Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Sermon Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be heard and we're just not listening.

We just really don't care. My mind went to Hebrews chapter 3. Now in the first couple of verses we're talking about Moses and the children of Israel but I want to pick it up in verse 7. And what was happening after all that God had done for 40 years in the wilderness provided every need that they had. All of a sudden God realized that they were not listening to what He had to say. They didn't care.

They were too busy. And God was speaking but they weren't listening. So in verse 7, notice if you will as we begin there, wherefore and everything that is said up into this point and He just stops the conversation and this is the point that's being made. Notice this, wherefore as the Holy Ghost sayeth today if ye will hear His voice. In other words, God's going to speak but it makes the difference whether or not you will hear it. Now may I say that nowadays the problem is not that God isn't speaking. The problem is that we aren't listening. And the problem isn't that what God's saying isn't important.

It's just the fact that we don't think it's important. So in verse 7 He says today if ye will hear His voice, this is what I have to say. If ye will stop long enough to listen. Notice in verse 8. Harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness. When your fathers tempted me, proved me and saw my works 40 years.

Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said they do always err in their heart and they have not known my ways. I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my wrath. They shall be blessed.

Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily. Isn't that interesting that we kind of want to make the argument nowadays to have church less. And yet here He says you need to exhort each other daily.

I don't know about you. We need it. I need church. And I know I'm the one that preaches at church. But I've got to get preaching and I've got to hear preaching and I've got to study on my own besides just message and stuff.

I need it. We need to exhort each other daily. We need to encourage each other. Be accountable to each other. Love each other. We need that daily.

I guess maybe nobody else thinks that but I do. Look at verse 13. Exhort one another daily while it is called today. Lest any of you be hardened. Through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Listen to this. While it is said today if ye will hear His voice.

Exact same phrase repeated twice. If you'll listen. If you will hear what God has to say. Harden not your hearts as in the provocation. Chapter 4 says the exact same phrase. Psalm 95 where this passage mirrors. Harden not your hearts as in the provocation.

Today if ye will hear His voice. Notice if you would verse 16. For some when they had heard did provoke. That means those that listened. Howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

They all didn't listen unfortunately. And with them that had sinned. Whose carcasses fell in the wilderness. And to whom swear that he that they should not enter into his rest but to them that believe not.

So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. You say alright you read a lot of verses more than you normally would maybe on a Sunday morning preacher. What are you trying to say? Well I'm preaching on this subject. Quiet in the house.

And I'll be honest I was planning something kind of lord of it on my mind. Some things for this morning and after that visit on Friday I just felt God made this obvious to me. Daniel are you hearing everything I'm saying?

Mr. Preacher Man? Are you listening? Is God passionately trying to say some things that we just don't hear? What in this passage teaches us that keeps us from hearing what God has to say? Twice in this passage today if ye will hear His voice. If ye will hear His voice.

So what was it that made it where they couldn't hear what He was saying? Well I believe this passage tells us. Let's pray. Lord I love you. Pray that you would bless our time together. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Number one. We often don't hear what God has to say because I believe according to this passage we get number one we get comfortable. Look at verse nine. Isn't this interesting the way God terms this? When your fathers tempted me proved me and notice this last phrase.

Saw my works forty years. They had just grown accustomed to God's blessings. They had gotten used to God's provision.

Let me put it this way. They got their manna every day. They had their needs met.

No they didn't like it and grumbled about that. But they knew every day they were going to wake up God was going to give them food. They knew every day they woke up God was going to give them shade. They knew every day when they got up. They knew how or where whatever but God's going to give us water. They had just gotten comfortable.

They were used to it. I don't know how it is but you and I sometimes we get so comfortable that we're just not desperate to hear from God. We're comfortable coming to church. We go through our motions have our little schedule.

We can come to church and go home and really it doesn't bother us if we didn't hear anything from God. Well I mean we'll listen to maybe what the preacher has to say and yeah I agree with him and yeah he taught the Bible and he laid it out and put it in a little outline so that I can understand it better. He even illiterated it. Used all the same first letter which is very nice of our pastor. You know it takes a lot of effort.

