Beauty From Being A Sheep

Welcome to Worshiping the Word with Pastor Robert Morris.

Thank you so much for joining us. Today Pastor Robert is beginning a new series titled Frequency. He explains how God is speaking all the time, and that, like a radio frequency, we need to tune in and hear his voice. Well, I'm your host, Patrick, and I'm here with my co-host, Janae.

Hello, everybody. You know, Janae, it's widely disputed whether God still speaks to people today. And in this series, Pastor Robert, he not only tackles this subject, but he also shares how we can hear from God ourselves. And, you know, I think one of the most difficult things for a lot of Christians is just simply believing and figuring out how to hear God and how to know if what we're hearing is really from God.

Exactly. Well, that's why this series was so groundbreaking for me. As always, Pastor Robert lays out so much biblical truth, but he also pairs it with very practical steps to hear from God and be confident it's God you heard. Well, the first message of this frequency series is titled The Beauty of Being a Sheep, and Pastor Robert will talk about how hearing from God is innate.

So, let's get to it. We are going to be talking about probably one of the most important topics in the Bible, and that is hearing God. Now, I've been a believer for over 35 years, been in the ministry for about that same amount of time, started just immediately sharing my testimony. But the number one question that I get asked everywhere at my own church, when I travel and speak, number one question is, how can I hear God? How can I hear God? And how can I know that it's God? How can I know it's not my thoughts or how can I know it's not the devil speaking to me? How can I hear God? So, I want to share with you a message today from a book that I wrote called Frequency Tune In Hear God.

And so today, here's the first message. We're going to talk about the beauty of being sheep. The beauty of being a sheep. Now, I don't know if you have ever thought about this, but you're a sheep. Okay, you're a sheep. Matter of fact, once you, if you're watching, if you're sitting here in the studio, maybe if you're watching home with someone else, just turn to the person beside you, find someone, and say, I'm a sheep.

Now, you can say to that other person, so that's what I smell. So, if you have your Bibles, I'm going to be in John 10 today, we'll be in some other scripture as well, but we're going to start in John chapter 10, and we're going to talk about hearing God from the perspective that we're sheep. He's our shepherd, and we're sheep, and God speaks to sheep, and it's very clear in scripture. I want you to think about something, though, as we talk about hearing God. What is the main difference between a believer and an unbeliever? I mean, think about that question.

What's the main difference? Well, obviously, the main difference is a believer has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, right? Okay, but there are some theological thoughts that God doesn't speak anymore, that God said everything that he was going to say in the Bible and that he doesn't speak today. Well, I have a problem with that. We tell people you can have a personal relationship with a communicative God, but he doesn't speak anymore. That's sad. Wouldn't that be sad? I mean, Dallas Willard says the greatest disservice we could ever do to someone is to tell that person that he can have a personal relationship with God and then tell the person that God doesn't speak today.

I mean, how personal is that? So God really speaks. So we think about a believer and an unbeliever praying about a job.

Well, you gather facts, you think about the company, you think about the city where the company's located, where you're going to be living, the schools, you'll do research on that. What's the difference in how you make a decision and how an unbeliever makes a decision? Well, the difference is you can pray about it. But not just talk to God. There's a second half of prayer, right? That's hearing God, sensing his will, sensing his direction.

So that's what we want to talk about is that we can hear God. So John chapter 10, verse 1, Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, and we know Jesus is the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. Obviously, we know from verse 10, the thief is Satan. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

That's Jesus. To him, the doorkeeper opens and the sheep, watch this, hear his voice. Now, it doesn't say sense his impressions. And I do believe God gives us impressions.

But that's just not the wording here. Jesus said, hears his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, this is verse 4, he goes before them and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. So it's really clear in Scripture. And then verse 16, he says, and other sheep I have, which are not of this fold. Now, let me just clear this theologically. He's speaking to Jews, and he's talking now about Gentiles.

And that's really good for most of us. We may have a Jewish person here. You might be Jewish watching, but most of us are Gentiles. So he's saying, including us.

