God's Goal in Communicating

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, July 25th. With all the voices you hear each day, how do you determine what God is saying? Here's an explanation of God's goal in communicating. Take a week for 15 minutes and finally get around to the point God is always at the point.

He makes no introduction. He doesn't talk just to be talking. God always has something specific to say. He says it precisely.

He says it concisely. And it always, without fail, has something to do with our need. It may involve other people, but God is always speaking to our need.

It may be that we have a need to become involved in somebody else's life. Or it may be that God wants to do something in our own or to say something to us. But God always has our need in mind when He's speaking. Now, if God is speaking and I'm doing the listening, if I want to be sure that I hear what God is saying, one of the things I need to settle or to learn is this. What is God's primary objective or objectives? What is His goal or what is His goals in speaking to me in the beginning? That is, if I really want to hear what God is saying and be able to listen to Him and know that I've heard from God, one of the best things I can do is to learn what God's purpose or His goal is in the beginning of speaking to you or to me.

That's what I want to talk about. I want to give you three words and I want you to listen carefully. Three simple words. Here is what God has in mind when He speaks to you and to me. He always has these three things as His goal.

So it's a threefold goal. Number one, when God speaks to our heart, His first goal is we may comprehend the truth. Get that word down, comprehend, which means that we may be able to grasp it.

We may be able to seize it and we may be able to understand fully what He is saying. God never speaks in riddles. That is, He's going to speak to your life in a way that you can understand because God's goal for speaking to you, my friend, is that you comprehend the truth. So God will not speak to you and to me in riddles. You say, well, now there have been times when God's spoken to me that I didn't understand what He was saying. It wasn't because God was foggy, wasn't because He was being confused.

It was because something in your life was hindering a clear hearing of what God was saying. God speaks to you and me and He wants us to listen, not simply to listen with their mind. If I only preach to your mind, you're going to get a mental message. But if God, through my spirit, through this voice speaks to your spirit, you're going to get a spiritual message.

And God is going to deal with your whole life, not just your thinking processes. Now, there are two kinds of listeners and all of us fall into one of these two categories. That is, we are either passive listeners or we are aggressive listeners.

We become involved in listening. Here's a passive listener comes to church on Sunday morning and views to see if everything is in order. Seeing how she's dressed, how he looks, how the choir is doing, did pretty good. In fact, they did great. What kind of sermon?

So it was all right. That person is just in the middle of a big crowd of people. They are passive listeners. They did not come with a decision to hear from God. A passive listener will miss most of God's message to them, if not all of it. Nowhere in this book are we admonished to be passive listeners. We are to be involved, aggressive listeners. You know what an involved, aggressive listener is? An involved, aggressive listener comes to church with a Bible in his hand. When the pastor opens the book, he opens the book.

When the pastor begins to preach, he gets out a pencil and piece of paper. He's aggressive listener. He wants to be sure he doesn't miss anything. Listen, an involved listener listens with intent. Probing, searching, listening carefully, wanting to be sensitive to what God is saying, alert to what God is saying, interested in what is happening, turning to the verses, thinking all the time. How does this apply to my life?

I don't want to miss this. I hope he says that again. An intensive, aggressive listener. If God speaks through this servant or any servant and you are listening, my friends, you're under obligation before Almighty God to listen aggressively, intensely, sensitively, because it is the mouth of God and not the mouth of man. And I want to encourage you, my friend, do not come to church, do not watch the television, do not listen to the radio as a passive listener. If it is God who is doing the speaking, I believe that by his very nature, God is worthy of my undivided attention for the moment.

Amen? So when we listen, we're to listen aggressively. That's why we must learn to listen carefully to others, not passively, but aggressively and intensely, for God may be saying something to you through someone else that will change your life. But if you're a passive ho-hum listener, then my friends, you may miss God's direct message to your life.

We're to listen with comprehension. You recall, for example, that first chapter of James, what he says about those who go to the mirror and look, walk away. He says, for example, in verse twenty five, but one who looks intently, that is, I mean, listen, they pride up to look to see what's there. What is God saying?

