How to Hear God | Week 1: God Speaks (and he isn’t always mad)

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>> Welcome to Crossroads Anywhere.

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I'm Lena Schuler, the crossroads anywhere, community pastor.

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>> I'm Greg McElfresh, community pastor on the east side of

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>> That's right, the east side of Cincinnati, because we

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actually have communities meeting in all different parts of

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Cincinnati and Lexington and maybe where you are right now.

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Crossroads Anywhere is its own community, a community of people

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who's engaging with the church online with ultimate hopes to be

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in a relationship with other people and with God as part of the

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best reflection of the church.

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>> Yeah. You know, speaking of God, we throw this term around

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here a lot: I heard from God, God said to me.

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Can we all just be honest and say, what do you mean by that?

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Well, we're starting a series today that hopefully answers that

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question. It's called How to Hear God.

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(static or running water sound)

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So what did you hear?

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Did it change when the picture changed?

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How about when the bees came up, because those things creep me

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So that's all I heard from then on out.

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I smelled bacon, which wasn't supposed to happen, but it just

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happened to my brain.

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Right?

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God speaks to us in all these different ways.

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I don't know about you, but my life is loud like that at times.

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So we're gonna be talking about how God speaks to us and giving

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Him room to do so.

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My name's Justin.

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I'm one of the worship leaders around here.

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And I know for me what I'm learning in communication is posture

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matters.

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Like if I'm on my cell phone with my kids non-stop while they're

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trying to talk to me, there's -- they know, there's a

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distraction there in between us.

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And one of the things that helps me get into posture to hear God

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is worship, through singing and lifting songs to Him and

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pointing my eyes and my mind and my heart towards Him.

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So that's what we're gonna do together now.

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Sing with us.

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Hallelujah is right, God.

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(cheers and applause)

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Hallelujah, You are king.

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I stand in all of the truth of those words.

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You see each one of us, you spoke and light came.

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You spoke and separated things out.

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You spoke and created.

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You are bigger than I could ever imagine,

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and yet close enough to see me and talk to me.

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Change our perspective.

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Lord, opened our eyes that we may be awake and see that you

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want relationship with us, You want to speak to us, You are

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here, You've given your life for each one of us so that we may

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have life together.

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King over everything and right here with us, changing us,

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shaping us, speaking live to us and freedom to us.

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And so I surrender to You and fall in line with all of creation

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because of who you are.

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Hallelujah, Father.

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Amen and thanks for singing with us.

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Thanks for coming in a space together and within 10, 15

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minutes, we let our hearts come out and be exposed a little bit

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together and say we're here about something bigger things.

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So thanks for that.

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In this moment, we've got a chance to make this place feel a

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So before you grab a seat, gives somebody a smile and a

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handshake.

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>> Well, welcome to church.

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We're so glad to have you here on the Crossroads Anywhere

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My name is Lena Schuler. I'm

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the Crossroads Anywhere Community Pastor.

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You know, everything that we do here on the weekend is in an

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effort to get you into a place where you are doing life with

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other people, you're in community because we believe that the

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best that God has for you is gonna be found in the midst of

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relationship with other people.

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And so we've got locations and communities all over the country

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for you to be part of.

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And I get to sit here with one of my friends, Greg McElfresh,

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who's another community pastor.

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>> Not just a community pastor, your community pastor.

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>> My community pastor, community pastor of Crossroads East

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Side. I happen to live on the east side of Cincinnati.

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And so when I get to attend a physical location, it's Greg's

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>> That's right.

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Yeah. You know, I think a lot of people think, ah, these

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buildings are so big.

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I'm going to walk in there.

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I'm not going to see anyone I know.

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That's one of my favorite parts of the weekend is seeing you and

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your husband, Nick and your baby boy.

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I just I love that even in a big space like that, you can walk

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into an atrium, sort of our meeting space, and see people that

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you know.

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Yeah. Which is true across any of our locations.

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You have the opportunity to actually walk in and see people,

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you know.

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>> Yeah. That's right.

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>> What's the favorite?

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What's your favorite thing happening on the East Side right

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now?

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>> I'll tell you what, summertime is usually busy for everyone.

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It's no different for us.

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We've been doing these backyard barbecues.

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If you'd heard about the summer social, we had that happening.

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We're getting ready to do a big fireworks show for everyone

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who's a part of our Eastside community and all of their friends

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and neighbors.

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We just looked for every opportunity we can to get people out of

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the dark auditorium and into each other's lives, meeting

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friends. It's pretty cool.

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>> It's pretty cool.

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Well, in our case, maybe outside of your living room by

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yourself and into a community of people who's doing fun things

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like fireworks and barbecues.

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>> That's right.

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>> Yeah. Cool.

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Well, where could we find out more about what you're doing on

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the Eastside?

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>> You know, I think Crossroads.net/Eastside

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is specific if you're on the Eastside of Cincinnati.

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But you got a crossroads.net/locations

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and find any building that may be close to you and go in and

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meet your community pastor, go in and see what's happening

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I'll tell you what, you come into Eastside, not only will I give

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you the cup of coffee that's free for everyone.

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Come find my shiny dome in the atrium, I'll give you a free

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T-shirt, I promise.

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>> Ah, T-shirts. We love free T-shirts, don't we?

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>> Around Crossroads.

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>> Well, one of the ways that you can actually get plugged into

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community coming up here in the fall is the Journey, the play

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and purpose journey.