It's very smart isn't it? Where's Rita at today? Okay Rita's over there.

I got somebody else back behind me now. But you know what? You and I get so comfortable with Christianity that we're not desperate to hear what God has to say. We feel as if we've already heard it. May I say God has something new to say to you and me every day? His mercies are new every morning. We need our daily bread but we get comfortable. They had no interest in hearing what God had to say because they were comfortable. Can I ask you something this morning? Could we be too comfortable to be bothered with what God has to say?

What if he's trying to say something to you? Number two. I believe that we often don't hear what God has to say.

Number one because we get comfortable with number two according to this passage because we get carnal. Look at verse 10. He says wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said they do always err in their heart and they have not known my ways. My ways.

What does carnal mean? It means worldly and the Bible says that worldliness grieves the Holy Spirit of God. He said they have grieved me they don't know my ways.

They know the world's ways and they know this individual's ways but they don't know my ways God says. And it grieved me. Notice if you would verse 17. But with whom was he grieved 40 years? Was it not with him that it sinned?

Grieved. Grieving the Holy Spirit of God. May I read you a verse Ephesians chapter four verse 30 and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed on the day of redemption.

Which means what? Okay don't grieve the Holy Spirit. Well can you apply that a little bit better preacher? Yeah because I need it applied to my life all the time.

Because I fail in this constantly. Notice he explains in the next verse let me just read it to you. He says let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor evil speaking be put away from you.

Be tender hearted forgiving one another. All these things the lack of it grieves the Holy Spirit of God and may I say that often times you and I don't hear what God has to say because he has quit speaking to us because he's grieved by us. It doesn't mean that God doesn't have anything to say. It means when you and I grieve the Holy Spirit of God it hurts him. It wounds him. I don't know about you but sometimes we don't hear God because we've grieved the Holy Spirit so bad. There's nothing to hear. May I ask you this could God be so grieved that he has stopped trying to make you listen?

What if he is saying something to you? Number three I believe this passage teaches that we sometimes fail to hear what God has to say. Number one because we get comfortable.

Number two because we get carnal and we all do. And number three because we get corrupted. Look at verse 13. He says exhort one another daily while it is called today lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Why did that generation why could they not listen to God? Because of sin. Notice verse 17.

But with whom was he grieved was it not with them that had sinned. May I give you a verse in Isaiah chapter 59? The Bible says this. I want you to listen.

Get this. Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear.

I want you to get this. Sin deceives yourself. Sin grieves the Holy Spirit.

Sin leaves a lot of damage. May I say is God's voice in the process of being drowned out by the distraction of our sin? Could it be that God is trying to say things to us but our sin has made us where we just don't hear it?

I want to ask you a question. What if God is trying to say something to you today? Preacher why do you keep asking that exact same question?

Number four. I believe that we often don't hear what God has to say because we get comfortable. Because we get carnal. Because we can get corrupted.

Number four because we get cynical. Now this is a big one to God. Notice in verse 12 he says take heed brethren lest there be any of you or in any of you an evil heart of unbelief.

Unbelief. Notice verse 18. And to whom swear that they should not enter to his rest but to them that believed not. Look at verse 19. So we see that they could not enter in because of their sin. Does it say that?

Doesn't say that does it? Isn't that amazing as much as God hates sin. God didn't say that they couldn't enter in because of their sin. God said I'm not going to let you enter in because of your unbelief. Can I show you something interesting as I got too much to give you today but look at verse 12. He said take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief.

Notice this. In departing from the living God. Isn't that interesting? That means if you and I can't hear what God has to say it's not because he departed it's because we departed.

Isn't that interesting? He said beware warning in case you depart from the living God. That means this that I need to make sure that I'm right with God and close to God so that I hear what he has to say. And I get that a lot. Boy preacher I pray I just can't I just don't feel like God's speaking to me or doing anything in my life or telling me anything.

