The Kind Of Church God Wants Us To Be

2. We can we be the church God wants us to be, if we will lift up the light of the Lord. But we also have to tune in to God's truth.

*Tune in to God's truth. This is the Lord's message for us in vs. 23-25. And here Jesus said:

23. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.

24. And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given.

25. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.

*In the New Living Translation, Jesus said:

23. Anyone who is willing to hear should listen and understand!

24. And be sure to pay attention to what you hear. The more you do this, the more you will understand, -- and even more, besides.

25. To those who are open to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But to those who are not listening, even what they have will be taken away from them."

*We need to be careful about what we hear. We have a responsibility to tune out ungodly things, and tune in to the good things of God. We need to be careful about what we hear, and how we hear.

[1] God wants us to listen with a good attitude.

*If we are listening with a bad attitude, we can completely miss what God is trying to say to us. I read about two men who went to church one Sunday: Jim Smith and Sam Jones.

*At his church, Jim noticed a typo in the bulletin and thought about how sloppy they were in the church office. Then Jim was offended when a visitor had the nerve to sit in his regular seat. The pianist missed four notes during the offertory. And Jim felt like the usher was watching to see what he put in the offering plate. That made him boil. Then the preacher mispronounced three words in his message. Jim was keeping count.

*Over at Sam's church, Sam was blessed by the good report he heard on Vacation Bible School. Then he worshiped the Lord through the beautiful music he heard. Jim was grateful that the preacher was preaching the Word of God. And the sermon answered a question that had bothered him for a long time. But the best blessing of all was when the new family joined the church, and their 10-year-old son got saved!

*The amazing thing is: Both of those men were in the same church at the same time. But their hearts were in very different places. (3)

[2] God wants us to listen with a good attitude, and listen with good attention.

*We have to really listen to what God is trying to tell us. Leroy & Loretta Lockhorn are a cartoon couple that have been around for years. One time Loretta asked Leroy if they could talk. Leroy replied, "Sure we can talk. Just don't block the TV." (4)

*Lots of times we give God the same kind of attention. But we need to really listen to what the Lord is saying to us. And vs. 24-25 remind us that the more that we seek, the more we will find. Again, from the New Living Translation, Jesus said:

24. . . "Be sure to pay attention to what you hear. The more you do this, the more you will understand, -- and even more, besides.