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And, you know, we believe that your life isn't just meant to be

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something you survive in, but actually something that you can

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thrive in.

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And we thrive when we're in a place where we have copious

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amounts of play and purpose.

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I don't know if you've ever used that word.

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>> Yeah, that was weird, but the AND is important there.

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The ampersand like I am all play, Lena is all purpose, but AND

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we work well together.

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That's sort of the journey that we're talking about this fall.

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>> You think I'm all purpose and you're all play?

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>> Mostly, mostly.

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>> You are a lot of play.

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>> I am, yeah.

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So you can head to Crossroads.net/journey

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to find out more about the Play and Purpose Journey.

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nd I bet that there is actually going to be community near you,

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whether you're on the Eastside of Cincinnati or you're in Cape

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Coral, Florida, they're going to be community groups for you to

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join in the midst of the Journey.

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>> Yeah. You keep hitting that word community.

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What is a Journey?

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Well, Journey is different than any other series we might do

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throughout the year in that this is really where our entire

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church, whether you're in a building, whether you're online.

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We want you to do the weekend content, but then we're

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also going to give you some really great individual reflection

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stuff.

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And then hopefully you find some people around you to actually

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go through the Journey with as a community.

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Amazing growth happens every year during Journey.

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>> Absolutely. And if you're looking for something else to do

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this fall, to maybe meet people and go outside of your comfort

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zone, you could head to Crossroads.net/camps.

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And see the three camps that are happening this fall: Man Camp,

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Couples Camp and College Camp.

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You're not going to want to miss those.

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>> Yeah, it's actually really exciting to think about Journey

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and Camps back to back because of all the things we do at

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Crossroads, I would say those are two of the biggest.

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And even a way to maybe sprinkle in a little bit of purpose and

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play before the Journey would be signed up for a Camp.

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Whether you're doing Man Camp, Couples Camp, College Camp, both

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of those are going to be a healthy dose of what God has for you

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with a big play along the way.

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>> Absolutely.

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Well, and right now, as a staff, we are in the midst of budget

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season.

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We're trying to figure out what does God have for us and how

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does he want us to fuel the play and purpose that he has for

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our church as a whole.

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>> Yeah, that's right.

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You know, unless you're an accountant on the other end, most of

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us don't love budgeting too much

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And it's actually pretty honoring thing because we get to ask

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God, "What are the plans that You have for a church this year?

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How are you going to match the generosity that comes in from

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people on the team?

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People like me and Lena and people like you?

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And what do you want us to do with that?"

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So if you're generous, I just want you to know we take it really

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seriously and we're asking God, we're asking Him to tell us,

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"What do you have for Crossroads this year?

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What do you have for our sites?

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What do you have for the Anywhere Community?"

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And we're looking forward to see him move in big ways.

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>> So if you want to join the team and become a giver today, you

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could head to Crossroads.net/give

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and do that.

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And today we actually start a brand new series: How to Hear from

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God.

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And Sean's got a pretty sweet story.

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Let's check it out.

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>> My name is Sean and God speaks to me in the quiet times of my

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life.

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Hearing from God started off as just a quiet still voice

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speaking to me.

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And sometimes it was if I'm out in public it would be, "Don't

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say that or don't buy that.".

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Or if I'm online, "Don't click on that.".

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There's quite a few moments where I can think that God speaking

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to me has had an impact.

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One of those would be I was -- I was asleep in the middle of the

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night and I heard a voice telling me to wake up and telling me

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to check on our oldest son.

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He was a teenager at the time.

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So who thinks to have the check on your child at like 2:00 in

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the morning?

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But as I went upstairs, opened his bedroom door, he was still up

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at 2:00.

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I felt that there was clearly God telling me to intervene at

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that moment.

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We had a long conversation and talk about a lot of things and

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and hugged it out at the end.

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But there's there's no reason I would have did that if it was

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for God telling me to go and talk to him.

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Another time that I can think of.

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I felt like God was was calling me to give up social media for

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a set period of time, also known as fasting.

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Four weeks was the set fast.

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When I started, it was when I realized that I really had a

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problem where I was taking in too much technology, keeping my

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phone on me no matter where I went and constantly checking it

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throughout the day.

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Through the fast and actually taking this step away from social

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media and from YouTube and Netflix is when I began to notice

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how much separation had come in between me and in my

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relationship with God.

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I was used to hearing Him on the regular.

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How was not hearing from Him?

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How was not dreaming dreams at night anymore?

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And in how reading the Bible just became difficult.

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I would sit down and try to read, but my desire to read was

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severely limited because my brain was just -- it just wouldn't

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stay focused on doing things that were related to Him, to be

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honest.

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During the fast, that voice began to come back.

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I began to hear it again, and now I'm very careful about how

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much media I take in, and my quiet time is a must.

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I don't put it on hold for anything.

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>> Well, welcome.

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[ applause ]

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Yes, welcome to Crossroads.

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We're in a new series called: Hearing from God.

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And we are going to talk about that today.

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But I have to tell you, when I came in and saw these speakers on

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the LCD, the only thing I was hearing was this in my

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head: [Run DMC, My Adidas] And walk all over coliseum floors.

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I stood on stage at Live Aid, all the

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All right, that's enough, that's enough.

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I'm sorry, but when I see speakers, I'm looking for an empty

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cardboard box so I can break dance.

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That's what I'm doing, anybody with me.

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I mean, I'm a hip hop kid of the 80s and 90s.

