Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / March 19, 2017 | The 3 Greatest Habits - Listening To The Voice Of God

Transcript

March 19, 2017 | The 3 Greatest Habits - Listening To The Voice Of God · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Does anybody know what that song is in the background?
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Love lifted me.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: When we had family devotions when I was growing up, we'd sit around and we'd always have a time at the end where we could, before prayer, where we could request songs, we always requested love lifted me.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because in the days before hip-hop, that was hip-hop.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that was pretty cool stuff.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, hi, how are you doing?
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm uh starting a series today, four-week series entitled The Three Greatest Habits, Three Greatest Habits in Four Weeks.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: I've yet to figure that out.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Working on math, but you know, when you've been a math major, you can twist things.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: So um, I want to talk to you in this series about experiencing God.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's why you're here.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: At least one of the reasons that you come to church, some of you small groups, Sunday school, but you are uh you're eager to experience God.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: You want to receive his blessing, you want to enjoy his favor, you want to share his joy, and um, I want to talk to you about that.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the the reason I want to talk to you about it is that it seems that some people experience more of that than others.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: It seems that some people uh regularly experience his grace in greater ways than others of us do.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: That some people um enjoy his favor and share in his joy and receive his blessing, and then there are others of us who sometimes feel like we we we don't get that as often.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're not there as often as other people.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk to you about, I explained to you this morning and next few more, what the difference is uh between those two groups of people.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Why some people do receive more blessing, receive more favor, experience more of his grace and joy than others.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to argue uh with you, uh that, or I want to argue to you, that Christians who experience God, who enjoy his favor and blessing and joy more are those who deliberately and consciously put themselves in a place or in a position where the blessings of grace flow.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: They put themselves in the path of God's grace in a way that others do not.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let me share with you a quote from a book that if you want to know more about this or study more about this, this would be one of the books that you might want to look at, Habits of Grace, David Mathis.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: I can flip a switch, uh, young David writes, but I don't provide the electricity.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: I can turn on a faucet, but I don't make the water flow.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: There will be no light and no water without someone else providing it.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so it is for the Christian with the ongoing grace of God.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: His grace is essential for our spiritual lives, but we don't control the supply.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: We can't make the favor of God flow, but he has given us circuits to connect and pipes to open expectantly.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: There are paths along which he has promised his favor.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: To uh help explain this, I want to tell you a story.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Two stories, actually, one from the Old Testament, the other from the New Testament.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: First, the story from the Old Testament.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: The background of the story is that in the land of Israel, the highest point is the farthest point north.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's a mountain called Mount Hermon, which is spoken of often, especially in Psalms.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Israelites always have loved it.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the peak is snow capped year-round.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes you can't see the peak, it's above the clouds.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's just noble, a highly respected, beautiful mountain.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's clear in the north, and it's at the division of uh of really three countries: Israel, Lebanon to the north, and Syria to the northeast.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And out of Mount Hermon, their flow from three different places in Mount Hermon, their flow, their gush, three sort of uh water sources, and they gush out of the mountain.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: They're beautiful.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: On my trips to Israel, I always take people to two of those three.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so um, so they gush out of the mountain, and then they flow down the mountain, and then they meet at the bottom of the mountain where they form the well-known Jordan River.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the Jordan River starts there, and then it flows down to the Sea of Galilee a couple dozen miles south to the south, then sort of through the Sea of Galilee, and then out of the Sea of Galilee to the south, another 50 to 60 miles to the Dead Sea.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so, but the River Jordan is sort of a holy river.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: It could be called the River of God because it's it's uh it's the river in the land, the promised land, the land of blessing.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Jordan River have figures largely in the Bible.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, my story comes from the fifth chapter of the book of 2 Kings.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's a story of a man named Naaman.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Many of you are very familiar with this story.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Naaman was a very uh very admirable man.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: He was the commander-in-chief of all of the armies of Syria at this time.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Syria was more powerful than most nations, certainly more powerful by far than Israel.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: And Naaman was the commander-in-chief.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing about Naaman to know is that he was highly beloved by his lieutenants, by his captains, by his sergeants, by all of the fighting men.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: He apparently was not simply a brilliant commander who had experienced many victories, including over uh Israel, but he he was he was just uh he was great, he was great to serve under.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's an interesting verse in 2 Kings 5 that God had actually given Syria victories based upon the fact that God himself loved Naaman.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is a pagan.