Hear: Practice Listening to God [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. He who did not spare the giving of his own Son to come and die for you, how much more so could you trust that He'll give you every other good thing? If you ever wonder where God, whether He wants to go well for you, you just remember He's already given the greatest gift imaginable.

How much more so does He want it to go well for you? And so if you can hear Him, He's going to help you. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series we've called Saver, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now, an audio album called Saver. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries, either a CD album or a digital download of these audio messages. So as you listen into today's messages, go deeper as we send you today's special offer.

Contact us at PastorAlan.org, that's PastorAlan.org, or call 877-544-4860. More on all of this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news? You are the sheep of God's pasture, and you can recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd.

We're in a series called Saver. It's about becoming mindful of God's presence and His blessings in the moment, about becoming more aware in this crazy busy world of all that God's doing here and now. And maybe this is the most important moment of all, and that is to consider just what a privilege it is. Part of our inheritance as children of God, that we can recognize and follow the voice of the Lord. Three passages this morning that all reflect this. The first is one instance of a phrase that Jesus said over and over. This is from Mark chapter four, verse nine.

He said, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. And then in John 10, the passage about how much he is like a shepherd. The sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he's brought out all of his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him for they do not know the voice of strangers. And then in Deuteronomy six, verse four, what is famously amongst the Hebrew people called the Shema, based on the first word in Hebrew, here is Shema. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

Hear. Have you ever had this happen where you're in a room, the TV is, is playing in the background, but you're talking to people then then something happens on the TV that everybody stops and immediately pays attention to it. You know, this is the thing advertisers are just desperately trying to figure out how to stop and get your attention. Well, a year and a half ago at the Super Bowl it happened to me. I was in the room talking to a bunch of people and some of the commercials were playing. Normally you kind of try to watch the Super Bowl commercials because they're usually interesting, but there was a run of them that weren't that interesting. We were talking amongst one another and all of a sudden my attention and everybody else's attention was suddenly frozen and we directed our attention to the TV. For all of a sudden in the middle of a commercial came the familiar cadence of the preaching of Martin Luther King Jr. And I love the sound of his preaching and we just stopped. And of course, as a preacher I was like, wait a minute, somebody's preaching in a commercial during the Super Bowl. And so we're just silent and just riveted like that.

You know what I'm talking about? You remember that happened before where just all of a sudden you're just, it catches your attention. Could you imagine what would catch your attention maybe more than anything is if you were in a room, TV's playing in the background, you're just talking to people. And then all of a sudden you heard the voice of somebody in your own immediate family, maybe a parent, maybe a sibling or child. And all of a sudden you heard it coming through the TV screen. You can imagine you just stop.

Wait, that's so and so. Well interestingly, this happened to me regularly as a kid. My dad was a TV newsman and so I'd just be oftentimes in the room and all of a sudden there'd be a little blurb would come on, maybe it's an advertisement for that night's TV news spot or it'd be something, you know, a commercial or something like that. And all of a sudden I'm just talking to people and all of a sudden I hear my own father's voice and you can't help yourself.

You stop, you look at the TV. That's my father's voice. Well, that's what I want to talk to you about today and the crazy noise of the world, which is full of maybe more clamor than any other time in our lives, your father speaking. And I believe that you can spiritually cultivate this capacity to have ears that hear, that in the middle of the white noise, you hear your father speaking and it turns your attention towards God and you can hear what it is he's saying. And what you'll discover is that as you grow in your walk with the Lord, that this wonderful privilege of hearing from God is something that never grows old and in fact becomes not only a greater delight, but something that you become more and more adept at doing, hearing the voice of God and savoring his every word.

Let me start with this. You can imagine if you hear from God, it is going to be so powerful to direct your life in the right direction because he's your father and he loves you so much. He wants it to go well for you. He wants it to go well for you.

Here's the way the scripture looks at it. He who did not spare the giving of his own son to come and die for you, how much more so could you trust that he'll give you every other good thing? If you ever wonder where God, whether he wants to go well for you, you just remember he's already given the greatest gift imaginable.

