Can You Hear Me Now?
Listening To God
Luke 10.38-42
Intro: New series about listening to God. Many times, people will ask questions like…”How can I know the will of God?” They are looking for an answer to a challenge, direction at a fork in the road, or whether or not to take an opportunity. What they are really asking is ‘How can I hear God speak?’
Illust:; A man who had been married to his wife for about 30 years begin to get frustrated at her not answering him. He suspected that her hearing was going, but she would not admit it, so he decided to do a test. When she did not know he was in the room, he stood behind her chair across the room and gently said, “Can you hear me?” She did not respond, so he moved a little closer and asked again. She did not respond, so he moved even closer. A fourth time, when he was now right behind her, he asked.
Suddenly she spun around in her chair and said with slight aggravation in her voice. “For the fourth time, Yes, I can hear you!”
Appl: I think that sometimes we don’t think God hears our prayers, when the truth is, we don’t hear His answers.
He who has ears, let him hear. (Matt. 13:9)
Jesus is fully engaged in His teaching ministry and his fame is growing. People are gathering to hear Him speak.
Earlier in this chapter He preached the parable of the good Samaritan, and sent out the 70 disciples to proclaim the kingdom of God. Now we drop in on Him on His road trip.
Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. (Luke 10:38)
She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. (Luke 10:39)
But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.’ (Luke 10:40)
But the Lord answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; (Luke 10:41)
but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her’. (Luke 10:42)
1. I Must Turn On My Heart.
but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her’. (Luke 10:42)
There were a lot of things that she could have been doing, but she wanted to do one of them far more than any of the others. She wanted to hear what Jesus had to say. This is the first secret. Do you want to know what God has to say to you? I mean do you really want to?
Jesus said that Mary had chosen the one thing that was necessary. Look at another place where this terminology is used.
One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD and to meditate in His temple. (Psalms 27.4)
Do you want to know what God says about you, your relationships, roles and responsibilities? If you do not want to hear him, you won’t. I have discovered that most of the time, I want to hear from God when I know what I want Him to say. I want God to be my puppet, not my Master. I don’t want to hear from Him, I simply want His approval on what I am doing. That isn’t going to cut it.
2. I Must Tune Out Interference.
I will come back to this a lot in this series. Our problem isn’t that God isn’t speaking, it is that we are not able to hear His voice over all the noise in our lives.
Illust:; The other day I was talking to Denise in the living room. All ten of our kids were in the room with us. The baby was crying, the one year old was whining, and two of the preschoolers were playing chase around the couch. One of my kids was playing “Bop It Extreme”, and the other was telling a blonde joke. I can tell you what all of the people in the room were doing, but I cannot tell you what Denise was saying. Finally, I had everyone leave the room. I was sitting right next to her on the couch, but could not hear what she was saying.
But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.’ (Luke 10:40)
But the Lord answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; (Luke 10:41)
What Are Some Things That Interfere With Hearing God?
• Busy-ness
But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.’ (Luke 10:40)
Notice that Martha was distracted. One of the chief reasons that we don’t hear God, is that we are simply to busy to hear him. There are so many things...most of them not bad things…they were just things! For example, do you know what Martha was distracted? Because she had opened up her home to let Jesus and the disciples come in and stay with them. . . in other words, she was distracted because she was helping Jesus. She was so busy doing good things, that she missed the best!
One of the problems of our lives is that we get so preoccupied with the trivial that we don’t have time for the important. We don’t have time to listen for God, because there are so many other demands on our lives.
We have sports, double headers, music lessons and school. We have classes to take, and tests to study for. We have a gazillion things to do, and we know that no matter what happens this week, we will not get them all done. The result is, that we give God the leftovers, only, lets be honest, how many of you have any left over in your life? In your time, your money, your talent? When we decide to give God the leftovers, that means we are not giving Him anything, and we hear nothing.
• Anger
But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.’ (Luke 10:40)
Another reason that we don’t hear God is that we have clogged up the system with unresolved anger. When anger and bitterness have your attention, God won’t get it! You can’t be focused on the hurt another person has caused, or the things that another person has done, and focus on what God wants to say to you at the same time. Martha was so busy working and getting angry at Mary for not working, that even when she was in the same room with Jesus, she did not hear him! She only went into the room to complain about Mary, not be with Jesus!