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, not an Israelite, okay?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Not worshiping Yahweh, and yet God respected him that much.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: So now the problem is that Naaman contracted a disease, the disease called leprosy, a debilitating disease, a disease that in that day untreated would eat away at you, and they had no treatment for it.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually it would drive him away from the army that he loved and his fighting men because it was communicable.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: So they they were heartbroken, and and that they were going to lose their beloved commander-in-chief.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in in those wars that he had led and won, in one of those in northern Israel, he had captured a little girl.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: She's she's not given any name, but we read about her in 2 Kings 5, and she was a slave in his household.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: He had a large household, many servants, many chariots, many attendants.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: He was the second only to the king of Assyria, after all.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this little girl had uh had fallen in love with her slave master.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: She she she highly she admired him, and so she found herself saying, you know, to uh to her boss, waiting woman, uh uh, and the word got to the ear of Naaman's wife, if only Naaman would go see this man I knew when I was growing up in Israel.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: His name is Elisha, he is a prophet, and Elisha could heal him.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that word got to Naaman, Naaman's wife prevailed on him that he should go.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so Naaman is not afraid to go into Israel, and so he gathers his chariots and he gathers fighting men and he marches in, knowing nobody in Israel can stop him.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: And we read in verse 9 of 1 Kings 5 that Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and he waited at the door of Elisha's house, which is a strange thing to say.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: He waited at the door.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's the Bible's doesn't waste language.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Why would you say he waited at the door?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you say he waited at the door in the same way you might say, I waited for the plane.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I waited and I waited, and he's waiting at the door.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a palace.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Elisha lives in something no bigger than your if you live in an apartment, it's no bigger than your maybe bedroom and kitchen combined, and Elisha doesn't come out.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And here's one of the most important men in the world of that day, and he's just strumming his fingers outside the house.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally we find that Elisha doesn't even come out himself.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: He sent a messenger out to him with this message go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River, then you will be healed of your leprosy.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but you know, every once in a while I'm feeling my oats.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'm more important than I really am.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, if somebody, somebody treats me this way, I get more bent out of shape than I should.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Naaman got that way.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's a good man, but you can understand why he was angry.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he went away.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he grows to his lieutenants.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: I thought he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and wave his hand over the place and cure the leprosy.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: He was looking for a little, you know, magic or something.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Are not the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: K-State, KU, whatever.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Could I not wash in them and be clean?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: So he turned and he went away in a rage.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of understand it, but his captain's grabbing his men, no, please, please, please, listen.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, can't you just throw a quarter down the well and see if you get good luck?
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Can't you do this?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, after all, Jordan River's on our way back to Syria as we pass by.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Won't you please consider, please, please, please, you know, trying this, just dunk yourself seven times, wash, would you?
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And name him because he could see that this was love that was asking him, decided to do it, stops the caravan at the Jordan River, gets out, and he dips himself one, two, three, four, five, six times, nothing happens.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Comes up on the seventh time, and he's healed.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's an astounding story.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: One of the lessons from that story is you need to get in the flow of God's blessing.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: You may want something else to happen, something special, some hocus pocus, some magic, some waving of the hands, something really, you know.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe God says, I got a mundane thing here, but it's may not be highly impressive, but this is where my blessing flows.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: You want my blessing, you go to the flow.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: The other story that I want to tell you comes from the New Testament, and and and instead of it being about somebody noble and somebody great and somebody famous, it's about somebody that's kind of a worm.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: His name is Zacchaeus.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: He's lowly, he's he's he's not a cool guy, he's not in anybody's hit parade.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's a tax collector from Jericho, he's considered, you know, um, a renegade.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's a he's a Jew who's gone back in his own people and rips them off.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, he in a way has a sickness.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: He his sickness, though, is guilt.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: He feels guilty for ripping his own brothers, his countrymen off.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: He's unhappy.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: We know he's unhappy, and he's clearly lonely.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Tax collectors didn't have friends, they weren't invited to dinner parties.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Zacchaeus heard that Jesus, the famous Jesus, the most famous person in all the land in his day, was coming from the north from Galilee, was coming down and was going to pass through Jericho.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus heard this news.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he thinks, you know what, I would give anything if I could just see this famous Jesus.