How much more so does he want it to go well for you? And so if you could hear him, he's going to help you. Our son Bennett and his wife Amy were home a couple of weekends ago sitting on the back deck. Our back deck has steep steps that go down, and our daughter-in-law Amy had positioned her chair as close to those steps as possible because the sun was at an angle and she was trying to catch a little bit of that warm sunshine still shining on that part of the deck. And just while they were just talking, all of a sudden my wife had a great impression. It turned into just sort of a knowing that I need to say something to Amy about being cautious of being too close to those stairs over there. And it grew in sort of the sense of if I don't say something, she's going to fall down those stairs, which was an odd thing she's just sitting there. So finally, Anne just interrupted the conversation to be obedient to this.

She learned this is one of the ways the Lord speaks to her, and to stop and said, Amy, I just think you need to be mindful of those steps right there. And right as she said that, a gust of wind blew. And we have a six-foot artificial tree we keep on that back thing that has pretty lights on it at Christmas. It becomes a Christmas tree.

It'll be an Easter egg tree here in a little while. And this gust of wind came right as Anne was saying, you be mindful of those steps right there, Amy. So she sat up and was looking with caution and was kind of braced. And right at that moment, that very moment, a gust of wind came and blew that tree over right on top of her. And later we were just reflecting about it. She of course wasn't injured or anything, but if she had not been already sitting up poised thinking about this, would she have been startled, and perhaps it had been just enough that it was going to result in her tumble down those steps?

We think so. Just a little moment like that, that happens. My brother David, many years ago when his son Cobol was little, just was driving out on a Saturday morning to go to McDonald's and pick up some biscuits or something with his little boy. And he pulled into the parking place at McDonald's, got ready to get out and go in, and he just felt a deep impression that seemed from the Lord to him, just came over him, don't go in there, drive away. Now that's an odd thing, but he was obedient to it and he drove out. And as he was driving out of the McDonald's parking lot, they heard gunshots.

There was a shooting inside of McDonald's right at that very moment. And is that something that God, He cares so much about us, of course He would want to lead us and guide us and be speaking to us about such things. But sometimes what God wants to do is just encourage you. So one of the most beautiful ministries of the Holy Spirit, who is the encourager, the helper, the one who comes alongside and wants you to have strength for the journey and wants you to have clarity so that you can see God in the midst even of the difficult times. I don't know what prompted her, but Anne and I were talking about this sermon and she brought out an email from years ago that somehow came to her mind.

She collects these things in a big book. And it said, dear pastor, I want to write this morning. I'll tell you how your sermon yesterday touched me and gave God the opportunity to reach me. These last six months or so have been hard for me. I've heard about people talking about being in a desert, but I didn't understand what they meant. And now I do. And she went on to talk about having kids all different ages, going through so many daily tasks and grateful to have her life and a Christian husband. But she said, I feel like I'm walking on a hamster wheel.

Running would be too fast. I feel like I'm just walking through sludge and not making any progress. You can identify with that. And she said in this, she said at church yesterday, I was wearing an ichthus ring that her daughter and she each have, she said, but I don't wear mine very much. You know, one of those fish is a symbol of Christ because of the letters of ichthus in Greek.

And she said something I've never done. I noticed during the sermon, I noticed my fish were pointing downstream and I switched them so they'd be going upstream. I don't, I mean, I don't recommend fiddling with your jewelry during the middle of the sermon, but if it's fine, it's fine. And a little lull in the sermon, you just have to fiddle your drink. And, but she said this in a couple of minutes, just a couple of minutes later in the sermon, you mentioned salmon swimming upstream and that it isn't easy. It'd be easier to swim downstream, but they swim upstream because that's where they need to go.

And she said, God spoke to me in that moment. It was very helpful to hear and reframe how I've been looking at my days. I'm not walking on a hamster wheel. I'm swimming upstream. It's not easy, but it's where I need to go. And it's refreshing to know that I am making progress and not just staying in one place.

