Hearing God’s Voice in the Crowd R1258

If you've ever wondered why I present Jesus to you, is because Jesus died for you on a cross. He's God's Son, He is God and God so loved the world that He gave us the Lord Jesus. And Jesus came to this earth and He lived on this earth and then He was taken and crucified on a cross and when He died on that cross, He took upon Himself your sin and my sin and He died and when He died, your sin and my sin died with Him. Then by the power of God, He was raised on the third day so that Jesus now is alive and when Jesus came out of the grave, He didn't bring our sin with Him. Our sin remained in the grave so now here it is, all of us have sinned, every one of us is a sinner. The only way that you can have a relationship with God our Heavenly Father is through the Lord Jesus because He's the way, He's truth, He's the life. No man can come to God accepting through Jesus because Jesus is the one who through His death and resurrection makes it possible for you and me to be forgiven of our sin because when we trust Him, when we confess our sin and repent before Him and give our hearts and lives to Him and He comes into our lives, our sin past tense is present tense forgiven because Christ has already paid the price.

He did that for me. There are times when the noise seems so loud, God's voice doesn't cut through. Today we'll discover how we can hear God's voice in the crowd. Welcome to the broadcast of Dr. Don Wilton, the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Wilton called The Encouraging Word.

In these next few moments, today's message, Hearing God's Voice in the Crowd will be a part of what we'll share together, both understanding and gaining insight on how God wants us to hear His voice. As we spend this time together, know that we're available for you. We'd love to pray with you. Maybe there's something going on in your life right now you'd like to have a prayer partner with. We're here at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. Or meet us online keyboard to keyboard at theencouragingword.org. Also a great place to hear other resources and follow us on socials. We'd love to get connected with you.

And now, Dr. Don Wilton. Now friends, today we are going to be studying a humdinger of a subject in a very short space of time. And you're going to want to hear what God has to say to you. I'm going to speak to you today about hearing God's voice in the crowd.

Hearing God's voice in the crowd. You and I are living in a day and age where we are being drowned out. There are voices everywhere. And that voice may be a sickness that you're going through. Do you know I've come to an understanding that pain is a very loud voice.

Did you know that? If you've never heard physically, pain is a very loud voice. I learned again this week of a very dear friend of mine who suffers perpetual massive headaches. Now I'm not talking about the kind that most of us identify with where you get a headache and you take a Tylenol or something and get over it.

I'm talking about one of the most precious ladies I have ever met who suffers from chronic headache attacks. And it just goes on and on. That is a noise. It's a voice. That is a noise. It's a voice.

So I'm going to use an obvious statement. Very hard to think clearly and to hear God speak when you've got a massive headache going on that's consuming. People with cancer will tell you that. Repeated treatments. Someone who's going through radiation. Someone who is constantly visiting the hospital. Someone who is in hospital.

We pray every week for people just like you. But one could go on and on. It may be an addiction. Your voice is an addiction. But voices come in the form of people. You and I are facing every kind of person voice. People are talking to us.

The sound is everywhere. The government's speaking. The school campus is speaking. Teachers are speaking. We've got these voices everywhere.

Everywhere. One of my big challenges as your pastor is not to listen to voices. Now I want you to think about that. I'm going to ask you all a question today. Do you think there's anybody in this massive congregation of people who has some advice to give to me?

I get it all the time concerning everything. How do you hear God's voice in the crowd? This statement is not to say and we're going to discover that. This is not to say that God uses people.

I'm going to show you how he does. But how do you know God is speaking? I want you to open your Bibles to Daniel chapter 5 and verse 15. This is critical. And what I've done in our study and the story is I've singled out one verse.

Can you imagine that? In this entire encounter, I've singled out one single tiny little verse that I want you to hold into your heart today. This is it. Chapter 5, Daniel, chapter 5 and verse 15. Now the wise men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me to read this writing and make known to me its interpretation. But they could not show the interpretation of the matter.

So I'd like to read that again. The wise men, the wise men, those who have been brought in, the wise men, the wise men, those deemed capable by the world, the enchanters, that little word there literally means the smooth talkers, the ones who have the right connections. Maybe they had the right money. Maybe they wore the right clothes. Maybe they sat in the right seat. Maybe they were elected to the right position. The wise men, those who were connected into the spiritual world with a small S have been brought in before the king to read this writing and make known to me its interpretation.

