The Beauty Of 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, if you're sitting here in the studio, or maybe if you're watching at 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 is located, where you're going to be living, the schools, you'll do research on that. Well, 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. 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. Well, 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 out of everything.

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. I was just thinking about dogs. I just, I got to just take that off for a minute about this. But have you ever had a dog that barked all night? I mean. Row, row, row, row, row, row, row, row. You ever? Row, row, row. and you probably just yes what do you do you over there shut up what do you expect the dog to do my bad as I can't communicate so it's innate God created you with the ability to communicate not just 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 if you're just tuning in you're listening to worship in the word with Pastor Robert Morris well we've just started this frequency series and if you missed the beginning or want to check out another series visit Pastor Robert calm or call eight three three nine three three word today pastor Robert is talking about how God still speaks man what great news that is it really is Patrick it's amazing how often our experience trumps the word just because we don't hear God doesn't mean he doesn't speak the Bible is so clear about this my sheep hear my voice and they follow me it doesn't get any simpler than that you're absolutely right you know I've never really thought about how all of us are born with this ability to hear God all of us and God didn't create us with this ability for us to not use it he really wants us to tune in and hear his voice well I can't wait to hear more so let's jump back in with Pastor Robert here's here's number two it's 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 the natural example of communicating on this earth we have to learn to communicate we have to learn to talk right you 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 okay 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 cuz I didn't call you three times and then Eli says it's the Lord 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 Nash a speedways around the country that 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 I need you to help me with something and I said okay 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 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 gonna we'll go into this in a lot of depth as I do other messages on this but I said to him okay here's some things I want you don't want you get alone with God I want you to pull 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 okay 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 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 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 we're that's what I'm asking you 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 you're listening to worship in the word with Pastor Robert Morris you know I love that story Pastor Robert told in the practical instructions he gave about how we can hear from God you can get alone with God worship give the Lord our burdens read scripture and then write down what we think God is saying absolutely you know and I really like learning about the Greek meaning of the word exergy which means to draw out like like drawing water out of a well yeah that's such an amazing image to hold on to when reading the word you know we need that living water from the well but it really does take some work to get it it really does well there's still a few more minutes of this message so let's continue with Pastor Robert 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 now you think about it a child will say I mean whatever comes out this whatever comes to his mind like man that guy's fat you know we say no no we don't we don't say that you know 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 we just know that she knew Noah but we don't know how so so we have to mature in in it so let me let me tell you a few ways that I think 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 word from a book he wrote called hearing God but I like the way he said it a message a minute you 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 you could have read Reader's Digest last month and figure 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 we don't 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 to mature yeah so yes God wants to communicate with us but this you know you know God with which which 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 that's what I'm saying so it we have to mature so this message a minute thing I just I don't think that's the best way that's not the mature way to hear God here here's another way is I call it the point and hope philosophy you've heard this people say well when I want a word from God I just open the Bible close my eyes and point okay 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 okay I need a word about my business so he closed his eyes his Bible put his finger down he looked down and said chapter 11 the other thing I was I've told you about Dallas Willard because I read his book and one of the things he said in there what's 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 and but but Dallas was born in 1935 so he thought well I'm gonna see what my life versus he just went to the first book of the Bible Genesis 1935 says so they got drunk and slept with him that's his life first okay so there are more mature ways to hear God here's the third immature way I think I'm hearing God is what I call the case a raw sera philosophy case 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 disability 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 are 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 they everyone kind of laughed you know and James my son and Bridget they say hahaha are you serious I say 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's like you 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 not some very serious God said she's pregnant and James again well she had me pregnant she's not pregnant I said well she is pregnant and so because it was so strong they decided to go the doctor now on the way home by the way she told James my son she said about her prayer she said I was praying that if I was we were having another child someone give us a word who's close to us during the 21 days and James said why did you pray that you know you know my dad and you know 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 she could not get pregnant right now because her progesterone is so low she couldn't get pregnant it'd 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 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 what 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 an 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 Pastor Robert calm or call 833-933 word you can get any of the messages to share with a friend or family member so visit Pastor Robert calm 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