Well dear friend I'm here to say I promise you he is speaking and he is trying but you and I have got to get close enough to him to hear it. But we depart. I believe churches can depart. I believe it can get to the point that a church can't even hear what God has to say. I don't want this church to ever get there. I don't want this preacher to get there. I don't want our staff to get there. I don't want our deacons to get there. I don't want any of our ministries or ministry leaders to get there.

And I sure don't want this church to get there. God said you can't come into my rest or into the promised land obviously. God takes this very serious. To doubt God's ability is to doubt who God is. And God does not have patience with that.

May I explain this to you today? God has patience with us. He knows we're sinners. He knows what we're made of. He created us.

He has watched generous people. He has seen generation after generation of mankind disappoint. He understands that from us. It's not that he is surprised when you and I sin. But what God cannot deal with is when you and I don't believe him. When we don't believe him we're saying God I don't think you're telling the truth or God I think you're a liar. And God takes that very serious. God said I'll give you the promised land but they didn't believe. And that hurt God so bad.

That he would not let them anymore. I think often times you and I can't hear what God has to say because listen to me I want you to get this. Could it be that we are so doubtful because some things in our life we feel God should have done something about and he didn't? Could it be that you and I are cynical today because we think I prayed about things before and God didn't answer it? Maybe you and I can't hear God's maybe yelling and he doesn't yell by the way but maybe it's as clear as day God's trying to get our attention with something but we don't hear it.

You know why? Because maybe we don't think it's going to make a difference if we do hear it. Because God I had such and such and I prayed and prayed and prayed and this still happened. Well God my mom had cancer and I prayed by faith believing that you're going to heal her and she died. Do you know that God's people can get cynical? We can sit in church and love God but still deep down without saying it and if we were honest we would have to say that there is part of me that doubts whether God really does answer prayer and there is part of me that doubts whether or not it's going to do me any good to get close enough to him and hear what he has to say because I was close to him before and I did everything he said to do before and it still turned out bad. Am I right?

Am I right about that? Can we not get there? If you can't can I tell you something?

I've been there. I mean I went through I felt like a couple years of my life everything I prayed about nothing God answered. I mean my mom's dying with cancer God went by faith praying my mom had faith all this stuff never got better got worse died. My wife's you know we know we're going to have a son with birth defects and we're going to have some challenges and you pray God I just pray every time I go to an ultrasound man I was sitting there in that room and I would think I've been praying by faith today's the day that doctor's going to pull up that ultrasound and he's not going to see that heart dysfunctioning that fourth chamber's going to be there now and it's going to be pumping and it's going to be working and I just know it by faith and I went the ultrasound after ultrasound and it was always the same and then he was born and then we found out he had something we didn't even know he had. I mean everything I prayed about by faith. Nothing turned out like I asked. It all seemed to turn out worse than when I started asking. Could it be that you and I get cynical because there's some things in the past that we think do I really need to hear everything God has to say because when I did before it sure didn't turn out that great. He's trying to say something to you today.

May I say last number five and I'll let you go today. It's been such a positive time. Why is it sometimes we can't hear what God has to say. Well we get comfortable. We get carnal. We get corrupted and we get cynical but this is the worst one and this is what he talks about the most. We get calloused.

This is the worst. You know why? It means we just don't care. Notice in verse eight he said if he had just said if you will hear my voice listen harden not your hearts. Look at verse 13. Exhort one another daily while it is called today lest any of you be hardened.

Notice verse 15 while it is said today if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts. We get calloused. We really just don't care if he has anything to say. We wouldn't tell that to anybody but let's be honest. I mean this guy I don't know who his name was and I don't know where he was a congressman too and it was a hard hearing what was going on anyway with the sound system wherever we were and I'm going to tell you something.

He was passionate about it and it sure meant a lot to him but can I say those six or eight people that actually stuck around after he had started didn't give a flip and there was a whole group of us on a tour up there that couldn't have cared less. I wonder sometimes if you and I you say well how do we get calloused preacher. We are just too busy. To hear what God has to say. I got my own thing going on. I'm going to listen to this guy at the podium. That's not as important as what I'm dealing with.