This is special, just sometimes in the middle of the most ordinary tasks. My wife loves this old book by Annabelle Gillum, the confident woman. And particularly because of this in chapter two, where Annabelle tells about how God spoke to her.

They had a profoundly mentally challenged son named Mason. She wrote about him. She said, Mace could sing one song with Greg gusto, just one.

Jesus loves me. He would throw his head back and hold onto that first yes in the chorus, just as long as he could. And then he'd get tickled and almost fall out of a chair.

I can still hear him giggle when I think back on those days. And she writes, I never doubted for a moment that Jesus loved that profoundly retarded little boy. It didn't matter that he would never sit with the kids in the back of the church and on a certain special night, walk down the aisle, take the pastor by the hand and invite Jesus into his heart.

It was entirely irrelevant that he could not quote a single verse of scripture that he'd never go to high school or they'd never be a dad. I knew that Jesus loved Mason. What I could not comprehend, what I could not accept was that Jesus could love Mason's mother Annabelle. You see, I believe that in order for a person to accept me, to love me, I had to perform for him.

My standard for getting love was performance-based, so I performed constantly, perfectly. And she said, I carried this belief into my relationship with God, always living on a performance-based mentality. It was so hard for her to ever truly believe God loved her. But she said one night as she was washing the dishes and Mason was sitting in his chair just watching me, looking at me, she said that she stopped washing the dishes, got down on her knees in front of Mason, took his dirty little hands in hers and said, Mason, I love you, I love you, if only you could understand how much I love you. But he just stared, he couldn't understand, he didn't comprehend. So she said, I stood up, I started doing the dishes again, and then I had to return and kneel again and say, my dear Masons, if only you could say I love you mother, I need that mace, but nothing happened.

She said, I stood up to the sink again, more dishes, more washing, more crying and thoughts far into my way of thinking began filtering into my conscious awareness. I believe God spoke to me that day, and this is what he said, Annabelle, you don't look at your son and turn away in disgust because he's sitting there with saliva drooling out of his mouth. You don't shake your head repulsed because he has dinner all over his shirt. Annabelle, you don't reject Mason because all the dreams you had for him have been destroyed.

You don't reject him because he doesn't perform for you. You love him, Annabelle, just because he is yours. Mason doesn't willfully reject your love, but you willfully reject mine.

I love you, Annabelle, not because you're neat or attractive, not because you do things well, not because you perform for me, but just because you're mine. And it changed your life. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. With so much worry about yesterday's failures and so much hurry getting ready for tomorrow's tasks, sometimes it's hard to focus on the moment that matters most. Right now in a hurried worried season, God invites you into the present.

Modern day life coaches call it mindfulness, but it isn't a new psychological program and it isn't rooted in Eastern religion. Mindfulness, living in the present is God's idea, and the Bible unveils the way. Pastor Alan Wright invites you to savor life each day. When you make your gift today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's eight messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Make your gift today and learn how to savor the textures and flavors of God's grace each moment in the moment, every day of your life.

The Bible is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer.

Now we are in our final days of offering this special product. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. When you hear God's voice, it changes everything. To him who has ears, let him hear. Jesus says it over and over. And when you come to the book of Revelation, it becomes a theme.

Revelation 2, 7. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. It's an ironic statement because to say to him who has ears to hear, let him hear, is to say on the one hand, anybody can hear. Because he's speaking to people who have ears. He's assuming that he's not speaking to the hearing impaired. He's speaking naturally to those who all have ears, who can hear natural sounds. But he's saying not everybody who can hear can hear. Not everybody who can hear my words going into their ears can actually hear what it is that I'm saying. That there is something about the natural person that cannot receive that which is spiritual. And so he's saying there are spiritual ears that are opened up. And some that seem to have deaf spiritual ears. But if you have ears to hear, then he's saying I'm not going to cram this truth down you. I'm not going to force it upon you, but I'm going to proclaim it to you. And if you can hear it, hear it.

