(upbeat music) - Hey everyone, I'm Clinton and this is my wife LeBlanc and we are the lead pastors of "Hold the SB." We wanna thank you for joining us on our "Hold the SB" YouTube channel. We pray that as you listen to this message today, it will normally lift you up and encourage you, but it will be a blessing to you and your family. Enjoy the message, God bless you. (upbeat music) - Hi everyone, what a joy and privilege it is for me to share the word of God with you today. And this week, I wanna speak to you about what it means to be hearing the voice of God. You see, one of the most amazing accounts in the Bible concerning the hearing, the voice of God, is found in Exodus chapter 19. When Israel came to Mount Sinai, if I could just describe this for us here, the people prepared themselves for three days to get ready for this encounter with God. They consecrated themselves, washed their clothes. And then on the third day in the morning, there came these thunderings and lightnings and smoke covered the whole mountain. They blasted the trumpets and the people came near to the mountain. By now, everyone was trembling, they were shaking. And then the Bible tells us that they all saw God descending on the mountain in fire. And the whole mountain smoked like a burning furnace. And this time the trumpets were going and getting louder and louder. And then Moses spoke to the Lord and God answered Moses in the hearing of all of Israel. Now this was Israel's encounter with the voice of God in the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy chapter five, we have Moses rehearsing this event back to the nation of Israel, some 40 years later. And it is this passage of scripture that I want to read for us today. If you can turn with me wherever you are to your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter five, verses 23 to 31. And I like to read this passage of scripture with us together. In verse 23, it says, "So it was when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness. While the mountains was burning with fire and you came near to me all the hits of your tribes and your elders, and you said surely the Lord, our God has shown us his glory and his greatness. And we have heard his voice from the midst of the fire. And we have seen this day that God speaks with men and yet he still lives. Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord, our God, anymore, then we shall die. For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire as we have and lived? You go near the people who are saying the Moses. And hear all that the Lord, our God, may say, and tell us all that the Lord, our God, may say to you, and we will hear and do. Then the Lord heard the voice of your words, which you spoke to me and the Lord said to me, I've heard the voice of the words of this people, which they've spoken to you. They are right in all that they've spoken, all that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep all my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever. Go and say to them, return to your tens for us for you. Stand here by me and I'll speak to you all the commandments, the statutes and the judgments, which you shall teach them that they may observe them in a land which I am giving them to possess. Now it's remarkable because God took some 400 plus years to prepare a nation of people so that he could dwell in their midst from the time where he chose Abraham and made a promise to Abraham that through him God will form a nation and cause them to inherit the promised land. And now we come to this moment where Israel is coming out of slavery from Egypt and they are meeting the Lord for the first time at Mount Sinai. This is the moment that God has been building towards whereby his aim is to come in the midst of his people and to dwell amongst them. And yet the sad things that by the end of this particular day, the conclusion of the people was that they did not want to hear from God directly. Instead, they preferred to hear from him through the man Moses. Now look at what Israel is saying in verse 26. He says, "For who is there of all flesh who has hurt the voice of the living God? Speaking from the midst of the fire as we have and live." Now I think this is a remarkable statement because the very next thing they do is they tell Moses to be the man to go speak with God. So either they are making a wrong conclusion about hearing from God or they plan to send Moses off to his death. You see in the end, the Lord essentially hurt the words of Israel and accepted their words yet. And one for us to see their God's intention and desire through a few other scriptures to realize that this was not God's perfect plan. In Jeremiah 31 verse 34, we are told this that no more shall every man teach his neighbor, every man, his brother, saying, "Know the Lord, for they all shall know me." From the least of them, the degraders of them says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquities and their sins I'll remember no more. Now here is something of God's plans also for the last days that it is for all his people that they should know him, not through an intermediary, but to know him personally and through that personal relationship. Now consider this two other verses. In one Corinthians chapter 14 verse five, Paul says this, "I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more than you prophesied." And in numbers 11 verse 29, Moses said to him, "Are you zealous for my sake, all that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them." You see the key to prophesy really is about hearing from God. And here the Holy Spirit is inspiring the writing of the Holy Scriptures to express the heart of God to us. Now God's desire is that all of us may hear from him and therefore prophesy. See in fact, as you look at verse 31 of Deuteronomy chapter five, at the end of that, after agreeing with Israel that he would speak, he would not be speaking to them directly, but he would be speaking to them to them through Moses. He then calls for Moses to come and to stand by him. Now I believe that that's God's original plan and position. It is not only for Moses to be by his sight, but it is for all of God's people to come to his sight and to hear from him. You see hearing from God is God's will for every single one of us and it is something that is essential for all of us as believers. It is so important for us to learn to hear the voice of God, to recognize it and to hear it regularly and in a consistent basis. I wanna approach this from a few points by sharing these things with you. The first thing I want for us to consider is to reset our approach to its God. You see for most of us, we know in our hits that God wants to speak to us. But in practice, we often find problems hearing from God. We end up thinking that maybe this