Jiminy Cricket - part 1
Thesis: We need to know the difference between God’s voice, Satan’s voice, our own voice, and others voices. It is a matter of life and death. One voice brings life, resurrection, peace and the others bring death, destruction, and chaos.
Illustration- Pinocchio clip
Introduction:
We must be able to distinguish right from wrong! Each of us has been given a conscience by the Lord to guide us. This still small voice will guide us correctly if we listen! Pinnocchio always got into trouble by not listening to his God given conscience Jiminy Cricket! How about you? Do you listen to His voice or other voices?
There are many voices fighting over control of your mind, your will, your conscience. Some of them scream at you to do this and that. Others are more quiet and gentle. But how do you know which one is the right voice? How do you know that you have correctly listened to the right voice? Especially in those tough decisions?
The Battle is on for you mind whether you want to believe it or not. LaHaye states:
While each generation has to face its own challenges (Acts 13:36), the ideas and beliefs battling for the minds of every generation have much in common. Each generation has to decide if Christ is superior to Nietzsche; if God is smarter than Plato; if freedom is better than totalitarianism; if private property is superior to socialism; if creationism is superior to evolution; if purpose and design are superior to chance; if truth is better than falsehood; if beauty is better than ugliness; if love is better than hate; if good is better evil; if right is better than wrong; if heaven is better than Hell; if moral absolutes are better than moral relativism; if adoption is better than abortion; if self-control is better than licentiousness; if individual responsibility is better than victimization; if patriotism is better than globalism (38).
The Christian is obligated to bring all these voices to Christ for insight and enlightenment. Paul tells us in Romans 12:2:
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (NKJV)
2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (NIV)
2Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. (NLT)
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you (The Message).
The truth is this, what voice you listen too and respond too is the one that will give you life or death, curses or blessing, chaos or peace, success or failure, the list could go on but it will effect you! LaHaye gives us this warning, “The Philosophy of life that you adopt on the basis of what you have programmed into your mind through your reason, your senses, and your study determines the way you look at life. (These are some of the voices we are talking about)! Whether we call this a worldview or simply the way we perceive life, nothing but life itself is more important. It will affect your morals, work drive, integrity, and life investment”(46,47) Plus hundreds of other areas of our lives. The voices you adhere too will determine your destiny. So what voices are winning the battle for your mind?
T.S.- Let’s examine the different voices battling over you mind, battling over your will, battling over your life, battling over you soul, spirit and body.
I. The first voice is God’s voice.
a. Jesus tells us in Revelation 3:20-22 “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (NIV).
i. We have a promise – a promise that will not be broken. It’s really a guarantee! Here it is in plain language, “Listen to my voice and at the end of your life on earth you will come to Heaven and you will sit with me on my throne.”
1. There is key point here we need to grab a hold of. Stop and listen, “If you listen to His voice!” IF! In other words if you choose too! He does not say, “I will make you listen!” no he states, “If you choose to listen to my voice then I will honor you in Heaven before the entire universe- before the angels- before the great multitude- before the world.”
a. If we learn to listen to God’s voice He promises to honor us in Heaven.
2. How many here today want to listen to God’s voice?
a. Most of you do. But the real question racing through you mind right now is, “But how do I learn the difference between God’s voice and those other voices you have alluded too?”
b. Well lets explore this question and learn together how to really know!
b. What does God’s voice sound like? Does it sound like Charlton Heston’s? Does it boom across my mind or does it whisper to my heart? Lets look at what God’s voice sounds like whether it’s a boom or a whisper.
i. God voice will always align with His written Word!
1. It will be clearly verified by the Bible’s truths.
a. He will never tell you to do something that He has said in His word is wrong.
i. He will not tell you to lie.
ii. He will not tell you to deceive others.
iii. He will not tell you to take advantage of others.
iv. He will tell you to love.
v. He will tell you to forgive.
vi. He will tell you to die to self.
vii. He will point you to the cross.
viii. He will not tell you that you do not have to repent of sin
ix. He will not tell you that your special so therefore you do not have to obey the ten commandments.
x. His voice and instruction will stay true to His word.
2. He will not waiver from the principles He lays out in Scripture.
a. He will not contradict Himself.
i. I have had people tell me that God told them it was okay to have an affair with a married person. The voice they heard was not God’s
ii. I have had people tell me that God told them that they would marry someone who did not want to marry them. It was not God’s voice!
iii. I had one person who lied, deceived, and did unethical things and then when I confronted this pastor he told me that “I sleep at night therefore I am right with God!”
b. Psalm 111:7,8 “He manufactures truth and justice; All his products are guaranteed to last—Never out-of-date, never obsolete, rust-proof. All that he makes and does is honest and true” (Message).
i. God never contradicts His Word.