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The only problem is break dancing might be a literal term if I

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try to do it now.

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So I decided not to do that.

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But hey, we are so glad you're with us today.

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We are kicking off a new series on How to Hear from God.

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You know, even that term, "hearing from God "could seem strange

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or weird.

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And we're gonna be unpacking it in this series, because what the

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Bible tells us is there are time tested ways for you and I to

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hear from God.

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And so we're taking a Home Depot approach in this series.

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What I mean by that is" you can do this and we're going to help

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You can do it, we can help.

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Because we're gonna be looking at practical tools, things that

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help us unpack what it looks like and actually help us hear

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from God.

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And so as we kick off the series today, what I want to do is

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give you some vision for this series.

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And I want to begin to lay a foundation that will apply to

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everything else that we say in the weeks to come.

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But first, let me tell you, the big idea today is simply this:

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It's a skill.

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It's not magic.

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It's not reserved for only hyper spiritual people or people with

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a specific bent.

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No. All of us can hear from God and doing that, listening to Him

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is a skill that we can cultivate.

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Now, I will tell you, this was a hard message for me to prepare.

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It really was, because rather than having writer's block, I had

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writer's blah, like I just had so much I wanted to say.

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And so to try to refine that into just a simple

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foundation laying message was a bit of a challenge.

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And I need to listen to God for guidance and I'm going to ask

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Him to help me do that now.

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God, I thank you for the opportunity to talk to just share this

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wonderful promise with all the people who've engaged today,

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that You speak, that You want to speak to us and that we can

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actually learn to listen to Your voice.

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And so we're all across the board in maybe what we believe .

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We're certainly across the board in our experiences of this with

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You.

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But I pray that you would take us to a new place over the course

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of this series and that that would begin today.

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And then as we go in that direction, it would look like -- or we

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would look like Your Son, Jesus.

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So it's in His name, I pray, Amen.

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So, since this is a practical series, I thought it'd be helpful

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to start with giving you a couple of questions just to assess

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where are you as it relates to hearing from God.

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So a couple of questions I want you to reflect on.

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The first question is this: on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being this

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is a non-existent experience in your life; 10, you hear from

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God just like you're hearing my voice right now regularly.

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Where would you say you are in terms of hearing from God on a

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scale of 1 to 10?

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Think about that for yourself.

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Second question: If you were to pick one word to describe your

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current experience of hearing God, what would that one word be?

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Maybe it would be never, maybe it would be always.

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Maybe it'd be difficult, maybe it'd be easy.

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I don't know what it would be for you, but what would the one

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word be that describes your current experience in hearing from

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God?

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Third question.

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I want you to dream.

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It's four weeks from today.

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This is a four week series.

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And I believe if you apply what we're gonna be talking about,

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that you're gonna grow in their ability to hear from God.

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And so in four week's time, what would you like to be the one

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word that describes your current experience of God then?

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What would that word be?

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Maybe it's growing.

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Maybe it's progress.

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Maybe it's step, step I took a step.

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And here's what I want you to know, whatever that word is for

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you, however much you desire to grow in this, God's desire is

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for you even more to grow in it.

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And His promise is to help you do it.

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I want to give you a verse to hold on to as we go into this

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And I hope that for you this verse will be a regular source of

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encouragement.

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It's Jeremiah 33:3, where God says:

00:28:12

00:28:21

It is one of the most beautiful truths to know that the God and

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the Creator of the Universe wants to be in a conversation with

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you.

00:28:29

That God wants to converse with you.

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He doesn't want to just be transactional with you, He wants to

00:28:34

be relational with you.

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And let me tell you this: He's not always mad at you.

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He's not always mad at you, he is pursuing you in relationship

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and you can hear his voice.

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Hearing his voice doesn't -- for me, it's never been an audible

00:28:49

voice, but oftentimes what it is, is it's a prompt and it's a

00:28:52

prompt that moves me in the direction of something that I know

00:28:55

to be the character of God because of the truth of the

00:28:57

scripture or because of the life of Jesus.

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And it always looks like that.

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It's going to be different for all of us, the pathways, the ways

00:29:03

that God will communicate.

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But it is possible for you and I to hear from God.

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And that's why it's critical that we do this series and there's

00:29:10

such benefit in doing it, because this is how we go

00:29:12

relationship with Him.

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And this is how he actually gets more and more opportunity to

00:29:17

grow us in areas of our life.

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Wherever you are, I know there's something you want to grow in.

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I know there's some area of your life you want more power, you

00:29:23

want more peace, you want more perspective around.

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And God gives that to you.

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In fact, the greatest tool you and I have access to is the very

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voice of God.

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I want you to leverage that and lean into that.

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And that's what the series is all about.

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Now, I want to lay out two premises, though, right up front that

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maybe you believe already.

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If you don't, I just want to spend a few minutes hopefully

00:29:45

building a little bit of confidence in you in those.

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And the then we're going to talk about some practical tools,

00:29:50

some foundations, I should say, to help us lay the foundation

00:29:53

The first premise is this: God speaks.

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God speaks

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He's always been speaking, He's never stopped speaking, He will

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never stop speaking, God speaks.

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One of the places we see this laid out in the Bible was Psalm

00:30:07

19:1-2 where it says:

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One of the ways that God speaks is through his creation, through

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the created world around us, throught the order, the design,

00:30:26

the beauty, the mystery that we see.

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Whether that's looking through a telescope at stars way away in

00:30:31

the galaxies or whether it's looking at something very small

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and micro in our own world.

