Transcript:

Hello. This is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church of Hanover, NH. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

Here’s a question for you:

Is God guilty of not speaking clearly or is humanity guilty of not listening well? This may be a difficult question to answer off-the-cuff, so let’s look at some of the things God says in the Bible about our aptitude for listening to Him.

When we turn to the Bible, we find that God repeatedly chides us for the stubbornness of our hearts and the dullness of our hearing. God says of His people in Jeremiah 9:6: “Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know Me” (emphasis added). In another place in Jeremiah, God notes, “…they did not listen or incline their ears, but stiffened their necks so as not to listen…” (Jeremiah 17:23). Elsewhere in the book of Romans, Paul says that people “suppress the truth [about God] by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain…because God has made it plain to them.” From these and many other passages, it seems clear enough. God is speaking, but in general we’re not listening.

It is quite impossible to speak to someone who refuses to listen and therefore impossible to have a relationship with someone who refuses to connect.

God has spoken to us clearly through His creation, through His Word (the Bible) and most importantly through His Son Jesus Christ. The only question is whether or not we are listening. How about you? Are you listening to God and His Word? When and where do you do this?

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

~Romans 1:18-20 (NASB)