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard he's so amazing, so kind.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: If I could just see his face.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: And if I could just hear his voice.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he he didn't dare to hope, I think, that that he could speak to Jesus.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: But but he's got a problem.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus in a day when the average size of a Jewish male was five foot four inches, Zacchaeus is so short, he knows that in that crowd he'll never be able to see.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: And who knows, maybe he's five foot even or something.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so he thinks, I have got, if I'm gonna see him, if I'm gonna hear his voice, then I need to put myself in a position or in a place where that can happen.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so he goes out early before the kids climb the tree, and he finds a tree and he climbs a sycamore fig tree beside the road.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: For Jesus was going to pass that way.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And sure enough, he heard Jesus speak.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And amazingly, he heard Jesus speak to him because Jesus looked up in the tree and he spoke to him, and Zacchaeus spoke back.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: He saw Jesus, he heard Jesus, he invited Jesus to his house, Jesus accepted, and Zacchaeus' life was never the same again.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: The story is in Luke 19, 1 through 10.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the lessons of the story is you need to put yourself in the path of grace.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: John Piper said it in his book years ago, When I Don't Desire God, how to fight for joy, he said, fight to walk in the paths where he has promised his blessings.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because we can't earn God's grace and we can't make it flow apart from his free gift, but we can position ourselves, Matthew says, to go on getting as he keeps giving, we can ready ourselves to receive along his regular routes or routes.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you're on Route 66.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now the question is, what are God's regular routes?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: What is this Jordan River?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Where does the blessing flow?
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Where is Jesus going to walk?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer is, you guessed it, three places.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I gather this from the ancient, from the old theologians, but it's repeated and summarized in a modern, huge systematic theology by a guy named John Frame, Westminster Theological Seminary.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: The means of grace, he describes it, are three in the Bible and out: God's voice, God's ear, and God's people.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: God's voice, God's ear, and God's people.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And by means of grace, he says, I'm I'm not talking the way, you know, perhaps if you've been a Catholic, that there's a means of grace that comes through the church and it's sort of automatic if you do things.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, I'm talking about means of grace in the old-fashioned way of speaking about means of grace.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: These are the channels of grace and of favor and of mercy that flow from God.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: They're channels of blessing and favor.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they flow in three places, having to do with his ear, his voice, and his people.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, the three greatest habits I want to share with you, dear friends, in these weeks are listening to God's voice, speaking in God's ear, and meeting with God's people.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let me talk today about listening to God's voice.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: This last week.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: He said that had been told, and I remembered it then, as a story of a joke that had been told at my 20th anniversary.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, 20th anniversary of being at Topeka Bible Church.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: I remember it vividly told it from right here.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was a little embarrassing because he's a golfing buddy and he was telling about how how many hundreds of balls I've probably left in a pond at Western Hills hole number eight, Western Hills out on the west side of town.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the eighth hole has a pond, and it's not a gigantic pond, but you've got to hit the ball 150 yards to get it over.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: And while I oftentimes hit the ball more than 150 yards, there's just something about having to hit over that that gets in my head.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so I will generally uh hit a ball in the water, and then I'll hit another one in, and then I'll take the third ball out of my pocket and hit it, and then in anger, I'll go back to my bag, got it, get another half dozen balls, and just land all of them in the water.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, he's telling about this.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then, and this is not a true story that he told.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is not a true story, but he said, So we were at Western Hills and we were playing the other day, and and he said, Jim went over to his bag as he usually does, and and he put the new ball, newish ball he was using, put it back in his bag and grabbed a couple of old balls.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Explaining, he said, you know, in case I hit it in.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: He said, We giggled in case.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so he said he went and he teed up one of the old balls and he's addressing the ball he's about to hit, and then God spoke, said a voice came from heaven.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Said, Jim, use the new ball.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Boy, Jim looked up and he goes, Wow, I mean, this is like a promise.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is good news.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, So Jim went back to his bag quickly and grabbed the new ball, and he replaced the old ball, and he went and he stood up again to address the ball, and then all of a sudden God spoke again.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: He said, uh, Jim, take a practice swing.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: So he said, you know, Jim backed up and then he and he took a practice swing.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then he stood up and he was about to address the ball again, and then the voice of God spoke a final time.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Jim, use the old ball.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not a not a true story about hearing God's voice, although I would not be surprised if he just said, always use the old ball, Jim.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I do need to tell you something, and this is in all seriousness, on Friday morning, two days ago, I heard the voice of God.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: I heard the voice of God as clearly as if Melody was speaking to me on a cell phone.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm confident that what I heard was God.