Tune In - Pt. 4 - Amplifier Series

Tune In

Pt. 4 - Amplifier

I. Introduction

?I have noticed over the last few years that hearing is not as easy as it once was. I am not saying Julie is getting old but I find myself saying “Huh” or “I can’t hear you” more often!

As I think back over my life, although I have become more experienced in hearing God, I have also discovered that when I was younger I seemed to hear God more easily. Could it be the cares, responsibilities, and noise of life increases as we get older.

With that in mind, I began to think about sound. For those of you that are not students of sound let me try to explain. All of you have probably experienced an instance in which you are at a stop sign minding your own business, deep in thought, maybe even have a sweet little background worship music or something playing when all of the sudden a car pulls up five cars behind you and instantly bolts begin falling off of your car because of the sheer amount of sound emanating out of their vehicle. Dentures are rattled loose. Massage appointments can be cancelled. People think they are hungry. It is one of those young, soon to be deaf, whipper snappers that have an incredible amount of sound coming out of their radio. If you don't understand sound, then you make the conclusion that this sound is a result of massive speakers - and although they may have those installed - the truth is the most important part, although usually invisible, of that system is not the speaker but the amplifier. The truth is this morning if the church didn't have these little boxes right here you wouldn't be able to hear anything I said even with our massive speakers. So amplification is crucial to being able to hear the source of the sound.

This brings me to our text this morning . . .

TEXT: 1 Corinthians 2:9-16

(NIV) However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” things God has prepared for those who love him—these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

(NLT) Verse 14 - But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.

As we conclude this series I wanted to make sure that I help you put together a sound system that will enable you to hear God.

In order for the sound system to work you need a source. In Matthew 4:4 Jesus is confronted by the enemy and He rebukes the devil by quoting Deut. 8:3 - we live off of every word that procedeeth out of God's mouth. In other words, God is constantly speaking. We have a source. However, source isn't enough. We need speakers. The fact is we have all kinds of speakers that are utilized by God to communicate . . . dreams, visions, circumstances, His written Word, prophets, thoughts, counsel, nature, peace, etc. However, here is the problem. In Job, one of Job's friends makes this accurate statement . . . "Indeed God speaks once, Or twice, yet no one notices it." So, God can speak and utilize speakers and we can still miss Him. Source? Yes! Speakers? Yes! However, there is often the missing component. In order for us to hear God this year we need to get the final component in place that will enable us to clearly hear or tune in! We need an amplifier and according to Paul, thankfully, we have One. Paul says that it is the role of the Holy Spirit to amplify the spiritual truths that are being spoken by God so that we can not only hear them but understand them.