So I want to talk about, can we hear his voice? Because he's talking to Jewish people. And Gentiles didn't come into the kingdom. Really, the gospel wasn't taking them until later in Acts after the ascension. So if Jesus quit speaking, we're in trouble. But he's specifically talking now about Gentiles.

Watch this. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, they're not Jewish. Them also I must bring, watch, and they will hear my voice. And there will be one flock and one shepherd.

And then verse 27 makes it really clear. My sheep, what's it say? Hear my voice. My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me. So it's clear in Scripture. So let me tell you three things about hearing God's voice because we're sheep. The beauty of being a sheep, all right?

Here's number one. It's innate. It's innate. In other words, we're born with it. Where it's hardwired into our system.

It's built in. It's natural. It's instinct for God's sheep to be able to hear the shepherd. I said a little bit at the beginning, but why would God create us with the ability to communicate and then not communicate with us? Okay, again, I'm not trying to put someone down that has that belief, but that's baloney.

Balogna in the Greek, okay? I mean, what separates us from the animals? You say, well, they say animals can communicate. Well, surely they can to some degree, but they can't communicate like we can.

We were created in the image of a speaking God. Okay, if you have a dog, go home and talk to your dog. But I want you to do it this way. I want you to say something to him, but I want your voice to be different.

I want you to say this. You know, you're so stupid. Yes, you are. You're the stupidest dog I've ever seen.

Yes, you are. And that dog will just jump up and down, wag his tail, and think you paid him the greatest compliment in the world, right? But he can't communicate with you. Well, we can communicate.

We were created with the ability to communicate, not just to speak to God, but for God to speak with us. You know, I was just thinking about dogs. I got to just take it off for a minute about this. But have you ever had a dog that barked all night? I mean, ro, ro, ro, ro, ro, ro, ro, ro, ro, ro, ro, ro, ro, ro, ro, ro, ro, ro. And you finally just, what do you do? You open the door. Shut up! And what do you expect the dog to do?

Not bad. Because it can't communicate. So it's innate. God created you with the ability to communicate, not just to other humans, but to him and him to you. Because my sheep hear my voice. The only requirement to hearing God's voice is to be a sheep, because he says clearly my sheep hear my voice. So it's innate.

Here's number two. It's learned. It's learned. You say, well, why would we have to learn to hear God? Well, we have to learn to pray. We have to learn to talk to God. The disciples said to Jesus, teach us to pray. And then we have the Lord's Prayer.

He taught them to pray. And let's just use the natural example of communicating on this earth. We have to learn to communicate. We have to learn to talk.

Right? You didn't start out speaking full sentences when you first started speaking. You started with mama or dada or mine. You know, that's another word children learn pretty early.

Mine, mine, mine. OK, so we have to teach our children how to communicate. So why would we not have to learn how to pray? We have to learn whatever your spiritual gift is, you have to learn to operate in your spiritual gift. So we're all learning.

We're all growing. Samuel was taught to hear God by Eli. He heard this voice. He goes to Eli and says, did you call me? He said, I didn't call you.

Three times. And then Eli says, it's the Lord. Next time when you hear that voice, you say speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. We have a man in our church that is the general manager and part owner of Texas Motor Speedway. His name is Eddie Gossage. And I've asked Eddie if I could use this example.

He and another man are owners of eight speedways around the country where you have NASCAR and things like that. So Eddie comes to our church and asked me to go to lunch with him. And so we went to lunch one day and we're talking. And he said, Pastor, I need you to help me with something. And I said, OK, how can I help you? And he said, well, you talk about that the Lord told me this and the Lord told me that. And he said, I don't know how to hear God. If you could help me, if you could teach me, if I could learn to hear God, that would be great.

And so I said to him, well, and I'm going to we'll go into this in a lot of depth as I do other messages on this. But I said to him, OK, here's some things I want you to get along with God. I want you to put on some worship music so that your mind can focus and get off of everything else you have to do. Focus on God.

I want you to pray. Talk to God about what's on your heart. Give him your burdens for the day. It's hard to hear God when you're burdened about something.

So you have to give it to him. Prayer is an exchange of the burden. If you pray and you're still burdened, then you didn't pray.