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm confident that I heard the very words of God in my head.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: I had gotten uh out of a hotel room in Tucson uh to a little before six and slipped out in the dark so as not to wake my roommate, and um and and gone to find uh to watch the sunrise and to pray, and I found a place.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was walking down the path, I found a building, had a light in it, and had a door open.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I went in there and there was a chair, nice chair, easy chair, and it was facing all these windows that faced east.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I sat down there and I prayed.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And while I was there, uh praying and communing, waiting for the sunrise, all of a sudden, God spoke to me.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: And he said as clearly as I'm speaking to you, child, listen to me.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I was immediately so happy.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know that word child, if you hear God the Father say child to you, you know, that's such a word of comfort to know that he's your heavenly father, even though he is the creator of the entire universe.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: But he called me his child, and then he commanded me to listen to him.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Lord, here I am.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Speak.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was hoping he would say more, and of course he was.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: He said immediately, if you follow me, you will be happy.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to be happy like you want to be happy.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be happy with the happiness of heaven, and I thought, I will.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Lord, I will follow you.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever that means, I will follow you.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: I want to receive your happiness.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then he said, But you must listen to what I say and not ignore it.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Something about the fact that he said, Listen to me a second time, and then added, do not ignore it, which which reminded me that he was let it remind me he that he, you know, he understands the heart and he pierces through and he understood clearly.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: There had been times when I had heard him, when I had known what he wanted, and I had ignored it.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I had had forgotten it.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: I had gone out and I'd let it slip from my mind and I hadn't paid attention.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Lord, I I'm sorry, I have forgotten.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: I've disregarded your words, I have at times not listened, even though you've spoken.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then he repeated it again.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: He said, To be happy, you must listen to me every day.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: You must watch for me, you must wait for me.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I said, I will wait for you.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: I will watch for you.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: I will listen for you.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I want to do it every day, but sometimes I slip up.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: I uh the day starts early with other things, and sometimes I go through a day and and it doesn't happen.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: I am I'm sorry about that, and I know that you're reminding me that to be happy I need to do this every day.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how long it was before I heard the last words he said, but I did.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: He said, if you do, you will find my life and you will have my favor.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that promise of favor and an experience of the life of God was really almost overwhelming.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's why we're here, right?
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we want his favor, we want his life, we want that kind of experience with him.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't it an amazing thing to know that God still speaks today, and he speaks clearly in a way that comforts and assures and guides?
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to know that you can hear God exactly the same way as I did.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, you can hear God in exactly the same words that I heard him, because you can open your Bible to the same place that I had it open, to Proverbs chapter 8, verses 32 through 35.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: For that is where I heard God speaking because Because I heard him saying, and so my children, listen to me.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: For all who follow my ways are joyful.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to my instruction, don't and be wise, don't ignore it.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Joyful are those who listen to me, watching for me daily at my gates, waiting for me outside my home.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the Lord.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Words that are so far above any other words that you can hear from any person, anywhere, anytime, anywhere on this planet.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Words that are sublime, words that have life-changing power and force in them.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: Words that convey the beauty of Jesus Christ.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Words that assure and comfort and sometimes rebuke and motivate.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: And to know that these words are written to us so that we will hear them and hear God's voice in them.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it made me sad a few weeks ago when someone came up and said to me, excitedly, Jim, God spoke to me this week.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: And they went on to tell me what God had said to them.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I was sad, not because I didn't believe them or because I didn't think it happened.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: I was sad because of the excitement, because of the implication that this was the very first time that they had heard the voice of God.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: And somehow it confirmed to them for the very first time in their lives that God really spoke personally to them or really wanted to communicate with them.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was sad because they didn't have the experience that I have of hearing the voice of God every single week and sometimes every single day.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: That when you read the Word of God and realize it for what it really is, a love letter that's personal and life-changing and forceful from God Himself.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: That you are hearing the very voice of God speaking to you in such a wonderful way that nothing else can compare to it.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a river flowing down from Mount Hermon from three sources: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and God pleading with us, won't you please come and stand in this stream and let it flow through you and flow around you?
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Won't you once in a while climb a tree to put yourself in the path of Jesus?