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Maybe that's one of the reasons why I absolutely love the series

00:30:40

How many people love Planet Earth?

00:30:42

Have you seen that, man?

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I can watch that all the --

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It doesn't hurt that David Attenborough has to be the best

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narrator ever.

00:30:48

Right?

00:30:49

(character voice) The tiger in the jungle.

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I mean, like, I just love talking.

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He can say anything, I love talking that guy,

00:30:54

but like it's serious, it's a great show.

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And the thing that I know about that show is I'll watch it and

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sometimes while I'm watching it I begin to cry or I'm moved

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emotionally by this truth that's revealed in nature because God

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speaks to us through his creative world.

00:31:11

Let me give you one of them that just blew me away that I heard.

00:31:13

Did you know that there is a British butterfly, it's a rare

00:31:16

butterfly, blue butterfly.

00:31:18

And the way this butterfly when it's a caterpillar gets its

00:31:20

sustenance is unbelievable.

00:31:22

Here's the deal.

00:31:23

When it's a caterpillar, you can imagine that it's very

00:31:26

vulnerable to other insects, particularly to ants who will eat

00:31:30

just about anything.

00:31:31

Right?

00:31:33

So isn't it crazy to think that the way this butterfly actually

00:31:36

gets this sustenance is when it's a caterpillar it it falls off

00:31:40

the leaf down to the ground and the ants converge on it.

00:31:45

And what do you think happens then?

00:31:47

No, the ants don't eat it, because that caterpillar puts off a

00:31:52

pheromone that smells like a baby ant.

00:31:56

And so those baby ants take that butterfly into its den where

00:31:59

they tuck it away safely and they begin to feed that ant until

00:32:04

the -- the caterpillar, until the caterpillar gets enough

00:32:06

sustenance to break out and become a butterfly.

00:32:09

Friends, when I hear things like that, that blows me away.

00:32:12

That blows me away.

00:32:13

And I don't think that's random.

00:32:16

And it reminds me of something that Jesus said.

00:32:19

There's a time in the Bible where Jesus is talking about anxiety

00:32:22

and why we don't need to worry.

00:32:23

It's in Matthew 6:26 and he says this:.

00:32:37

And when I'm sitting there watching this story about this blue

00:32:40

butterfly that's fed by its predators, it's almost like Jesus

00:32:43

has sat down and is watching Netflix with me.

00:32:46

And He is saying, "Chuck, consider the blue butterfly.

00:32:49

Do you think if I go to that much trouble to make sure it gets

00:32:51

fed, I'm not going to take care of you?"

00:32:52

Man, God speaks to us.

00:32:56

He speaks to us about his care through his created world.

00:32:59

So I want you to know God speaks.

00:33:00

The second premise is thisL What God speaks is for your joy.

00:33:05

It is for your ultimate joy.

00:33:07

Jesus put it like this in John 15:11:

00:33:17

Now, let me be very clear, that doesn't mean that everything you

00:33:21

hear from God is gonna make you feel joyful in the moment.

00:33:24

There are a lot of times in my life where I know God is speaking

00:33:28

and the thing that He is speaking, whether because it's right

00:33:30

there in the word or it's a prompting I had, I know it's in the

00:33:33

direction of Jesus, but I just don't want to do it because it's

00:33:36

uncomfortable, it's difficult, it's hard.

00:33:40

And yet, even in those uncomfortable, difficult, hard places,

00:33:43

when I take those steps of obedience toward the voice of God

00:33:46

and what I think he's saying, maybe not in the short term, but

00:33:49

always in the long term, they've all proven to be for my

00:33:52

ultimate joy.

00:33:54

So I want you to know that God speaks and you

00:33:56

don't have to wonder if He speaks.

00:33:59

But we can learn and need to train in learning to hear His

00:34:02

voice.

00:34:03

And so what I want to do is just lay some foundational

00:34:05

principles that are always true, no matter your preference, no

00:34:08

matter what it is in terms of the way that God speaks to you,

00:34:10

because maybe God will speak to you different the way He speaks

00:34:12

But these foundations are always in place.

00:34:14

Three things that have to be in place to hear the voice of God.

00:34:16

Number 1 is face-time.

00:34:20

Face-time. I'm not talking about the Apple app

00:34:22

That would be really cool if you could download an app and God

00:34:25

pops up and He talks to you.

00:34:27

That's would be awesome, all right.

00:34:28

But that's not what I'm talking about.

00:34:29

Here's what I'm talking about: face time.

00:34:30

We have to prioritize face time with God if we're going to grow

00:34:35

to trust God and to hear His voice.

00:34:38

I mean, isn't it true in any relationship?

00:34:39

Think about somebody you trust like the person you'd leave your

00:34:42

keys with when you go on vacation so they can water your

00:34:45

plants.

00:34:46

That person.

00:34:47

And my guess is you spent significant face time with that person

00:34:51

and that's why you trust them.

00:34:53

There is a track record in the relationship that causes you to

00:34:56

say, "I trust this person.".

00:34:58

And it's true in the human, so why wouldn't it be true with our

00:35:01

relationship with God that if we're going to grow, to trust

00:35:04

that this is the voice of God.

00:35:06

That happens if we invest face time relating to God, face time

00:35:11

builds trust.

00:35:13

There's an old story, it's a true story of an amazing high wire

00:35:17

walker.