But they could not show the interpretation of the matter. Where are you looking at the moment? Who are you listening to at the moment? This story that we are engaged in at the moment, which is so very exciting, I love this, is a story of four things. Number one, it's the story of people living out their lives.

So we're looking at Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar and Darius the Mede and Daniel and Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego. Just put all of them together in the same bottle and I'm just going to tell you, this is the story about a people living out their lives. Number two, a people facing their problems. They had many problems, every kind.

I'm not going to isolate these right now. They had many problems. Number three, they were a people looking for solutions. So they were living out their lives, facing many problems and all of them were looking for a solution or solutions to their problems. But number four, this is the story about our God who is wanting to help.

So I'm just going to go ahead and make a statement here. God loves you and God has made everything possible to make your impossible possible. God wants to help you. The problem is not God, it's us.

They were trying to figure out how to solve their problems their own way. So just very briefly, keep your Bibles open because I'm going to show you something. There are basically three pictures or three scenes in this scope of the story that you and I are studying in our life groups and Sunday school classes today.

In God's Word, there are three of them. Scene number one, you can look at it in chapter three. So all go to chapter three.

Scene number one involves, first of all, a powerful king. Chapter three, verse one, King Nebuchadnezzar. It involves a noisy people. Look at verse eight. Therefore at that time, certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. This crowd was a noisy crowd.

There were a bunch of voices. Number three, it involved a fiery furnace. Look at verse 22. Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell bound into the fiery furnace. So scene one involves a powerful king, a noisy people who were very jealous, a fiery furnace, and number four, a God solution.

God showed up. All right, scene number two. Have a look at chapter five. Turn to chapter five.

This is the next big scene. What does scene number two involve? Number one, a powerful king. Look at verse one of chapter five. King Nebuchadnezzar made a great feast.

Number two, it involves a noisy people. Look at verse seven. The king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, the astrologers.

He went to the crowd. It involves number three, a written message. Look at verse five. Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace opposite the lampstand. And number four, scene number two, involves a God solution. So we've got two pictures already. Picture number one, a powerful king, a noisy people, a fiery furnace, and a God solution. Scene number two, a powerful king, a noisy people, a handwritten message, and a God solution. Well, what happened in the third picture that we're given here? Go to chapter six. Look at chapter six with me. Involves number one, a powerful king. It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps to be throughout the whole kingdom.

Number two, it involved a very noisy crowd and a loud people. Look at verse four. The high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful and no error or fault was found in him. It involves number three, a very hungry bunch of lions.

Look at verse 16. Then the king commanded and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. Who out here today is in a den of lions? This picture here we've got involves a very angry lion. It involves a very bunch, great bunch of very hungry lions. This was life-threatening.

And number four, it involved a God solution. All right, watch me quickly here. Just for a second, I want you to think about hearing God's voice in the crowd. Look what happened here. In all three cases, there was a powerful king involved. There was a noisy crowd. There was a circumstance. There was handwriting on the wall. There was a lion's den. And in all four of them, God shows up. There's a God solution. God manifests himself in the middle of the crowd, in the middle of the circumstance, in the middle of the pain, in the middle of the imminent threat.

It's just like us today. These accounts in God's word have four common elements. All of them, everything that we're studying today have four common elements. Number one, powerful people. That's just point number two. There's so much more great teaching to come from Dr. Don Wilton here on The Encouraging Word. Dr. Wilton insists I interrupt for this purpose more than anything else, and that's to let you know we're here for you. It's not just a presentation.

It's a conversation. If you'd like to talk with someone, pray with someone, we're here right now at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673, or meet us online at TheEncouragingWord.org. Even though the world is becoming an increasingly challenging place to live in as a Christian, Jesus' ultimate sacrifice on the cross remains a message of hope for everyone. Discover a deep understanding and appreciation for our Savior's death on the cross in Dr. Wilton's powerful sermon, The Cross, along with the bonus book, The Cross of Jesus, by Warren W. Wiersbe, which explores the entire crucifixion in detail. These powerful resources are yours to have with your gift of support to The Encouraging Word. Thank you for listening today. And so many are discovering more and more opportunities to lift up the name of Jesus and help us do so by becoming encouragers. Here's Dr. Wilton with a little more insight on what it is to be an encourager.