1. Couchman states “The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy. They are steadfast for ever and ever, done in faithfulness and uprightness” (Psalm 111:7–8). Whatever God speaks to us, He will never contradict the truth of His precepts found in the Bible. Friends have said to me, “I have perfect peace about this,” when their course of action obviously violated God’s Word. (To be fair, I confess I’ve done this myself.) Peace is not an indicator of the Lord’s approval or guidance if the underlying motive or action contradicts the Scriptures or leads us into sin. When we’re seeking guidance or making a decision, nothing can supersede the Bible’s holiness and authority (Discipleship Journal Sept. 97).
ii. He will not change His mind.
1. Society may change their mind on what is truth but not God.
2. When God laid out the absolute standards in the Bible that was it. He does not keep re-writing his standards.
3. For example fornication –having sex with someone outside of marriage is sin. Culture may have changed but God has not changed his view of this sin. It’s still wrong!
a. Our society says it’s okay but they never give you the whole story.
b. Teenage promiscuity has been linked to a five times higher rate of cervical cancer according to Dr. Lorand’s research. Than those who stay pure in their teen years (147).
c. Society will tell that amoral behavior will be good for you but the facts say otherwise.
4. Homosexuality is a sin and even though the world’s voice is saying it’s not God has not changed His mind.
a. Romans 1:18-32 Read
i. Note verse 32 “Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”
b. Once again our culture has tried to promote this lifestyle as okay and it makes them happy so who cares but the fact is most Homosexuals are miserable. The highest suicide rate in America is in the homosexual community.
c. Note statistic: Gay males cut their life span in half by engaging in homosexuality (Lahaye 148).
d. This is not happiness but bondage!
5. God has not changed His mind on tithes and offerings either for example in Malachi 3:6-18
The Holy Bible, New International Version
Malachi 3:6-18 (NIV)
6“I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.
7Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ 8“Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. 10Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. 11I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the LORD Almighty. 12“Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.13“You have said harsh things against me,” says the LORD.
“Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’
14“You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty? 15But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly the evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge God escape.’”
16Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name. 17“They will be mine,” says the LORD Almighty, “in the day when I make up my treasured possession.£ I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. 18And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.
* The Lord wants to bless His people but if they choose to violate his teaching and ignore His voice they do and will suffer the consequences.
3. God has sent the Holy Spirit to direct us in His ways and will call sin – sin but you have listen to the voice.
a. God always calls things what they are. He does not muddy the water by calling sin by any other name than sin.
b. He will always be consistent with His word and tell you that sin will cost you. But repentant sin will bring His forgiveness and grace.
c. He will tell you repeatedly that you must repent to be saved, to be refreshed and to be made mature in Him!
i. This all has to do with listening to His voice!
d. There is not other way! Repent means to turn and go the other way.
e. It sounds harsh but in reality it’s refreshing once we have done it.
4. God’s voice will never be in hurry.
a. Evelyn Underhill states, “God…’works in tranquility.’ Fuss and feverishness, anxiety, intensity, intolerance, instability, pessimism and wobble, and every kind of hurry and worry—these, even on the highest levels, are signs of the self-made and self-acting soul; the spiritual parvenue. The saints are never like that. They share the quiet and noble qualities of the great family to which they belong (Vol. 38, no.2).
b. God is calm and always in control and He is not the one who will push you into anything quickly. He will nudge you to pray about it and consult His wisdom and insight in the matter.
c. God is not in a rush. He is not saying “hurry up!”
i. Couchman states, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” (2 Peter 3:8).A bit of spiritual wisdom claims that God never runs, He walks. And like Enoch who “walked with God” (Genesis 5:22), He invites us to plod along with Him.
d. It’s the other voices that push you to overreact, panic, hurry and not wait patiently on the Lord.
e. God is not running out of time- you might think you are but he knows the perfect timing.
i. I heard it said, “God is very seldom early but he is never late.”
ii. God’s voice will be specific and clear on what he wants you to do.