They want to grasp the truth. What is the Lord saying to us? And every time you and I come into a situation, every time we come to the Lord's house, we should ask God, Lord, we sit in these pews. Father, even before we get here, give me a listening heart. Lord, show me how to listen aggressively. Show me how to listen attentively. Show me how to listen, probing to see if what I'm hearing is the truth.

How can I apply this to my heart? Listen, we want to be listening to Jehovah Yahweh, Elohim, God, not man. What does man have to say?

Not much. Look at the mess this world is in. You know why? Because men are listening to men. They're not listening to God. I will tell you, my friend, when you hear God speak and you know that it's from the word of God, you know that from the Spirit of God into your spirit, God is dealing with you, then my friend, let me ask you a question. If God is the God He says He is and He is, does He not demand, does He not require, and does He not deserve my full-hearted attention for the moment that God is speaking? If He's the God we say He is, He deserves my undivided attention because, you see, God wants me to know the truth. You say, well, what is this truth God wants us to know?

As I thought about it, I think you could put it into three categories. Number one, He wants us to know the truth about Himself, He wants us to know the truth about ourselves, and He wants us to know the truth about other people. When I understand the truth of who God is, I'm going to begin to understand better who I am, then I'm going to begin to understand who other people are and their needs and how God in my life, through my life, can help meet those needs. God wants us to know who He is.

He has equipped us through the indwelling Holy Spirit to know Him. So the first word is what? Comprehend. He wants us to comprehend the truth.

All right, the second word. The second part of God's goal for us in listening is that we may be conformed to the truth. To be conformed to the truth, that is, shaped into the mold of the truth that we hear.

Fashioned into the mold of the truth we hear. What does He say, for example, in Romans chapter 8 verse 29? He says in this 29th verse, for every single believer, God has predetermined, predestined, preordained that every single believer would be shaped, that is, fitted into the mold of Christ.

He says what? Conformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ. How is God going to conform you and me into His likeness? By revealing to us the truth of His likeness, shaping us. And as I am confronted with the truth, I can do one of two things.

I can resist the truth. I can refuse to be pushed into God's mold, into the likeness of Christ. Or I can hear the truth, drop my guard, receive the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, yield to Him, not resist but yield and be fashioned into the likeness of Christ. He says we are to listen in order to comprehend and to comprehend in order to be shaped and to be listened to be conformed to that truth. You'll recall, for example, back in James again, chapter 1, what he says. He says now there are two kinds of hearers. He says if anyone, verse 23, if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, that is, that's a passive listener, hearing but not doing.

Hearing, listen, being entertained but not being conformed. Let me tell you something else. God never speaks for our consideration. Shape us. Shape us into His likeness. That's the reason He reveals truth to us. The wisest thing you can ever do is to allow the truth to shape you into the mold of God.

Let me ask you a question. Would God ever tell you anything that's not true? Never. Would He ever tell you anything that is not good for you? Never. Would He ever require of you anything that's not good for you?

Never. Now, there'll be some things He may say to us that we don't particularly like to hear. And I think as Jeremiah spoke, the listeners to Jeremiah and his prophecy, one of the things that they said, we ought to have this spirit.

Listen to this. Jeremiah chapter 42, verse 6. Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to the voice of the Lord our God. Haven't you heard people say, I'm not going back to that church anymore. I don't want to hear that preacher.

Why don't you? All he talks about is money or all he talks about is sin. Could it be that God's trying to get through your thick heart? I'll tell you one thing. Listen, if I went somewhere and heard somebody preaching, God got a hold of me and got me under conviction. I'm going to listen.

I'd be afraid not to go back. If you are running from God, what you're doing is you're resisting the truth. And what you're saying is I love darkness more than I love light.

And friends, you're headed for trouble. You remember what Jesus said? He said, the man who hears these words that I speak. And do it them is like a man who builds his house and the foundation is solid rock.