is for other people and somehow it's not for me. Many times we hear testimonies of God speaking to this person or to that person and we envy them that they're able to hear God speaking to them and we long to be able likewise to hear from God. And yet somehow we feel that maybe we just can't hear God's voice for ourselves. You see, I'm here to tell you that God wants to speak to you and he wants you to be able to hear and not just to hear but to recognize his voice. In Exodus 25 verse eight, he says, "Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell with them. "God's desire from the very onset was to dwell "with his people, with us." And when he created Adam and Eve, God would come in the cool of the evening and walk with them and to speak with them. And it's only when Adam fell that a wretch immediately came between God and us. And notice Adam's first words to God in Genesis chapter three verse 10 after the fall. And the Bible tells us that it heard the voice of God but they were afraid. Now does this not remind you of Israel at Sinai as well? And they were afraid of the voice of God. You see, one of the first effects of sin is that fear comes into our relationship with God. We become afraid to hear from God and we shun the voice of God. There comes a sense that we don't measure up rather than realizing that we are his children. I want to encourage all of us that we must not let our perception of ourselves get in the way of a genuine and real relationship with God. Now remember this, the basis by which we stand before the Lord is not on our own goodness but through the finished work of Jesus on the cross. The scriptures teach us that we are now close in his righteousness, not our own. And that it is through him a new and living way has been made open for us to come and to approach God. Whenever we gaze on ourselves, I can guarantee us that you'll never find a person that is worthy. You will never find yourself ready or totally worthy to stand before the Lord. We will never be sufficient. But if we were to rely on Jesus and his blood and his finished work, then we will find that which is sufficient for us. We come in not by our own worthiness but according to what Jesus has done for us on the cross. The second thing is I want to point to us a lesson from Elijah when he was on the run. One Kings chapter 19, for me, is one of the most instructional accounts and scriptures concerning hearing from God. And it is this account where Elijah is fleeing Jezebel and he comes to Mount Horep where he's thoroughly discouraged and he's actually ready to end his own life. And in one Kings chapter 19 verse nine, the verse 10, the Lord actually begins to speak to Elijah. And this is what the Lord says. He says to Elijah, what are you doing here, Elijah? And Elijah answered the Lord and he said this, "I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts. For the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant torn down your altars, killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left and they seek to take my life." Now in the next couple of verses, essentially we know this very familiar account. The Lord calls Elijah to go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord. And then he causes a strong wind to pass by, followed by an earthquake and then a fire. And all these effects pass before Elijah and yet scriptures tells us that in all these things, God was not in the midst of them. The Lord may be the one who has caused these phenomenon but he was not in them. And finally the Lord comes to Elijah in a still small voice and begins to speak to Elijah. Now there are few things out of this account that I want to point out for us. The first is that we must not be so caught up with the dramatic but instead we must be concerned for the ordinary. You see, we must first realize that God has moved before in Elijah's life through the wind, through the earthquake and through fire. These were all phenomenons and moves of God to which Elijah was familiar with. After all, it was Elijah who called down fire and declared that God is the God who answers by fire. However, learning to hear the voice of God isn't about the dramatic. You see, the first time Elijah appears in scriptures, his introduction was not about his pedigree. It was not about his learning or the Bible schools he's graduated from or even about the works that he has performed. Instead, the description of Elijah in One Kings chapter 17, verse one was very simple. He was called someone, a man who stands before the Lord. This simple description of Elijah, for me, paints a posture that conveys an action that has been done over and over again. Day in and day out. This action smells of something that has been practiced routinely in the life of Elijah where he's become so familiar with that position and he's taken up that position day after day. Elijah appears before Israel after having spent years learning to just stand before the Lord and to hear what God would say to him. Another prophet, prophet Habakkuk, describes a similar posture in Habakkuk chapter two, verse one whereby he says this. He says, I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart and watch to see what he will say to me and what I will answer when I am corrected. And again, this is a posture that the prophets have taken since young in order to learn how to hear from the Lord. You know, in my own personal experience, my boys have complained to me before about how they do not have dramatic experiences of hearing from God. They hear some of my testimonies of how God spoke to me and they say, why is it that God speaks to you in such dramatic ways and not to us? My explanation is very simple. I ask them a simple question. I say, whenever that speaks to you, how would you like me to speak to you? Would you like me to talk to you gently in a small, quiet voice? Or would you want me to always be shouting at you and raising my voice at you? Naturally, as far as we prefer to do the former rather than have to raise our voice and our children. You see, in my own life, there have been times when God has spoken to me in very dramatic ways in which I've heard his audible voice, but almost all the times it is because the situation is critical and I needed to hear from him clearly and therefore God had to speak in a dramatic manner. In fact, I would say that many of these times it's because I'm doing something wrong and somehow I'm not listening to God and therefore God has to shout at me and use a dramatic means to convey and do something to me to stop me in my tracks. But if the truth be told, most of the times when I do hear from God, it is true my Bible reading, it is in the moments of stillness when I spend time alone with him in the mornings, it is in the ordinary, it's almost domestic and part and parcel of