1. I did not say on what you want to do!
2. Blackaby states, “You never find God asking persons to dream up what they want to do for Him” (28, workbook)
a. He adds, “To live a God –centered life, you must focus your life on God’s purposes not your own plans. You must seek to see from God’s perspective rather than from your own distorted human perspective. When God starts to do something in the world, He takes the initiative to come and talk to somebody. For some divine reason, He has chosen to involve His people in accomplishing His purposes” (28).
b. Some examples of this:
i. God asked Noah to build the Ark (Gen. 6:5-14)
ii. God asked Moses to lead His people out of Egypt (Exodus 3)
iii. God asked Abraham to leave Ur and start a new Nation (Gen. 12;1,2)
c. I never read of God asking a man or woman what He should or should not be doing as God.
i. When you hear God’s voice it will always be directing you to join Him in what He is doing.
ii. This is the reality of God’s voice He invites you and I to join Him. Not you tell Him to join you in what your doing.
iii. Blackaby’s 3rd reality of experiencing God is ‘God invites you to become involved with Him in His work” (35).
1. He adds: God is sovereign ruler of the universe. He is the One who is at work, and He alone has the right to take the initiative to begin a work. He does not ask us to dream our dreams for Him and then ask Him to bless our plans. He is already at work when He comes to us. His desire is to get us from where we are to where He is working “(35).
iii. I also want you to know that when God speaks to you – you will know it as long as you are in tune with Him.
i. Key is being in the right relationship with Him!
c. We need to learn to recognize the voice of God because Jesus told us that the sheep will know His voice (John 10:3).
i. George Mueller gives us more insight on how to recognize God’s voice and direction. He stated:
1. I never remember …a period…that I ever sincerely and patiently sought to know the will of God by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, through the instrumentality of the Word of God, but I have been always directed rightly. But if honesty of heart and uprightness before God were lacking or if I did not patiently wait upon God for instruction, or if I preferred the counsel of my fellow men to the declarations of the Word of the living God, I made great mistakes” (Blackaby 71).
2. Blackaby helps us to understand through George’s statement how to hear from God:
a. He sincerely sought God’s direction.
b. He waited patiently on God until he had a word from God in the Scriptures.
c. He looked to the Holy Spirit (Ghost) to teach him through God’s Word.
3. He also highlights what led George to make the mistake of not hearing from God:
a. Lacking honesty in his heart.
b. Lacking uprightness before God.
c. Impatience to wait for God.
d. Preferring the counsel of men over declarations of Scripture.
4. George Mueller in Blackaby’s writing Experiencing God tells us how he learned to hear and discern God’s voice from his heart: (Excerpt from pages 71,72)
a. I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the knowledge of what His will is.
i. This act always helps us to hear God better because it removes one of the voices.
b. Having done this, I do not leave the results to feeling or simple impression. If, so I make myself liable to great delusions.
i. This act as well eliminates some of the voices that cause confusion and deception.
c. I seek the Will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.
i. Don’t miss this point combine Spirit and Word!
d. Next I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God’s Will in connection with His Word and Spirit.
e. I ask God in prayer to reveal His will to me aright.
f. Thus, (1) through prayer of God, (2) the study of the Word, and (3) reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly.
Conclusion: Each of us needs to hear God’s voice daily in our lives. But it is absolutely imperative that we know what His voice sounds like. So lets recap what we learned today:
1. His voice will clearly align with His written Word.
a. He will not change His mind on the Word.
b. He will not waiver from His principles laid out in the Bible
c. He will not make any exceptions for any one to freely sin.
d. He will not contradict His written word.
2. The Holy Spirit voice will always call sin – sin and require repentance to atone for it.
a. God will always hold us accountable and we need to listen to what we need to do.
3. God’s voice will never be in a hurry.
a. God is not shoving us and pushing us. His voice will always be patient.
4. God’s voice will be specific and clear on what He wants you to do or not do.
a. It will not be a guessing game.
b. He is always clear and direct.
c. It will always be a word asking you to die to what you want and to join Him in what He is doing.
5. George Mueller told us How to clearly hear God’s voice:
· He sincerely sought God’s direction.
· He waited patiently on God until he had a word from God verified by the Scriptures.
· He looked to the Holy Spirit to teach Him through God’s Word.
6. George also gave us insight in what blocks the voice of God:
· Lacking honesty of the heart – a personal relationship with Christ
· Lacking uprightness before God- an impure heart because of unrepentant sin
· Impatience to wait on God – The “Hurry Up Disease!”
· Preferring the counsel of men over the declarations of Scripture – This happens when we let man override the Biblical mandates.