00:35:18

His name was Charles Blondin, and he would do these incredible

00:35:21

highwire things.

00:35:22

And one of the things that he's famous for is he did a high wire

00:35:26

across Niagara Falls and he was literally walking across

00:35:30

Niagara Falls way up high or nothing but a thin high wire.

00:35:34

And then he decided to up the ante and at another point he did

00:35:37

it again, but this time he took a wheelbarrow with him across

00:35:42

the wire.

00:35:44

Crazy.

00:35:45

And he gets to the other side safely and everybody's going

00:35:47

crazy.

00:35:48

They're so blown away by this experience.

00:35:50

And then Charles Blondin issued this challenge: Would anyone in

00:35:54

the crowd like to get in the wheelbarrow with me and walk

00:35:57

across Niagara Falls?

00:36:01

How many people you think took them up on the offer?

00:36:04

That'd be a big fat zero.

00:36:05

That's right.

00:36:06

That'd be a big fat zero.

00:36:07

No one wanted to do that.

00:36:09

They saw him do it successfully.

00:36:11

They saw him do it with a wheelbarrow successfully

00:36:14

Why didn't anybody want to do that?

00:36:16

Because there's a difference between belief and trust.

00:36:21

You can believe a set of facts, you can know them to be true.

00:36:24

If you were in the crowd, you know for a fact that Charles

00:36:27

Blondin has the ability to walk across the Niagara Falls high

00:36:30

wire with a wheelbarrow.

00:36:32

You saw it.

00:36:34

But that's belief.

00:36:36

Trust is getting in the wheelbarrow.

00:36:40

And what I want you to know is that God is inviting you and I to

00:36:45

get in the wheelbarrow.

00:36:47

And if we spend face time with him and we develop a relational

00:36:50

trust, then we will begin to hear his voice more clearly.

00:36:55

One of the ways that this has impacted me recently was I was

00:36:58

challenged, you heard it in the story, in the video that opened

00:37:01

And I would say I had the same challenge to to take four

00:37:04

weeks and in those four weeks, to just pull away from media, to

00:37:08

pull away from, you know, whatever it is that I would check on

00:37:10

my phone regularly, all of the podcasts that I regularly listen

00:37:13

to, even the shows that I would regularly watch.

00:37:16

The one exception that was given as you can still watch things

00:37:18

like the Animal Planet or Planet Earth, because those are

00:37:20

things that connect you to the heart of God.

00:37:21

So maybe that's why I love the show so much, because for a month

00:37:24

that was all I was watching. [laughter]

00:37:27

And here's what struck me in that month.

00:37:30

It struck me that it is so easy for the white noise around me to

00:37:36

crowd out my face time with God, to dim my ability to hear him.

00:37:43

And in that month, something changed and I just got more

00:37:46

clarity,.

00:37:47

I was able to hear Him more clearly and I've been able to

00:37:50

maintain a different rhythm after that

00:37:52

I'm still -- it's not -- it doesn't mean I'm doing all the media

00:37:54

fasting I was doing, but I am prioritizing face time with God

00:37:58

and I'm experiencing the benefits that come with that.

00:38:00

If you want to grow to hear the voice of God more clearly

00:38:03

I want to encourage you, get in the wheelbarrow and build in

00:38:07

face time with God and trust Him and build a relationship of

00:38:10

trust with Him.

00:38:12

So face time is one of the foundational things that must be true

00:38:15

to grow in hearing from God.

00:38:17

The second thing is we need filters.

00:38:21

We need filters because guess what?

00:38:25

God is not the only person trying to get your attention.

00:38:28

There's a bunch of people, a bunch of folks who want to get your

00:38:31

There's a bunch of people who would love for you to be under

00:38:33

their authority.

00:38:34

There's a bunch of things that would want you to be going in

00:38:36

So we have to have filters when we're engaging with God.

00:38:40

And we're going to talk a lot about some of the big filters.

00:38:43

So I'm not going to spend a whole ton of time on these, but just

00:38:45

to list a couple of them we're gonna do a week where we talk

00:38:47

about the filter of God's Word, the Bible.

00:38:50

Let me tell you something.

00:38:51

God is never gonna tell you something that conflicts with what

00:38:55

He has already revealed to be true in the Bible.

00:38:58

So that's a good filter for us if we think -- sense a prompting

00:39:01

or it's like how does this line up with what's in the Bible?

00:39:04

That's why it's important to prioritized face time so you can

00:39:06

read the Bible and know what God says in there.

00:39:08

I mean, think about it.

00:39:09

When you're in our culture and you want people to know who you

00:39:12

are, what do you do?

00:39:13

Well, you start an Instagram following, then you start a YouTube

00:39:16

channel, and then you write a book.

00:39:18

God wrote a book.

00:39:20

God wrote a book because he wanted us to understand his heart.

00:39:23

So we'll spend a whole week talking about how do you read the

00:39:24

Bible and how does that play into hearing from God?

00:39:27

And the other thing is He's given us the gift of community, wise

00:39:29

counsel.

00:39:31

And we need wise counsel when we're trying to discern, is this

00:39:34

Is this some other voice?

00:39:36

How do I make this decision?

00:39:37

That's why we need community.

00:39:39

We're going to spend a whole week on that.

00:39:41

So I'm not going to dive into those right now, but I am going to

00:39:43

There's a big filter that I think maybe an overall filter to

00:39:46

apply to all of those things and I'm going to give it to you

00:39:48

It's in a question form.