The winds will blow, the storms will come, the rain will beat down and the floods will come. But it's immovable because it is built on that which is immovable, Christ Jesus, the rock. He says, but the man who listens to the words that I say and doeth them not is a fool. God gives the truth that I may comprehend it. God gives the truth that I may be conformed to it because he knows that is for my best. The third part of that goal is that God speaks to us. God wants us to listen. God speaks to us that we may communicate that truth.

God has never given us anything to keep for ourselves. Whether it's money, it's to go through us. If it is truth, it is to be shared. Listen to what he said. As you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Listen, teaching them to observe. Listen, having heard, teach them how to conform, teaching them to observe all the things which I have given to you. And ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses of me. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the outermost parts of the earth. In Second Timothy chapter two and verse two, that beautiful passage that oftentimes we quote about discipleship.

It's just true about lots of things. Listen to what he said. Chapter two, verse two, and the things which you have heard from me, Paul said to Timothy. Listen, the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust the faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

That is the truth that you have been able to comprehend. Paul says through me as I have been your teacher. He says you are to communicate these truths to others who in turn will be able to pass them on that somebody else's life may be changed. Now I want you to listen to me very carefully.

Going to get real personal. Every single one of us, every waking moment of our life, every single one of us is communicating. Something every moment of our life that is every waking moment.

By what we say and what we don't say, by what we do and what we fail to do, we are communicating something. For example, here's a dad with a family. Son says, well, Dad, how much are we going to tithe this Sunday? Dad says we're not going to tithe this Sunday because I can't afford it. I've got bills to pay and I can't tithe.

Then, Father, you are communicating to your son a lie. You're communicating to him by your actions that you cannot trust God with your money, that God is not faithful to meet your needs, that God will not keep his promise concerning the tithe if you give it. So you're saying, Son, you can't trust God when it comes to money. You say, well, I'm not one of those tithes, but I wouldn't say that.

You've already said it. You have already communicated by your decision. You have communicated either truth or error. In your family, for example, let's say that you never read the Bible. What you're communicating to your family is I'm smart enough to make my decisions and I can get along without God's counsel. And that, too, is a lie.

That, too, is error. And if you're teaching your family that a person can get along without the counsel of God, my friend, you are communicating to them something that is absolutely untrue and detrimental to their whole future. Your sons and your daughters have never seen you, on your knees, never heard you pray. What you're communicating is I don't need fellowship with God.

I don't need to ask him about anything. I can handle it myself. And the truth is that's not true either.

That is a lie. You cannot handle it without him. Not even be what God wants you to be. Listen, the absence of prayer, the absence of the Bible study, the absence of giving, the absence of sharing our faith is communicating to others that none of these things are important. And my friend, you and I know that every single one of them is important. And his dad, and he's talking to his family, says, well, God wants me to raise my giving. We're going to trust the Lord.

Here's the need we have. We're going to trust God. You know what you're communicating to your kids, boy? Listen, when all hell breaks loose, you trust them, God. When you can't see your way clear, God will work it out. God will meet your needs. Listen, we are communicating either error and lies, and we're communicating truth, life-changing truth.

And then some fathers and mothers wonder why their family's in the mess they're in. Could it be that you and I have communicated unbelief? Listen, we communicate so many things we never decided to communicate.

Let me ask you a question. In the light of what you know, listen, in the light of what you know that God's been so gracious and good to teach you over these years, are you deliberately, willfully, by an act of choice, attempting to apply these truths to your life on a daily basis in order that you may be shaped in the likeness of Christ? And are you communicating the truth about God? Are you communicating the truth about yourself?

What is it by your life you're telling other people? Every time God speaks to you into me, He's got three things in mind. That you comprehend the truth, that you conform to the truth, that you communicate that truth. We comprehend it. Listen to me. We comprehend it clearly.

We conform to it willingly. And we communicate it boldly. That's why God speaks to you and me. Thank you for listening to God's Goal in Communicating. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.