In the middle of all the other voices, including your own voice that is too aligned with an old sin nature that tends to turn inward and condemn yourself, all the other voices that are competing, in the midst of it he is saying, listen, God's voice sounds different. I had a great privilege for many who have been flying privately with a pilot who would take me to conferences and all this ministry. And so on a small plane you put on your headphones and we can talk to each other. But of course he's got to take off and talk to air traffic control and we've got to land a plane, talk to the controller again. So you don't want to be talking while he's needing to talk to somebody about what altitude he's supposed to be in or where he's, what course heading he's supposed to have. You've got to be quiet during those times. But what I learned is that once we get up in the air and we're on course, then we could just talk to each other and we'd love to talk about the Lord and talk about things. And, uh, but every now and then, even though you're on course and you're just, it might be that air traffic needs to talk to you about something.

They wanted to change your heading slightly because in other, some other traffic or you might want to change altitude. And so you have to always be aware and be listening for them when they call you. And they call you by the, by the letters, the numbers and letters of your plane, the tail letters that have letters and numbers. And, um, they'll always call with the words that represent each of those letters.

B is Bravo, J Juliet, Bravo, Juliet, and the numbers are following. But I can't tell you how many times we just be sitting there talking in the middle of a flight, just talking, talking, talking, talking, and you can hear chatter on the radio behind you all the time. Chatter, chatter, chatter. You know, there's just chatter back on the radio behind you. You can hear all the different conversations, different pilots talking to air traffic control, and we're just talking to each other. And so many times we're just talking to one another. And all of a sudden his hand goes up like this. And I know what that means is you gotta be quiet.

Now I gotta talk to air traffic control. And what he heard that I didn't hear was Bravo, Juliet, increase altitude to 7,000. And I didn't even hear it because he is trained to hear that sound in the midst of all the other sounds. I don't think God is teaching us and wants us to grow as Christians so we're like, we're talking. That was my father speaking. To him who has ears let him hear. It is a sound of the gospel that resonates with our spirit. I loved talking to a man who came to worship with us and he said after the first time, he said, I've never heard anything like this.

He'd grown up in a very legalistic religious tradition. And when he came and he heard the sound of the gospel, of the grace of the Lord Jesus, he said, because he likes to hunt and he's got a faithful dog. And he said, my dog, when there's the sound that he can hear that I can't hear, his ears will perk up like this.

And he looks like this ears go up. Alan Wright in today's teaching on hearing practice, listening to God. It's from the series Saver and Alan joins us here in the studio here in just a moment with our parting good news. Thought for the day with so much worry about yesterday's failures and so much hurry getting ready for tomorrow's tasks. Sometimes it's hard to focus on the moment that matters most right now in a hurried worried season. God invites you into the present.

Modern day life coaches call it mindfulness, but it isn't a new psychological program and it isn't rooted in Eastern religion. Mindfulness living in the present is God's idea and the Bible unveils the way Pastor Alan Wright invites you to savor life each day when you make your gift today. We'll send you Pastor Alan's eight messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Take your gift today and learn how to savor the textures and flavors of God's grace each moment in the moment every day of your life. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries.

This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Now we are in our final days of offering this special product. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Back here in the studio with Alan, your parting good news thought for the day on this teaching here, practice listening to God.

The phrase train your ear comes to mind here. Would you agree? Yeah, and I think let's start with this Daniel. We want to just keep emphasizing this. Every Christian can hear from God. It's not just a certain few special people, not just the prophetic type people. It's every Christian because Jesus said that his sheep recognize his voice. And we're, if you're a Christian, you're one of his sheep and he's the shepherd. And so there's something about just recognizing God's voice that is part of just knowing I can because I'm a Christian. Now that said, as we'll be learning more about, there are ways that we can train our ear to say, hey, this is the way God speaks. We know it from his word and this is the way God never speaks. And it'll help you to discern the promptings and the beautiful sounds and whispers of God's voice to you in a unique way. So more to learn about this, but every Christian can hear from God. And that's good news.