00:39:50

Filter everything you think you're hearing from God through the

00:39:52

lens or the filter of this question.

00:39:55

Will this make me live more like Jesus?

00:40:00

Will this help me live more like Jesus?

00:40:04

It's kind of trite and pithy, you know, it was all in

00:40:06

wristbands: What Would Jesus Do? Right?

00:40:08

I mean, it's trite and pithy, but but at the core of that is an

00:40:10

absolute foundational truth: God's desire for you and for me is

00:40:15

that we grow in the character and the competence of Jesus.

00:40:19

And so when He's communicating to us and conversating with us,

00:40:22

it is to grow our hearts.

00:40:23

It is to grow our life direction, is to grow our desires to be

00:40:26

those that put us in the place to be more like Jesus.

00:40:31

This is laid out very clearly in the New Testament.

00:40:32

There's a letter that was written to the early followers of

00:40:34

Jesus called the Book of Colossians.

00:40:36

And in Colossians 1:28, it says:.

00:40:47

Mature in Christ.

00:40:50

What's God's desire for you and for me?

00:40:53

To grow up.

00:40:56

Grow up.

00:40:59

Grow up.

00:41:00

That's what God is up to in our lives.

00:41:03

He wants to take us from baby spirituality to acting like

00:41:06

infants spiritually to growing up to be mature men and women

00:41:10

who can actually operate with the same character and spiritual

00:41:13

maturity that Jesus had.

00:41:16

And so as he's talking to us, it is all in that direction.

00:41:21

And I think it's really important that we have filters that help

00:41:23

us determine that.

00:41:24

That question for me is a very, very helpful filter.

00:41:26

I also say that question is important because if there's one

00:41:29

thing that concerns me about cultures like Crossroads, and I'm

00:41:34

a part of Crossroads culture, church culture is how

00:41:38

increasingly frequent it is for people to put at the beginning

00:41:42

of any decision they've made, "I think God's calling me to..."

00:41:47

Or "I think God's telling me to...".

00:41:49

And people use that all the time, they'll say, "Well, God's

00:41:52

calling me to do this or God's call me knew that.".

00:41:54

Let me be very clear: God calls people to do things all the

00:41:57

time.

00:41:58

God has called me to do things, that is absolutely true.

00:42:01

But I'm a pastor and so, as you might imagine, I've got a lot of

00:42:04

data on this one.

00:42:06

And here's what the data tells me.

00:42:08

The data tells me that the majority of things for which people

00:42:12

feel called to do are things they would want to do on their own

00:42:16

anyway.

00:42:18

Now, I'm not saying God wants everything to be unpleasant in

00:42:23

your life, but I'm just saying if you think everything you want

00:42:27

is what God wants, you are not hearing the voice of God.

00:42:32

That's just not the way life works.

00:42:33

That's not what maturity looks like.

00:42:35

And so we have to be careful if we're saying, if we find

00:42:38

ourselves saying, "Well, I think God wants me to do this.

00:42:40

I think God wants me to."

00:42:41

That's why we need filters.

00:42:42

Because let me tell you the biggest challenge between

00:42:44

Chuck hearing from God, it's the voice in Chuck's own head.

00:42:50

I probably shouldn't tell you guys this, it might sound

00:42:51

grotesque, but I have a me monster living in me.

00:42:55

I mean, it's a real monster.

00:42:57

It raises its ugly head.

00:42:59

It wants things that it shouldn't want.

00:43:01

It cries when it doesn't get its way.

00:43:02

I mean, I have a real me monster in me and I've got to know that

00:43:07

when I'm hearing from God how am I discerning that from the me

00:43:10

monster in me that wants what it wants?

00:43:14

And that's where filters come in, like the Bible, like

00:43:17

community, and like just the simple question that says, "Hey,

00:43:20

is this -- is this going to help me live more like Jesus?

00:43:25

I'll tell you a realtime example for me, and I've been honest

00:43:29

and open about this over the years, is my relationship to food.

00:43:34

So I know nobody else has had this journey, but like I've had

00:43:37

times in my life where I've been really focused on weight loss

00:43:40

and how I'm eating and I've lost weight.

00:43:43

And then I'll gain weight and then I'll lose weight and then

00:43:46

I'll gain weight and then I'll gain weight.

00:43:48

And then I'll -- I know I'm the only person who's had that

00:43:50

experience, but like, that's been my journey.

00:43:52

And so as I think about that and wrestle with that, I know God

00:43:56

wants more from me in that area.

00:43:57

I know that's not the relationship He wants me to have with

00:44:00

food.

00:44:01

And so as I was reading one day, there was a verse in the Bible

00:44:05

that jumped off the page to me, it's First Corinthians 6:12.

00:44:08

And it says this:.

00:44:20

And the truth is, there are times when food is dominating in the

00:44:25

relationship I have with it, whether I'm going to food for

00:44:28

comfort or for celebration, whatever it is that food is in a

00:44:31

place in my life that is dominant and I don't want that.

00:44:34

And I know that's not what God wants for me.

00:44:35

Will this help me look like Jesus, if I address this, if I deal

00:44:38

with this?

00:44:39

Yeah, I think it will.

00:44:41

And so I lean into the filter of community.

00:44:43

And I'm really thankful I have a physician who's also a

00:44:46

follower of Jesus, fellow Crossroader.

00:44:47

And I went to my annual physical and he was like, "Hey, you're

00:44:50

checked out, everything's good.".