life. And I believe that that's something that we need to learn to hear from God in our ordinary daily lives. The second thing I want to point out about this account is that it's not about works, but about being. Now, here's something else about our work with God. We seek to hear from God, especially about decisions that we need to make in our lives. Our attempts to hear God is often packed through the works that we are doing. God, what should I do in this situation? Lord, what should I say? What decision should I make? Lord, I have a major project on hand. Wouldn't you speak to me about this? Lord, there's something that I want to do. And yet so often, the first thing that God actually wants to speak to us isn't about our works, but about our being with Him. Now, consider again the account in 1 Kings 19, and God asked Elijah what he was doing. Elijah answered the Lord and God calls to win the earthquake in a fire to pass by and then came to Elijah in a still small voice. And what does the Lord speak to Elijah in that still small voice? It's amazing. He asked Elijah exactly the same question all over again in verse 13. He began with, what are you doing here, Elijah? And after this encounter, he comes back with the same question, what are you doing, Elijah? The unfortunate thing that happens here is that Elijah answers the Lord with exactly the same answer, the first time he answered God. You see, God is by no means repetitive. He is not naggy, but instead when same question is asked twice, what is happening is that God is giving Elijah the opportunity to answer the same question, but in a different way. In other words, the first answer was floor, and God was giving Elijah a second chance. Unfortunately, Elijah's answer to God was exactly the same. He said, I've been very zealous for you. The children of Israel have forsaken your covenant. They've torn down your altars. They've killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left and they seek to take my life. You see, this answer consists of two statements about himself, I, I, and three accusations against Israel. Now, is this statement that Elijah spoke? Is it true? I think it is true. I believe it to be factually accurate and correct. But despite it being a true statement, it revealed a malice in Elijah. Elijah was so preoccupied with his own pain that he had forgotten, the heart of the task to which he was given. You see, he was called by the Lord to bring Israel back to God. And yet now Elijah stands before the Lord, not interceding or standing in a gap for the people that he's called to, but instead he's standing there bringing an accusation against them. He knew the task, but he lost the heart. The encounter of the still small voice was meant to bring Elijah back. It was meant to recalibrate Elijah's heart. Back in alignment with God's heart for Israel. And instead, Elijah did not respond to the encounter. You see, God is a lot more interested in a posture of our hearts and our nature. Then he is with the tasks that we are about doing. If we could just quiet our lives, to hear from God, he is actually far more interested to speak to us about our person, our attitude, our being, our response, the way we conduct ourselves, then he is about what needs to be done. It works. We might be anxious about money and asking the Lord about provision. But you know what? When he speaks to us, he shows that his concern is more about where our trust is. We might be concerned about deadline. We're asking God for grace to finish a particular work. But you know, he's more concerned about us, the pace at which we are running and what is our real focus in life about. When we're fretting about our children and we're concerned for them and we cry out to God, you know what? God wants to know if we realize that the children belongs firstly to him before they belong to us. And this is how God speaks to us. In the case of Elijah, God was leading him back to where he started. Elijah began as a man who stood before the Lord and Mount Horep got led Elijah back to a place of standing before him. The task of restoring Israel would not remain with Elijah because if you continue to meet the text, the task was then passed on to Elijah and to Jehu. And if I could say this, it was more important for God that he brought Elijah back to his heart. Then it is for Elijah to complete the tasks. And instead he gave the task to two other person. But I want to end on encouraging note by saying that in the final analysis, Elijah was restored because thousands of years later on the amount of transfiguration when Jesus was transfigured, guess who was standing to the left and to the right of the Lord? It was Moses and it was Elijah. Elijah found his way back to a place where he was standing by the side of the Lord. Just as Moses in Deuteronomy chapter five was given the privilege of standing the side of the Lord. See, if I could say this in our pursuit to hear the voice of God, it is so important for us to calibrate that hearing not towards the needs, not towards the things that we are doing, but really to ask the Lord to speak to us what is on his heart. And trust me, when God begins to speak to us, so often he brings us back to this place where we are called to be with him and not just doing tasks. I wanna encourage you, my brothers and my sisters in Christ, that it is the will of God that he wants us to learn to hear his voice. And if you would spend time in the routines of standing before him and waiting upon him, God will surely open your ears to hear from him. One of the most heartening things for me is that my own children are beginning to hear the voice of God. They have struggled for long times asking me how to hear the voice of God. Why is it that I don't hear from the Lord? But as they spend time each day reading their Bibles, working with God day by day, week by week, month by month, they begin to see the hand of God working in their lives and they begin to read the signpost they got his place in their lives. And so much of what they are reading is not about what God wants them to do, but about being with him, about knowing him and for him to know and to love them and for them to experience his goodness. So my brothers and my sisters, I want to close on this note. I pray that you be blessed. I pray that you not be discouraged. I pray that you persevere in your pursuit to know the Lord and to hear his voice. God bless you. Thank you for joining us and listening to the message. We encourage you to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel, which is Hope DxD Church. You can also find us on Instagram and followers on Instagram. Our Instagram handle is Hope DxD Church. We are also on Spotify. All you have to do is key and hope DxD and you will find us there. 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