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because here is a means of grace.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Here is a means of favor.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit, I think, sometimes.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like the story of the soldier who's sent to Afghanistan for a year.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Missing his new bride, he labors hard each week on a love letter that he sends back, telling her how much he misses her and how much he loves her and how much he longs to see her again.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: And how he thinks about her constantly during the day.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the year, he finally comes back home and she runs to meet him as he steps off the plane and she hugs him and she kisses him and then she says, Did you miss me?
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: And he holds her at arm's length.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: He says, What do you mean, did I miss you?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't you get my letters?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: And she says, Yeah, yeah, I got those, but did you miss me?
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: No, he says, What I mean is, I mean, I worked hard on those.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: I wrote about how much I missed you in there.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Did you read those?
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yes, I have them all back at my home in my bedroom, and I've got them there, but did you read those?
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I read parts of them occasionally, and God would say to you, I wrote this for you.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's the inspired word of God.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: You'll never find a more personal, more powerful, more beautiful communication than the communication that I have given you, tens of thousands of words just for you.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: Why would you value extra-biblical communication so much higher than you value the inspired communication I have given you?
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I say to you, there are means of grace.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Won't you put yourself in their path?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I call this one of the three greatest habits, which are hearing God's voice, having God's ear, that's next week, joining God's people, that's two weeks from now.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: And these three are not just from ancient theologians.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: They come out of the Bible, Acts 242, where the early church continually devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and the breaking of bread and to prayer.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: And there it is.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: Or J.C.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Ryle, that godly man who wrote holiness 150 years ago.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: The means of grace are such as Bible reading, private prayers, and regularly worshiping God in church, wherein one hears the word taught and participates in the Lord's Supper.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: I lay it down, get this as a simple matter of fact that no one who is careless about such things must ever expect to make much progress in sanctification.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: I can find no record of any imminent saint who ever neglected them.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: They are appointed channels through which the Holy Spirit conveys fresh supplies of grace to the soul.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that is why, take it out of your bulletin if it's still in there.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is why I have given you this morning a one chapter a day Bible reading for the rest of the year.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: When I found out that this is the direction I was going in this series, I was reminded that Joe D'Alfonso, Joe, are you still in the back there?
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Wave your arm, Joe's, uh that Joe had come up with a chapter a day for the young adults and gotten the young adults a couple weeks ago to commit to reading through the New Testament in a year.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Just one chapter a day.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: May seem like a lot, but friends, you can read through the entire Bible in just 70 hours.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: Just 70, or less than the amount of time by far than you spend on television every month.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: So you can imagine one chapter is anywhere from five to at most 10 minutes a day.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: So he got the young adults to commit to that, and I thought, oh, how cool would it be if the entire congregation joined our new young adults ministry and joined them in reading one chapter a day.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the young adults are reading six days a week, taking Sunday off.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's a day of rest.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not so sure that a day of rest from the word is a good idea.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so if I find me boring, just catch up.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Here's how we're going to catch up.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: They're finishing the Gospel of Mark today, and starting on the Gospel of John tomorrow.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I would recommend you and I, I'm challenging you, start the Gospel of John tomorrow.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Read John chapter one, and you say, What about the Gospel of Mark?
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you read it when you can, but you've got Sundays off.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you could read all 16 chapters today, and or you could divide it into four, four, four, four, or you could finish it in four months.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: Will you commit to doing this with me?
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, thank you.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: One down.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: I heard one voice one, yes.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I I want to deal with one objection and then give you four tips, okay?
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'll be done.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: The objection to that is this.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: I hate to commit because I've started and given up on it before.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh right?
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Has anybody ever done this, especially trying to read through the whole Bible?
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: You got to the morass of Leviticus, so you got into the swamps of first chronicles with the names, and what did you do?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: You read them and you finished, you closed the Bible, and you stood up and you said, That was wasted time.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I got absolutely nothing out of that.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing personal, okay?