00:44:52

And he said, "Is there anything else you wanna talk about?".

00:44:53

I said, "Yeah, I want to talk to you about my relationship to

00:44:56

food and how this is an ongoing struggle.".

00:44:58

We had a really good conversation and he had been learning some

00:45:02

things and kind of going in a direction of understanding more

00:45:05

about the connection between our eating and our relationship to

00:45:08

it and what it says about our emotions and our spiritual

00:45:10

We had a powerful conversation and he recommended a tool to me.

00:45:13

He recommended tool and said, "I think you should try this and

00:45:16

just see if it works.".

00:45:17

And so because I know I'll get e-mails if I don't say it, I'm

00:45:21

going to tell you what it is, but I've got to give you some

00:45:23

caveats.

00:45:24

I am not a paid advertiser for this.

00:45:27

I would love for them to send me a check for telling all of you

00:45:29

this, but I don't think it's going to happen.

00:45:31

So I just want you to know that.

00:45:32

And if you try this, it is buyer beware.

00:45:35

If it doesn't work for you, don't blame me.

00:45:36

Don't say, "My pastor said I should try this

00:45:38

Don't do that.

00:45:40

We good, we good with that? All right

00:45:42

So that's an app.

00:45:43

It's called Eat Right Now.

00:45:45

And I'm finding it to be helpful for me.

00:45:47

I'm only three weeks in, but I'm finding it to be helpful

00:45:49

because it's not about calorie counting.

00:45:51

It's not about that, because I just don't have the energy to do

00:45:53

that.

00:45:54

And I know that's not the underlying foundational thing.

00:45:56

And so what it's helping me to do is giving me tools and it's

00:45:59

giving me space to think about how can I change my relationship

00:46:03

to food, the what, the why and the how of what I'm eating.

00:46:07

And I'm finding to be helpful.

00:46:09

And here's what I know.

00:46:10

I know that as I grow in this area, this is an area where God

00:46:14

wants me to filter my relationship with food through these

00:46:17

lenses, through this filter.

00:46:19

And as I do that, I think I'm gonna look more like Jesus.

00:46:21

I think I'm going to have what I would call maybe a healthy

00:46:24

relationship to food and not be dominated by food in some of

00:46:29

the ways they've been dominated by food.

00:46:33

And so my encouragement to you is as you grow in this journey of

00:46:37

hearing from God.

00:46:38

Make sure you have healthy filters in place because God would

00:46:42

want that for you.

00:46:43

He wants that for all of us.

00:46:44

And he provided those filters for all of us as well.

00:46:48

So face time, face time foundational.

00:46:51

We're not gonna hear from God if we don't prioritize face time

00:46:53

with him.

00:46:54

Filters. We need filters because all of us have to discern

00:46:58

whether it's God or us, where there's God or some other voice

00:47:01

that once our attention.

00:47:02

And then finally, we've gotta follow through on what we hear.

00:47:05

We've got to act on what we hear.

00:47:07

Obedience grows your ability to hear from God clearly.

00:47:12

Obedience, follow through grows yours and my ability to hear

00:47:16

from God clearly.

00:47:17

That means following through on the big things and the small

00:47:19

things.

00:47:20

Let me give you maybe a maybe a smaller example of how this

00:47:22

played out for me just this week.

00:47:24

You ever have one those days in your schedule where it's like

00:47:26

you're just wall to wall meetings?

00:47:27

You just got like one thing to do and then the next thing to do,

00:47:29

then the next thing to do, and the next thing to do.

00:47:31

Wednesdays are like that for me every week.

00:47:34

And so I was kind of in between meetings and I felt this ping, I

00:47:38

would say it was a prompting, just a thought.

00:47:41

And the thought, I believed, was in the direction of living and

00:47:44

looking like Jesus.

00:47:45

And it was, "Hey, see that guy over there?".

00:47:46

It was a coworker of mine.

00:47:47

"I want you to go just check on how he's doing."

00:47:50

And I'll just tell you, like I just finished one meeting, I

00:47:53

trying to grab my computer, get some water and get to the next

00:47:56

meeting in time.

00:47:57

A

00:47:58

nd my first response was like, "Can I do that later?

00:48:02

I don't want -- I don't want to do that right now."

00:48:05

And I just felt that prompting.

00:48:06

And again, I'm learning. I'm

00:48:07

like all right, if I --. I'm Gonna

00:48:09

follow that.".

00:48:10

So literally, I just went up to him and i'm like

00:48:11

that's when I got to know my hey, man, how are you doing?

00:48:13

Guy that I work with every day.

00:48:15

And he wasn't -- he wasn't a crisis, but he was at a point where

00:48:19

based on something specific that was happening in his life,

00:48:21

that moment, he was kind of an anxious point.

00:48:24

And I was able to sit there and listen to him, encourage him and

00:48:28

just pray for them, just bless him in that moment.

00:48:30

And that may have been a small thing, but I know that that was

00:48:32

what God wanted me to do.

00:48:34

And I think that was helpful to him.

00:48:35

I think it was encouraging him.

00:48:37

And so whether it's a big thing or a small thing.

00:48:40

The more that you do that, the more that you follow through on

00:48:42

those promptings, the easier it is to hear the voice of God.

00:48:47

So I've said a lot. I've

00:48:49

given you a lot today.

00:48:50

I've tried to give you a vision, big picture.

00:48:52

Also trying to give you some foundational things.