You just griped. Prayer is when you give him the burden, OK? And then I said to him, I want you to read somewhere in scripture and then I want you to write down what you think God is saying to you through that scripture. And I know that the scripture has a contextual meaning. I know it has a historical meaning. That's where we get the word exegete.

It comes from a Greek word and it means to draw out like you draw water out of the well. So there's a contextual exegesis, a historical exegesis, a literal exegesis. There's even a revelational exegesis. Holy Spirit, since God's word is alive, what are you saying to me?

So that's what I'm asking you to do. So he began to do that and a few months later we got back together for lunch and he said, I want to tell you something. And I remember there was this big smile on his face and he looked at me and said, I'm hearing God. I'm hearing God. I'm doing what you said and I'm writing down what I believe God is saying to me.

And he said many, many times what I wrote down is exactly what I needed for that day. And I think a lot of us have had that experience where God's led us to scripture and we needed that scripture. That's God speaking to us. So point number one, it's innate. And when I say it, I'm talking about the ability to hear God. So the ability to hear God is innate. In other words, we're born again with it. It's learned.

So we learn how to hear God like we go to classes at church and we learn about hearing God or our spiritual gift. But number three is it's matured. In other words, we mature in the gift.

So let me go back to the illustration of children learning to speak, but they also have to mature in what they say. When you think about it, a child will say, I mean, whatever comes out, just whatever comes to his mind, like, man, that guy's fat. You know, we say, no, no, we don't say it's fat. We don't tell people they're fat.

Or here's one. How old are you, grandma? We don't ask grandma how old she is. Nobody knows how old grandma is.

We just know that she knew Noah, but we don't know how old she is. So we have to mature in it. So let me tell you a few ways that I think, a few ways that people talk about hearing God that I think they're immature, okay? One of those is a message a minute. Now, this is, those are Dallas Willard's words from a book he wrote called Hearing God.

But I like the way he said it, a message a minute. You've probably been around people like this. They're always hearing God. God just told me not to put salt on my food.

Well, you could have read Reader's Digest last month and figured that out, you know? So God told me this. God told me that. Okay, well, think about that even. Now, when we talk about relationship, do we want God speaking to us all the time? Yes, when we talk about relationship. But when we talk about instruction or even correction, do you want God speaking to you all the time?

Now, hold on. Let's again take children. Do you want to still be giving your children instruction every day when they're 40?

I mean, don't you want them mature? Yeah, so yes, God wants to communicate with us. But this, you know, you know, God, which way do I turn here? You know, every street.

You know, I mean, turn your GPS on. Come on, you know? Mature in it. That's what I'm saying. So we have to mature. So this message a minute thing, I just don't think that's the best way. That's not the mature way to hear God. Here's another way is I call it the point and hope philosophy.

Now, you've heard this. People say, well, when I want a word from God, I just open the Bible, close my eyes and point. Well, that might work every now and then.

It might. But I have a friend of mine that was, his business was struggling and he'd heard someone say that. So he thought, OK, I need a word about my business. So he closed his eyes, did his Bible, put his finger down.

He looked down and said, Chapter 11. The other thing is I've told you about Dallas Willard because I read his book. And one of the things he said in there was that he heard this preacher one time say that God has a life verse for every person. And the way you find out what your life verse is, is the year you were born.

Well, there's a couple of problems with that. Most people were born 19 something. And when you go to the 19th chapter of every book of the Bible that has 19 chapters, some don't even have 19 chapters. The highest verse is Joshua Chapter 19, verse 51. That's the highest verse. So if you were born after 1951, no life verse for you.

You know, but Dallas was born in 1935. So he thought, well, we'll see what my life verse is. He just went to the first book of the Bible.

Genesis 19, 35 says, so they got drunk and slept with him. That's his life verse. OK, so there are more mature ways to hear God. Here's the third immature way I think of hearing God is what I call the Que Sera Sera philosophy. Que Sera Sera was written by an American. We don't know if he took it from Spanish or Italian.