Hello, my friends. I want to speak to you personally today from my heart to yours. I don't think there is ever a better or more important time for us to respond to our world by standing up for righteousness. Now with this in mind, I would like to invite you to become an encourager ministry partner. You see, together we can impact lives both now and for all time and all eternity. The Encouraging Word is a viewer and listener supported ministry. And to know that you are standing with me financially enables me to move forward with confidence to do the work God has called me to do. So please call the number on your screen and just simply say, I want to become an encourager.

Thank you so much for helping me. That number again is 866-899-WORD. 866-899-9673. We'll connect you with one of us 24 hours a day, whether you're joining the team and saying, I want to be an encourager, or you're just saying, I need someone to pray with me.

We're here for you. That's 866-899-9673. Or discover more online at our website, theencouragingword.org. Now back to today's message, Hearing God's Voice in the Crowd with Dr. Don Wilton. Number one, powerful people.

That's the first common element in everything God is telling us today. He shows us, first of all, a picture of powerful people. So who are the powerful people? It's just people who have power to influence your life.

Who are they? Coaches, teachers, parents, government leaders, presidents, prime ministers, kings, queens. It's a picture here of powerful people.

People who are movers and shakers. You know, in King Nebuchadnezzar's particular case, the Bible tells us very clearly about him, that he had the power to do whatever he wanted to do. In his case, back in the Old Testament, he could execute someone, he could throw them off a cliff, he could elevate them, he could put a ring on their finger, he could tell them to get lost.

I mean, he could do anything he wanted to. Have you ever felt like you're living in a world today where everybody else is telling you how to live, what to do, what to believe? Number two, popular opinion.

That's the second common element, popular opinion. Every time you open God's word, there's the issue of what everybody else thinks. So what does everybody else think? What does everybody else think about abortion? What does everybody else think about homosexuality? What does everybody else think about adultery and being unfaithful?

What does everybody else think about drunkenness? What does everybody else think about church? What does everybody else think about Jesus Christ, the son of the living God? Who do men say that I, the son of God, am? Well, the popular opinion is that some say you're Elijah and some say you're just one of the prophets and some say you're just a good person and some say who in the world would be so stupid as to believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and Jesus the Christ looked into the eyes of poor Peter the apostle and said, but who do you say that I am? And Peter said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.

There are a lot of common elements in this great story about Nebuchadnezzar and Lion's Den and the brothers Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and a fiery furnace. But God's trying to give us a picture of powerful people and popular opinion, but he's also giving us a picture of dire predicaments on both sides of the hour. God is trying to show us what happens to public opinion and powerful people who do not worship the Lord their God, but he's also showing us the cost that comes with those who do. Jesus put it this way.

He said, you want to follow me? Take up the cross. Last time I studied the cross, it wasn't the picture that we have on some of our walls of a baby little Jesus with a beautiful little white linen cloth draped around him. It is the picture of the savior of the world beaten to a bloody pulp by those who would crucify the son of the living God. This one is Jesus, the spotless lamb of God slain from before the foundation of the world. And Jesus said, you want a piece of me? Take up this cross. Take a look at Daniel.

Take a look at Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. He gave us a picture of a dire predicament, but there is a fourth element that is a picture of Godly solutions. Godly solutions because in the midst of all the habab and the mumbo jumbo and the public opinion polls in the midst of our lion's dens and our fiery furnaces, God rose up from within amongst them and claimed to be exactly who he was as God of the universe, the almighty, the alpha and the omega.

And he said, it's in me that you live and you move and you have your being. These stories are amazing. All across our world today, we find a people just like you and me. Our world is no different to this. My friends, we are surrounded by powerful people.

We're almost overcome by the sounds of popular opinion. More and more people are in dire predicaments and particularly those who follow Christ. But God has a solution, got a solution. So just to put a little wrapping on this, I say to myself, how can we hear God's voice in the crowd? Here's a couple of suggestions from your pastor's heart today. Number one, read his story. You want to hear God when there's handwriting on the wall? You want to hear God when you look at your life and you've been cast into a fiery furnace? You want to hear God when you're looking at a lion who has the capability and the capacity to devalue?