00:48:54

So let me summarize it in one simple scripture, Proverbs 3:5-6,

00:49:00

from the Book of Proverbs, a collection of wisdom it says:.

00:49:13

That's the journey we're going on together over the next four

00:49:16

weeks as we learn how to hear from God.

00:49:18

Trust in the Lord.

00:49:20

Again, it's about prioritizing face time, being willing to get

00:49:24

in the wheelbarrow with God and grow your relational trust.

00:49:29

And lean not on your own understanding, that's about let's make

00:49:32

sure our filters are in place so that we're filtering through

00:49:34

the right ways.

00:49:36

Is this voice of God? Is this

00:49:37

going to help me look more like Jesus?

00:49:39

What does the Bible to say about this?

00:49:40

Let me lean into wise counsel and community.

00:49:43

In all your ways, acknowledge Him, means recognize Him, go in

00:49:47

His direction, it means follow Him, and as we do that, He will

00:49:51

direct your path.

00:49:54

Friends, God is speaking and He wants to have a conversation

00:49:58

with you.

00:49:59

He wants you to trust Him.

00:50:01

He wants you to grow in your ability to hear Him.

00:50:05

But I would imagine that given the room and given the size of

00:50:08

the people who are engaging, that there are some people who are

00:50:11

hearing this and they're just saying, "Man, I want to hear from

00:50:14

God desperately, but it just feels like He's silent."

00:50:19

You've been pleading with God maybe for months, maybe for years,

00:50:22

trying to get an answer to a question, trying to understand

00:50:25

something that happened in your life, asking him to do

00:50:27

something for you, just wanting to grow in that way and feeling

00:50:30

like, "God's not talking to me."

00:50:32

"What's wrong with me or what's wrong with you?

00:50:34

God, I'm not hearing you.".

00:50:35

I know there are people who are feeling that way right now.

00:50:39

You might feel this might be for everybody else around me, but

00:50:42

it's not for me.

00:50:45

If you're in that place, I just want to encourage you to hang

00:50:49

in there and lean in over the next several weeks.

00:50:53

Lean in.

00:50:56

I believe God wants to communicate to you.

00:50:59

And want to encourage you to lean in on what we're about to do

00:51:02

right now.

00:51:04

We're going to have an opportunity for you today to hear from

00:51:08

God.

00:51:09

In a moment, whether you are tuning in online or whether you're

00:51:12

in a room, you're going to have a chance to interact with a

00:51:14

real person who is going to listen to God on your behalf and

00:51:17

they're going to share words with you that reflect God's heart

00:51:19

specifically to you.

00:51:21

It's called encouraging prayer.

00:51:23

And why do I have confidence in knowing what they say is going

00:51:27

to be God's heart for you?

00:51:28

I know that because God says that that's what happens when we as

00:51:32

followers of Jesus listen for His voice and communicate what we

00:51:36

hear with each other.

00:51:37

It's called the gift of prophecy.

00:51:39

And when you hear that word you might think fortune telling.

00:51:41

That's not what I mean.

00:51:42

That's not what the Bible means when it says prophecy in this

00:51:45

particular case, in 1 Corinthians 14:3, it says:.

00:51:54

So, this is not an opportunity to have a fortuneteller come and

00:51:57

tell you about your future, it's an opportunity to interact

00:51:59

with the person who wants to share with you something that will

00:52:02

strengthen you, encourage you and comfort you.

00:52:05

And I would encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity.

00:52:09

So wherever you are, you're gonna get more instructions.

00:52:11

But I'm going to pray.

00:52:13

And as you engage in this, I believe God's going to speak.

00:52:16

God, I thank you for this opportunity.

00:52:18

Thank you for just the fact that Your voice can be heard.

00:52:22

Thank you for the gift of community

00:52:24

What's about to happen now is one of the ways that you speak to

00:52:26

You speak to us through other followers of Jesus, other people

00:52:29

who are hearing your heart and sharing it with us.

00:52:32

So God, for everybody who stays, and I do pray everybody would

00:52:34

stay, I know that you have a word for them.

00:52:37

Speak Lord.

00:52:39

We want to be listening.

00:52:41

Amen.

00:52:43

>> Well, one of my favorite ways to be encouraged and built up

00:52:46

and to hear from God is actually when I ask for prayer from

00:52:50

someone else.

00:52:51

I am always amazed at how great I feel afterwards.

00:52:55

I'm always amazed at how encouraged I am.

00:52:57

And oftentimes I actually hear from God when someone else prays

00:53:01

And so we have the opportunity for you right now from anywhere

00:53:05

you might be sitting to receive encouraging prayer.

00:53:08

Even if you're alone watching this, I want you know there's a

00:53:11

whole team of people waiting to pray for you.

00:53:14

So you can text your name and a prayer to the number on the

00:53:16

screen.

00:53:17

And what's going to happen is the people on the other end,

00:53:19

they're not just going to add your prayer to some prayer

00:53:21

requests list that people pray for later.

00:53:23

They're gonna sit and they're going to ask God if he has

00:53:26

anything for you and they're going to text that back to you

00:53:28

Man, there's an opportunity for you to hear from your father

00:53:31

today. Don't miss it.

00:53:33

>> Yes, absolutely.

00:53:34

And, you know, all week long, we hope that you hear from God

00:53:38

and we hope you have a great week.

00:53:39

So we'll see you back next week for week two of how to hear from

00:53:42

God.

	Worship	2:58
	Community Life	16:06
	Message	23:43

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