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: Honest.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing personal, but you just recited out loud what a demon had whispered in your ear.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because only the demons believe, no one in heaven believes that reading the Bible one chapter a day, even if you quote, don't get anything out of it, unquote, is wasted time.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: But the reason you say it's a waste of time is because that demon whispered one of two things in your ear.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe both of them, maybe he whispered in your ear, the problem is the Bible.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: That book is so irrelevant, that list of names, that stuff about the fact, sacrifices or feasts, that just doesn't touch me at all.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: That is so irrelevant, that was a waste of time.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's sort of a cynical response that looks at the Bible in a certain way and says that the problem is the Bible.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, more of you, more of you have thought, ooh, that's a that's a bad thought.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna have that thought.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then he whispers the second thought.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's the thought not of cynicism, but of self-doubt.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, you know, the problem is me.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just not as smart as those other people, or I'm not as spiritual as those other people.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: If any if one of you ever comes up to me again, pet peeve here, and says to me, Oh, Jim, I can't do that because you read so many books, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna I'm just gonna slug you.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm won't.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: I won't.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: The issue in reading the Bible has nothing to do with how much you know about the Bible or intelligence.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'll explain that to you in a minute.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Do not allow the demon to whisper self-doubt in your ear that you're not smart enough or you're not spiritual enough when you read the Bible, you are blessed in exactly the same way I am blessed.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because the problem is when he whispers in your ear, he is reinforcing one of two misconceptions that many Christians have.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: The first misconception is what the Bible really is.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: The second misconception is about what you really are.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: The misconception you many Christians have about the Bible is that it's somehow that it is a compendium of facts that are put there to guide us.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a self-help book.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you pick up a self-help book and you expect to go away, and you've been helped because it told you what to do or how to, you know, treat your wife or your husband or your children or business and so forth.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: But the Bible really basically is not a stream of facts.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: It is a stream of grace that flows out of heaven and that begs us to come stand in it.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: And because it is a stream of grace and not a stream of facts, your IQ is not the issue, your spirituality is not the issue, your experience, your age, your past, anything else is not the issue.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: When I ask you to join me in reading one chapter a day, I am not saying in my own mind at all, oh, those people will be better at it than others.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: You can make it through a chapter.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible is a stream of grace, not a stream of facts.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: The other misconception that the devils love to reinforce in you is who you truly are truly are.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes we tend to think of ourselves as a brain, as a filing cabinet of information, and so I read the Bible just as I read other books, just as I watch the Discovery Channel, because if more facts, the more information I can get, the better off I'll be.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: But the Bible says you are truly at heart, not a brain.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: At heart, you're a heart.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: Jonathan Edwards wrote the book Religious Affections to underline this: that you act during the day in your life, generally without even thinking.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason you act is not because of some facts that you memorized, but because of what you love and what you desire.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: God would love you to be like David, who said, Oh Lord, how I desire thy word, thy law.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: You act.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's the reason some of you, okay, maybe none of you, joined me in rooting for the Dallas Cowboys.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because even though there are some things about that organization that you think are despicable, your affection somehow got tied in with that team 30 years ago, and you can't stop rooting for them.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you support anybody and root for anybody that you kind of wish you didn't, but your desires and affections are hooked into them.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: You act the way you act.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: I act the way I act during the day, out of love, not out of not out of facts, not out of knowledge.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: You are truly at heart, a heart and not a brain.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why it's so important when David says in Psalm 19:7, the law or the word of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: You go to the river, you stand in the stream, you let it wash over you, wash around you.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: You come out, even if you don't take anything out with you, you come out cleansed, you come out refreshed, and you do this time and again over the years, and you come out absolutely different.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let me give you four tips.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, read it for yourself.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: Read it for yourself.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: I know you have good devotional books as I do, or somebody else read it and tells you what to think about it.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: Take the Bible and read it for yourself.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because your reading and my reading are the same exact kinds of reading in the way that we're both climbing the tree and watching as Jesus passes by.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: All right?
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: Read it for yourself.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: Single most important.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you've never done this before, realize that's the first rule.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: Take the time to simply read it for yourself.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, occasionally, and here's where you and some of us would differ a little bit.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: Occasionally, just for fun, put down the rake and pick up the shovel.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by that is you use a rake for raking leaves.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: You're staying on top of the uh yard.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: My wife would love me to do this far more often, and but it's a good thing.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: You're getting the leaves, right?