Read his story. Number two, come to church. Number three, gravitate to godly people. Gravitate to godly people. I'm not just saying that to our students, I'm saying that to everyone. Gravitate to godly people.

You know, students, while I'm congratulating you and loving on you, you just think this weekend how your whole weekend has been consumed by being surrounded by like-minded godly people. Look at what God's done. By the way, when you gravitate toward godly people, it doesn't mean to say you have nothing to do with the world. Bible says be in the world, but not of the world.

Don't put on the same attire. Number four, listen to godly counsel. It was amazing in these stories how the powerful people in the public opinion polls and my favorite verse there, the wise men came, they couldn't interpret, they couldn't find any meaning. And then all of a sudden there was the godly counsel. You know, you look around a place like this and you see so many godly people.

You don't have to kind of decipher through the traffic in order to find out where they stand when it comes to the Lord. Listen to godly counsel and number five, submit to God's solutions. Submit to God's solutions. There it is. How to hear God's voice in the crowd. These are just five, by the way.

I had 7,332 of them. I kind of whittled it down today in the light of hearing God's voice in the crowd. Read his story, read the Bible, read God's word, hide God's word in your heart, come to church, gravitate to godly people, but listen to godly counsel and then submit to God's solutions.

Just submit yourself, give your life over to him. So what is the mountain that you are facing? What fiery furnace, what handwriting, what is your mountain? This savior can move mountains because our God, my God is mighty to save. And we're going to invite you today to do it, to give your life to Christ, to come. God is mighty to save. If the Lord has spoken you today through the message of Dr. Wilton, I pray you'd respond right now. Let us pray with you at 866-899-9673 or meet us online at theencouragingword.org. Before we get away, closing thoughts from our pastor and chief encourager, Dr. Don Wilton. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ?

I'm so happy to hear that. Why don't you pray this prayer with me today? Dear God, I know that you love me very, very much and I know that the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on a cross so that I might be forgiven of my sin. Today I repent of my sin. I confess my sin to you and I invite you to come into my heart and into my life by faith. In Jesus' name I pray. If you prayed that prayer, let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of God.

This is wonderful. I hope that you know how much I'm going to be praying for you and how very important this is for me. Call us so that we can talk to you and connect you in the right place so you can begin this wonderful journey. And in just a moment, I'm going to come back with a final word. Perhaps the Lord has spoken to you today and you've heard more than our pastor, Dr. Don Wilton's wonderful South African brogue. You've heard the Lord calling you home. You've heard God's voice in the crowd. And I can assure you, Scripture reminds us again and again and again that God is a pursuing God and He's using this broadcast to let you know He loves you. He has a plan for your life and He's ready to receive you no matter what you've done.

No matter how gray your past may be, there is a pure white future ahead. Let us pray with you. 866-899 word is that number.

I know I go too fast. Take a second, jot it down, store it in your cell. It's 866-899-9673 and 24 hours a day it'll connect you with one of us. Happy to talk, to listen, to pray, and maybe connect you with resources that'll help encourage you in your walk with Christ. Until next time, have a great weekend. As Dr. Don would say, you need to be in church on Sunday.

If you need help finding a church, call us at 866-899 word. Well, here I am again. What a day this has been. You know, one of the things I want to say to you is let's stay connected. You know, we've got so many means to be able to do that.

You can you can write to us, email us. You've got all the details right there in front of us. We are, we're a family together. We stay connected in so many ways, and your life is very important to me. I see you there, and God shows me, and I want to be able to pray with you, and connect with you, and be a vital part of your relationship, your growth. Your needs are maintained. I'm walking in your shoes, and I want to pray for you.

Please don't stop. Call us, write us, keep praying, keep giving, keep connecting, keep rejoicing, keep celebrating, keep striving. God is on his throne. This is the encouraging word, and now you know why. Preacher Wilton, thank you for your prayers and your messages throughout the world. I have always enjoyed your words and how you break it down and explain it so I know exactly what you're saying. I was brought up as a child going to church and was saved and baptized at a camp at a church in North Carolina. I have never faithfully given my tithes on a regular basis, but I prayed about it, and I feel that I got an answer from God when I got your letter about contributing to the encouraging word. I feel like it would help me to know that I was helping to spread the word of God in Jesus Christ throughout the world. Thank you for this opportunity. God bless you, Dr. Wilton, and your work.