book, edited by Loyal Jones, pp. 54-5.)
Those who will spend time IN THE WORD OF GOD will find that GOD STILL SPEAKS TO US THROUGH HIS WORD.
Listen, God's voice is heard to those who value His voice so much that they shut the whole world out to get alone and wait for Him.
• God's voice came to Moses when he was shut up alone with Him.
• The word came to John the Baptist alone in the wilderness.
• The voice of God came to Jacob in the desert of Haran.
• God spoke to Joshua when he went out of the camp, alone, before Jericho.
• The voice of God came to Paul, alone in the desert.
God speaks to us through the Word of God if we get out of the noise of the World and listen.
Illus: Before refrigerators, people used icehouses to preserve their food.
Icehouses had thick walls, no windows and a tightly fitted door.
In winter, when streams and lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice were cut, hauled to the icehouses and covered with sawdust. Often the ice would last well into the summer.
One man lost a valuable watch while working in an icehouse. He searched diligently for it, carefully raking through the sawdust, but didn't find it. His fellow workers also looked, but their efforts too, proved to be futile.
A small boy who heard about the fruitless search slipped into the icehouse during the noon hour and soon emerged with the watch.
Amazed, the men asked him how he found it.
"I closed the door," the boy replied, "I laid down in the sawdust, and kept very still. Soon I heard the watch ticking."
God still speaks to us through His Word!!!
God still speaks to us…
I. Through Nature
II.Through the Word of God
III.Through Prayer
As we pray each day we need to pray with the attitude “Speak Lord, for thy servant hearth”
He will speak to us daily through Prayer.
But also, through…
IV. GOD SPEAKS TO US THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT
One of the things I appreciate about this age of technology is the GPS we have in our cars.
As a pastor I use to have to carry with me a map to find homes that I was looking for.
Now all I have to do is say, take me to a certain address and this GPS will take me exactly where I need to go.
This gives me turn by turn navigation when I am lost.
Did you know Jesus said that the kingdom of God is within us?
This means that everything we need is inside of us. In our spirits is the wisdom of God. The Holy Spirit will communicate to us through an in us.
Look at Luke 17:20-21 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
How can you know the Holy Spirit is speaking to you?
Illus: A Christian couple was looking for a church they could attend that preached and taught the Word of God in Columbia, S.C.
When the couple left and was going home the wife asked the husband what he thought about the church service.
He said, I do not like this church. The preacher in his sermon exalted himself not the Lord Jesus.
The Holy Spirit revealed this to the husband.
This is often done in a religious way by sharing what type of visions they’ve had or by trying to exalt themselves in the eyes of others.
But when the Holy Spirit is truly speaking to someone, the Spirit will always exalt Jesus Christ.
This is why 1 John 4:1-3 is so important. It states: Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.”
Also the Bible tells us in John 16:13-14 Jesus states: ‘’When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
Our attitude each day we should be led of the Holy Spirit, and we should be saying to the Holy Spirit, “Speak, thy servant heareth”
God speaks to us through:
I. Through Nature
II. Through the Word of God
III. Through Prayer
IV. Through the Holy Spirit
But also…
V. HE SPEAKS TO US THROUGH CIRCUMSTANCES
A good case of this is in the Book of Jonah.
Look at Jonah 1:1-2, we read, “Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”
These two verses of scripture tell us a great deal about Jonah.
We need to consider three things:
1) God spoke to him
2) God told him where to go, Nineveh, that great city
3) God told him what to do…to cry out against it for their wickedness
But Jonah, instead of obeying God, went just the opposite way.
There are folks who say, “If God were to speak to me verbally, I would do whatever he asked me to do!”
But notice, God spoke to Jonah, and he did the opposite of what God told him to do.
God spoke to him, and he did not get the message until God SPOKE TO HIM THROUGH CIRCUMSTANCES!
When Jonah was on that ship running from God…
• When the wind began to blow
• When the waves began to rage
• When the ship was about to sink…he decided he had better listen to God.
Listen, God knows there are folks the only way He can speak to them is through circumstance in order to get their attention.
• Sometime through sickness
• Sometime through death of a loved one.
• Sometimes God has to snatch their security blankets away from them and they lose their job or life savings.
• Sometime through the prisons.
Sometime God has to speak through tragedy because it is the only way God can speak to them.
I want to tell you that no matter how big you might think you are, GOD CAN SPEAK TO YOU AND GET YOUR UNDIVIDED ATTENTION!
When they wanted to know who on the ship had brought the curse of God on them, JONAH KNEW GOD HAD HIS NUMBER.
Look at Jonah 1:8-11 Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou? And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.
Jonah knew God had his number and Jonah said for this ship to be save you must cast me into the sea.
Listen, God knows there are folks that He must speak to through circumstance in order to get their attention.
Most of the times we do not want God to speak to us through CIRCUMSTANCES!
God speaks to us through…
• Nature
• PRAYER,
• HIS WORD,
• And CIRCUMSTANCES.
Conclusion:
Why do we need the Lord to speak to us?
We need God to speak to us so we can make the right DECISIONS IN LIFE.
For example, consider the life of Moses…
Moses and the people were in the desert, but what was he going to do with them?
• They had to be fed and feeding 2 or 3 million people requires a lot of food. According to the Quartermaster General in the Army, it is reported that Moses would have to have had 1500 tons of food each day.
• Besides, you must remember that they were out in the desert, so they would have to have firewood to use in cooking the food. This would take 4000 tons of wood daily.
• And oh yes! They would have to have water. If they only had enough to drink and wash a few dishes, it would take 11,000,000 gallons!
• And then another thing! They had to get across the Red Sea at night. Now, if they went on a narrow path, double file, the line would be 800 miles long and would require 35 days and nights getting through. So there had to be a space in the Red Sea, 3 miles wide so that they could walk 5000 abreast to get over in one night.
• But then, there is another problem... each time they camped at the end of the day, a campground two-thirds the size of the state of Rhode Island was required, or a total of 750 square miles long........ Think of it! This much space for camping.
Do you think Moses figured all this out before he left Egypt?
I think not!
You see, Moses believed in God. God took care of these things and DIRECTED HIM!
God spoke to him and helped him make every decision that had to be made. And God will do the same for us today if we will let Him SPEAK TO US.
Our God is an Awesome God!! So, when the road you're traveling on seems difficult at best, just remember GOD WANTS TO SPEAK TO YOU AND DIRECT YOUR LIFE!
God speaks to us through…
• Nature
• PRAYER,
• HIS WORD,
• And CIRCUMSTANCES.