Illustr: Keep flashing the number 17 up on the screen in different forms, and tell the people to not think about the number 17. You want them to think about some other number, anything but 17. Forget about 17. Then point out that even if they are forcing themselves to think about some other number, it is requiring effort because they are focused on the number 17.
That is how it is with anger/bitterness. You may want to think about God and hear from Him, but the sin of anger and the hurt of bitterness are so much in focus, that God isn’t.
APPL: Ask yourself, who is it that is keeping me from hearing God? If you think of someone, then you need to forgive them first, or you will not be able to let God effectively work in your life. You have to finish the conversation with them, in other words, stop sending unresolved anger down the line, and then you can open a line for God.
• Worry
But the Lord answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; (Luke 10:41)
Worry comes from a word that means to strangle or choke. A good translation to maintain the meaning for us, would not be to look at it as being fretful about what might happen. Instead, think of it as being stressed out. If there is any one word that could describe many of us here today, it would be stressed. We always feel like we are under the gun, going down for the third time, never able to accomplish what really matters. Our stress in life keeps us from our Rest In The Lord.
3. I Must Tune In To His Voice.
It isn’t enough to want to hear God, and to seek to eliminate things that are keeping you from hearing Him. We must actually tune in to Him.
Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. (Luke 10:38)
She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. (Luke 10:39)
• Be Where God Speaks
Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. (Luke 10:38)
The reasons that Mary was able to hear Jesus, is that she was in His presence.
ILLUST: I once had the pleasure of speaking at a church conference on the problems/benefits of meeting in rented facilities. It was a great message. How many of you heard me speak? No one. You know why? None of you were there!
APPL: Doesn’t it make sense that if you want to hear a particular speaker, you arrange to go to his speech? That is how it is with God. If you want to hear his speech, go to where He is speaking!
Ask Out Loud For Answers: Where does God speak?
• Church
• Bible
• Others Some times, the best counselors we can have are those that don’t even know they are counseling us, and that is what happens when small groups of Christians get together and grow together.
• Be Completely There Where God Speaks
You may say that you are here. You come to church every week. But let me ask you honestly, how intent are you on hearing God speak?
She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. (Luke 10:39)
Mary and Martha were both in the same house with Jesus, but only one was really there. I believe that we may be in the room with God, but have no room for what He is saying to us in our minds. We sit in this auditorium, and we may seek to fill out an outline, or maybe just keep the kids quite. We may just find ourselves doing the routine, but not seeking to hear from God.
Do you go to the Bible, and/or to church, for information or for formation?
Going for information just means you want to increase either your Bible knowledge, or meet your quota of a quiet time or church attendance. Going for formation means that you are seeking to hear from God and be transformed into His image.
4. I Must Tune Up My Responses.
I know that I want to hear God speak by the way I respond when I hear it. Look at John 11, and check out what Mary did when she heard Jesus.
She said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.’ (John 11.27)
And when she had said this, she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” (John 11.28)
And when she heard it, she got up quickly and was coming to Him. (John 11.29)
Mary instantly responded. Have you ever been in church, and maybe the Holy Spirit laid a name on your heart? Someone you need to go to and ask them to forgive you? A relationship to reconcile? Could it be that maybe God has told you to be a part of a ministry, or meet a need, or give some money? And you heard it, but chose to not respond to it? Look at what happens in those scenarios.
But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. (James 1.22)
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; (James 1.23)
for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. (James 1.24)
ILLUST: Have you ever been speaking to someone, and in the middle of what you were saying you realized that they really did not care about what you had to say? How much motivation did that give you to talk to them? Or have you ever been asked for advice by someone, only to have them not follow it. . . time after time. That happens to me a lot, and I will be honest with you. I have told people, and have wanted to tell others.....”You never take any of the advice I give you, so why are you bothering me by asking for more.”
APPL: That is what God tends to do in our lives. He gives us direction one step at a time. We benefit from taking it, but many times we refuse to. When that happens, God patiently waits. You see, God does not give us the end result, the final destination of our lives, He simply shares with us what we need to do next in order to continue on with our journey of becoming all that we can be.
If you are not hearing God speak to you today, could it be that He is waiting for you to respond to what He told you last week?
Conclusion: God is speaking to us, and it is vital for our effectiveness and blessing in life to hear Him.
• Are you tuned in? Do you know Jesus Christ and want, really want to hear Him?
• Are you seeking to eliminate distractions so that you can hear him?
• Are you totally there where God speaks?
• Have you responded to His voice recently?