What's on my mind is more important to me. I'm not going to stop and listen to what he has to say because I'm busy dealing my stuff and it's as if they had everything else going and you know what it might be that things were more important than what this guy had to say and I know that that's just procedure and that's just things you do but what a shame it is for an individual to be so passionate talking and nobody cared what he had to say. We just get calloused and may I say I think this happens to me without saying it point blank I believe it happens to you and it can happen to any of us. We just get calloused.

We just get busy. We just don't really care if God's trying to tell us something. You know what preacher I'm okay whether he does or doesn't.

We just get calloused. Can I read you a passage of scripture. Revelation chapter 3 and you all know it.

The church of Laodicea and this is the worst one in my opinion in a sense because you know what happened and I'm just going to read you these verses for 15. God says this I know thy works thou art neither cold nor hot I would that thou were cold or hot so then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I will spew thee out of my mouth. You know what's amazing couple verses later in verse 22 he says he that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto him. The reason you won't hear me is because you're not hot and you're not cold. Now for years and I know you know this we've explained this and gone through it for years I thought okay hot or cold God said I wish you were either way out of fellowship with me or you were close to me but I just don't like you to be in the middle and that's not what he's saying. We also know like a beverage that cold refreshes and hot nourishes but God says you're lukewarm you're not good for either one. God doesn't want us to either be really bad or really good. God wants us to either figure something out in our life that we can be a blessing here or be a blessing there but it's important for us to serve God and do what God has called us to do and God says you're not hot or cold.

You're not good for anything. You're just lukewarm. And because of that you don't even care what I have to say. May I say that you and I can get so lukewarm that we come into church and we go through all the motions and we really deep down don't care what God has to say. Now hey I'm preaching to the choir today because I'm going to tell you there have been times if I'm not preaching I mean thank God there's a whole lot of times I'm not preaching man I'm needing whatever's going on but there have been times if I'm not preaching whatever the case would be and I might be at a church somewhere or I might be in a service somewhere there are times that in the past I'm sure and there will probably be times in the future that I show up there and I'm glad to be in church and I want to be in church but I'm going to be honest with you. I just don't care. Just get me through the service so I can get me something to eat. Some of you are like oh yeah that's where I'm at right now.

We get calloused. That man was talking nobody listened everybody chaotic turns around looks over here at the guy got quiet in the house guy goes back talking goes right back to where it was looks back at him quiet in the house take your conversations in the hall and they sure did. This guy's left with nobody. How sad.

Kind of a joke almost it seems huh? And yet what he had to say might have been important. Nobody cared. I don't know about you but I don't want to get to the point that I do not care what God has to say. I don't want to be so busy that I can't hear him. It can happen to all of us.

And may I say it can happen especially during the summer. We're busy with things. Hey we got VBS. Hey we got this trip. We got that trip. Hey let me tell you something two weeks ago I was a full week in Pittsburgh. This week I was three days on a trip and this week Thursday we go take our seniors to Virginia and then we got to go at some point later on we got things we got to do this summer and I'm going to tell you it's just back and forth and nuts and crazy and I'm glad we have an active church and an exciting church and we're doing things and trying to reach people and all that stuff is absolutely wonderful and I'm telling you it's great but it can happen in the summer but it can happen in the summer because we got other things that are important. We got vacations.

We got this. We got that and there's nothing wrong with any of that whatsoever. You know as a pastor I'm thrilled you need to get away and you need to spend time with your family.

That's not it. I'm just saying the church and the things of God can take a back seat to a lot of things at this time of year. Let's not get so calloused and busy and cold that we can't hear what God has to say.

Could it be? That He has something to say to you today. Lord I love you and Lord I am guilty.

I am guilty, guilty, guilty. Lord I get busy and I get calloused and I get carnal and I get comfortable. I can even come to church and go back home and not go to church. Lord I love you and my world if I don't feel like you really met with me. Lord that's a dangerous place to be. Help us not to get there or allow ourselves to stay there. God please. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.