It actually doesn't work in either language. But what his translation is, whatever will be, will be. You know, if you're my age or older, you remember Doris Day used to sing that song. Whatever will be, will be. Well, there's a problem with that saying that that's God's voice because we make mistakes. And whatever you choose is not always God speaking to you. There's the human element involved. There's the human will. So you have to come to the place where you learn to hear God.

But here's the great news. You can because you're a sheep. You were born with disabilities. So let me tell you something that happened to me recently.

It was earlier this year. I have three grown and married children. And my son, middle child, son and his wife have two boys. And they were praying about whether to try for another child for a girl. The reason they were praying is because she'd had difficult pregnancies.

And they had had two miscarriages. And so they were praying. And we did a 21-day fast at the first of the year.

And fast, however, God leads you, you know, things like that. So some people were doing vegetables only or some did all the way to water, but some just whatever. Well, she prayed and said, God, if we're supposed to have another child, have someone give me a word who's close to us during this 21 days. So we did our fast January 10th through January 31st. So on January 31st, it was a Sunday, I'm standing there about to speak and she's on the worship team. And I look up, her name's Bridget, and the Lord said to me, Bridget's pregnant.

Just like that. And that night we were having like a family meal, you know, everyone coming together at my house. And so I said, hey, I have an announcement to make. And they were like, really, you know, so what's your announcement? And I said, Bridget's pregnant. And everyone kind of laughed, you know, and James, my son, and Bridget, they say, ha ha ha. Are you serious?

I say, yeah, I'm serious. Bridget's pregnant. The Lord told me this morning, Bridget's pregnant. And I could see the look on her face because she had asked God for someone close to them to give them a word. And this was the last day of the fast.

And we were actually breaking the fast at this meal that night, you know. And so James, my son, said, well, she's not pregnant. He said, I can just say right now she's not pregnant.

It's impossible. She's just she's not pregnant. And I said, well, she is pregnant. And he said, well, she's not pregnant. I said, well, she is pregnant because I don't care what you say. God said she's pregnant. So she's pregnant. Well, it was so strong.

And they even got with me later before they left the house. They said, how serious are you about this? I said, I'm very serious. God said she's pregnant. And James said, well, she is pregnant. She's not pregnant. I said, well, she is pregnant. And so because it was so strong, they decided to go to the doctor. Now, on the way home, by the way, she told James, my son, about her prayers. She said, I was praying that if I was, we would have another child, someone give us a word who's close to us during the 21 days. And James said, why did you pray that?

I said, you know my dad. So why would you do that? So they go to the doctor. Well, the doctor says, well, she's not pregnant. As a matter of fact, she could not get pregnant right now because her progesterone is so low, she couldn't get pregnant.

That would be medically impossible. Now, that's the reason she had the two miscarriages is because her progesterone was so low. And so they decided, since your dad's got this word and it's so strong, we should start. He said, if you're even thinking about it, you should start taking progesterone. So they started taking progesterone then that day.

They went back about a month later to check her levels. And the doctor came in and said, uh, you're pregnant. And they said, really? And he said, yeah. And when you came to see me last time, apparently you were pregnant then.

And so they counted up because, you know, you can count the days there. She had been, she was pregnant at that time, four weeks and six days. And I gave her the word four weeks and five days before she'd been pregnant one day. Now, it's great that God spoke that word, but here's what's amazing. God spoke that word to save that baby's life.

Because she started taking the medicine that's a, it's a natural hormone that your body should produce that her body was not producing. I'm just telling you, God speaks. That final story is so powerful. You know, what strikes me is that when we take the time to learn to listen to the Lord and mature that skill, we get to be part of beautiful life-saving miracles.

It's so true. Well, we encourage you to take a moment to think about what Pastor Robert shared today and really listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. I know he wants to speak to you today and every day. Now, to get a copy of this message or any of the upcoming messages in this frequency series, visit pastorrobert.com or call 833-933-WORD.

You can get any of the messages to share with a friend or family member. So visit pastorrobert.com or call 833-933-WORD. You can also follow Pastor Robert on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Next time, Pastor Robert will be sharing about why God wants to speak to us. We hope you enjoyed today's message. Have a blessed day.