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, once in a while, you should pick up a shovel.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: You should plant a flower.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard work digging, it's hard work studying the Bible.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: You read for breadth, you dig or study for depth.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: And once in a while, just for variety, if you got one of those study Bibles, look at the small print at the bottom on that verse and read it, and then go to a cross reference.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's digging.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: For instance, in Proverbs, in that passage I quoted here, Proverbs 8.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you might read that word joyful or happy might zing you, and you might go, I wonder what the word joyful or happy really means.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: And you start looking it up in the Bible.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: You can spend all day on that.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's digging.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: Do that once in a while.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: You'll find that the reading, the raking of leaves, goes better because you've done the hard work once in a while, once every week, two weeks or whatever, of digging.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, at least once in every day's reading, stop and chew the cud.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: Stop this from a farm boy who's watched cows for hours, just munching and chewing the cud and vomiting it back up inside their mouths or whatever they do, and you know, chewing.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, bad word, sorry about that.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: Not supposed to use the V O M word in church.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so what I'm urging you to do, what I do every time I read, stop, force yourself to stop at some point in that reading, even though it's only five minutes.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: Put your Bible down in your lap, stop reading, and start thinking hard about that phrase or that word that just buzzed you.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you just think about it.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: You just think about it and think deeply about it.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because that, ladies and gentlemen, is the high point of reading, and that's when you hear God's voice speaking to you in a personal and direct way.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: You're reading, let's say, Matthew 11.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: You're almost at the end of the chapter, you're thinking, Oh, I'm almost done, I'm almost done.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, and then all of a sudden you think, Oh, I need to stop and chew the cut.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: And you've just come to one of the last verses where Jesus says, Come all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: And you stop and you put it down, and all of a sudden, oh my goodness, you hear God saying to you, Come.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: You go, Wow, Lord, like Samuel, here I am, I'll come.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says to you, Are you weary?
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think you're weary.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you wouldn't believe how tired I am, you say.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: He said, You burdened?
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: You got some burdens on you?
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: You say, Oh my, yes, I'm just laden down with burdens.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Come, you who are weary, heavy laden, I will give you rest.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Well, why don't you just lean back on me right now?
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you dump your burden on me?
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: And he's saying it to you personally.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'd like to give you rest, he says.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: Would you lay your burden down?
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you have just heard God speaking to you.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: Or let's say tomorrow.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow you're joining us in John chapter 1.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: You go, John chapter 1, that's like theology.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the same as in the beginning with God.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: All things were made by him.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: Without him was nothing made that was made, and him was life.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you're reading that, you know what?
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter is like 53 verses long or something.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: Stop somewhere.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you decide to stop in the early part, you might hear God saying something like this to you.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you about how incredible my son is?
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: He's been with me since the very beginning, well before the creation.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I call him the word because when I want to speak to you, he's the one.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: Look at him.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: He speaks, he's the word.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you're reading down farther, he's grace and he's truth, and I send him to earth for you.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if you just receive him, just believe on him, then I get to call you children of God, my own children.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe it's not, then maybe it's not the beginning.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's close to the end where Jesus is calling his disciples, and a guy with a low self-image named Nathaniel at the end of John 1 is coming up to him.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: And Nathaniel says, Hi, I'm Nathaniel, basically.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus goes, Hey, I know who you are back when you were, uh before you know you you even heard about me when you were sitting under the fig tree.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: I saw you.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: And you're going, oop, I'm in the last couple verses.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: I need to stop and and meditate.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: I need to stop and shoot the go.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: You put your Bible down and go, wow.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like Nathaniel.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: I sometimes feel like I'm halfway to worthless and God doesn't care about me.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: But God, you're saying to me that wherever I am today, even if I go sit under a tree, you can see me.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: You care about me.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: You have me in your sight, you have me in your heart.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Nathaniel doesn't even show up again, pretty much in the Bible, just like you.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, show up, but God cares enough about you that he would say that.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: Friend, I'm urging you, I'm begging you to hear the voice of God.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: Put yourself in the flow of God's grace, climb the tree and get to the path that Jesus is walking by.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the first way to do that, dear friends, is to hear God's voice.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: Open the word of God and let Him speak to you.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: Join me in the one chapter a day challenge.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: Will you do that?
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: Join me in a word of prayer.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the fact that we get to open your word and the fact that we've heard you speaking to us even today out of your word.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: For we know that your words are powerful and sharp, sharper than a double-edged sword, and they pierce and they instruct and they inform and they challenge and they comfort and they give us hope and love and life.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we thank you for that.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: Bless us, please, as you promised, as we go and stand in the river to hear your voice this week in Jesus' name.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.